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Friday, August 26, 2011

All the Favours of Failure: Appendix A - Examples

It occurs to me that in order to further illuminate yesterday's post, it might be useful to list some examples of bad movies I love, and bad movies I loathe. This list is by no means comprehensive; it's merely a glimpse of my tastes.

Bad Movies I Love
Despite their numerous shortcomings in scripting, acting, direction, cinematography, sound, lighting, set decoration or even basic coherence, all of these films offer grand entertainment value, by virtue of epic bathos:

Robot Monster
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Battle Beyond the Stars
The Swarm
Invasion of the Bee Girls
Star Crash
Troll 2
Q: The Winged Serpent
The Creeping Terror
Glen or Glenda
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
The Green Slime
Reefer Madness

Bad Movies I Loathe
While the following films may (or may not) possess top-notch production values, clean editing, big-name directors and state-of-the-art special effects, they all fall short because they are, in one way or another, ultimately boring. Either that, or the storytelling flaws and prodution value are so slipshod that they overwhelm even ironic enjoyment of the proceedings (see: Superman IV). Here's a sampling of bad movies I loathe:

Transformers
Independence Day
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Revenge of the Sith
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Showgirls
Godzilla (1998)
Batman (1989)
Batman Returns
Batman Forever
Batman and Robin
Howard the Duck
Signs
Star Trek: Nemesis
Wild Wild West
Twister

The Awesome Elite

There is, of course, another category: films that some people foolishly declare "bad," but which are, in fact, awesome...and I mean "awesome" in the truest sense of the word. These films transcend mere mortal judgment and stand on their own as epic feats of movie myth.

Flash Gordon
Big Trouble in Little China
Evil Dead II
Army of Darkness
Destroy All Monsters
Bad Taste
Dead Alive
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

How do you categorize some of your favourite or least favourite films?

1 comment:

Tammy said...

Thanks to Cliff I just recently saw Showgirls. Good lord! I remember hearing all the razberries it got but I really didn't understand the full extent of the awfulness until recently. I have always gotten entertained by Independence day, with it's over the top "the americans" save the world. I also marvel how smart they were to just "dock" into the mothership and upload a virus just like. I guess they really are smarter than all of us ; )

I have not seen many from your first list, although they seem worthy of some review on our cheezy movie nights. We just saw an awesome one that I will write a post about.