June 01, 2004

It sucks, you should watch it! Okay, more getting to know you, following up the previous movie CG. I am a connoisseur of bad film. I love it. My friends treat a "good" bad find as an event. We're looking for new ones. What's the best bad film you've ever seen?

To prime the pump, allow me to introduce you to Necropolis Awakened, a horribly-done microbudget zombie flick which features bad writing, worse acting, and everything that makes for a good Friday night. The villain, picture it, is named Nefarious Thorne. And he's trying to kill an alcoholic hermit named Bob. For some reason.

  • I put a Curious, George heading on this. Dunno where it ran off to.
  • Brotherhood of the Wolf started a running joke between me and my friends (after the "Are you a magician?" scene in the brothel. Essentially, to answer any question or dilemma fully and comprehensively, all you have to do is expose your giant, pendulous shamanic testicles.
  • Monkeyfilter: giant, pendulous shamanic testicles. You saw it coming.
  • If you hadn't done that, I would have.
  • The only one that comes to mind (other than the stereotypical bad movies like Plan 9) is Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death. I'm not a fan of bad movies though. I only caught this on late night TV once.
  • Try this on for size: Redneck Zombies: "Backwoods hicks mistake barrels of toxic waste for moonshine and become tobacco chewin', gut-stompin', cannibal kinfolk from hell!"
  • Listen to DrMoxie and check out the whole Troma website. I especially liked "Tromeo & Juliet," but your mileage may vary.
  • ianaeldi - there ya go! Just about any movie with Adrienne Barbeau is a candidate for middleclasstool's Friday night. (Though I'm not completely convinced that she deserved to be the queen of bad movies.)
  • I actually really liked Brotherhood of the Wolf...
  • "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum." That's right, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper stars in... They Live! Some may watch it for the paranoid anticapitalist diatribe, but I watch it for the timeless acting and hilarious aliens.
  • Now here's a topic that I could go on for days about. You see, a group of friends (anywhere from 9-15 of us any given week) all gather around a TV every Friday night and watch two horrible movies and make fun of them. We call ourselves Friday Night Society, and for the last four years, we've averaged about 100 bad movies watched. Of the worst that we've done, the king of the worst is Science Crazed. I can not begin to describe the pain. Next comes a film called Warriors Of The Apocalypse which despite the premise, is really freaking boring. As far as classics go, we recently watched the un-MST'ied version of Eegah, which is a prime example why is almost never a good idea to have the same person star, direct, and write a movie. A fun one we did recently was The Villiage People's movie, Can't Stop The Music, which I can hardly control from calling Can't Stop The Thrusting because of how many times the camera comes very nearly in contact with the gyrating crotch of the Indian. We affectionately call that character Chief Thrusting Fringe. Uh, I have hundreds more suggestions where that came from. If you want more, I'd be happy to oblige.
  • As I was pondering inaeldi's name, I noticed t I'd completely screwed up in my comment. Sorry about that. (But, if you read my version in reverse, and mistake one "i" for an "l", as I did with old eyes, you'll know that my subconscious has a lousy sense of humor.)
  • 1) "Xanadu"-- Olivia Newton John meets Roller Disco. People Suffer. 2) "Red Sonja"-- you gotta be reeeeeealy high for this one. #) "Ratboy"-- see #2.
  • They Live is truly a work of art. Have you seen South Park's homage to it? I forget which episode, but they recreate shot for shot that ridiculous 5 minute fight sequence between Nada and Frank using Jimmy and Timmy. Brilliant. As for my submission, may I present: Gymkata. The Wave ranked it as one of their Top 10 Eightiest Movies: "Gymkata is a combination of all the greatest movie plotlines in one. It’s an international race for control of the stars, but in order to achieve this, competitors have to win “The Game,” an outdoor obstacle course through ninjas and zombies that no one has lived through in, get this, 900 years! Maybe because they’re pretty sure he’s going to die anyway, the US government decides to send in a gymnast to whom they’ve taught karate for a couple weekends. This ends up being a great decision since all of his opponents come at him in perfectly symmetrical paired formations that can only be stopped with graceful flying splits."
