Worst Movies of All Time

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Worst Movies of All Time

Post by fieldshowqueen » Fri Aug 29, 2008 8:50 pm

I just read a list on Yahoo!Entertainment of the movies that grossed the lowest compared to production costs (Zyzzx Rd. is the winner of that contest at a cost of $2 million and $30 in receipts).

Anyone have a "Best Movie to Hate" nomination just because it stunk?

It does not matter if your "Worst of All Time" is an A-List affair or B-List production;
It does not matter if it has a well-known cast of thousands or is full of wannabe's or hasbeens;
It does not matter if it was made in 1908 or 2008 or anywhere inbetween;
It does not matter how much money it did or did not make at the box office;
It does not matter if it is live action or animated, drama or comedy, sci-fi or love story (which is ANOTHER crappy film on my list, but back to topic ...);

All that matters is YOU didn't like it for whatever reasons. You are under no obligation to post those reasons or justify your answer, but it is sort of fun to read why you want to tie every reel made of that particular movie to a 100 megaton bomb and launch it at the studio that made it, whether or not others agree or disagree.

* * *
One on the top of my list is "The Trial of Billy Jack." I thought standing in line for 4 hours to watch "Billy Jack" make a political statement was stretching it, but "The Trial of Billy Jack" didn't hold my interest for even 10 minutes. It is the ONLY movie I have ever paid for that I actually demanded my money back. It gets 5 out of 5 thumbs down in my book and that's pretty bad.

Forget "Two Thumbs Up" ... Here's WoP's User's "5 Thumbs Down" list:

:td: :td: :td: :td: :td:
The Trial of Billy Jack - FSQ
Pennies from Heaven (Honorable Mention) - FSQ
Rollerball (2002) - Aceman
Cat in the Hat (Honorable Mention) - Aceman
Dante's Peak - Hostrauser
10,000 BC - Brad
Transformers - The "H"
Volcano (Honorable Mention) - The "H"
Phantom Menace (Honorable Mention) - The "H"
Batman & Robin - senza cervello
Showgirls - Chapagne
Cloverfield - trumpet771
Blair Witch Project - fluba
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Honorable Mention) - fluba
Missing - Nreuest
Date Movie - Trumpet Man 05
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Honorable Mention) - Trumpet Man 05
Brighton Beach Memoirs - Wildabeast
Last edited by fieldshowqueen on Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:35 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by The Aceman » Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:15 pm

The 2002 version of Rollerball, worst movie I've ever seen. Seriously horrible, half of it is filmed with a night vision camera for no apparent reason except to make it hard to see what's going on. And the icing on the cake is when they drive a vehicle through a fence and you hear a classic cartoon "twang" sound to accompany the fence breaking.

Here are some quotes from the folks over at Rotten Tomatoes:
It's rare to see a movie fail in every possible area ...
An own-goal fest that will have you asleep in your seat by half time.
An insultingly bad movie, and even the flashiest, most distracting sound and visual gimmicks cannot hide this fact.
Pushes the Hollywood action movie to stratospheric new levels of incoherence.
A mix of velocity and idiocy, this ruinous remake lacks the brawn -- and the brains -- of the 1970s original.
Such a brain dead, jukebox of a movie, it should've been called Tron for Dummies.
and so on, and so on, and so on...
Go read "Ishmael" a novel by Daniel Quinn. It will literally change your life.
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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by JazzGeek » Sat Aug 30, 2008 12:13 am


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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by Hostrauser » Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:25 am

I don't count a lot of low budget movies that are trying to do something admirable on few dollars and can quite pull it off due to finances and/or inexperience. For me, a bad movie has to be a movie that has everything going for it (big studio funding, name actors, etc.) and still fails in every possible way.

I worked in a video store for several years and have seen a whole lot of movies. While I could probably name 100 movies in this thread, really there's one that stands head and shoulders below the rest.

Dante's Peak

The 1997 volcano disaster movie with Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton (not to be confused with the other 1997 volcano disaster movie: "Volcano" with Tommy Lee Jones) is easily the worst film I've ever seen. The script is laughably bad. The acting performances are irredeemably horrible. The attention to detail and knowledge of science presented by the film aren't even at a fourth grade level.

IMDB.com's "Goofs" page for the film lists 34 major errors, including 22 continuity flaws (go take a read, some of them are real howlers). The "Top Critics" at Rotten Tomatoes have given the film a rating of 0% (no fresh, all rotten).

I could go on and on.

Look, I have no problem with mindless disaster-action movies (my wife and I guiltily love "The Day After Tomorrow"). But it's like they didn't even BOTHER to fact check or attempt to get anything right. Everyone involved with the film showed a total lack of respect for both the film they were making and the audience. I hope everyone involved with the film gets a bad rash in an uncomfortable location.

