What are your favorite movies that are so bad they're good?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve mentioned these in other threads, but what the hell, I’ll give them another shout out.
There’s “Bulletproof” the 1996 Adam Sandler vehicle. This is the type of movie you watch on a Saturday night when all you want to do is turn your brain off and let your inner 12-year-old take over. It’s even funnier if you watch it with the assumption that the main characters are gay - Sandler singing “I Will Always Love You”; him telling James Caan that he’ll suck his dick; Damon Wayans shoving his gun up Sandler’s ass. Yes those are all real scenes in the movie.
Also “On Deadly Ground” which features Michael Caine in one of his “I don’t give a damn, I’m just here for the paycheck” roles, as a corrupt Alaska oilman. Steven Seagal stars as an ex-spook turned eco-warrior.
How can you not love a movie where R. Lee Ermey’s character says the following about Steven Seagal:

Needless to say they blow shit up real good, with some Native American visions and environmentalist preaching thrown in.
Also keep a look out for Billy Bob Thornton as a henchman.
Yep, this is the type of flick you watch with your buddies after burning through a case of cheap beer and firing up a doobie.

2

Roadhouse owns this thread,

3

Plan Nine from Outer Space
Tommy

4

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
It is impossible to not enjoy this movie. The humor is actually not raunchy, but it is a really fun movie. Another one from Rob Schneider that also is similar in good comedy is: “The Hot Chick”.

5

I think there are two types of “bad good” movies. One type would be the “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, “Manos: the Hands of Fate” category. Movies that are horrible, and enjoyable for reasons that have nothing to do with their creator’s intent. The second type are movies that don’t take themselves seriously. They are fun pretty much for their intended reasons, but still aren’t considered particularly good. I get the impression Roger Ebert wouldn’t call them “bad” though, because he has said he judges movies on whether they accomplish what they set out to do. Still, if we can call those movies “bad” for the purposes of this thread, I have to admit I favor the latter category over the former.

I love good bad movies. I’ve got a lot of candidates, but I think I’ll go with one never mentioned - “Roadie”

“Starring” Meat Loaf, it features a lot of cameos by musicians, musical performances by several different bands, and a bunch of 70’s TV actors/actresses. Released in 1980, It’s like the last gasp of the 70’s, with all the bad and good that entails. It’s silly, cheesy, and fun. Meat is a beer delivery truck driver who, through a series of odd occurrences, gets roped into being a roadie. Drawing on his experiences growing up in his father’s salvage yard, he has a knack for getting things done, and gathers an unwanted reputation for being the 'world’s greatest roadie." Along the way, he has to deal with crazy management and performers, and figure out what to do about the psychic groupie he has a crush on, who is set on traveling to New York to give her virginity to Alice Cooper.

It’s a movie that dares to ask such questions as, “What’s the relationship between styrofoam and the planet Jupiter?” and “Whod win a fight between a Lithiopian ground squirrel and Betty Furness?”

Kind of a less frantic “Get Crazy”, with a bit more heart. As an aside, since I brought it up - “Get Crazy” is great fun as well, but good luck finding it. I had to buy two VHS copies off Ebay to get one good one, which I transferred it to my computer so I have my own, non-degrading digital copy. :slight_smile:
“Roadie” is available on DVD, and features Art Carney, Kaki (“Porky’s”) Hunter, and Joe Spano.

Performing:
Alice Cooper
Blondie
Roy Orbison
Hank Williams Jr.
Asleep at the Wheel

Meat Loaf doesn’t sing as far as I can recall.

6

I quite like Son in Law, the Pauly Shore movie. It’s just so … sincere or something. Good-hearted.

7

Bloodsport.

Excessive violence: Check.
Awful dialog: Check.
WTF plot: Check.
Awesome 80s theme song: Check. (Fight to Survive)
Invincible villain beaten at the very end against outstanding odds: Check.