  • #)=3), of course.
  • The 25th anniversary edition of Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes came out last year.
  • Two words: Battlefield Earth
  • But I thought Battlefield Earth was just bad, and not bad-enjoyable.
  • Daniel is correct. Battlefield Earth isn't a bad film, it's a new inner level of hell.
  • Two of a Kind. John Travolta and Olivia Newton John try to recapture some "Grease" glory in a modern myth about God (Gene Hackman, uncredited (really!))bringing another flood. God is talked into giving humanity one last chance by a group of streetwise angels led by Scatman Caruthers and Charles Durning. Edible sunglasses, time travel, the Mob, bank robbery, acting classes, hostage situations, double crosses, Satan singing Beatles songs and much, much more. Will ONJ and JT sacrifice everything for each other (thereby saving humanity)? Watch and see!
  • Brotherhood of the Wolf has really gorgeous cinematography & is sexy, in a werewolf sorta way. for werewolf fans out there The company of Wolves, based on Little Red Riding Hood, is darky sexy & spookily cheesy! Deathrace 2000 came up in conversation recently. definitely best very late at night, drunk... however, my personal fav is Dragonslayer, which I own on VHS & DVD & have seen far too many times...
  • A very strong second to both gymkata and they live. Also: Black Belt Jones. Quite possibly the finest movie made: Jim Kelley (the dude with the afro, from enter the dragon) plays a guy named "Black Belt Jones" (BB for short). BB works downtown, helping out the community. Then, his mentor, Pops (Scatman crothers, who is also the voice of Starscream, and the groundskeeper from the shining) is killed by mobsters, so BB has to get an army of black kung-fu ninjas and white girls who only know how to jump on trampolines to fight ... well, you get the idea. Blaxploitation/Kung-Fu/Mobster/Spy movie. Also: anything by rudy ray moore. In order of my preference: Dolemite II - The human torndao, Dolemite, Disco Godfather. Unfortunately, I havnt seen petey wheatgrass. I have a ton of movies, good and bad (movies from the 80s are often a mix), but some of the bad ones that are my favorites also include: Prayer of the Rollerboys, DC Cab (T! Fool! You need the bread get a job in the bakery!), Better Off Dead/One Crazy Summer/Tapeheads (early cusak). And the worst movie I have ever seen: what dreams may come, but that is unwatchably bad and has none of the positive characteristics of ... anything. Dont ever see it, it will take a year off of your life. Anywho...
  • So obvious it's almost not worth mentioning, but I was actually blown away by how amazingly bad Showgirls is. They occasionally show a sanitised version on TV - worth a watch if you have nothing better to do. We also currently have Teenage Catgirls in Heat (Troma) and Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter on our Netflix queue - I'll let you know how those go.
  • Can't go wrong with Martial Arts mixed with Blaxploitation, lkc. I've got a whole collection of movies like that. A good way to do the same.
  • lkc: Not to pick nits, but actually Scatman Crothers voiced Jazz; Starscream was voiced by Chris Latta (the original voice of Mr. Burns; scroll down a page on that link, also he is credited there as Christopher Collins).
  • wow. I don't know how I could have forgotten this. It is the most unspeakably aweful thing I have ever seen & I DO NOT recommend it (unless you are a complete masochist & extreme Isabel Adjani fan) Possession the tagline was something like "a monstrous manifestation of sexual evil" so of course I thought "yeah! sign me up" but NO!!!! please do not...
  • I rate this thread: A++++++ WOULD PURCHASE AGAIN!!!1! So many movies to watch... man I love you guys.
