The Best Worst Films Ever Made

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bigP
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:59 am
Location: Reading, UK

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#26 Post by bigP » Wed May 19, 2010 1:16 pm

I know I'm going to stand alone here, but I can't help but love (the usually appalling) Broken Lizard's Super Troopers. I've tried numerous times to ignite the same love for this film in other people as I have for it but its just no dice, and on the odd occasion it's actually driven people to anger over how poor it is. I've also tried numerous times to work out why I like it and just can't think of anything better than stating that, for me, the idiocy just seems to click. I'm not sure what that says about me, and I find alot of modern comedies pretty hard to gel with but the childish eye-rolling buffoonery on display in this film somehow I relate to.

I've got an awful feeling that this confession is going to lead to my being chased from this forum by pitchforks and flaming torches.

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CSM126
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Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#27 Post by CSM126 » Wed May 19, 2010 2:06 pm

If I could get away with having a MEGAFORCE avatar for as long as I did without being run off, I think you're fine. (speaking of Best Worst movies...)

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Feego
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:30 pm
Location: Texas

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#28 Post by Feego » Thu May 20, 2010 1:06 pm

I know this has been discussed before on this forum and elsewhere, but I have to say it: Showgirls

And I truly mean that in the most non-ironic way.

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chizbooga
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:49 pm

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#29 Post by chizbooga » Mon Jun 21, 2010 2:15 pm

The Fury. this move is a work of art, and definitely the best/most successful de palma i've seen.

Mark Metcalf
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:59 am

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#30 Post by Mark Metcalf » Mon Jun 21, 2010 5:43 pm

I like The Fury. I just re-watched one of my favorite bad movies, THE LOST CONTINENT, 1968 dir. Michael Carreras. Besides the monsters and flesh-eating seaweed, I love the cast of sleazy and desperate characters on the ship.

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Dylan
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:28 pm

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#31 Post by Dylan » Mon Jun 21, 2010 5:54 pm

The Fury is generally well-regarded, isn't it? I've never heard of anybody calling it a bad movie.

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Feego
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:30 pm
Location: Texas

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#32 Post by Feego » Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:39 pm

Dylan wrote:The Fury is generally well-regarded, isn't it? I've never heard of anybody calling it a bad movie.
The Fury is, like most De Palma films, pretty well-regarded by his fans and vilified or dismissed as trash by everyone else. People who dislike The Fury generally dislike Dressed to Kill and Blow Out as well. I certainly wouldn't say it's a lowly regarded film among De Palma's afficionados like, say, Bonfire of the Vanities.

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justeleblanc
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:05 pm
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Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#33 Post by justeleblanc » Tue Jun 22, 2010 12:55 am

I'm an afficionado and I consider The Fury to be one of his worst. I haven't given it too much thought but the script is pretty lame and the stylistic decisions clash from scene to scene. I remember the Amy Irving sub-plot to work quite well, but the Kirk Dougles political/cop intrigue feels like a clunky attempt at mainstream genre cinema.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#34 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:08 am

Isn't Mission To Mars the truly clunky attempt at mainstream genre cinema? :wink:

Set against that ("Let's light this candle!"), The Fury is almost a masterpiece. Even all the initially questionable in a genre film Middle East terrorism stuff proves to be a red herring/manufactured cover story concocted for the benefit of the son anyway, which brings up far more interesting ideas of elite cabals using 'simple to understand' political events for their own ends.

I love that all the 'bad guys' are often very sympathetic (particularly of course Hester in the psychic research centre who eventually gets revealed as working with Douglas's character, and who gets a lovely and touching 'getting to know you' montage of walking in the park, eating ice cream while talking about boys and playing Pong with Amy Irving's character), even down to the security guards bantering over their walkie talkies. It makes moments of, for example Dr Charles's spinny fate (later almost parodied in Mission To Mars), cut that much more deeply and play less as comeuppance than as something more tragic - a messing with forces they cannot control in the end. That immediately sets it apart from most other films - the way that even the most uncontrollable lashing out or pointless death is in some ways understood and empathised with and that many people are just doing their jobs inside these questionable organisations.