Roadhouse has the edge on gratuitously shoehorned sexuality, but in all other ways, Bloodsport is king. Kumite! Kumite!

8

The Forbidden Zone by The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.

Glen or Glenda by Ed Wood is a close runner up. “Pull the strings! Dance to that!”

9

Army of Darkness. It’s so horrible and stupid. But c’mon, it’s a goldmine of quotable quotes! “Primitive screwheads”* and “You have two things going for ya, Jack, and Shit. And Jack left town” are part of my everyday vernacular.

*band name

10

The Wicker Man – the recent remake with Nicolas Cage. Just hilariously awful. And I don’t think they did it deliberately tongue-in-cheek. But there were a couple of times I almost had some kind of laugh-related seizures.

11

Commando. God it’s awful.

And I love it. Every time I watch it I find something else that’s wrong with it and it cracks me up.

12

**Plan Nine from Outer Space

Robot Monster

10,000 B.C.

Lost Horizon** – the Musical. Truly, incredibly, unbelievably bad.
Tales from the Past/Dr. Terror’s Gallery of Horrors (not to be confused with Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, which is middlin’ decent. This one stars John Carradine and has Lon Chaney, Jr. in it. If you can’t guess the “twists” in the five vignettes, you aren’t trying. The acting is awful, the production quality is terrible, and the best footage is stolen from Roger Corman’s The Raven. Includes a description of an actual scientific experiment that’s kinda interesting, but out-of-place in this flick)

Killers from Space – very young Peter Graves vs. aliens with Ping-Pong ball eyes and spandex leotards
Night of the Lepus – Dr. McCoy vs. Killer Bunnies

The Monster that Challenged the World – I have to applaud low-budget film-makers, but the idea still seems hopelessly silly – Giant Killer Snails. Walk for your Lives!!

13

I love Xanadu. Roller-skating Muses, Olivia Newton-John, ELO, the Tubes, the cartoon sequence…just love it. Pay no attention during the dialogue.

And I’m not even sure if this is a bad movie, but Girls Just Want to Have Fun, with Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker (back when they were little girls). Dance contest movie, plus nerds, nuns, hot guy, and rich bitch. Glorious.

14

Crap! You beat me to it.

When I was on a submarine years ago, this movie was really popular. It got shown almost every day. By the end of that deployment, I could quote the whole movie verbatim.

“Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up! You see this? This…is my BOOMSTICK! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart’s top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That’s right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It’s got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That’s right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. YOU GOT THAT?!”

–and–

“It’s a trick. Get an axe.”

–and–

“Good. Bad. I’m the guy with the gun.”

15

Mommie Dearest - “No wire hangers EVER!!” “SCRUB, Christina! SCRUB!!” “You LOVE to make me hit you!!”

It’s like a ten-car pile up on the freeway. You can’t help but look at it and be amazed.

16

History Of The World Part I

No Retreat, No Surrender

Almost everything made with Ah-nold

17

Oh, Hell yes! That movie is the embodiment of everything that was great about 1980s action cinema.

Arnold Schwarzenegger delivering killer one liners - Check.

The hero pulling off seemingly impossible stunts like jumping from an airliner right after it takes off - Check.

A villain on a secret island with his own band of Central American mercenaries - Check.

A Kenny Loggins knock-off singing a cheesy song over the closing credits - Check.

Blowing shit up real good - YES, YES, YES.

I’m straight, but I get an erection everytime I watch the scene where Arnie raids the Army surplus store, you know the one with the rocket launchers and claymores.

18

Adventures in Babysitting.

19

Isn’t that also the one where he kills some guys throwing circular saw blades like throwing stars?

And the one liner of “Remember when I told you I was going to kill you last?”
“I lied”

20

Be thankful, one med run one of the movies on mrAru’s sub was ‘Emerald Forrest’

1 film can, 24 films, 6 months underway with only a couple of short port calls [Rota, La Mad and Gibralter.