Bugsy Malone.
Tracy: Well-- That call -- That call means you just murdered me. Mal: No, son. You murdered yourself. I just carried the bullet a while.
'The Message'
Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned
A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Betsy HP - Jan 20, 2005 7:50:09 am PST #8060 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
Nutty - Jan 20, 2005 7:50:30 am PST #8061 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."
I think a complicating factor to Frank's quest on this front is that many movies are made these days to exploit that "wow, this is such a bad movie and I'm having so much fun" market. Like, a third half of John Carpenter's movies are successful in this way. (Another third, successful at something less ironic. THe last third, unsuccessful by any measure.)
Actually I would suggest that any movie that has been labeled "[blank]-sploitation" has a good chance of falling into the category we are trying to describe.
Betsy HP - Jan 20, 2005 7:51:06 am PST #8062 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
To be a truly GOod Bad Movie, it has to be utterly shameless. No irony, no sense that "We know better than to do this." Bad Movies glory in their decisions.
Polter-Cow - Jan 20, 2005 7:53:26 am PST #8063 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Most of mine are baddies that I loved as a child. Grease 2 (I want a cooooool rider!), Clash of the Titans, Pollyanna, and Flash Gordon (Betsy!).
I love Clash of the Titans too, GC!
Beastmaster
He had pet FERRETS! Yay!
Nutty - Jan 20, 2005 7:53:33 am PST #8064 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."
Hm. So, where does Big Trouble in Little China fall? I mean, it glories in its decisions, and is shameless, and is fun, but a heaving pile of enthusiastic nonsense.
tommyrot - Jan 20, 2005 7:54:32 am PST #8065 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Showgirls
I'd add Starship Troopers in there, but it's arguably ironic. (At least in Verhoven's head.)
Frankenbuddha - Jan 20, 2005 7:55:16 am PST #8066 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
To be a truly GOod Bad Movie, it has to be utterly shameless. No irony, no sense that "We know better than to do this." Bad Movies glory in their decisions.
So, among other things, it can't be deliberately campy, you're saying? That leaves out huge chunks of definitively classic cult movies (Rocky Horror being example numero uno).
Polter-Cow - Jan 20, 2005 7:56:32 am PST #8067 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Hm. So, where does Big Trouble in Little China fall? I mean, it glories in its decisions, and is shameless, and is fun, but a heaving pile of enthusiastic nonsense.
Oh yeah, I haven't seen that in one in years. I should watch it again to see that guy explode.
reequeen - Jan 20, 2005 7:56:50 am PST #8068 of 10001
"It's got to be the hair, Cotton. It's beautiful! Feathered and lethal. You just don't see it nowadays." Pepper Brooks - Dodgeball
many movies are made these days to exploit that "wow, this is such a bad movie and I'm having so much fun" market.
Yeah, but those kinds of movies aren't really as much fun as they set out to be. I don't enjoy them nearly as much as a movie that obviously takes itself seriously, and yet is accidentally crass in many respects. One without that tongue-in-cheek, ironic, "aren't we too cool" attitude, winking at the audience, self-referential and smug.
While I can enjoy that kind of audience-winking, too, it can't beat sincerity for enjoyment of the form. "So bad it's good" shouldn't be on purpose, it spoils the fun.
Jessica - Jan 20, 2005 7:57:40 am PST #8069 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
To be a truly GOod Bad Movie, it has to be utterly shameless. No irony, no sense that "We know better than to do this." Bad Movies glory in their decisions.
The Apple does this in spades, but because it is the Greatest Movie Of All Time, it needs no defending.
I just realized that DUNE and POPEYE are similar in that they are unmistakebly the work of idiosyncratic directors who are probably trying to tackle a genre/subject/whatev that's dead wrong for them.
The funny thing is that I do think Dune captures a LOT of the tone of the book, and in doing so illustrates perfectly why Dune should never have been adapted for the screen.