# Hated movies or flops that were not BAD films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 21, 2017, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943 "2017-04-21T20:35:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/41 "2017-04-22T20:03:06Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I’ll never understand why nearly everyone (including Robin Wiliams) hates **Popeye** I think it’s one of the better action/ adventure/ comedies. I liked it, and have the DVD. But I don’t think it’s what people expected because it is very much a live-action version of the Max Fleischer cartoons of the '30s. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/42 "2017-04-22T21:51:02Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > **ZipperJJ** is a hot babe with Golden Retrievers and you are not worthy. Ha! The hot babe is spot on but after my golden passed I now have two mutts 😉 FWIW I did not view Godzilla through the lens of “everyone hates this movie!” The rage came independently for me I swear! Many of the movies we watch at the sci fi marathon can be considered trash but I actually like them. The Postman. I thought it was long but I didn’t think it was bad! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/43 "2017-04-22T23:04:17Z")
The 13th Warrior is a lot of fun if you ignore most of the absurdities and the blatant anachronisms. It failed in the theaters and ended Antonio Banderas as a leading man. Omar Sharif also gave up acting after this came out. ---
**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:** [April 22, 2017, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/44 "2017-04-22T23:58:59Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > If I remember correctly John Carter made 250 million on a 300 million dollar budget, definitely a bomb. John Carter was rooked by Disney – it received very little by way of advertising. There were no John Carter toys, books\*, tie-in, coloring books, or the like – even **Starship Troopers** , an R-rated film kids couldn’t even go to see, got “WArrior Bugs” action toys. JC got zilch. The story of how this film fell between the cracks as Disney passed from one dynasty to another is chronicled in Michael D. Sellers’ book **John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood** > **[Amazon.com: John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood eBook : Sellers, Michael D.:...](https://www.amazon.com/John-Carter-Hollywood-Michael-Sellers-ebook/dp/B00AFCZ1S4)** > > Amazon.com: John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood eBook : Sellers, Michael D.: Kindle Store When else has Disney ever released a major movie without a virtual avalanche of tie ins? - There were re-releases of Burroughs’ original books, to be sure, but without the distinctive movie logo or images. There ARE “John Carter WArlord of Mars” toys – but they have nothing to do with the movie ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/45 "2017-04-23T00:06:57Z")
The fact that the movie was called just John Carter was damming. No indication of its sci-fi basis unless you were familiar with the books.Most people weren’t. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2017, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/46 "2017-04-23T00:11:53Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > The fact that the movie was called just John Carter was damming. No indication of its sci-fi basis unless you were familiar with the books.Most people weren’t. Right. And Andrew Stanton _fought_ to have that as the title. They wouldn’t let him. Just more evidence that the new regime wanted to sink the film. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2017, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/47 "2017-04-23T00:16:51Z")
_The Lone Ranger_ was 2½ hours of mindless fun for us. Probably helped that I had been recently playing Red Dead Redemption; the Gatling gun scene would be right at home there. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/48 "2017-04-23T00:29:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Right. And Andrew Stanton _fought_ to have that as the title. They wouldn’t let him. > > Just more evidence that the new regime wanted to sink the film. Just so we’re clear – Stanton wanted to call it **John Carter of Mars** , not simply “John Carter” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/49 "2017-04-23T00:56:19Z")
John Carter of Mars was another movie that I saw at the Sci Fi Marathon that I thought was much better than anticipated. So so far Godzilla was worse than that, and The Postman 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/50 "2017-04-23T01:08:33Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > _The Lone Ranger_ was 2½ hours of mindless fun for us. I really like The Lone Ranger. It’s a bit(?) over the top but Johnny Depp is a hoot and I think he and Armie Hammer play off of each other well. Plus the western scenery is spectacular(even if the geography is a bit off). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/51 "2017-04-23T01:38:18Z")
