Friday, August 9, 2013

Go Go Movie Show: The Very BEST of "So Bad They're Good" Cinema

True "camp" is the combination of complete sincerity and utter ineptitude. When these rare qualities combine in the film medium what they create isn't merely a movie, it's an experience. I live for "So Bad They're Good Movies" and have experienced dozens, but these are the cream of the crop. Ranked in order of hilarity, I have never laughed harder than at some of these movies! (There are many more hilarious & awful films but these were selected for their capacity to provide big laughs and amusement consistently.)

1. The Room

Every time I watch this scene all worries are washed away and laugher rolls beautifully and uninhibited.  Best scene in cinema history.

"The Room" is required viewing for the world! It should be prescribed as an anti-depressant. Intended as a fairly straight-forward drama, this ego trip is simply the. funniest. unintentional comedy. EVER! It's so bad it almost defies description. Widely considered the worst movie ever made, the high rating it maintains on Netflix gives you an idea of how entertainingly bad this flick is. Watch the clip above for one of my favorite moments in cinema!

2.) Birdemic
The acting and bad editing in this film cannot be described. They must be seen to be believed.

Another movie often voted as "the best worst movie alive," the less spoiled about this film, the better. James Nguyen produced magic! Every scene lingers longer than necessary, the lead actor's delivery is eerily robotic, and the special effects! I won't spoil the surprise for you, just know when they explode in your face that Nguyen genuinely intended this movie to be a romantic horror action drama and NOT a comedy. He really thought this looked good! It's better to let this scene sneak attack while watching Birdemic, but just letting you know, I have never laughed harder at anything in my life while viewing that. I will spend the rest of my life trying to experience that bliss again. Le sigh.

3.) Showgirls

THIS is what real lady's conversations go like. Mmmhm. Riiiiiight. Anyone else eat "Doggie Chow"?

THE Camp classic, Showgirls is perfection. The studio felt so confident with Paul Verhoeven's (director of Robocop, which I LOVE), magnum opus that they released it with an NC-17 rating; The Kiss of Death to any movie's money-making potential. It fails on a colossal level on being a serious drama about the dark underbelly of showbiz as intended (the same plot was done far better in the classic All About Eve) but surpasses expectations as a raucous, over-the-top unintentional comedy. Everything in this movie is turned up to 9,000. The amount of full-frontal female nudity on display has to break records and the script and performances jarringly detached from reality, it's like watching robots or aliens trying to be HYOO-MANZ. You can tell Verhoven wants us to love and root for the lead character Nomi, but she's a repugnant inhuman monster that deserves to be obliterated by a train.There's so much hilarity to be had in this movie, but my favorite element is that Verhoeven and scriptwriter Ezterhas genuinely try to get into the mind of females and portray women's difficulties, but resulted a gauzy porn-like fantasy of what they wish women's problems were. It's the biggest budget unintentional exploitation (womansploitation?) film of our time and I can never get enough of it! (Wait for the infamous pool scene!)

4.) Twilight Series

Laughing so hard right now. I refused to believe Twilight vamps sparkled like Lisa Frank trapper keepers until this moment.

I refused to have anything to do with the book or movies for years, but was pleasantly surprised by Twilight. It fails utterly as any type of romance or drama but exceeded my personal expectations as one of the funniest damn things every filmed. The story is probably familiar to you but to recap: Bella Swan, the most sociopathic, selfish human on the planet (supposed to be portrayed as your average teen) can't choose between being a necrophiliac (Team Edward, her 100+ year old creepy controlling vampire pedophile lover) or committing bestiality (Team Jacob, a double minority as a Native American werewolf, played by a white underage boy with a tan who spends most of his screentime in gratuitous states of undress). That's the plot, and it's brilliant. I could write volumes about how hilarious these unintentional anti-feminist comedies are. Watch it, you might be surprised at how much you laugh.

5.) Undefeatable


This scene may be a close second for the hardest I've ever laughed in my life.

I love over-the-top testosterone fests like Robo Cop, the Rockie sequels, Rambo, and most things marketed for boys to play with in the late 80s. Undefeatable is a concentration of all the elements that make those movies lovable turned up to camp levels of ridiculously hilarious fun. It is gourmet 90s cheese at is finest. Undefeatable gets bonus points for starring Cynthia Rothrock, five-time world karate champion with six black belts and more accolades than I have time to list here. I don't care how narmy her acting is, I love her! She was the inspiration for Mortal Kombat's Sonya Blade, true story! 

You'll laugh watching these movies alone, but they're even better with a 12-pack and friends. Break out the popcorn and booze this weekend and have the funniest movie night ever! Make up some drinking games while you're at it.

