Your Favorite Bad Movies

Some movies appeal to a few of us, even though the movies may have nothing whatsoever going for them. Bad story line, bad dialogue, bad production values. But for some reason we like the damn thing.

I'll start it off with A Boy and His Dog (1975) starring Don Johnson as the boy and Tiger as his dog. It's a post-apocalyptic tale based on a novella by Harlan Ellison.

What bad movies do you like?

"Swamp Thing."  Adrienne Barbeau.  Nuff said.

I remember that movie. Yes, it fits well into the category.

Little Colonel.
Captain January.
Wee Willie Winkie.
Susannah of the Mounties.
The Littlest Rebel.

Time to break out the VHS player.
I'm excited.

Good grief, Lisa. Those movies are all older than I am (some not by much).

I would consider them bad movies only because of Shirley Temple, but then only because she grew up to be a bitch.

This one may stretch the definition a bit, but I doubt it's on anyone's favorite movie list:
"Alex in Wonderland"
It is -- essentially -- a parody of Federico Fellini's "8-1/2" which should be (and is) on almost every movie buff's "best of" list. In "Alex" director Paul Mazursky captures the uncertainty of Fellini but none of the ennui, the failure with none of the success. Donald Sutherland -- who would go on to work for Fellini in the famously-contentious "Casanova" six years later -- lampoons Fellini as a bubbleheaded self-important product of Hollyweird. The movie is a disjointed, incoherent mish-mash of styles and homages which succeeds only in confusing the viewer and misrepresenting the source material. Yet it's such a glorious failure that I find myself amused despite myself.

All the Sinbad movies....
Jason and the Argonauts.
Forbidden Planet
Dark Star
McKenna's Gold
Casino Royale
Mysterious Island
Time Machine
Fantastic Voyage

... ah, there are so many.

... Flesh Gordon ...

Father Goose.

Lisa wrote:

Father Goose.

Cary Grant? Leslie Caron? That doesn't look so bad...

SAI2 wrote:

All the Sinbad movies....
Jason and the Argonauts.
Forbidden Planet
Dark Star
McKenna's Gold
Casino Royale
Mysterious Island
Time Machine
Fantastic Voyage

... ah, there are so many.

I don't think all of these qualify as bad movies. Forbidden Planet? Really?

All that overwrought stuff about energy from the Id?  Yeah, I think it qualifies -- despite Robbie.

And those Ray Harryhausen movies are technically fascinating, considering how they were done, but hardly paragons of nuanced intelligent plotting.

I see your point,  Richard.  FP was a good attempt,  for its time,  but as much as I enjoy watching it,  I agree with NoCo. Casino Royal could be removed though as it was intended as a Bond spoof.

Woody's later movies, where he cast himself as the irresistable love interest of some ingenue even though he's over 70, qualify as "bad movies" -- but not ones that you like regardless. They're just sad.

A movie and its sequel, both bad movies but amazingly entertaining. I have watched both of them numerous times.

Evil Dead and Army of Darkness.

Bruce Campbell rules in this category of flicks.

Warning: Both of these movies have been remade and the remakes should be avoided at all cost. I suggest suicide if the alternative is watching either of the remakes.

Lisa wrote:

Little Colonel.
Captain January.
Wee Willie Winkie.
Susannah of the Mounties.
The Littlest Rebel.

Time to break out the VHS player.
I'm excited.

Hope you got a chance to enjoy Shirley's movies again. She died yesterday.

Oh no.  I didn't know.
I was getting injections in my back.

No.

I don't want to spoil your love of old Shirley Temple movies, but forgive me if I don't shed any tears over her death. Take a look at this cute little kid:


Many years ago, this little girl won a Shirley Temple look-alike contest. Tammy had been in a couple of movies and worked fairly regularly on television. Small parts mostly, but her career was advancing.

One of the things Tammy was awarded when she won the contest was an appearance  with Shirley Temple at the grand opening of a new giant shopping mall (I think that's what it was). Shirley Temple was contracted to be the star attraction at the opening - along with the winner of the contest - but when Tammy won the look-alike contest (in which Shirley Temple's daughter was also entered), she refused to participate if Tammy was going to be there.

So Tammy was not allowed to participate in the event. Her manager (her father) fought the decision but could get nowhere. He told me that Shirley Temple actually used the phrase, "You'll never work in this town again." (How many bad movies have we heard that line in?) But she was serious and Tammy's career slowed precipitously. Her agent quit getting calls asking for her and was most often turned down when he tried to get parts for her.

So to hell with Shirley Temple.

I'm also old enough to remember some heinous things Ms Black said during the Reagan Administration.  Granted, she was a member of an earlier less-enlightened generation, and she was rightly proud of helping Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson break the color barrier, but her stauch right-wing politics and conservative hate-mongering were I thought totally inappropriate for a US Ambassador.

Tammy's a whore.

Well! Tell us what you really think.

Lisa wrote:

Tammy's a whore.

Sad to hear that. She was a sweet kid when I knew her.
She's way too old for that profession now.

That may be, but Temple may have been a Communist too.