Best so-bad-its-good films

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024211#Comment_121024211

I haven't, no, but if it's the miniseries thing starring Rob Lowe, I can see enough of it to know that it may have a daft plot, but everything about it looks to be OK in execution.

As I said before, (imo) so-bad-they're-good films have a quality of pervasive oddness that comes from a mix of incompetence, lack of experience, odd artistic choices, low budget, pure (bad) luck and so on, that come together to make the film entertaining in a way different than was originally intended. That's why Troll 2 is considered such a jewel of the genre, because everything about that film is a bit off, but not intentionally so. Same thing with The Room. Same thing with Fatal Deviation. There isn't a scene in Fatal Deviation that isn't accidentally brilliant. Even the credits are funny - 'Mikey Graham from the *rock group* Boyzone" .

But maybe this is why there are only a few that get talked about, because they're incredibly rare due to the astronomical odds needed to make one happen, and we know about all the 'best' ones already.

TagoMago

Taffin is absolute gold, I could watch Pierce Brosnan's iconic "MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T BE LIVING HEEEEERRRRREEEE" line on loop all day

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024372#Comment_121024372

That line is definitely more like what I have in mind. It's such a ridiculous moment. If the rest of the film is as mad as that moment, it would be a candidate, for sure.

Say Your Number

On Deadly Ground is unintentionally hilarious.

Hangdogroad

I Drink Your Blood (1971). Saw this on vhs video way back. Its got everything you want from 70s American grindhouse cinema. Post Manson moral panic about hippies, meat cleaver wielding foaming at the mouth psychos, Satanic mumbo jumbo, bad acting and hilarious special effects.

https://youtu.be/2utB1RDV4gc?si=XotqaNy5uG8bONOM

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024196#Comment_121024196

Wood's earlier movie "Glenn or Glenda" is more watchable IMO. Plan 9 is very boring in places.

I don't know if it's too well known and successful to count, but I watched "Highlander" with my son the other night and laughed my ass off the whole way through - it has not stood the test of time at all and is relentlessly stupid despite taking itself fairly seriously.

You have Lambert playing a medieval Scot with a thick French accent; actual Scot Sean Connery playing a Spaniard, a villain who is so over the top he's practically going "mwahahaha" in every scene, terrible dialogue, a plot that makes no sense, and so on. The special effects are like something from 15 years earlier as well.

In the scene where McCloud's wife is supposed to be dying of old age, literally all they've done to age her is put some flour in her hair. Later the female love interest goes into an underground car park to search for sword fragments with a metal detector, embedded in a reinforced concrete pillar, in a room full of twisted metal. Everything about it is stupid.

Jackiebt

Maniac Cop...All 4 films

The Nal

Rawhead Rex

Heres the whole movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzUZJEh8-KQ&ab_channel=VHSRips

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024560#Comment_121024560

A bit unfair to Highlander, it was a cool AF 80's movie at the time with a great soundtrack

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024791#Comment_121024791

as I said, it hasn't stood the test of time. But it's just, like, my opinion, man.

Homelander

The Room, Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Miami Connection and Troll 2 would be my top recommendations.

All films made somewhat earnestly but so hilariously and entertainingly awful.

Some of Steven Seagal's movies in recent years also fit into this category. Awful scripts, hilariously obvious stunt doubles, dismal action scenes, women swooning over this bloated zepplin in his giant trenchcoat, etc.

There's a ton of movies that get mentioned a lot but were that way by deliberate design, like Dude Bro Party Massacre, For your Height Only, Sharknado, Zombeavers, Leprechaun in Space, etc.

edgecutter

Fatal Deviation

Isthisthingon?

Cosmic Sin , a movie 'starring' ( an extended cameo for I'd imagine 95% of the films budget) none other than Bruce Willis.

Undoubtedly the worst film I've ever seen in my life.

2smiggy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024911#Comment_121024911

Poor Bruce was 'starring' in anything that was offered to him before his retirement.

