# Crappy movies that had redeeming moments. (Possible spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2004, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209 "2004-01-13T02:09:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/21 "2004-01-15T03:12:48Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > … They came up with a scientifically viable, realistic way of getting the amoeba off. If I had a bad case of Space Amoeba, I’d use it. … Well? What was it? (In case I ever get a Space Amoeba eating my arm). ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/22 "2004-01-15T05:58:11Z")
I imagine they grabbed a chainsaw and hacked off the guy’s arm (hey, it’s what I’D do…) Anyway, _The Glass House_ was terrible, terrible, stupid, and terrible. And stupid. But when the main chick started stripping to her underwears… wee! If she had gone all the way (or at least topless), I woulda actually called this movie “good”. But she didn’t. So I just say it had a (_A_, as in, one) good moment. Emphasis on “moment”. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Sparky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Saint\_Sparky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Sparky)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/23 "2004-01-15T07:14:18Z")
> [@Winston Bongo](#): > > I vote for **Mars Attacks**. Overall, it’s a complete mess – long, dry stretches of unfunniness, entire scenes and characters that serve no purpose whatsoever, etc. But sprinkled among the crap are some really hilarious and memorable bits: the aliens knocking down the heads on Easter Island with a giant bowling ball, frying Congress with 1920’s-style Death Rays, and of course, Tom Jones. Now every time I hear “It’s Not Unusual,” I think of big-headed aliens going “Ack! Ack!” > > If someone would edit that movie down to about 45 minutes – and it wouldn’t be too hard, since there’s barely a plot – it could be pretty darn funny. I’d have to agree completely with your analysis. But the one really redeeming (and really funny) moment was Pam Grier stopping the bus she was driving just to tell her son who she sees on the street and have the entire bus aplaud her. Oh, and yeah. Tom Jones all the way. 😃 > [@elfkin477](#): > > **Queen of The Damned** Horrible adaptation, terrible movie, but the cinematography of the last 45 seconds of the movie is quite beautiful. You know that movie still makes me really really mad. I swear it gives me heart palpitations. BUT the ONE (and only one for me) redeeming moment for me was Claudia Black and her all two brief scenes as Pandora. She was how I always imagined Pandora. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/24 "2004-01-16T00:43:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by CalMeacham > … They came up with a scientifically viable, realistic way of getting the amoeba off. If I had a bad case of Space Amoeba, I’d use it. … > Well? What was it? (In case I ever get a Space Amoeba eating my arm). They put a piece of livin tissue near the arm wth the amoeba on it. Then they attached electrodes to the arm near the amoeba and started giving mild shocks. Not enough to hurt either the man or the amoeba – The idea was to make the arm an inhospitable environment. After a while, the amoeba was sufficiently annoyed to seek a less prickly host, so it moved over to the alternate tissue. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/25 "2004-01-16T01:15:45Z")
\*\*7 Years in Tibet \*\* rouses the great “meh” for plot, performances & Historical accuracy. But the scenery is some of the most spectacular I’ve ever seen on film. Worth the price to see it on the big screen. Richard Pryor is the only reason, ever, to spend a second of your precious mortal life watching a a “thing” (can’t really in good conscience call it a “movie”) called \*\*Superman III \*\* In the Barrytown trilogy (The Commitments/the Snapper/the Van) by Roddy Doyle – the weakest is **Snapper** it is barely even an interesting movie (rare for Doyle). But in the final scene when the family rushes in, it takes a hardened heart not to feel the lump rise in the throat. it is a fair payoff to some tedium ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/26 "2004-01-16T03:02:34Z")
The lamentable live-action _Scooby Doo_ had Matthew Lillard’s Shaggy as a near redeeming factor. It’s almost as if Scooby is his imaginary friend that only he can see (this is practically true given that Scoob’s CGI), and he’s slightly despaired that the rest of the gang think he’s nuts. While overall it wasn’t a terrible movie, _Cold Mountain_ had one truly great sequence (the part with Natalie Portman) that makes the rest of it seem really thin. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/27 "2004-01-16T03:15:53Z")
I’d have to say **Sudden Death** with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Normally, I wouldn’t even watch a movie with him in it, but my brother and I were extras for the hockey scenes, so I watched it. This movie sucked on so many levels, but I still laugh out loud during the fight scene with the Penguin mascot, Igloo. It’s bad enough seeing a big fuzzy Penguin in a fight, but when he gets chopped up and bits of Igloo are thrown about the screen… ah, a classic cinematic moment is born. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/28 "2004-01-16T15:27:53Z")
> [@Tixenfleaz](#): > > I gnashed my teeth through most of **The Fast And The Furious**. It was a pleasant suprise to see the uber-cool hijackers get their asses handed to them by an anonymous trucker with a sawed-off shotgun. > > If you like low-brow humor, **Scary Movie II** has a hilarious segment with James Woods spoofing **The Exorcist**. The rest of the movie is utter shite. Actually, the only two parts of Scary Movie II that made me laugh (LOTS) was Father Andy Richter & Company singing rap (“all you n\*\*gaz”) and Chris Elliot offering his “strong hand”. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/29 "2004-01-16T15:31:01Z")
> [@Tixenfleaz](#): > > I gnashed my teeth through most of **The Fast And The Furious**. It was a pleasant suprise to see the uber-cool hijackers get their asses handed to them by an anonymous trucker with a sawed-off shotgun. > > If you like low-brow humor, **Scary Movie II** has a hilarious segment with James Woods spoofing **The Exorcist**. The rest of the movie is utter shite. Actually, the only two parts of Scary Movie II that made me laugh (LOTS) was Father Andy Richter & Company at the piano singing rap (“all you n\*\*gaz”) and Chris Elliot offering his “strong hand”. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/30 "2004-01-16T17:30:13Z")
