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This weekend I had the misfortune of
watching Max Steel, a dull, lifeless
and downright stupid attempt to launch a superhero franchise. In my review, I
made an observation about the level of bad this film is, comparing it
unfavorably to Gods of Egypt and The Room. While both of those are
horrible films in their own right, those are on the level of “so bad it’s
good,” which is basically exactly what it says: a film that is so incredibly
awful that it rebounds and becomes entertaining again due to how bad it is. So,
what makes a movie hit that category anyway? Let’s find out, shall we?
Editor’s Note: This is my opinion
and my opinion alone, so take it with a grain of salt!
I.
It Has to Be an Accident
One of the
more popular trends in the past decade or so has been to try and recreate the
grungy, pulpy and downright bad movies of the 70’s, mostly by making
exploitation movies or by remaking old classics like Death Race or I Spit on Your
Grave. The problem with doing this is that those films were made in their
time and made by people who genuinely believed they were making really good
films, and this spirit cannot be captured by manufacturing something to try and fit in this
same genre. Movies like Tarantino’s Grindhouse
or Robert Rodriguez’s Machete films
fall into that latter category, lacking the spirit of the earlier films and
just becoming bad movies by comparison. Honestly, what dirty cheap grindhouse movie
costs $53 million anyway? One that’s over-produced to replicate a certain
feeling rather than anything genuine, that’s what.
Even if you just take out the grindhouse
aspect, other entertainingly bad movies came from a filmmaker that thought they
were doing something that was worthwhile. Paul Verhoeven didn’t make Showgirls thinking that it would
ultimately turn out to be one of the most awkward yet hilarious movies ever, but
that’s just how it turned out. Tommy Wisseau believed he was creating some
serious dramatic work with The Room,
and still seems to think that to this day despite pretty much everyone thinking
that it sucks. David Proyas thought that Gods
of Egypt was going to be a fun, thrilling action epic dealing with the
often-overlooked myths of Egypt, and it turned out to be a turd. You see the
qualifier I have to put on all of these? You can’t just say “oh hey let’s make
a so bad it’s good movie” and then just create it out of thin air. It requires
a passion and energy that can only be found in someone who doesn’t know that
they are making a pile of crap.
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"The funniest comedy of the year!"
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There is only one film I can think of in
recent memory that bucks this trend and was successful in making a so bad it’s
good film is Rubber. For those that
don’t know, this is an independent film made in France (but performed in
English) and released in 2010 that was about a tire that murders people with
telekinetic powers. Yes, I am being completely serious. Everything about that
film is stupid and screams B-movie garbage, but it works because it seems like
the people behind the scenes know this already. Everything from the script to
the direction and the acting lends it an authentic crappy movie feel, and it is
entertaining as hell in a way that no other film made to be bad has achieved in
my opinion. Oh, and you need to check it out pronto, just load up on some
alcohol beforehand.
II.
There Can’t Be Anything Redeeming
About It
The most important aspect of a “so bad
it’s good” movie has to be that it is just really, really bad to the point
where I can’t think of a single good thing about it. There are movies I
disqualified from consideration like The
Fifth Wave that dropped earlier this year because there are elements of
them (as small as some might be) that are legitimately good and belong in a
positive column. In my mind, these positive elements just make the film in
discussion a bad movie that becomes wasted potential. Let me give you an
example here.
My absolute favorite worst movie ever is The Room, and even just taking a cursory glance can expose all of the problems with it. Like this scene right here:
My absolute favorite worst movie ever is The Room, and even just taking a cursory glance can expose all of the problems with it. Like this scene right here:
Without a doubt, that scene is the
absolute worst piece of acting that has ever been put on film. But if it was
just the acting that was bad I could forgive it, but it just gets so much
worse. The direction (also by Wisseau, who also produced and wrote the film, if you can call it writing) ranks as some of the most amateur hour
work I’ve ever seen, the script is mind-numbingly lame, and even the most basic
fundamentals of filmmaking are just done all wrong. One scene in a flower shop
is riddled with WTF moments that show just how sloppy and poorly made the film
is, all in thirty seconds! Interesting to have a film summarize how bad it is
for you like that, isn’t it?
Now I don’t know about you guys, but I
absolutely love bad movies. I love studying them, rewatching them with some
friends and alcohol, and just taking it all in. There are no other forms of
media that have this effect, as bad video games drive me up the wall and bad
music just hurts my brain, but bad movies really fascinate me. Something like The Room is the pinnacle of all bad
movies because none of it should even work as well as it does given the amount
of incompetence in front of and behind the camera. The Nostalgia Critic called
the film a “miracle,” listing off all the things about the film that help it
transcend normal bad movie levels in a way that none of us have ever really
seen before. And for me, The Room
will always be a source of fascination, with the film revealing some new
terrible element that I didn’t catch the first time around, and given that it’s
just so hilarious I will never have an issue with watching it again.