  • Ok, here we go... Well right now I"m watching Bubba Ho-Tep which is by no means a bad movie. It is pretty darn good. Starring Bruce Campbell as a senior citizen Elvis in a nursing home with Ossie davis as JFK. As long as we are talking Bruce Campbell. The man has made other movies besides the Evil Dead series. I recommend Maniac Cop which is about a dead cop out for revenge. Also featuring Bruce is Menno's Mind which is a Sci-Fi movie about virtual reality, terrorists, and some other stuff I can't remember. Featuring the voice of Bruce is one of my favorite movies of all time, Dead Next Door which is a zombie movie shot on Super 8 and Campbell and other people dubbed the voices. The maker of Dead Next Door made or produced a lot of cool low budget movies and has a web site, Tempe Video. I recommend their "B-Movie Police" movies especially Galaxy of the Dinosaurs which uses stock footage from one movie and intercuts it with scenes shot on Super-VHS. Speaking of stock footage, one of the most horrifically bad uses of stock footage that I recall is Zombie vs. Ninja which takes a typical 70s Hong Kong Kung Fu movie and has some guys shoot their own subplot on VHS and insert themselves into the movie. Best of all the white guys all wear Power Rangers-style shiny outfits and headbands that say "Ninja" on them and one of them is named, "Ninja Ira." On the Kung Fu theme, one of the most interesting films I've seen is Fighting Life which actually features two handicapped actors performing amazing martial arts action. It is supposed to be inspirational but I'm not sure that it isn't just exploitive. A USA made kung fu movie that is not to be missed is Razor Sharpe which is basically a film this martial arts instructor made in an attempt to get famous. It revolves around an actor in a martial arts movie who is told that they are making an on location film when in reality they are actually really committing crimes. So he has to get revenge on teh people who tricked them. Ok, those are some of the one's I can think of off the top of my head without getting up out of my chair to look at my collection (yes, I do own all of these!).
  • Put disco, horror, and exploitation aside for a moment. I have to mention Navy Seals. The golfing scene, especially. Some of my friends had a bizarre obsession with it freshman year.
  • Bad Ronald
  • Two words: David DeCoteau. More specifically, Voodoo Academy, The Brotherhood, and The Brotherhood II: Young Warlocks.
  • Oh you crazy kids! I may have mentioned this before (not that Iever repeat myself!), but I used to work at a video store. The horror section was my responsibility. Therefore I nominate my two favorite bad flicks: The Stuff and April Fools Day. And for giggles: Poison Ivy.
  • Battle Beyond the Stars. Bonus points for watching The Magnificent Seven and Seven Samurai the same night.
  • To add to babywannasofa's comment, don't forget the US Seals series, especially the second one. Listen to this premise: A terrorist group has taken over a small island off the coast of Japan. Due to some odd fallout, the entire island is covered in a methane haze, meaning that any spark can cause the entire island to blow up. The terrorists, led by a cigar-smoking psychopath, have taken over the military base on the island, which has a nuclear missle. They plan to launch the missile unless their demands are met. That's where the crack Seal team, out of retirement, comes in. The battle their way through the terrorists, using swords, chains, and other metal weapons. There's more to it, but to say more would ruin the beauty and horror of US Seals 2.
  • You guys are the best. There ain't nothin' like bad film, in my book. Many of these I've heard and/or seen, but probably half of them I haven't. I've gotta give special props to Battlefield Earth, which was so damn bad that my friends and I actually stopped mocking it after about thirty minutes, because the movie was doing a better job than we were. Paaaaaaaaainful. Keep 'em coming! I'm copying this bad boy to my hard drive later!
  • Those of you who know the "right people" might be able to get your hands on a battered old VHS or beta of Moonshine Mountain. You will NOT be disappointed.
  • How come no one has mentioned Carnosaur?
  • Wow -- what a coincidence -- because for the first time in probably 15 or 20 years, I actually saw "Food Of The Gods" early this morning. I challenge anyone to find Marjoe Gortner in a worse role.
  • Does Meet the Feebles count, since it's intentional?
  • jjray: Ill take your word for it, I remember trying to definitively find which voice he did, maybe I just assumed starscream because thats all I could remember. It has been a very long time since i have seen anything transformers.
