The Yum of Bad Movies

To put our love of bad films into perspective, we'll begin by admitting that the first movie we purchased on blu-ray was “Wild Things.”

For those of you who are not familiar with it, “Wild Things” is possibly the worst movie ever made. Bill Murray*, however, is brilliant.

We are also the proud owners of another of the world's most spectacularly lousy films, “Waterworld” and feel that Dennis Hopper's performance is not to be missed. 

Though we can't bring ourselves to actually shell out the cash to purchase it, we have seen “Showgirls” probably half a dozen times.    

We do, however, own “Tank Girl” and “Johnny Mnemonic,” both of which showcase the character stylings of one Mr. Ice-T.

We won't even begin on our love for bad Euro films, mostly because we're feeling too lazy to pull up the character map and chase down all of those accents, tildes and other diacritical markings. Suffice it to say, we are acquainted with the oeuvre of one Tinto Brass.

These films, while universally awful, have at least one thing in common. They are wildly imaginative. Each represents someone's outrageous personal vision, no matter how tasteless this vision or flawed the execution. That is what we, ultimately, find endearing about these nearly unwatchable films. There is a mad passion behind them, willing these doomed Frankenstein's monster-films into being. As with parents of pug-ugly children, these films are smart, beautiful and important in the eyes of their creators.

There is something personal and touching about watching a failing film. For us, it shows the humanity of the auteur, far more than expertly doctored scripts and slick production values could. They remind us that, behind every title sequence, is a person trying to tell a story that is important to them. 

It is also reassuring to know that other people suffer professional failures and humiliations as well... and at least ours aren't available from Netflix.


Today's exercise: Indulge in your favorite bad movie.

Next: Maybe a preview of the book we're working on... unless we think of something better...


*We should go on record as saying we are also fans of the extremely underrated film “The Razor's Edge” and do not understand why it was not better received. Really. Good stuff...