Never heard of Cosmic Sin, but it's rare to get a 2.5 score on IMDB, it must be horrific

StevenToast

Samurai Cop..

https://youtu.be/y0IBhUoPlfM?si=cmZvN30h2TXthP7w

This is acting of the highest calibre.

o1s1n

How about Kung Fury? Okay so it's playing with the notion of 'so-bad-its-good' rather than actually being a genuinely serious film, but I think they nailed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO_DIwuGBnA&ab_channel=KiberpankaNet

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121025479#Comment_121025479

Trying too hard.

johnny_ultimate

There are not many, because most uniquely 'bad' films are immensely boring for much of their run time. I've watched The Room with a crowd, and while it's good fun, there are vast stretches of its running time where it's immensely boring and turgid. Ditto others like Manos: The Hands of Fate or Plan 9 - yes, there are moments of morbid fascination and laugh out loud silliness to enjoy, but the films themselves are often an annoying slog.

On a slightly different take on the question, Carnival of Souls is clearly an amateurish production. The acting is dodgy, the production values low, and the whole film has an oddness to it which doesn't always seem intentional. But I do think there is some genuinely clever directorial intent to this one, as opposed to films that are compelling just because they're so incompetent. There is some genuinely haunting images and ideas in it, even if the execution is obviously very limited. But even the limitations ultimately help make it a film that rises above its individual elements.

https://youtu.be/YQfOJ4ZKP3Y?si=PIHFI7cP-PbZMprv

Hangdogroad

What was that Rambo knockoff where a guy is beaten to death with his own severed arm?

Found it. Deadly Prey. Maybe its a bit too polished for so bad but good movie but that arm scene, which isn't shown fully here is one of the most demented things I've seen in an action movie and it doesn't seem to be have been tongue in cheek. One of the supporting actors, Cameron Mitchell, was once a pretty big star but by the 70s and 80s he'd been reduced to B movie film. He was in one of the absolute worst movies I've ever seen, a 1981 South African slasher called the Demon. Its not even bad in a good way, just unwatchable garbage.

https://youtu.be/vrQbBULQT3s?si=lj_le6LMS3bj0Nmh

foxsake

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024873#Comment_121024873

no list is legit without fatal deviation.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121025770#Comment_121025770

From an Irish perspective, it is undoubtedly the best so-bad-it's-good film out there. My favourite line is during the pub fight scene when the owner pulls out his shotgun, aims it at Bennett and roars, "Get the hell outta here, ya little Tullyard bástard, ya!", with Tullyard being a townland outside Trim. I could nearly write a paragraph on why I find that line so funny, but suffice it to say that Fatal Deviation is obviously trying to be a baddass martial arts action film, constantly getting dragged down to earth by the fact that it is set in Trim, Co. Meath in the late 90s.

speedboatchase

There has to be sincerity behind a 'so bad it's good' movie. The likes of Sharknado etc leave me cold because when the filmmakers know their movie is a joke, it's inherently less funny. You can't be in on the joke IMO.

Anyway, I love Sylvester Stallone in Cobra. It's the pinnacle of an 80s macho, renegade cop who plays by his own rules and sticks it to the uppity liberals cos dammit, he gets results. Not to mention the most iconic poster and tagline of the era.

howamidifferent

Possession (1981) on prime video at the moment.

Has Sam Neil in it but what a weird film.

jh79

https://youtu.be/_KAJ-tTfmzo?si=7VdAhifJeRLKaQZt

Have this on blu ray. Low budget but decent fun. Sam Raimi is in it.

jh79

https://youtu.be/0-u1pQ5iiVU?si=bDiC1HJLThNByYjT

Italian splatter z movie staring the worlds smallest man. Have it on dvd and quite enjoyed it.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121026001#Comment_121026001

Weird but not "bad" in a B movie way. Has a great performance from Isabel Adjani.

CastorTroy

Would the Troma catalogue fit in this or are they disqualified due to the expected low quality?

Peter Jackson's early films Bad Taste and Braindead (aka Dead Alive).

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121026795#Comment_121026795

Troma films are low budget and campy but that's very much what they're going for. You can still tell that the people who are making them know what they're doing on a technical and creative level.

CastorTroy

One I know that is heavily criticised but I really enjoy is Masters of the Universe starring Ivan Drago, Richard Nixon, Monica Geller, Tom Paris and Strickland (Didn't that guy ever have any hair). Plus the really catchy tune from the Cosmic Key.

Homesick Alien

Enter the Ninja, Ninja Commandments... Anything with Ninja in the title really