The film could be basically seen as about adult's fear of teens exposing their lack of power as authority figures, and their attempts to control or bribe them in various ways to channel the anger the younger generation may have into profitable directions, which never works for long. It takes themes from Carrie and works with them on a wider scale (and I like the way that Irving gets introduced unwittingly tackling school bullies with her newly developing powers! Sometimes while watching the film I like to think that Irving's character is the same as the girl she played in Carrie, bundled off to boarding school and now having to deal with having powers of her own. But that is just something extra that I like to imagine for fun!) Compared to the focus on Carrie and the way that the action is almost totally filtered through her perspective, the boy at the centre of all the action here remains almost blank and empty while all the other characters project their hopes and fears onto him.

And also the structure of the film is quite neat, expanding from the father and son being ripped apart at the opening to encompass all the paranoia-fuelling organisations in league with each other before narrowing back down to the too little, too late father and son reunion for the devastating climax (plus of course the revenge from beyond the grave that Irving exacts as Cassavetes tries to become a mentor to another wayward youth!)

James
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2008 4:11 pm

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#35 Post by James » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:34 pm

Feego wrote:I know this has been discussed before on this forum and elsewhere, but I have to say it: Showgirls

And I truly mean that in the most non-ironic way.
I think it's good, I think it's been stupidly misunderstood by most mainstream critics, but I don't think it's anything to get too excited about.

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Noiretirc
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Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#36 Post by Noiretirc » Wed Jun 23, 2010 12:03 am

Saturday Night Fever conjures up all kinds of terrible thoughts doesn't it? White suits, Bee Gees, John Travolta, etc. But it's a fucking great film!

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SamLowry
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 3:14 pm
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Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#37 Post by SamLowry » Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:46 pm

My vote goes to Sextette...a 1970s musical romp with an 85 year old Mae West as a Hollywood starlet marrying a 20 something British Royal played by Timothy Dalton in a London hotel while world leaders are meeting to prevent a major diplomatic catastrophe. This movie is the penultimate train wreck that makes your jaw drop to the floor. It is so bad you just can't stop watching it until the end. If there is any bad movie that should be restored & put on Criterion w/ a bonus feature of an audio track of directors (maybe John Waters) commenting on what not to do in a film, this is it. The Rhino dvd is full frame & chops off the ends of the 1.85 image. There should be bonus material to go along with it around the filming & the appearance by many stars of the 70s: Alice Cooper, Tony Curtis, Regis Philbin, George Hamilton, Ringo Starr, Dom Deluise, Keith Moon, Rona Barrett.

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George Kaplan
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 7:42 pm

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#38 Post by George Kaplan » Tue Mar 22, 2011 3:05 am

Dogging SamLowry's footsteps through these threads - I'll cast my vote for Kurt Neumann's SHE DEVIL (1957).

I tend to be rather immune to the oxymoronic concept of "Best Worst", and in fact, Neumann (whose original of THE FLY I still find far more haunting than the Cronenberg) may, in fact, have only been working with a miniscule budget and actually created something rather brilliant. Who knows? The film is virtually impossible to get a hold of and I've not seen it in many years now, though it used to be a staple of TV programming when I was a kid.

The scene in which a destitute prostitute (Mari Blanchard) - miraculously cured of her hopeless tuberculosis by doctors Albert Dekker and Jack Kelly, who've injected her with a tse-tse fly-derived serum - is flush with preternatural vigor and, Gasp! Something unexpected!, but still penniless, rashly decides to clunk another woman's sugar daddy over the head, with a great big glass brick of an ashtray, inside a posh dress shop, to get her hands on his giant wad of cash, is unforgettable.

What follows, though, is even better:
SpoilerShow
With nowhere to run she dashes into one of the dressing rooms and locks the door as the police quickly arrive. Going from dressing room to dressing room, the police hunt down "a dark-haired woman in a cheap grey dress" (Blanchard), until she is cornered! She quickly changes into one of the chic dresses left inside the dressing room by another patron, as the police furiously bang on the door demanding entry. And then Blanchard, facing the mirror and closing her eyes, trance-like, as one of those weird theremin-like sci-fi themes surges on the sound-track, miraculously transforms her hair color to platinum blonde, allowing her to elude her would-be captors with a smirk.
And that's just the first 15 minutes! Priceless and beautiful.

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mystic_matahari
Joined: Thu May 19, 2022 5:46 pm

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#39 Post by mystic_matahari » Fri Jun 17, 2022 12:29 pm

I've been an anonymous lurker for a while and I finally made an account--and, I must admit, I am enjoying going back to older threads and reading them.