  • Vampyros Lesbos, the Jess Franco Eurosoftcore/horror classic starring Soledad Miranda, with bizarro soundtrack by Martin Hubler and Siegfried Schwab.
  • I found Shanghai Killers on the super-cheap rack at Borders. Worth every penny and then some. The unintentionally hilarious dubbing is only half the fun. Pick it up if you ever see it.
  • The seemingly deathless works of The Three Stooges.
  • Ach! When it comes to bad movies that improve mightily with teh addition of doobage, I have to go with The Toxic Avenger. Troma, baby. But for sheer goofy brass, try Down Twisted.
  • willie shatner in devil's rain truly horrible.
  • Not in the bad horror film genre but a bad film none the less, Batman. The anti-communist stuff is priceless.
  • Batman Yeah, but that film was deliberately bad. It traded on its badness. In fact, it was camp. Or don't you think people had a sense of humour in 1966?
  • If you want an odyssey in pain, I can't help but recommend "Invasion of the Neptune Men", which you can probably find MST3k'd (though it doesn't help much). It's a ridiculously bad Japanese sci-fi movie from the sixties. Between the inane sequences of buildings being blown up, the terrible special effects, the silly-looking aliens, the infamous Hitler building, and the annoying children, it has to be seen in order to destroy what little faith you have left in humanity. Oh, you mean good bad movies? Can't help. Maybe "Dead Alive" or I can just second the Takashi Miike movies.
  • analoghuman has posted 0 links and 1 comments on MonkeyFilter since February 20, 2004. Jeez, dude, don't bust a gut or anything, ja? Welcome.
  • I can heartily recommend Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter, which is hugely enjoyable, very tongue in cheek, with some great musical moments (check out this from the soundtrack to get an idea of the tone of the film).
  • Ack, sorry for delurking so gracelessly. Anyway, yeah. Hi. *waves* Just my $0.02.
  • Ooh, jccalhoun reminded me of another: "Ninja Force". The best bit was - at no point throughout the film was a force of ninjas so much as mentioned! Essentially there were two sub-plots throughout the film, one about a very bad man killing a bunch of ninjas (green ninja, red ninja, pink ninja who clearly drew the short straw; and yes, they did all have headbands reading "NINJA"). The other plot involved this guy fighting a different Very Bad Man, who was kidnapping children or something. Incredibly, at no point in the film whatsoever did these two plotlines interconnect whatsoever. In any way.
  • I second the nomination for Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter. Be on the lookout for the talking ice cream sundae and the talking Virgin Mary lamp. I can't stop myself from mentally singing "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" to the tune of Jesus Christ Superstar every time I see the title.
  • The best movie nobody has seen? Six-String Samurai. Nuclear War, invading Russians, and Elvis is King of Lost Vegas. Features Slash of Guns 'n' Roses as Death. Zombie Lake is a softcore porn with zombies. The women's basketball team all decide to go skinny dipping. Zombies. Baseball team all go skinny dipping. Zombies. It's skinny dipping followed by zombies for two hours. Not nearly as fun as it sounds.