III.
It Has To Stick With You
One of the films I saw over the summer was
Independence Day: Resurgence, another
really bad film that never becomes entertaining and was just a complete waste
of everyone’s time and money (especially the audience’s). However, while
reflecting on it I realized that I couldn’t really remember anything about it
until I dug into my brain for it. Something I’ve realized is that good movies
and “so bad it’s good” movies share one thing in common: they remain in your
consciousness long after you stop watching it. When someone says Saving Private Ryan you immediately
think of the Normandy scene, or remembering “Rosebud” when you hear the words Citizen Kane. Those are quick, easy to
remember bits of great movies that stuck with you because those films had an
impact on you. I’ve found that entertainingly bad movies have the same impact,
with things like “YOU’RE TEARING ME APART, LISA!” and “Not the bees!” instantly
bringing me back to The Room and The Wicker Man without much effort at
all. These don’t remind me of positive or great cinematic experiences, but they
have the same sticking power with me for some reason.
Perhaps the greatest example of this, in a
way that has actually shaped how I write and visualize my novels and
screenplays, is a little movie called After
Last Season. I was introduced to this by C. Robert Cargill on a Spill.com podcast (starts at 5:30), and once I hunted it down I realized just why he was so fascinated by
it. Besides The Room, this is perhaps
the most incompetent film ever made, and really serves as a primer for how not
to make a movie! Every little thing that this film does wrong has stuck in my
head, from the poorly written serial killer mystery that at some point becomes
a dream sequence without warning to the fact that this “town” the film is set
in was shot in one office building with no attempts to hide it, and I feel like
I’ve definitely improved as a writer from the experience. In the same way that Keeping Up with the Kardashians makes me
feel like a better person after watching it, After Last Season made me realize that if someone thought that
garbage was worth giving money to, maybe I would have a shot after all!
IV.
There Has to be Some Pretension to
It
Nothing really hammers home how bad a
movie is than the director clearly having some sort of agenda with it.
Countless movies that are panned by critics get a spirited defense from
someone involved with the film saying that the people who didn’t like it “just didn’t get it.” This also holds true for some films by big-time directors that
have bad elements, with defenders of the film just talking down to the audience about how they just aren't smart enough to understand it (*cough* No
Country For Old Men *cough*). However, it’s never any more entertaining or
funny than when an entertainingly bad film clearly has some sort of agenda
behind it that we didn’t see because we’re just not as smart as the filmmakers.
The example I always use to illustrate
this point is M. Night Shyamalan’s supposedly horror but definitely comedy film
The Happening, about some sort of
worldwide catastrophe that Mark Wahlberg (playing a science teacher, if you can
believe it) has to solve. The film is just plain terrible and laughable, but
nothing really seals the comedy more than the realization that Shyamalan is
just trying to lecture us about global warming and the environment. I get that
these are important topics and that sometimes horror can be used to make important statements, but don’t try and hide behind that to explain our
protagonists being chased by the wind
and Mark Wahlberg’s extraordinary ability to deliver lines to a tree and
somehow sound even stupider than you might think. It’s as if the lame movie was
bad enough, but the added “importance” of the script and Shyamalan’s intent
somehow makes it even more hilarious.
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| moviesfilmsandflix.com
My reaction to people who still think Shyamalan is a good director.
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It sounds pretty bad to just put down a
filmmaker’s intentions but it’s so easy to do when all they’re doing is handing
us crap. I could make a movie that I intend to be a hard-hitting drama about
this election, but if I cast Carrot Top as Hillary Clinton and shoot everything
like I’m holding the camera during a hurricane, it doesn’t really matter what I
intended does it? Special bonus points go to the directors who like to defend
their entertainingly bad movies with an angry rant or otherwise childish endeavor, because it only makes the
film itself more enjoyable to watch.
While I love good movies and wish there
were more of them, I’d be lying if I told you that I secretly wish for more “so
bad it’s good” type movies all the time. They’re just so funny to watch,
sometimes more than most comedies, and they present an interesting dilemma of
trying to figure out how everything went so wrong. For a creative type like me,
that’s an amazing experience every single time I step into that theater, and I
probably learn more from these movies than the great ones. So keep it up,
filmmakers. Don’t be shy! Release your garbage, because odds are that I’ll be
in that theater, cackling like the Wicked Witch and having a grand old time.
Hey guys, if you like this article please leave a comment or share this post so we can get the word out there! If you have any questions or comments you can find me at:
Twitter: @PresidentGlover
Instagram: _steveng_
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