Honorable Mentions: Battlefield Earth (best scene), Shark Attack 3: Megaladon (best scene- A MUST SEE, CLICK!), Troll 2 "(best scene- another MUST SEE), Mac and Me (best scene essence of 80s! product placement!) - and finally, best/worst death scene ever! Tears stream down my cheeks every time watching that one.

What is your favorite so bad it's good movie? I'm always looking for more, do recommend some if you have them! Watch these movies and let me know what you think! Everything but Undefetable is on Netflix.
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17 comments:

  1. I have to go with the original Batman movie from the 60s. "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"

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    1. Oh god, that one! That's a gem. That one's so bad it's almost hard to watch.

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    2. "Batman and Robin" is another contender now that I think about it, but again, howlingly painfully bad to the point where it's less "so-bad-it's-good" and more of an endurance test.

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  2. There's a Jacksonville based podcast www.bmfcast.com where they watch and review terrible movies. It's fun to hear their opinions and talk about ridiculous movies. I recently saw one called "Death Machine" which was written and directed by the guy who did a lot of make up and special effects in the Aliens movies. It's rough during the first 20 minutes but then it's too hilarious for words!

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    1. That one sounds familiar, definitely need to check it and that cast out.

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  3. Flash Gordon (1980). Worst movie with the best soundtrack. Queen! I can't NOT watch it whenever it's on.
    "Flash...Ah-ah! Savior of the universe! Flash...Ah-ah! He'll save every one of us!"
    How can you not love this?

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    1. Woooah, sounds like my kind of movie! Can't believe I haven't seen this one yet :D

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    2. You have your movie assignment for the weekend. You'll thank me, I promise. :)

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  4. I have to go with Steve Odekirk's "Kung Pow".It has everything a bad movie needs: a fighter with a talking tongue,a ninja cow,a girl with three boobs, and a ridiculous bad guy named Betty.
    A new contender for me has to be SyFy's tv movie "Sharknado".It was sooo bad,lol.I can't wait for Ghost Shark later this month.

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    1. I'd count "Kung Pow" but it tries hard to be camp rather than being true camp that comes from trying to be good and failing. THAT SAID, YES, I loooove that movie and died laughing like a 12-year-old at the juvenile humor. It's glorious :D

      I wanna see Ghost Shark and Sharknado now!

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  5. Oh God... The Room. I first saw that cinematic abomination when it was airing as a marathon on Adult Swim one April Fool's Night several years ago. I have since embraced it as my all time favorite best-worst movie. We own the DVD. We're anticipating Greg Sestero's book...and we've been to interactive midnight screenings (lots of spoon throwing!)

    Ah The Room...

    I've also enjoyed... Hudson Hawk...a total bomb that is kinda cute in how camp it is. Single White Female...because it's just sooooo Lifetime. Goremet Zombie Chef From Hell.... well, because it's called Goremet Zombie Chef From Hell .

    I've also successfully turned the original Twilight into a drinking game. Anytime Kristen Stewart has her mouth hanging open with no words coming out, drink. It does the trick nicely!

    <3 Jackie @ Let's Go Thrifting

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    1. You might die of alcohol poisoning turning THAT one into a drinking game. My roommate and I made ones out of Birdemic and The Room but took SIPS of beer for every transgressions 'cause...dayum, there's a lot. Hudson Hawk WAS cutely bad but I wouldn't subject myself to that again. Single White Female DEFINITELY qualifies! Love that movie! That's what ya get for thinking non-white roommates can't be good ones too, bwhahaha :D I may have to do another list of cheesy thrillers, so many good ones from the 80s-90s.

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  6. I met my bf at a midnight screening of the Room in West Hollywood. I had never heard of it... it was audience participation. Lots of plastic spoons being thrown and people yelling.. it was awesome. We hit it off too :) Two and a half years later we live together, and it's all thanks to that fantastic ice breaker (online dating site first meetups can be super weird). But yeah... you're tearing me apart Lisa! oh hi, oh hi mark, etc etc oh hi doggie... that movie is the best/worst thing ever. If you can ever see it with audience participation, GO. Tommy Wiseau loves to come and talk about himself at these screenings.

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    1. I've been dying to go to one, so cool that you met your BF at one. Great sign that you've met someone fun. If my potential mate doesn't appreciate weird movies it won't work out, haha ;D

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  7. AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! Twilight are my FAVORITE comedies! So funny!

    Also, I nominate "The Passion of the Chris", by Mel Gibson. It's so, so, so, so bad while taking itself REALLY seriously. It's another one of my favorite comedies. It's especially good if you can appreciate the ridiculousness of Popular Christian Mythology.

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    1. I can't bring myself to watch that one. Granted, I can see it as a complete unintentional comedy and laugh at stuff like that all the time, but Jesus-things SCARE THE HELL OUT OF ME from my years of being raised Catholic. *bUUuUUURRRR* For me that may be an unintentional horror snuff flick/torture porn.

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