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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by Brad » Sat Aug 30, 2008 5:07 pm

In recent memory, I'd have to say 10,000 BC. Just too many flat out errors to count. To name a few, wasn't saber tooth tigers a new world animal? And how about the Mamoths in Egypt. Didn't they die off because the earths temperture warmed up? I would think that when you spend big money for a movie, you might want to hire a least someone who knows a little about prehistoric times.
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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by Ryan H. Turner » Sat Aug 30, 2008 5:24 pm

I agree with Kevin...low budget does NOT equal bad movie. Take "Office Space". I think it's cost a buck twenty five to make that, and it's currently a cult favorite. Thousands of others like that--great movies, no budget. But what makes them good and not crap? To me, it's absolutely a combination of great writing and great acting. I love special effects and explosions and stunts just as much as any other red-blooded testosterone filled American male, but after 10 minutes of it, if I'm not engaged as to WHY things are happening on the screen, count me out.

I grew up a movie-goer...a serious movie-goer. But my taste wasn't always as refined and highly mature as it is now (HAHAHAHA...Turner and mature in the same sentence...now THAT is a hoot!). I mean, I loved such great celluoid classics like "Meatballs", "Porky's", "Friday the 13th, Parts 1, 2, 4, and 6". In other words, I wasn't too discriminating. But in the last 14 years of being married, even my naturally-demeaning wife has actually complimented my "growth" in the area of movie appreciation.

Now I have a Top 10 list of Worst Movies for me. I probably have a Top 100. But what makes a movie BAD for me that would make the list NOWADAYS would be crappy writing and crappy dialogue. While fanboys (and assumedly fan girls--but I don't think they exist) of Transformers would hog tie me and feed me to Starscream for my lambasting of the Michael Bay explosion-rama-crappola-fest horrid experience called interestingly enough "Transformers" on my blog a few months back, I will not and cannot get that crap-heap of a movie out of my mind. I think what made "Transformers" catapult to near the top of my list was the sheer and utter disappoint I felt, as the POTENTIAL for a great movie was robbed by the idiot-know-as SHIA or whatever the heck his name is, and the awful dialogue and crappy direction. Special effects to me--and I'm not expert but certainly do appreciate good when I see good--were stellar. And that was it.

"Phantom Menace", another epic disappointment, nears the top of my list for too many reasons to rehash years after its release. Suffice it to say, I wasn't alone as I seemingly am regarding my opinion of "Transformers".

Interesting Kevin pegged "Dante's Peak" as his worst. He was bothered by elements that I would never have considered--the "bad science". Interesting. I watched "Volcano" with my jaw agape and a stunned "WTF IS THIS????" look in my eyes. You see, years of experience in public safety have taught me that if I had a boss like Tommy Lee Jones' character in that movie, I'd rather stick a hot poker in my eye and then hear him bark yet another nonsensical command at the top of his lungs. The pre-lesbian psychotic nutbag Anne Heche added...let's see...oh yeah...NOTHING to the movie. And Don Cheadle, arguably one of our best actors today, was utterly wasted playing this pseudo-dispatcher coordinator type management person that spent a lot of time in some kind of emergency command bunker with a headset on with the very latest in computer technology at his fingertips. YEEEEEEAH...sure. I know all about budgets and technology in public safety.

But I guess the movie, which had a sense of believability to it, took a freakin' swan dive off THAT particular cliff when in the expert opinion of the emergency management guru Tommy Lee Jones played, that lining up rows and rows of fire engines and an attack squad of water dropping fire department helicopters would stop the onslaught of the advancing superheated molten ROCK.

Try dry ice next Tommy. THAT'LL WORK.

I have many--but these are just a few. Ideas that look great on paper, but fail. Miserably. Either because they suck in their own right, box office be damned, or, they suck in their own right AND they bombed at the box office.

I guess not every movie can be Titanic...not a great movie. Not even expected to recoup it's 200 million budget...until teenage girls figured out that the "king of the world" was that hottie Leo. 600 MILLION DOLLARS LATER....and a completely and utterly UNDESERVED OSCAR....well....the rest is history.

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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by The Aceman » Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:47 pm

Speaking of film Budgets, Rollerball's wasn't too shabby at 70 million, Compared to the 4.5 million dollar budget for Requiem for a Dream, which is one of my personal favorites and a definite cult classic. But man, I just cant get over how horrible a movie Rollerball was, always jumps first into my mind when I hear "bad movie." Even LL Cool J who acted in the movie, later admitted to Conan O'brien that it "sucked."
Go read "Ishmael" a novel by Daniel Quinn. It will literally change your life.
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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by cymtech » Sat Aug 30, 2008 9:11 pm

transformers was good.

phantom menace was good.



movies that suck:
blue crush
the notebook
batman begins
superman returns
the hulk
Constantine
XXX
are we there yet
friday
next friday
friday after next
final fantasy
alien: requiem
godfather 3
barnyard
deep blue sea
in the army now
biodome
monkeybone
blast from the past
the pink panther
happy gilmore
billy madison
little nicky
waterboy
maid in Manhattan
glitter
bring it on
bring it on again
bring it on one more time, but not as hard as the first time... but harder than the last
the wedding planner
the replacements
white noise
drive me crazy
duplex
superstar
tin cup
never been kissed
13 going on 30
mickey blue eyes
notting hill


i got more but im bored....