My humble addition to this thread is a movie titled The VelociPastor. Yes, I know, it sounds like one of those movies that has be to so bad that it's "good," but hear me out...It's a kitsch movie, but there's charm to it. Does it require an in-depth discussion? Not really, but I'm willing to be that it will become a cult classic.

Summary:
After losing his parents, a priest travels to China, where he inherits a mysterious ability that allows him to turn into a dinosaur. Although he is horrified by the new power, a sex worker (with a heart of gold) convinces him to use it to fight crime.

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Saturnome
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 5:22 pm

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#40 Post by Saturnome » Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:46 pm

Le jour et la nuit, a 1997 french film starring Alain Delon, Lauren Bacall and Arielle Dombasle, the only film by it's director (Dombasle's spouse) has to be one of the most incompetent attempt at a arthouse film I've ever seen, where everything is broken, editing, sound mix, acting, it's an incredible mess but one that's convinced to be a total masterpiece, ending with Lauren Bacall reading a book by Delon's character (who is an alter-ego of the director), leaning over a Citizen Kane book! There's a dinner scene where the editing is so bad you're not even sure who's talking to who, and a long take that doesn't make any sense, with Delon delivering a very long monologue while moving around a piece to... touch a towel? glance at some furniture? The actor seem to have no idea what to do. I've seen people describe it as too slow to be entertaining, but I've had a blast watching this wreck.

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brundlefly
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 12:55 pm

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#41 Post by brundlefly » Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:59 pm

mystic_matahari wrote:
Fri Jun 17, 2022 12:29 pm
I've been an anonymous lurker for a while and I finally made an account--and, I must admit, I am enjoying going back to older threads and reading them.

My humble addition to this thread is a movie titled The VelociPastor. Yes, I know, it sounds like one of those movies that has be to so bad that it's "good," but hear me out...It's a kitsch movie, but there's charm to it. Does it require an in-depth discussion? Not really, but I'm willing to be that it will become a cult classic.
Co-signed. I usually have no truck for movies that are bad on purpose; why add to the pile? But The Velocipastor (IIRC, inspired by an auto-corrected text message and the availability of an unused, state-funded dinosaur costume at a local high school) is a work of pure joy. Swooned to every stray camera zoom, doubled over at its overworked editing. Greg Cohan and Alyssa Kempinski somehow give winning, invested performances. If you haven't yet spent all your tears crying at the state of the world, shed some while laughing with this for 75 minutes.

It's streaming almost everywhere, but I bought it on blu ray just so I could shove it into hands of friends.

Brendan Steere's "straight" horror movie Animosity isn't terrible and has an interesting enough concept --
SpoilerShow
What if Groundhog Day, but also Pet Sematary?
-- but the best thing about it also involves a quick turn at horror parody.

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JSC
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 9:17 am

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#42 Post by JSC » Fri Jun 17, 2022 4:16 pm

the only film by it's director (Dombasle's spouse) has to be one of the most incompetent attempt at a arthouse film I've ever seen
Maybe that's the real reason why the entarteur Noel Godin, a.k.a. Georges le Gloupier attacked this particular
man not once but three times with a pie in the face.

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tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#43 Post by tenia » Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:42 pm

Bernard Henri-Lévy has directed several movies, pretty much all of them being laughably bad enough to have yieleded him a Uwe Boll-like reputation in this respect, though we'd probably be living in a very slightly better world if he only stuck to making crappy movies and writing terrible books.

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Saturnome
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 5:22 pm

Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#44 Post by Saturnome » Fri Jun 17, 2022 9:17 pm

By film I somehow meant "fiction film", as I believe all of his other films are documentaries, right? I barely know anything about him except that all my french/belgian friends hate him. He seems to be of that part of french culture that doesn't come here in Quebec, which is this thing about getting old men described as "philosophers" being involved by the medias in any public debate and mostly having lame opinions. After watching Le jour et la nuit I wonder how anybody is able to take him seriously in any way.

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tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
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Re: The Best Worst Films Ever Made

#45 Post by tenia » Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:35 am

Yes indeed, all of his other works are documentaries.
There still are many people taking him seriously in France, not as a filmmaker for sure, but as an intellectual in general, since he's pretty much the guy who convinced Sarkozy to act about Lybia (with the results we know), because yeah he's that close to some very high level persons here.
Your description is quite fitting, anyway.

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