So So So Bad It Was Good

[novella]

Last night I watched the most excruciatingly terrible movie, The General’s Daughter, starring John Travolta, James Woods and lot of other “stars” who I’m sure would rather not be named. A smorgasbord of bad screenwriting!

Scenes alternated between awful romantic banter to side-lit suicides to chin-thrusting military machismo in the blink of an eye! An underground torture chamber in one scene disappears from the plot forever. A guy’s head gets shoved into an underwater propeller. Between these, there's some lovely flirting by Travolta with chicklets and he practices a fake Southern accent for a while, which disappears later.

Love, righteousness, gay guys, bad Southern cops, arms dealing, ambition, S&M, a jaunty mortician, even the Carmina Burana . . . whoever made this said, Let’s put it ALL in.

What a treat.

Favorite scene: girl lying naked in mud, tied down with tent pegs, yelling, “Daddy, don’t go! Please! I did this for you.” (Whatever happened to “Hey Dad, can you untie me and get me some clothes”?)

Of course, you always know the culprit in such a movie. He’s the actor who appears in every scene for no reason, until the end when you find out why! In this case, the profoundly sincere Timothy Hutton.

Okay, I’m not even apologizing for the spoilers here. Suspense is definitely not the point.


Everyone must have these “so bad it was good” favorites. This one’s going on the list.

 

[mojo]

Evil Dead II! It's the most hilarious horror movie ever. Favourite scene when the main character cuts his own hand off because it's possessed and shouts 'Who's laughing now?' at the severed hand before it scuttles off....

 

[Geenh]

Oh gawd... I would have to say Eyes Wide Shut with Kidman and Cruise. It was a chance for them to show the world what they do in their bedroom! Every man whom I've spoken to who has seen it loves it. All the women agree with me. It wasn't cinematic genius at all... merely soft porn (I LIKE soft porn when it's honest!).

 

[bobbyburns]

hands down, "manos" the hands of fate. this film was so poorly shot and edited that four of the top billed stars committed group suicide after they were apparently laughed out of the theater at their own premier in el paso, texas. had they intended it to be humorous, it might not have ended that way. regardless, imdb voted it the worst movie of all time.

 

[Kookamoor]

Heh heh... Joe's Apartment.

Jerry O'Connell and singing cockroaches. What more can I say? I saw this a few years ago, and when I saw it for sale in Walmart the other day for $6.89 I just couldn't resist!

I went searching for lyrics to give y'all a sampling... and found the Roach Kareoki site!!

"On an ocean trip on a garbage ship
With a cockroach I adore
We'll take a taste
Of the medical waste
That washes up on shore
Oh, sweetheart say you love me,
And crawl underneath my rug
You're one in a thousand billion baby
Oh, won't you be my bug?
(Please be my bug)"

 

[phil_t]

Oh dear god not Joe's Apartment, make it stop!!! The cockroaches just killed me

Hmmm, bad movies that are good, there are so many guilty pleasures ....

Tremors is a good one, its really not a great film but I love it!!

Phil

 

[Jbug]

Dare I say that I liked Ishtar? I thought it was a spoof at first & quite funny. It wasn't until I read a review of it that I realized it was a genuine comedy and not trying to spoof anything.
The songs they 'wrote' were hilariously bad.

 

[starchild42]

"Raise The Titanic".

Truly toe-curlingly dreadful, but it's totally worth owning the video* for the moment when they sail back into NY standing on the deck, miraculously still in one piece after 80-something years in the drink. Pricelessly funny.

*and yes, I do. Sadly though, I no longer own a VCR, so my "sunday-afternoon-so-bad-it's-good" pick me up is now forever consigned to the under-stairs cupboard. I can't quite bring myself to suffer the embarrasment of replacing it with a DVD

"Color of Night" deserves an honorary mention, too.

 

[Kookamoor]

Dare I say that I liked Ishtar?

I'm glad you dared! Horrible!! There are so many anecdotes about this movie's production. I'm not sure which is my favorite... the bit about flattening the desert dunes to make them look more 'realistic', or the fact that when they went to pick up the animal that was to play the blind camel they discovered it had been eaten by the owner... Either way -

Another one few may be aware of, but I'm throwing this one out specifically for jenngorham, should she look this way: Defcon 4. Horrendously low budget apocalyptic film from the shores of Nova Scotia!

 

[Syracusefan]

The Swimming Pool - It was a French made movie. It is about a writer that uses her editor's 2nd home in France to try to come up with her next novel. The editor's wild child daughter shows up unexpectedly and antics arise in the house. The two are like mixing oil and water. I was glued to the movie the whole time. The ending was so AWFUL that I sat there in disbelief and asked myself what I just watched. I am still not sure I have the total answer about the ending... I would be interested if others have seen this and what they thought.

 

[jenn]

Another one few may be aware of, but I'm throwing this one out specifically for jenngorham, should she look this way: Defcon 4. Horrendously low budget apocalyptic film from the shores of Nova Scotia!

thanks!!! i'll look into it. i'm sure the guys at the video store will be able to track it down for me.

 

[novella]

The Swimming Pool - It was a French made movie. It is about a writer that uses her editor's 2nd home in France to try to come up with her next novel. The editor's wild child daughter shows up unexpectedly and antics arise in the house. The two are like mixing oil and water. I was glued to the movie the whole time. The ending was so AWFUL that I sat there in disbelief and asked myself what I just watched. I am still not sure I have the total answer about the ending... I would be interested if others have seen this and what they thought.

Hey, I liked that movie. Charlotte Rampling is great in that, as a totally uptight, English type, used to her own ways. Plus, the photography is so saturated and lush. As for the ending, maybe it wasn't plausible as in realistic, but it worked okay for me. I liked the atmosphere and the images that lingered afterward.

 

[gallagher672003]

The Swimming Pool - It was a French made movie. It is about a writer that uses her editor's 2nd home in France to try to come up with her next novel. The editor's wild child daughter shows up unexpectedly and antics arise in the house. The two are like mixing oil and water. I was glued to the movie the whole time. The ending was so AWFUL that I sat there in disbelief and asked myself what I just watched. I am still not sure I have the total answer about the ending... I would be interested if others have seen this and what they thought.

I have recently seen this and you understate the awfulness of it greatly!

The story that makes up the greater part of the film is the story that Charlotte Ramplings character has written.In her novel the publishers daughter is a sex kitten and in reality she is a plain looking teenager.
So the sex and murder was fiction inspired by her surroundings at the house she was staying at.

 

[Geenh]

Have you ever seen the flick named only The Pool? He who hates dog fur nearly screams every time he sees the box at the video rental place! It was like watching a train wreck, it was soo bad, but we watched it beginning to end with no fast forwarding.