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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by senza cervello » Sat Aug 30, 2008 9:21 pm

cymtech wrote:transformers was good.

phantom menace was good.


:drop: Considering the items on your "bad" list, I'm surprised by this.

Personally, I'm not a big movie watcher. I've only seen a tiny fraction of the movies most people watch, but movies that I thought were bad were transformers and phantom menace. Possibly my biggest disappointment, however, was Batman & Robin. I would have never thought such a movie with so much potential talent would end up being such a stinker. 125 million budget? And they did that? :td:
The o_O emoticon gives me the heebee jeebees.

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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by The Aceman » Sat Aug 30, 2008 9:29 pm

I thought Constantine was a good movie, definitely not one of the "worst movies of all time." I can see how it might not be to some peoples liking, but c'mon, you just need to go along with some of the supernatural stuff.
Go read "Ishmael" a novel by Daniel Quinn. It will literally change your life.
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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by Hostrauser » Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:07 pm

I'm fine with most of cymtech's list, except "Friday." The sequels sucked, but the original was hilarious. HEE-larious.

I also disagree with Ryan on Titanic. I thought it was a fantastic film. Cameron's direction was reasonably subdued, and the chemistry between DiCaprio and Winslet is THE BEST I've ever seen in a film, even better than some of the old Tracy-Hepburn classics.

Probably the worst two Best Picture winners of the past decade for me are Gladiator (not a horrible movie, but not very original and CERTAINLY not better than "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") and Crash (a horrible, patronizing, pretentious movie that I hate with the fire of a thousand suns).

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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by Trumpet Man 05 » Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:23 pm

Wow, no one has said Date Movie yet. Wow.
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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by Chapagne » Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:30 pm

Wow, no one has said Date Movie yet. Wow.
I think all the Scary/Date/Disaster/Epic Movies exclude themselves from competition based on their total irrelevance. Who cares if a film is bad if the filmmakers didn't care themselves? Stringing together a bunch of bad pop culture references does not a movie make.

For pure bad, I can't get around "Showgirls". For most of the film I was wondering how in the world that project ever got greenlit in the first place. No one along the line read how horribly bad it was? Ick and stupid all rolled into one unsexy package.

Of course, this treads into the area of movies that are so bad, they are unintentionally funny and somewhat popular. Does that count? Rocky Horror Picture Show is undeniably one of the worst movies ever made, but the culture around it makes it enjoyable and has kept it going for decades. Is it still a horrible movie then?
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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by fieldshowqueen » Sat Aug 30, 2008 11:29 pm

cymtech wrote:transformers was good.
phantom menace was good.

movies that suck:
blue crush
the notebook
batman begins
superman returns
the hulk
Constantine
XXX
are we there yet
friday
next friday
friday after next
final fantasy
alien: requiem
godfather 3
barnyard
deep blue sea
in the army now
biodome
monkeybone
blast from the past
the pink panther
happy gilmore
billy madison
little nicky
waterboy
maid in Manhattan
glitter
bring it on
bring it on again
bring it on one more time, but not as hard as the first time... but harder than the last
the wedding planner
the replacements
white noise
drive me crazy
duplex
superstar
tin cup
never been kissed
13 going on 30
mickey blue eyes
notting hill
i got more but im bored....
OK ... which sucks the most? (Top 3 would be good). LOL ... Top three of the bottom ... I crack me up.
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Re: Worst Movies of All Time

Post by fieldshowqueen » Sat Aug 30, 2008 11:47 pm

Oh yeah! I forgot "Pennies from Heaven." Considering this had Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in it and lots of cool 1930's type music and dancing, you'd think it would be either funny or a "flashback" type story or remake of the 1930's movie of the same title (it was none of those). This was the movie my hubby took me out to on our first date and it was so bad he fell asleep on my shoulder (and actually started snoring REALLY LOUD!) Steve Martin said that "people who don't get it are ignorant scum." Ok ... fine ... I'll admit it ... I'm ignorant scum, but that puts me in good company with Fred Astaire (who detested the film and was upset that footage from the 1936 version was used). Box office numbers agree with me - Cost $22 million; receipts $9 million. It was nominated for 3 academy awards and none of them were for directing or acting (costumes, screenplay, and sound - sound? for a musical!? go figure). It didn't win.
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