By the way, because it was mentioned earlier, if you are at all interested in the legendary fiasco that is “The Room,” check out a book called “The Disaster Artist.” It’s a documentary, essentially, of the creation of this movie. Really fun read.
I vaguely recall one of the major computer gaming magazines commenting at the time that if you turned that movie into a game, it would rank as the most boring computer game ever created.
One of the worst movies I’ve seen was The Bone Collector, because right at the end when they reveal the villain, it’s almost literally just some random guy who has no significant involvement with the events of the film at all. It’s like saying “The Butler Did It”, except the butler was only in the movie for 30 seconds at the start when he brought everyone a cup of tea.
If we’re including “So Bad It’s Good” films then for me it’s a toss-up between Glen or Glenda and Plan Nine From Outer Space. They’re both awful films (on so many levels) but Ed Wood’s enthusiasm shines through and they’re entertainingly awful. Which means Mr Wood succeeded in his quest to entertain people - by making movies which are badly made, badly acted, badly plotted, and generally a textbook example of How Not To Make A Film.
On that note, I highly recommend the Johnny Depp film Ed Wood, which is about Mr Wood and his quest to make his films, including Plan Nine From Outer Space. And for bonus awesomeness, the film is in black & white, emulating cheap 1950s sci-fi films.
Second Battlefield Earth. Just horrendous in every way, but I sat through it for some reason (on cable – so at least I didn’t pay for it).
Me too!
I don’t watch many movies, period, and especially not if they suck (this is how I saved myself from 200 Motels), but I did for some reason force myself all the way through Les Miserables. By the end, I had measurably greater miserables. I hear there are better versions, but I don’t fucking believe it or care.
Yes, I’ve seen Americathon. No, you don’t. It isn’t absolutely dreadful, but it isn’t funny, it’s merely long and boring, with one failed joke/situation after another.
I’ll go with Alien. The characters are all morons who deserve to die and could be counted on doing the stupidest things possible at every juncture.
Agree that Battlefield Earth was terrible, but it was entertainingly bad. I also didn’t hate Howard the Duck, but I agree it was a bad film (and it gave people the impression that the comic book was bad, too).
It goes downhill from there.
A very good friend took me to see this as a way of cheering me. It didn’t work 
A serbian film was probably the very worst, Kids and Dead Girl are up there also though.
The first movie that sprung to mind when I saw this thread was “Rent.”
Leonard, Part 6. Bill Cosby can never be forgiven.
I posted about this one in another thread and now I’m not even sure if it exists. Maybe it’s been erased from culture because it’s so bad. I channel-surfed onto it while chillin’ in my room at a convention and kept watching because it was so bad. It was Canadian, I thought National Film Board but can’t find it on their website. I can’t find any reference of it online but I KNOW I saw it.
It’s about this boy, maybe about 10 years old, whose friend (possibly it was his bully) dies then for some reason haunts him like a zombie and makes him do bad things. I think the friend somehow takes over the kid’s body. The kid lives with his alcoholic, abusive(?) father and IIRC the kid ends up killing the father (maybe uncle, I don’t remember) while influenced by the dead zombie friend. Good Lord it was a strange movie.
Mine is the Jim Carrey ‘version’ of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. My lord what an awful piece of crap. Took all that was special about the Dr. Seuss classic and shit on it. Thankfully, the book & the animated special survive.
That movie was wonderful. It was a well written, superbly acted allegory for post famine Ireland and the social consequences of the diaspora and the wealthy neglecting those too poor to leave.
People can like different things, but I’m surprised to see it on this list. That movie was just powerful.
I’ve blocked the name of the movie from my memory, but I once watched a movie that was nothing but a group of people touring a castle and discussing philosophy. It was the most boring thing ever committed to film.
I watched two hours of The English Patient, turned it off, looked at the clock and realized that only forty-five minutes had gone by. The book wasn’t that bad.
My knowledge of contemporary (i.e., the last three decades or so) cinema is minimal. The list of movies that “everybody” has seen but me is a long one.
So this will hardly be an esoteric choice, but my vote goes to The Langoliers, which apparently was originally a TV miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.
I was visiting friends when it was inflicted upon me; somehow the entire thing had been gathered into one long (180 minutes, according to IMDB) mess.
It was incredibly awful and totally nonsensical. Recently I stumbled across a podcast that skewered it nicely, showing some of the more ridiculous scenes and ham-handed (and hammy) acting with appropriately sardonic commentary.
At least it was good for some laughs when viewed in this context. But I sat through the entire original…three hours of my life I’ll never get back.
That was the one where a bunch of people are stuck at a deserted airport whille some incredibly crappy special effects try to attack them, right? Yes, that was truly dire, although I’ll give it credit for having one of the oddest plots I’ve ever heard of.
He seems to do this quite often. He did the same with the Dicken’s classic A Christmas Carol. He then had the gall to attempt to explain what is one of the most popular stories written in the English in an interview about the film in a manner that strongly suggested that he was both unfamiliar with the original story and that he thought that the version he was in was somehow superior to that of Dickens.
What a tool.
That was probably Mindwalk.
Worst movie I paid to see in theater was Species II. The first Species was OK. You know, if you like that sort of thing–hot babe turns into killer alien and whatever. But jesus Species II was bad.
Yeah, that’s the one all right! The special effects, which don’t show up until near the end, after much dreadful anticipation, truly are laughable, even if you allow for the less-capable technology of the day.
But their awfulness is easily matched by the acting. The guy who played Balki or whatever his name was on Perfect Strangers has one of the main roles, and it’s pretty easy to see why he never had much success beyond that series.
Mine is Spring Breakers.
At first you think: cool, hot chicks filmed in slow motion partying on spring break. But then after 90 minutes where ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS you feel like there are so many other things you could have done with that time.