A Retrospective of the Sunday "Bad" Movies Up to Week 75

My journey through bad movies began a long, long time ago.  I grew up on movies like Epic Movie, The St. Francisville Experiment, and the sequels to The Land Before Time.  Bad movies are in my movie fan blood.  In November 2012, I made the decision to share my life of watching bad movies by writing about one bad movie a week.  That was 75 weeks ago.

A lot of thing about the Sunday “Bad” Movies have changed since my first post covering Starcrash and the idea of movies being so bad that they’re good.  There was originally a poll every week to choose a movie.  I got rid of that and made a schedule instead.  I started taking suggestions on which movies to watch.  I decided that every tenth post would be a movie series.  There were bonus posts.  And as of the 71^st week, the Sunday “Bad” Movies got their own blog.  That’s quite a few changes.

One thing has remained constant throughout these 75 weeks: my love of bad movies.  Even when they bring me to all-time lows (30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I’m looking at you), my appreciation for the lesser films has pushed me forward.  They help to highlight the good and bad in film.  They bring back memories of my own experiences.  Most of all, many of them are entertaining movies.  As flawed as they are, they are entertaining.  And that’s why I still love them even as they try to beat me like an abusive spouse would.

I could go on and on about my general feelings on bad movies, but it’s time that I started discussing the ones I’ve watched for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Over the 75 weeks I have been writing these posts, I have watched 87 different movies.  Some of them have been actual good movies that were unfairly scheduled because I put assumptions out there and made and ass out of myself.  Others have been fun B-level flicks that didn’t strive for much more than a good time.  Then there were the movies that were atrocities that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.  No matter their quality or my affinity toward them, the movies helped me learn more about the cinematic landscape and think about film in a different way.

Looking back over the past 25 weeks, I’ve written about some interesting concepts.  My post for Bratz (a movie I struggled to get through) got me to thinking about why movies based on toys and board games tend not to work.  Ironically, that was around the time when The Lego Movie was getting critical acclaim.  When I watched Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, I decided to write about how the greed of scientists in movies tends to have entertaining results.  The Gingerdead Man helped to enlighten me to the idea of serial killers possessing seemingly friendly objects.  These were all things that I wouldn’t have put much thought into if it weren’t for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.

But those aren’t the only types of posts that I’ve written.  My post for Big Ass Spider! was closer to a glowing review than a topical essay (mind you, a review is basically an essay about a movie).  I wanted to write about the newer movie that people might not know, and get some eyes on it.  I also did more of a review style of writing for The Christmas Consultant, one of three Christmas themed movies I watched back in December of 2013.  Something about newer movies brings out the reviewing side of me.

Sometimes, as was the case with this week’s Howard the Duck post, I ramble on about how crazy the movie is without actually reviewing it.  I did something similar with Going Overboard, where I discussed how it attempted something interesting but didn’t succeed.  This might seem like copping out when there may be some deeper themes to ponder on.  I don’t care.  I write what I write, and only hate about 5% of my writing.  I think I’m doing fairly well in that regard.

And then there are the few extra posts that I’ve given over the twenty-five weeks.  I wrote a review of the book The Disaster Artist.  It was a book written by Greg Sestero about his time working on The Room and his relationship with director Tommy Wiseau.  Then there was my post about the ten movies from the first fifty weeks that I thought would be a good representation of the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  It was something that I had put on Twitter and rounded up for the post.  There was reasoning to the movies chosen and I went over all of that there.  A third bonus post that I put up was when I watched Paul Walker’s first ever movie Monster in the Closet.  He had recently passed away and I decided to write about what he meant to me.

From all of the movies that I have covered in various ways comes the statistics that I like to list during each of the retrospectives.  Basically, I take this little section of the retrospective to go over the people that have most frequented the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  The actors, directors, and suggestors shall get their mentions in the next few paragraphs for helping to provide many of the movies that I have watched over the past seventy-five weeks.

First up is a list of the most frequent actors in the Sunday “Bad” Movies filmography.  The rules are the same as they’ve always been.  The more movies featured that an actor has been in, the higher they rank.  If two actors have the same number of movies, they get ranked by number of franchises.  If they have the same number of franchises, they get ranked by the order in which their most recent movie featured was covered.  If that’s the same movie, you go to second most recent, and back until they have a different film.  And then, finally, alphabetical order.

With that said, the top ten most frequent actors in the Sunday “Bad” Movies repertoire are:

1. Jaime Pressly – Oogieloves, Torque, Cruel World
2. Cary Elwes – Hansel and Gretel Get Baked, Oogieloves, New Year’s Eve
3. French Stewart – 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity, Rise of the Zombies, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2
4. Christine Lakin – ParentalGuidance, New Year’s Eve, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2
5. Ed Gale – Tiptoes, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, Howard the Duck
6. Danny Trejo – Death Race 2, Death Race: Inferno, Rise of the Zombies
7. Fred Koehler – Death Race, Death Race 2, Death Race: Inferno
8. Robin Shou – Death Race, Death Race 2, Death Race: Inferno
9. George Lopez – Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3
10. Chad Lindberg – Alex Cross, Rise of the Zombies

The same rules apply to the directors as apply to the actors.  The ranking goes my number of movies, then number of franchises, then order of coverage of most recent back to first, and finally alphabetical.  The only difference is that this is a top five list because there aren’t enough directors to have many that have directed multiple movies that I’ve covered.  Here’s the list.

1. Roel Reine – Death Race 2, Death Race: Inferno, The Marine 2
2. Charles Band – Evil Bong, The Gingerdead Man
3. David Hillenbrand – Dorm Daze, Dorm Daze 2: College @ Sea
4. Scott Hillenbrand – Dorm Daze, Dorm Daze 2: College @ Sea
5. Bob Clark – Baby Geniuses, Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2

And finally we get to the suggestors.  There is only one person who I am going to mention as there is only one person who has had more than one suggestion covered in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  That will definitely change by post 100, so you’ll be seeing more people mentioned in the next retrospective.  Until then, the only person who has had multiple movies covered is @Deggsy.  He has suggested both The Summer of Massacre and Area 407.  Thanks for the suggestions, bud.

Now that we have reflected upon the first 75 weeks of the Sunday “Bad” Movies, let’s look ahead at the next 25.  Who only the next 25?  Am I stopping at 100?  I don’t plan on it, but I have not yet scheduled beyond week 100.  I do want to share with you some of the movies and ideas that I have as these posts move forward.

I’ll start with the movies.  Like I said, I have the next 25 weeks planned out.  Next week you’ll be getting what I wrote about Gymkata.  I don’t know what I wrote yet because I’m writing this before that post.  I hope you like it though.  And for week 100, I’m planning on covering Birdemic and Birdemic 2.  That will be a tough week.  I know that already.  In between, there are movies like Blacula, Warriors of Virtue, and Exit Wounds to keep you satisfied.  Plus, there are a whole heap of suggested movies like Ghost Storm, Shrooms, and View from the Top.  The schedule isn’t written in stone.  Some movies will likely get shifted around or replaced altogether.  It happens.  These are some of the movies that are currently scheduled for the next 25 weeks.  These weeks are looking to be my favourite yet.

As for the blog, I’m looking to make it bigger and better.  I’ve always liked the idea of audience/reader participation when it comes to the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  That’s why I get suggestions for movies to watch.  However, I want to get more interactive.  Here are some potential ideas for future post-series that I want to use to get other people participating in this:

• Another Look At… - A guest writer watches one of the already covered Sunday “Bad” Movies and writes something about it.
• My Bad Movies – A guest writer writes about a bad movie in their collection, what they like or dislike about it, how they got it, why they own it, and all that stuff.
• Bad Movie Q&A – People ask me questions about bad movies and I do my best to answer them.

That’s actually all I have right now for ideas.  As I get more, I may implement them.  Who knows, right?  They’re just ideas.  These ones might not even get implemented.  I want to hear a little bit of your feedback on the subject.  Do you want to see these?  Do you have better ideas that I could do to make this blog better?  Suggest away.  I’m open to anything you want to say.

That brings this retrospective to a close.  Thanks everyone for reading the Sunday “Bad” Movies for the past seventy-five weeks.  Here’s to many more weeks and many more bad movies.  I hope you stick around for the ride because it looks like it is going to be a good one.  See you soon, when I watch another bad movie and write about it.