Ooooh, did someone mention Deuce Bigalow? I LOVED the first one – I refuse to see the sequel on ethical grounds, but the first movie is adorable. Although the premise is so ridiculous (Rob Schneider is… a male gigolo!) it has a sweetness to it and there’s some brilliant surreal humor.
Such as when his dad reminisces about meeting his mom. “So we picked up all her one-dollar bills off the stage, said goodbye to that donkey, and two days later, we were man and wife.”
Or Deuce soaking in the hot tub with his pimp, Eddie Griffin. “Deucie, you the best he-bitch in my man-stable!”
I love Starship Troopers. I’ll watch it, or parts of it, any time it’s on. I don’t know or care anything about the book. I watch it just to look at Caspar Van Dien, he is so good looking he’s like a member of a whole other species. And to laugh at Mrs. Charlie Sheen as a spaceship pilot, hilarious! And space marines shooting and blasting giant insects - what could be better?
Last Action Hero was genius. I love funny, self-aware films.
Someone mentioned Blair Witch Project… does that count? I don’t think a lot of people disliked it. Anyway, it’s really a perfect horror movie. Fear of the unknown and never seeing the antagonist … all “good guys” dying without us finding out really why or how… lots mystery in the ending … frightening use of legend and children … frightening use of reality vs. fiction … madness, desperation, loss of control, loss of meaning in the surroundings … amazing movie.
Big Trouble and They Live shouldn’t be mentioned here. Those movies are masterpieces.
I really, really liked Dune. A lot more than other David Lynch stuff–almost all of it, in fact, except for the first season of Twin Peaks.
David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch is very underrated and a great movie–some people say a poor adaptation of the book, but I don’t think the book lends itself to any meaningful adaptation anyway.
Orson Welles’ The Trial is a perfect movie that very few people seem to like.
People hated the new Speed Racer but I thought it was very clever and visually stunning.
Behold an action figure created for the Blair Witch based on descriptions in the shooting script:
Also most of the mysterious and creepy elements in the movie were explained by the script or the expanded universe media like Myspace accounts around the time of release. For one the house the protags found near the end was burned down in the 1940s, hell you wouldn’t even know that wasn’t supposed to exist anymore unless you researched the extra crap.:smack:
Oh yeah! I saw it on a nerd-date, which doubtless colored my perceptions, but I thought it was a hoot.
Also Wild Wild West. Total stupid fun in the Mars Attacks! model. It contains patented Will Smith Words to Live By: “Never drum on a white lady’s boobies at a big redneck dance.”
Josie and the Pussycats - it did terrible box office (barely made back a third of its budget), never had significant home viewing sales, got 53% from the critics and 44% from general viewers at Rotten Tomatoes. So I think it qualifies as a movie generally regarded as a stinker.
But I say it’s an overlooked classic - a surprisingly intelligent comedy. Nemo Bob says check it out.
I remember my friend and I taking our girls to see that. I was a bit surprised, it wasn’t half as stupid as I feared it would be.
I am ALL ALONE in the universe in love love loving “Pennies From Heaven”, the original on PBS of course, but I mean the Steve Martin/Bernadette Peters remake. I think it’s a work of art. I have the soundtrack album, too.
I’d only consider a movie a “stinker” if it got overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. A lot of these just seem to be movies that did poorly at the box office, or received mixed reviews (The Edge in the OP, for example).
Coincidentally, some channel on Dish Network has been running Modern Problems recently, so I watched it for the first time in ages. I remember liking it back in the early days of pay cable, when it was one of the movies that I saw over and over.
I thought it was pretty funny too. The budget was $20,000,000 and made $11,585,483 at the box office. It got very mixed reviews and has 50% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I can understand that mixed reviews and a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes might qualify a movie as a stinker. But it doesn’t make any sense for the moviegoing public to pay attention to the box office numbers, and whether a movie was profitable. I mean, unless one is investing in movie productions, why should one care (except if it’s the first movie based on a book series, in which case the box office numbers determine whether they continue with the franchise)? I think either The Soup or The Daily Show used to report the box office results for the top five films, but in Italian lira, just to emphasize that point.
Dunno about ratings, but I like Streets Of Fire. Mostly for the music. I have the DVD and the soundtrack. Songs by Jim Steinman (Meatloaf’s songwriter), Ry Cooder and The Blasters among others.
Big Trouble In Little China is a hell of a lot of fun. The commentary track is great, too. John Carpenter and Kurt Russell completely yukking it up. They are so much fun to listen to.
How about Evolution? David Duchovny discovers aliens on a meteorite. My whole family likes that one.
I am sucker for it every time I happen to notice it’s on. I once wanted company to watch it so told my wife, “Hey, come watch - it’s a documentary about what happens when the commies come”
Well, Red Dawn was a huge box office success. Budget of $4.2 million and made $40 million at the box office. Reviews were mixed (53% on Rotten Tomatoes) but it was obviously very popular with viewers. I was in high school when it came out and I haven’t seen it in a long time, but I thought it was pretty good back then.