I quite enjoyed Johnny Depp in that. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/52 "2017-04-23T01:42:44Z")
[Under the Rainbow](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083254/). ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/53 "2017-04-23T01:48:44Z")
I was quite fond of the movie[Desperate Measures (](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperate_Measures_(film))1998) way back in the day. I’ve come to see it as rather cheesy now, but it wasn’t \*that \*bad, and it deserved to gross a lot more at the box office than it did (it was a steep financial loss). ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/54 "2017-04-23T03:22:03Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I think “Hudson Hawk” is a terrible movie that comes awfully close to being great. I know the SD loves it like it was their own child, but I feel the same about Buckaroo Banzai. Stupid movie that probably started out as a good idea. When you describe it, it sounds great. When you watch it, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/55 "2017-04-23T07:28:59Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I know the SD loves it like it was their own child, but I feel the same about Buckaroo Banzai. Stupid movie that probably started out as a good idea. When you describe it, it sounds great. When you watch it, not so much. I agree, it has a bunch of honestly fun scenes (the “Swinging on a Star caper”, the Richard E. Grant / Sandra Bernhard pair of villains…) and that makes people misremember it as better than it actually is, but as a whole it just doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/56 "2017-04-24T15:31:06Z")
Another one that I always liked but that never gets any love is 1998’s **Dark City**. Creepy sci-fi with Keifer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, and Richard O’Brien, among others, I thought it was an interesting, suspenseful story. Kind of like a really dark **Truman Show** , which came out around the same time. “Dark” it’s right there in the title. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/57 "2017-04-24T16:06:19Z")
I didn’t think Battlefield Earth was bad as a SF-action movie. I watched it with some friends over beer and you got to see some stuff blow up flashily, which is all I really expected of it - I didn’t expect the plot to stand up to scrutiny, or to come back and see it again and again in the future. Don’t think it justified it’s budget, but I didn’t mind seeing it even though it’s supposedly one of the worst movies ever. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/58 "2017-04-24T16:32:56Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I know the SD loves it like it was their own child, but I feel the same about Buckaroo Banzai. Stupid movie that probably started out as a good idea. When you describe it, it sounds great. When you watch it, not so much. Hudson Hawk has some good moments, but is over all bad. Buckaroo Banzai is great camp with some great moments. ---
**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:** [April 24, 2017, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/59 "2017-04-24T17:03:31Z")
I’ve never been a huge fan of **Buckaroo Banzai**. To me, it’s a Failed cult Movie (I showed it one year at my Bad Film Festival at which the theme was Failed Cult Movies). But it has a special meaning for me. Part of it is set in Grover’s Mill, NJ, the site where the Martians were supposed to have landed in Orson Welles’ 1938 dramatization of _War of the Worlds_ and also the place where my wife, Pepper Mill, grew up. Really. Naturally, she and her friends think the film is a hoot, not least because the supposed Grovers Mill scenes are clearly really set in Southern California. New Jersey has a lot fewer palm trees. And I think the entire district of Grovers Mill\* could fit inside the Yoyodyne plant they show. (Naturally, there’s a weird building nearby, which they’ve named “Yoyodyne”) She and her friends also all have pseudonyms, of which the first name is “John”. The film also gave us scenes in New Brunswick, NJ, a city that _never_ gets shown in movies\*\*. Naturally, the New Brunswick scenes clearly weren’t shot there. - Grovers Mill isn’t a legal town by itself. It’s actually a part of West Windsor, NJ. \*\* **1776** at least _named_ New Brunswick in both the play and movie, but they never showed it to you. Peter Stone evidently wrote a scene about Adams and Franklin sharing a room at an inn there-- possibly the still-existing Indian Queen Tavern – based on Adams’ account of it, but it got cut from the play before it hit Broadway, and was never in the film. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2017, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943/60 "2017-04-24T17:09:05Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Naturally, she and her friends think the film is a hoot… Pepper Mill and her friends are right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hated-movies-or-flops-that-were-not-bad-films/784943.md?page=4)