  • I'll third Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter. that was some of the best fun we've had in a while. Now, someone mentioned William Shatner. Well, if you want some Shat-based pain, look no further than Incubus, the only movie spoken entirely in Esperanto. Yes, esperanto. Someone else mentioned Troma. As far as weird Troma movies go, Vegas in Space takes the cake. Listen to this - "Three soldiers are ordered to change their gender (via a pill) and are sent on a secret mission (undercover as show girls) to the women only planet of Clitoris' capital city "Vegas in Space." Once they arrive, they must maneuver through complex politics and decadent parties, to uncover a plot to disrupt the most important pleasure planet in the Universe." The entire movie is cast by drag queens, and the credits say that it was based on a party. Now, the call for good bad movies was raised, and we've seen a couple. Here are our favorites: Soulkeeper. Any movie that has both a costumed Lincoln running from an army of confederate soldiers and Tiny Lister declaring that he has a perfect penis is golden in our book. Hilarious comedy, masquarading as a horror movie. The production values in Cannibal! The Musical are horrible, but that's part of it's charm. Made during Trey Parker and Matt Stone's spring break a few years before South Park, this movie showcases their entire troupe's adept comic timing and wit. Even though it's directed by the worst.director.evar., Albert Pyun, Mean Guns is very, very enjoyable. Concept is this, a ganster with a lot of people who owe him money, gathers them all together in an abandoned prison. He gathers them all together, and tells them that the last person alive gets his debt wiped clean. He then dumps guns and bullets onto the prison floor, and chaos begins. Stars Christopher Lambert and Ice-T. Worth watching if only to see the hilarious Highlander reference. (Like I said, I can go on about this for days and days. Middleclasstool, you touched on the one subject that I am comfortable calling myself an expert on)
  • Incubus is not such a bad movie as such - just.. well, ok, it's bad. But it depends which cut you get, because it was repackaged in the 70's and reedited, making it even worse than it originally was. I always thought Incubus was a Roger Corman movie, but apparently it's not, which is sad, because I wanted to have an internal linkage thing going here, as Battle Beyond the Stars (previously mentioned) was produced by him.. and he's responsible for one of my favorites bad movies, It Conquered the World, which defies description unless you listen to Frank Zappa's synopsis of it on "Roxy & Elsewhere" before the song "Cheepnis". It has a giant carpet monster with teeth around the bottom and large sneakers that appear from beneath as it walks. It's pretty funny, but it's rather old; kind of Plan 9 territory.
  • There is only one I can think of off the top of my head: Krull.
  • This one might be hard to come by, Black Devil Doll From Hell. A favorite from my adolescence that my sister and I rented numerous times along with Redneck Zombies from a local video place (you know the kind--no first run movies at all!). The Devil Doll is a Howdy Doody painted black with dreadlocks affixed to the head and the entire film is shot using a handheld camera. If you see this film do yourself a favor and watch it, the pain of poor film making is almost a liberating experience.
  • To add to the list of Troma gems, Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD is a hoot.
  • I'll second Six String Samurai and Mean Guns (mean guns is priceless for the "Girl from Ipanema" scene in the elevator alone) On to my personal list... Night of the Lepus Giant. Fucking. Rabbits. Absolutely horrible. (In the Matrix, you can see a scene from it playing in the Oracle's house...) There's Nothing Out There Five years before Scream, this flick took on horror movie cliches. Awesome. Solar Crisis An Alan Smithee film, 'nuff said. Oh, wait, Chuck Heston as a crusty old Admiral, Jack Palance as a drifter and Peter Boyle as a Capatalistic ass determined to let the world fry for fun and profit. Horrible, but funny if you're drunk. Ticks Mickey Dolenz' daughter, Alphonso Ribeiro as a gangbanger and Peter Scolari as a camp counselor for problem kids, thrown onto a farm next door to some pot growers whose use of chemical fertilizer has created mutant ticks. Cheese factor 10. Split Second I love this flick. Rutger Hauer, Kim Catrall and Neil Duncan chasing a mutant serial killer in a flooded near-future London.
  • Danger: Diabolique, especially for the "having sex on a great big pile of cash" scene.
  • A Boy and His Dog - A boy communicates telepathically with his dog as they scavenge for food and sex...Starring Don Johnson!!
  • Please, people: Let us not Dis The Shatner. My script for "T.J. Hooker--The Movie" gathers dust, but will someday enlighten the WORLD!
  • I must confess a sneaking fondness for the crap that is Lambada, The Forbidden Dance. Horrid in a terribly funny way.
  • All fine choices, but I think the worst movie I have ever seen is Pink Flamingos. I don't know if it counts because it was meant to be bad. I have a odd interest in Ed Wood and Roger Corman films. I just saw the Bride of the Monster (Ed Wood, writer), it was truly horrible in the way I absolutely love.
