I’d like to get a sample of opinions here. What are the worst movies of all time? I’m talking about movies that are so awful, so hideous, that they are almost good.
Please don’t include “B” movies like “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” or something like that. I’m looking for movies that were trying to be decent, but were just plain bad.
My worst three:
Stroker Ace
Ishtar
Best Defense
Opinions?
“I never lie, but I don’t always say what I’m thinking.”
I think the all time worst was the HowardHughes-produced flop “THE CONQUERER”, starring John Wayne, Dick Powell, and many others (who wished they hadn’t).This flick was so bad that Hughes never released it! I was always curious about it, and finally AMC had it on-what a piece of garbage! (though it’s really hilarious with Wayne trying to sound like Ghengi Khan). Somebody told me that most of the actors later died of cancer, due to the fact that the movie was shot near the atom bomb test site in Nevada!
Actually, I think “Striptease” was trying to be campy.
[list][li]Now “Showgirls” was trying to be serious. It just failed. Even though there were undoubtedly more nude scenes of Elizabeth Berkley, I couldn’t watch very much of it; my gag reflex was going into overdrive.[/li]
What should have warned me of its badness was the “Tonight Show” interview of Berkley. What a freakin’ airhead! And they cast her as the smart girl Jesse on Saved by the Bell!? She was explaining how artful and tasteful Showgirls was.
[li]“Whore” with Theresa Russell. A pseudo-documentary with inconsistant breaking of the 4th wall.[/li]
[li]“The Nude Bomb”. Based on Get Smart, but had nowhere the timing of the TV show. It completely ignored 99 as well.[/li]
[li]“Bad Medicine”. Alan Arkin as a Hispanic? Gimme a break![/li]
[li]“Atame” (“Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down”). More like a bad B&D porno flick. Starring actress Victoria Abril had a better movie later “Gazon Maudit” (“French Twist”) that was just as flesh-revealing, but with a better plot. What made this worse was all the hype about this movie after Cannes. I didn’t understand all the hoopla.[/li]
Maybe not the worst of all time but pretty darn bad, last summer’s “Wild, Wild West.” The only good thing we could think of to say about it was that it wasn’t longer.
If you’re talking movies you most wish you could wipe from your memory, my vote is for Anaconda. Just ghastly.
For movies that are so bad they’re good, the kind you turned into cult favourites briefly in your late teens, and may have watched (over and over again) in altered states, I’d say Roller Blade (1985).
Taglines:
Skate or die!
Curvaceous Crusaders Battle to Rebuild a Shattered Land
Roller Blade was made before inline skates were known outside of summer hockey practice, and the title refers to the rollerskates (4 wheels each foot) the combat nuns wear and the blades they brandish. As your standard habit is none to revealing, for their fight scenes, our heroines wear combat spandex, which often makes its way off by the end of the scene. Plus there are the nude hottub initiation scenes in the convent. Apparently, a habit shares the undergarments of a kilt. Truly a so-bad-it’s-great film.
Honourable mention to Straight to Hell (1987), “A story of blood, money, guns, coffee, and sexual tension.” Written by Alex Cox (Repo Man) and Dick Rude, starring Dick Rude, Joe Strummer (of The Clash), Sy Richardson, Courtney Love, The Pogues, and Elvis Costello (o.k., Elvis doesn’t exactly “star,” but he does an excellent job as Hives the butler). Jim Jarmusch, Dennis Hopper and Grace Jones also show up. I saw this movie WAY too many times in my late teens.
There are no vital and significant forms of art; there is only art, and precious little of that.
-Raymond Chandler
Happiness and Seven are tied for movie that made me feel worst. I mean, they made me feel so bad I didn’t even know how bad they were. I guess if their intent was to make me feel like crap for days, they were very effective.
A couple of weeks ago I ran across “Tommy” (yes, the Who’s rock opera) with Roger Daltrey, Ann-Margaret, Oliver Reed, Elton John and a host of others.
Horrifingly, fascinatingly, devastatingly BAD!!! The experience was like slowing down to gawk at a fatal car wreck. Although I have to admit, Pinball Wizard with Elton John was somewhat entertaining.
Yes, TOMMY is definitely up there as one of the worst, and it’s often overlooked on these lists.
It’s funny that a couple on this list were perfectly good movies. WOLF was quite good and ISTAR was badly underrated (it was a nice little comedy, but most people reviewed the price tag, not what was on the screen). MONOLITH MONSTERS is also generally well regarded, though I haven’t seen it.
Some really bad ones:
SPACE MUTINY. Looks like they shot two different movies (the two main stars never appear on screen together) and, when they discovered they didn’t have enough material, added a completely irrelevant series of scenes about space witches. The plot didn’t make the slightest sense, the special effects were taken from another movie (literally), and the woman killed by the villain turns up fine in the very next scene.
MITCHELL – not even MST3K could make this interesting.
ALIEN – Stupid people being killed purely due to their own idiocy.
TOMMY – Loud and terminally stupid. Ken Russell has no sense of humor and shows everything completely literally.
THE MASTER GUNFIGHTER – Tom Laughlin’s worst film, which says lots.
Someone once recommended that I watch By The River’s Edge because the director graduated from the high school I went to. Ugh! It was so bad. Don’t watch it, it’s not even funny.