_Rules of Attraction_ is just impossibly crap, but it has one redeeming scene: Ian Somerhalder and his drunk pillhead cousin get down with their bad selves to George Michael’s “Faith”, in a cute homage to _Risky Business_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/31 "2004-01-16T18:12:39Z")
[Porky’s II: The Next Day](http://imdb.com/title/tt0086129/) is a dreadful follow-up to a moderately funny paint-by-the-numbers teen sex romp, but it has one scene that brings me to tears everytime I catch it on late night: the Reverend Bubba Flavel (portly white haired redneck Fundie preacher) and Coach Balbricker (portly manly women’s gym coach) reading aloud from _Taming of the Shrew_ to prove that Shakespeare is profane. The reverend’s lisping and incensed “_What, with my tongue in your tail?_” is just fitfully funny. [Lake Placid](http://imdb.com/title/tt0139414/) is a paint by the numbers “supernaturally big reptile” movie about giant alligators in a lake, but Betty White, in a 180 turnaround from Rose Nylan, is hysterical as the foul-mouthed caretaker Mrs. Bickerman. I did the nostrilly exeunted soda thing when she says to the investigator “If I had a dick, this is when I’d tell you to suck it” [Eric the Viking](http://imdb.com/title/tt0097289/) is a painfully unfunny comedy by Tim Robbins about a Viking with an identity crisis. (Among other film DON’TS, it gave Mickey Rooney a job.) There were still a couple of great moments, though, one being Eric’s conversation with a lady he has accidentally mortally wounded in “defending” her and the other being when the Catholic priest accompanying the Vikings into ValHalla can’t see anything. Of course there are lots of bad movies that are redeemed briefly by nudity, among them: [Exit to Eden](http://imdb.com/title/tt0109758/)- don’t even try to watch it for the plot, but Paul Mercurio’s nude spanking is hotter than New Orleans in August. [Private Resort](http://imdb.com/title/tt0089839/) is as formulaic as they get- two horny teens go to a beach hotel and hilarious hijinks ensue, but who cares how lame the plot is when Johnny Depp (so young he wasn’t tatooed, though he had been gobbled by the bed on Elm St.) and Rob Morrow (Northern Exposure) both have extended nude scenes (rear only, but still nice). ---
**Author:** ![green\_dragon\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/13edae/32.png) [@green\_dragon\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_dragon_1)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/32 "2004-01-16T18:53:15Z")
Best moment of **Moulin Rouge** …the moment that steaming pile of cack finally ended. ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/33 "2004-01-16T20:03:42Z")
There was a godawful piece of celluloid from a number of years back called **Split Second**. A friend and I went to see it, knowing full well that going to see a Rutger Hauer flick was like putting more than one bullet in the gun before we spun the cylinder and pulled the trigger. It was really, truly bad. But there is one scene that saved the whole thing, and even caused said friend to buy it on tape: Partner of RH sees the big baddie they’ve been trying to track down. Partner’s wee little mind snaps. Former clean-living nut becomes mini-me to RH’s caffeine- and chocolate-swilling paranoid lunatic. Several minutes of discussion of getting “bigger f\*cking guns” – hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/34 "2004-01-16T20:39:34Z")
The ending of _Battlefield Earth_: Travolta’s character was after gold the whole time and ends up trapped inside Fort Knox! Too bad the rest of it is a bunch of garbage. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/35 "2004-01-17T02:35:08Z")
In **Howard the Duck** , Lea Thompson looked awfully hot. At least, I thought so when I was 19 and the movie came out. Obviously, I haven’t gotten anywhere near it since. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/36 "2004-01-17T06:39:33Z")
_Resident Evil_ almost redeemed itself with its final scene, which was like the beginning of an actually good horror film, with a sense of dread and catastrophe. (Also, Milla Jovovich was nekkid.) ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/37 "2004-01-17T07:21:07Z")
_Gigli_ has one decent scene and one good scene (Yes, I actually saw it in the theater. Mrs. Six and I were on a driving vacation, we hadn’t seen the coverage, and we just didn’t know). Christopher Walken as a detective is the decent scene, and Al Pacino as the mob boss is the good scene. Yeah, they’re just doing what they always do, but they do it so well, and in such a stinking turd of a movie, it’s just refreshing to see _anything_ done well. ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/38 "2004-01-17T08:40:32Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > I’d have to disagree about _Joe Versus the Volcano_, which I though was a good, offbeat movie. > > The movie _Independence Day_ was profoundly stupid, but the scene where the giant ship appears above Manhattan was done really well. _Au contraire, mon frere!!_ 😃 Independence Day’s redeeming feature was the 15 minutes that Brent Spiner was in it. He created such a memorable, wonderfully offbeat character that was so much fun to watch. My vote is for the president’s speech in the middle of Armageddon. For those ten minutes, I actually halfway care whether or not the world ends. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/39 "2004-01-17T14:43:37Z")
Higher Learning was simultaneously well-meaning and heavy handed. Lots of great themes poorly executed. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209/40 "2004-01-17T15:20:02Z")
> [@11811](#): > > Higher Learning was simultaneously well-meaning and heavy handed. Lots of great themes poorly executed. Well that scence were Busta Rhymes is beating up the skinhead is pretty good. I also remember some nudity some where in there too. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crappy-movies-that-had-redeeming-moments-possible-spoilers/224209.md?page=3)