  • I could not find the link before my last post, but a good source for bad (and some classic films) is oldies.com
  • I offer... Fitzcarraldo
  • shawnj, my friends and I have a similar get-together, on Wednesday nights. Called Bad Movie Wednesday. To date we've watched around 50 movies. Our most recent 2 hour sacrifices were Army of One (starring Jerry Trimble) and Robot Ninja (a JRR Bookwalter film). Robot Ninja was one of the worst things I think I've ever seen. It made me want to set myself on fire.
  • The Core. I don't know about the worst, but it is absolutely the stupidest movie. Which reminds me...I remember a website that used movies to talk about scientific principles. (The site reviewed The Core the worst science movie of all time.) But now I can not find that site. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Thanks
  • If you want to torture someone, lock him/her up in a room with an unbreakable window where a monitor shows the DVD of The Master of Disguise, looping endlessy. Specially effective if the subject was a Carvey fan.
  • Night of the Lepus I remember seeing this on an honest-to-gosh drive-in double feature with the equally execrable Frogs, billions of years ago. As young as I was, I still wasn't frightened. A Troma disappointment was Surf Nazis Must Die, which in fairness could never had lived up to the title.
  • I just watched Pirates of the Caribbean. It was shit.
  • Most of the best Troma films are the earlier ones like Stuck On You and The First Turn On (although Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid is just like 90 minutes of fingernails on chalkboard) and actually my favorite Troma films are the ones that just distributed rather than made. Blood Hook, Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator, Bloodsucking Freaks, Redneck Zombies, and Monster in the Closet.
  • i kinda think i'm happy to say that i've never watched any of these movies. or even heard of most of them. /or should i be embarrassed to admit that? i'm quite puzzled and wonder if i could throw a curious george loop into a 'lost the curious george' post? since these movies have no apparent redeeming qualities, why watch them? i'm honestly puzzled because it seems such a strange way to occupy the mind...to my mind. /no derail intended. i see why folks are recommending them, they look quite bad. perhaps if someone could also explain what it is that one gets from watching them?
  • Let me attempt this one, y'all, if I could: The joy of watching poorly made film is that, simply put, bad film is usually very funny. Now, we're not (usually) talking about something that's just sub-par, where the direction is uninspired and the dialogue rings a bit hollow. We're talking bad. Like train wreck bad. Like burned-down-fell-over-then-sank-into-the-swamp bad. A film that is so bad that its badness reaches near-epic proportions. Acting that is so shoddy as to be cartoonish. Plot holes that you could pilot an Airbus through. Dialogue that is so out of touch with the real world that it might in fact throw the viewer into an existential crisis. Cheaply made models dangling from visible strings. Now, here's what you do: You rent one of these films. You purchase copious amounts of the adult beverage of your choice. You get some snacks. Then you all sit around, watch the film, and laugh like you're fourteen again. You make really snide, sarcastic comments -- this quickly turns into a contest of wit among my friends (with us, any joke that doesn't involve a penis, boobs, or bodily functions qualifies as wit). You openly mock another person's labor of love. You have a ball. But the fun doesn't stop there. For weeks, months -- hell, maybe years, you have really good inside jokes, film quotes, things you can use to riff with each other. This provides endless enjoyment. For instance, suppose I were to write the following: This is my BOOMSTICK!!! I guarantee you that every monkey who posted here can quote you chapter and verse on where that comes from. Five 'nanners says the film's named in the next two posts. And we will all smile, and nod, and delight in our shared joy, knowing that somewhere in the world lives a person we've never met face-to-face, yet we'd have something to discuss, something we both love dearly. Bad films are, in short, my proof that God exists and wants us to be happy.
  • For proper context... "Listen up, you primitive screwheads! This... is my Boomstick!!! The 12-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 $109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that? " Army of Darkness wasn't bad, it was genius.
  • If it's a movie so bad that it circles aaaallll the way back to good you want, I second nicola's nomination of 'Showgirls'. We held a screening at my place, and not 30 seconds in, my buddy looks at me, wide-eyed and stricken, and wails 'This is the WORST. MOVIE. I have EVER seen!!' Many adult beverages were consumed, and hilarity ensued. And yeah, we're TOTALLY getting the upgraded DVD complete with (...wait for it) 'Pin the Pasties on the Showgirl' game. For the upcoming 4th of July White Trash BBQ.
  • middleclasstool, for my friends and I, that movie is Branagh's Hamlet. Or Macbeth, whichever it is.
  • Ah, come on Ben, Frogs is a gas. If you've sneaked into the drive-in covered in a blanket concealing yourself behind the front seats (or possibly hiding in the boot) with an ounce of weed and a dangerous amount of alcohol, it is a masterpiece which will stand comparaison with any Satyajit Ray, Kurosawa, or Fellini film. Just remember to take the drugs first.
  • Ribbit, ribbit. Aaaargh, no, it's....a killer terrapin. Aiiieeeeee! *splashes around a lot*
  • We're gonna need a bigger boat...
  • Thank you, surly, you demonstrated the point well. So I'll give these to you: ))))) And yes, it is genius, but it's cheeeeeeeeeeese. Good cheese. Stilton. Not Velveeta.
  • To add to what middleclasstool said: For us, it started with things like Rocky Horror Picture Show and late night monster movie hosts like Zacharly, The Ghoul, or if you're my age, Gilbert Godfreid. These things made the cliches of the bad films fun, but telling us it's okay to not only laugh at these things, but to revel in them. Each of us spent way too much time as kids watching Showtime or Cinemax, which was chock full of crap like Stewardess School or Girlfriend From Hell or Cannibal Women in the Avacado Jungle of Death. But what really propelled this idea for us was MST3K. Watching it, most of us in the group started adding lines to the show, or secretly thought that they could do better. So about four years ago, some friends of mine started doing that. I joined up about a year later. And I was skeptical at first, but after a week I was hooked. It was downright cathartic to make fun of someone else's hard work. The appeal for me is not only the improv, but the joy of seeing certain actors and actresses attempt to pay the bills by slogging through terrible scripts, chewing up scenery wherever they go. Christopher Lambert and David Carradine are two great examples of this. Like any hobby though, it's being able to have something in common with a lot of different people that is big. That, and the wonderful festivals, and great websites linked to the hobby. As an added benefit, all of these years watching bad movies, I have become a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon *gawd*. I mean, it's impressive as all get out to use obscure links (like Henry Gibson was in Cyber Bandits with Alexandra Paul, who was in Diary of a Sex Addict with Ed Begley, Jr., who was in Santa With Muscles with Clint Howard, who was in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon). In a nutshell, it's fun, it's geeky, and it's a great way to sharpen and quicken one's wit
  • I would add Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green, his final on-screen role. Not chewing up scenery, but a good actor in a tragically bad film.
  • It's people! It's peeeeeepullllll!!!1111oneone
  • Have you noticed Chuck Heston's delivery there isn't far off from his, "You blew it up!"?
  • oh. i guess this explains why i get lost in the threads sometimes. different languages, basically. to be more frank, i've never watched even one episode of the simpsons, or all the other shows. i couldn't handle roseanne and abandoned popular media in disgust, when she went big time. /it seems i've had an culturally deprived adulthood. *sigh*
  • It's okay, dx. You can begin to repair the damage by starting with this list, some friends, and many, many beers. Scr00 wendell's cult, this one is global. Our own little Project Mayhem. Disclaimer: The above was written with much respect, madd props, bigg ups, smackk downz, and many other doubly-consonated words of praise for Our Lord and Savior Wendell, who is worthy of our praise.
  • In Project Mayhem we have no names!
  • ah, Tool, Shawnj. I congratulate you, for you have taken a thread about dreck and turned it into a wonderous philosophical commentary on our times. Or something.
  • Brotherhood of the Wolf has really gorgeous cinematography & is sexy, in a werewolf sorta way. native puppy love