What? No mention of The Beastmaster yet?
True, but Lugosi really didn’t get the chance. What if Karloff had died at the same time as Lugosi? he’d be remembered as a faded actor whose glory days had been in the 30s and 40s, and who had been working on forgettable cheapies when he died. Karloff was able to tap into the renewed popularity of horror actors of thiose days when a lot of those movies were released in packages to TV. So he was able to host “Thriller” and play in Roger Corman films and show up as a guest on shows like “The Man from UNCLE”, and ultimately to Bogdanovich’s film “Targets”. Peter Lorre’s career got a boost at the same time, and I think Lon Chaney, Jr’s did, too. I think if Lugosi were still alive he would have profited as well.
One Crazy Summer
Desperately Seeking Susan
Eddie & The Cruisers
Hairspray
Summer School
Actually, Karloff was in “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.” In drag.
I’m a big fan of “Ishtar,” but it’s really not a bad movie; everyone just thinks it is (usually without seeing it). Anytime Hoffman or Beatty sing, it’s hysterical. “I’m leaving you some love in my will.”
I’ll second The Beastmaster, so bad I need the series on DVD if I can get it.
Earth Girls are Easy is one of my favorites. (And it has my theme song “Cuz I’m a Blond!”) I got it for Christmas a few years ago.
The Highlander, only the first one though, the second goes way, way beyond bad. Its not even good anymore. (and I was told that the fourth was so bad its not even worth renting to see Adrian Paul with a sword. Ouch.)
Anything by Troma.
Wow - I can’t believe this thread has gotten this far without any mention of the original Godzilla movies! How can you top a guy in a hokey green suit stepping on cardboard buildings?
My favourite - “Johnny Dangerously” with (I believe) Michael Keaton. I never knew what a farging icehole was before I watched this movie.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the Three Stooges are great and I love their work. But the effects are so cheesy that they are funny in themselves. Of course there’s the well known crunches, scrapes, boinks, and other sound effects, but most of the visuals were in the same league. For instance there’s one scene where they throw a pinapple at someone who’s walking out of the room, and the pineapple is
shown “following” the victim as he goes through the door.
You can tell that the fruity projectile is simply swinging on a string. Or there’s another one where they’re exterminators, and a mouse is shown supposedly being catapulted across the room to land on someone’s shoulder. But the close-up of the mouse landing on the person makes it obvious that someone was standing immediately off camera and they gently tossed the mouse.
I liked (well, you know what I mean) Plan 9, I almost fell on the floor laughing during Showgirls. But my all-time favorite was Battlefield Earth. That movie, with its lack of logic, poor effects, and crappy acting is pure gold as far as I’m concerned.
Yes! This is the only movie I’ve ever actually walked out of, but it never ocurred to me to watch it as a comedy! One of the reasons I hated it so much was because I actually took it seriously. This movie definitely belongs on this list.
Anyone here ever see Corvette Summer, with Mark Hamill? Bad writing, bad acting, and the story (a boy goes off to Vegas in search of his stolen car) is sooo unbelievably BAAAAAD…
That, and the car itself, a customized Corvette, was quite possibly the UGLIEST movie vehicle EVER…
I highly recommend it, just for all those scenes where Hamill chases after his stolen car… ON FOOT… and nearly catches up to it…
oh don’t tell me none of you has seen Crybaby with Jonny Depp…
Let us not forget the passion, the glory, the sheer ineptitude of teen genre that was “Midnight Madness.”
Witness the birth of Michael J Fox’s career. Witness the cameo appearance by non other than Paul (the pee-weeminator) Rueben. Witness the coining of the phrase “Faga Beefe.”
I saw it last weekend for the first time in about 6 years. Used to watch it all the time. My GOD does that movie blow.