Despite the headline you see above, for the most part, I don’t buy the premise that movies can be so bad, they’re actually good. If a movie’s good, isn’t it just...good? There’s no question, however, that movies can succeed by failing.
Ed Wood is an extreme but perfect example of a filmmaker who never achieved precisely what he set out to do with any of his movies, but who nonetheless made cinematic magic out of enthusiasm, shamelessness, and no small measure of self-delusion. That kind of thing is always better than a strained attempt at creating the same effect. Think Sharknado—a movie that’s fun, but that works so hard to achieve silliness that you can see the flop sweat. The best “so bad they're good” movies get there quite by accident.
Personally, I’d almost always rather watch an interesting failure than a boring success—sometimes because passion is contagious, and just as often because a true WTF-level debacle is a rare and glorious thing. Here are 35 of them.
Jason X (2001)
In the not-too-distant future (2010 AD), Jason Voorhees has been captured by the United States government—but they've been trying to kill him for years with no luck. So they do what America does best: pawn the problem off on a future generation. They freeze the big guy, who's then discovered nearly five centuries later by a team exploring the now uninhabitable Earth. They wake him up which, as you can imagine, is a bad idea—he goes on a killing spree. But in space! Long-derided, the movie is an awful lot of fun if you're willing to go along with the over-the-top premise. It's got all of the grisly kills you'd expect in a Friday the 13th movie (including a memorable bit involving liquid nitrogen), and, more importantly, a sense of humor about itself. That light tone and a cool Jason redesign make it a delightfully goofy bit of sci-fi horror.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Skidoo (1968)
Imagine a whacked-out, trippy counterculture LSD movie directed by one of the leading lights of classic Hollywood and starring mostly older actors with names like Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Mickey Rooney, and Groucho Marx (as a gangster named “God” who might also be God).
It’s about...well, OK, I’ve seen it at least three times and have no idea what it’s about, but following some heist antics and a handful of acid trips, it culminates with Channing’s character (in a slightly naughty sea admiral’s uniform) leading a flotilla of hippies to storm God’s yacht before Harry Nilsson (the film’s composer) sings the entirety of the closing credits. Some would say that Anatomy of a Murder or Laura are director Otto Preminger’s masterpieces, but this is an all-time triumph of weirdness.
Where to stream: Plex
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
It’s clear that the filmmakers behind Battle were in on the joke, at least to a point. One of the movie’s centerpiece models is, after all, “Nell,” an organic spaceship which looks, very deliberately, like a pair of breasts attached to a set of ovaries.
Still, the Roger Corman-produced space opera is an uneasy combination of silly and serious, with an impressive cast (Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon, etc.) giving their all to do a take on Star Wars that the movie only partly commits to. That tension, though, is a hallmark of the “so bad it’s good” genre.
Where to stream: Peacock, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Shout Factory TV, Prime Video
Howard the Duck (1986)
This 1986 adaptation of the Steve Gerber comic was a passion project of George Lucas for over a decade—it was also the first time a Marvel character had appeared on the big screen, at least since a 1944 Captain America serial. Could Howard the Duck have jumpstarted the Marvel Cinematic Universe a quarter of a century before Iron Man? Unlikely, but a tantalizing prospect given that it might have teed up a far sassier run of films. A box office bomb that earned critical derision and four Razzies, it stars Lea Thompson as the human woman who first encounters (and eventually sleeps with) the strange visitor from Duckworld. The movie's full of wild, bold, and not entirely successful choices, but committed performances from Thompson and company have given the movie a cult status.
Where to stream: Prime Video
Batman & Robin (1997)
I’ve yet to encounter a convincing, revisionist take that Batman & Robin is some kind of misunderstood masterpiece—though that’s a tempting take. The day-glo styling and notoriously pronounced nipples suggest a misunderstood queer classic in the offing—but it’s simultaneously too much and not enough.
For everything going on, the movie still manages dull stretches, and the comic-book-inspired palette tends toward the cheap and ugly. And yet! It’s a fascinating misfire, and serves as a throwback to a moment when a major studio would spend boatloads of money on something so weird and idiosyncratic. And, though it doesn’t ultimately work, it’s the last time that big-screen Batman was anything approaching fun.
Where to stream: Max, digital rental
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
The Wachowskis have taken some bold swings in their filmmaking careers. They haven't all panned out, but their films are never boring, and this one has their characteristically lavish visual style. Mila Kunis stars as Jupiter Jones, who cleans houses for a living before learning that she has a grander inheritance thanks to the intervention of Channing Tatum, playing a genetically engineered dog person. It's a fun, goofy hodgepodge of science fiction tropes blended with some clever ideas and a who-cares? attitude. The MVP here is surely Eddie Redmayne, whose absolutely unhinged performance as the primary villain is objectively pretty awful, but endlessly entertaining. The actor famously won an Oscar for The Theory of Everything the same week that he "won" a Worst Supporting Actor Razzie for this film. I'm not a big fan of the Razzies, but this one felt deserved—in the best way.
Where to stream: Prime Video
Fear (1996)
On a surface level, this is heavy material: gaslighting, abuse, sexual assault, and manipulation swirling around a teenage relationship. It’s all done with such over-the-top style, though, that it’s nearly impossible to take any of it seriously—by the movie’s conclusion, Mark Wahlberg’s hard-to-kill David might as well be Michael Myers. Those elements, as well as the movie’s soon-to-be A-list cast, explain why a movie with the plot of a middling Lifetime movie has become a minor cult classic.
Where to stream: Paramount+, digital rental
Cats (2019)
If “camp” can be defined as failed seriousness, then Cats stands as a shining example of the form. The array talents assembled here is extraordinary, with an Oscar-winning director in the lead of a to-die-for cast performing numbers from one of Broadway’s all-time most popular musicals. Clearly, everyone involved thought they were involved in a prestige film tailor-made for awards season.
We weren’t much past the release of the first trailer before those hopes were dashed, with the suspension of disbelief accorded to costumed performers on a theater stage disappearing completely into an uncanny valley of digitally enhanced cat bodies and sets. What was meant to be charming became vaguely nightmarish, but that disconnect between what was intended and the end result is a sure indication that Cats, given just a bit more time, is guaranteed a slot in the canon of deeply trippy cult classics.
Where to stream: Netflix, digital rental
Mommie Dearest (1981)
As with Cats, it was clear from early on that audiences weren’t receiving Mommie Dearest as it was intended. What was intended to be a deeply serious biopic and an exploration of child abuse was, instead, viewed as a high-camp dark comedy. Wisely, Paramount quickly shifted gears and changed the movie’s marketing to lean into its more outré elements—adding wire hangers to the posters and promising “...the biggest MOTHER of them all!” as if to reassure audiences that they were in on the joke, which they most assuredly had not been during production.
The flawless retro production design is a huge part of the appeal here, as is Faye Dunaway’s wildly, perfectly over-the-top performance. Her commitment to a serious performance is precisely why it’s so brilliantly funny.
Where to stream: Paramount+, digital rental
Supergirl (1984)
Speaking of Faye Dunaway, she gives another completely delicious performance in this muddled spin-off, an early attempt at creating a superheroic cinematic universe. Supergirl wisely attempts to move away from the science fiction trappings of the Superman movies and into something a bit more fantasy-inspired, but it plays like a bunch of set pieces that never really come together into anything coherent. Still, Dunaway is fun to watch and Helen Slater is perfectly cast as Kara Zor-El, even if the movie only sporadically works.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Madame Web (2024)
There's a reasonably effective set-up here: Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) is an awkward paramedic who develops powers of premonition following a near-death experience. When she has a vision of three young women being murdered on a train, she takes it upon herself to rescue them. Not so complicated! Until we wind up with a long-dead mother in the Amazon, three Spider-Women, a villain with inexplicable motives, flashbacks, flash forwards, and moments when the action stops dad in its tracks while characters try to explain all of this to the audience, to little avail. Add to all of that wildly unsubtle product placement that makes the movie feel like one big awkward Pepsi commercial. If anything, it's even clunkier than last year's Spider-adjacent flop, Morbius, thereby earnings its spot here as a movie best enjoyed under the influence.
Where to stream: Netflix, digital rental
Piranha (1978)
It feels churlish to include tongue-in-cheek movies here, but, given that contemporaneous reviews seemed to miss the point, we'll give it a spot here. A Roger Corman cheapie carefully calculated to pull in some of that sweet Jaws money, the goofy B-horror classic is all in good fun—a style of comedy-horror that debut director Joe Dante would go on to master. Here, genetically modified piranhas escape from a military facility with the help of some skinny dippers (of course), and proceed to eat their way through a summer camp full of unwary swimmers. John Sayles (The Brother from Another Planet, Matewan, Eight Men Out and many, many others) wrote the screenplay, a reminder that even the cheapest Corman films were mini talent factories.
Where to stream: Peacock, Tubi, AMC+, Crackle, Shudder Night Flight, Prime Video
Pootie Tang (2001)
Writer/director Louis C.K.’s name doesn’t carry nearly the cachet that it used to, and it’s entirely reasonable to be a little skeeved by him and his work. Nevertheless, movies are so thoroughly collaborative that it’s hard to know where to draw the line. Mileage will definitely vary. As for Pootie Tang, it’s goofy as hell, with a tossed-off quality, but the silliness is often inspired, parodying the blaxploitation films of the '70s and grounded by performances from some incredibly talented and reliably funny people, including Wanda Sykes, J.B. Smoove, Chris Rock, Reg E. Cathey, and Jennifer Coolidge (who, as always, steals every scene she’s in). It’s also wildly quotable, particularly if you saw it at a particularly impressionable and frequently stoned age.
Where to stream: Tubi, digital rental
Gods of Egypt (2016)
Alex Proyas is responsible for The Crow and Dark City, two of the most imaginative films of the past few decades. He’s also directed...other movies. Proyas’ vision of an alternate ancient Egypt in which Gods walk among mortals is, ultimately, deeply silly—as well as being (with the exception of Chadwick Boseman) overwhelmingly white.
Putting all that aside, though, it does manage to reflect Proyas’ impressive visual imagination and idiosyncrasies. In that, at least, it’s not bad as an antidote to our current glut of more coherent, but also far duller, superhero movies.
Where to stream: Max, digital purchase
Dune (1984)
The arrival of the two-part Denis Villeneuve adaptation has, quite naturally, drawn attention back to the 1984 version, from popular director “Alan Smithee,” a pseudonym used by David Lynch by way of disavowing the film (or at least the longer TV cut). He wasn’t wrong to be disappointed—the movie isn’t a misunderstood masterpiece, but it is a fascinating curiosity with moments of real power that occasionally captures essential elements of Frank Herbert’s novel. Ultimately, Lynch’s vision is probably far too distinct to ever have made him a good fit for this type of adaptation, and studio interference further compromised a project that was already going to be a tough sell.
Where to stream: Net
from News https://ift.tt/bATm5zs
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment