Week 100 Retrospective

There was a time when I watched bad movies because I wanted to watch bad movies.  Nothing more came of it.  I was simply curious about what made people think the movies were as bad as they were.  Movies like The Room, Troll 2, and Sharktopus were in my repertoire.  I would watch movies like these all the time to make up my own opinion about what was good and bad.  People tend to gang up on certain movies (an act that has become more popular with the rise of social media).  I didn’t want to join the herd without watching the movies myself and determining what I thought about them.

That’s not to say I made watching bad movies into work.  I would watch them with my friends on Friday or Saturday nights to blow off the steam of constant university studying.  We had a bunch of laughs but grew to appreciate the bad as well as the glimmers of good in the movies.  After leaving university, I wanted to keep up my watching of bad movies.  Half a year later, the Sunday “Bad” Movies were born.

I don’t remember my reasoning behind choosing Sunday as the day that I posted about bad movies.  I remember what the posts were at the beginning, though.  It all started with polls of three movies.  I would get people to choose between the three movies, and then I would watch that movie that week and write a post about it that would go up on Sunday.  Some of that is still the same.  A lot of it is different.

The posts for the Sunday “Bad” Movies still go up on Sundays.  I don’t think I’ve missed one Sunday.  If they weren’t going up on Sundays, I would have to change the name of this whole thing.  The day that the posts go up has always stayed the same.  However, about nine weeks in, I dropped the polling for what movies to watch.  Why would I drop that?  Hardly anyone was responding to the polls.  I was having to harass people to get them to vote.  It was tough.  Polling people right out of the gate was not the right thing to do.  It got me an interesting first bunch of movies, but it was a lot of work for nothing, really.  I decided I would just watch a bunch of movies and whatever was bad would be what I wrote about.  That didn’t last long.  Around week seventeen, I began making a schedule of what I would watch.  I would toss in suggestions from people I knew through Twitter and readers of the blog.  That format is still around, 100 weeks into the Sunday “Bad” Movies.

Speaking of the blog, earlier this year, the Sunday “Bad” Movies got its own blog.  It is no longer a part of my previous blog.  Because I was getting to have a lot of posts in the series, and the fact that I wanted it to flourish into something more than just me writing once a week, I decided it was time to separate the Sunday “Bad” Movies from my other writing.  Now, it hasn’t flourished all that much.  Since coming to the new blog, I’ve gotten two comments.  One of them was me.  I was responding to the other one.  I also didn’t follow through on some of the ideas I came up with in May when I wrote the retrospective for the 75^th post.  That seems like it may change now, since I have a third post this week that is setting the stage for bigger things.  Not bigger as in I’m going to be doing more than simply writing.  For now, that’s still the case.  But I want to expand the types of posts and it seems that week 100 is finally that step forward that I was hoping to make.

Other things have changed over the 100 weeks as well.  In terms of scheduling, every tenth post has been a series of movies.  I decided that somewhere between post 10 and 20.  For the one-year anniversary, I decided to open up a poll on what movie from the first 50 weeks I should rewatch for it.  I’m going to be doing the same this year for the two-year anniversary, but with weeks 51-100.  There was that one time where I added a movie to a week in honour of Paul Walker when he died.  I never did that again, even though I considered it for some big deaths that happened recently.  That was really a timing thing.  Free time and all that stuff.  And I’ve tried to include more suggestions in the schedule during the most recent additions.  I want to include the people who read the blog in the posts.  That is one way to do it.

Two other things that got added to the Sunday “Bad” Movies during the time I have been writing the posts are the Twitter handle (@sundaybadmovies) and the brand spanking new email account (sundaybadmovies@gmail.com).  These are two more ways besides the blog comments through which people can contact me if they want to talk bad movies or the blog.  If they want to suggest movies or participate in group posts, this is how they can do it.

The past twenty-five posts have also seen some changes for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Nothing has changed in a major way.  It has only really been statistical changes.  The top ten featured actors and top five featured directors have had some changes.   That kind of stuff.  I’m not sure if I started keeping count of the release years of the movies I watch.  It could have been before the 75^th week.  But I definitely keep track of that now.  You can find all of these things on the statistics page of the Sunday “Bad” Movies blog.  It’s at the top of the page.  Just look up at the top.

One of the reasons that I write these retrospectives is to have a record of the statistics within the movies as I have watched them.  I like to keep an eye on the actors and directors that I feature most often.  I also like to see the years of the movies that I watch so that I can try to spread the eras of film that I cover.  That doesn’t always work.  As you can see by quickly looking back through the most recent posts, I have been stuck in the new millennium for a while now.  I’m going to go through the three statistics as of the 100^th week right now.

First, let me explain the actors list.  These are the ten actors that have been featured in the most movies that I have watched for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  The rankings begin based on the number of movies that the person has been in.  If they have been in the same number of movies as someone else, those people are ranked based on franchises.  If that is the same, they get ranked based on when their final movie featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies was.  If that’s the same, I go back through their movies until there is a difference.  And if they are in all of the same movies, I rank them alphabetically.  I don’t think it will go that deep.  Here are the top 10 and the movies they have been featured in.

1. Danny Trejo – Death Race 2, Death Race: Inferno, Rise of the Zombies, Anaconda
2. Louis Gossett Jr. – Iron Eagle, Iron Eagle II, Aces: Iron Eagle III, Iron Eagle IV
3. Jaime Pressly – The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, Torque, Cruel World
4. Cary Elwes – Hansel and Gretel Get Baked, The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, New Year’s Eve
5. French Stewart – 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Rise of the Zombies, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2
6. Christine Lakin – Parental Guidance, New Year’s Eve, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2
7. Ed Gale – Tiptoes, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, Howard the Duck
8. Jon Voight – Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2, Bratz: The Movie, Anaconda
9. David Hasselhoff – Starcrash, The Christmas Consultant, Anaconda III: The Offspring
10. Lloyd Kaufman – Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned, Big Ass Spider!, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

The statistics for the directors go pretty much the same way as the actors.  The only difference is that the list will only feature five, since there are fewer directors for the movies than actors in them.  So here is that list.

1. Roel Reine – Death Race 2, Death Race: Inferno, The Marine 2
2. Sidney J. Furie – Iron Eagle, Iron Eagle II, Iron Eagle IV
3. Charles Band - Evil Bong, The Gingerdead Man
4. Nick Lyon – Rise of the Zombies, Bermuda Tentacles
5. David Hillenbrand – Dorm Daze, Dorm Daze 2: College @ Sea

I’m sure that both of those will change within the next twenty-five movies and that we’ll be seeing some other people filling up those lists.  Now for the years of the movies.  This is, as I said, a way for me to keep tabs on how unbalanced my movie choices are.  It will be heavier on newer years.  That’s just how it ends up.  So here are the top five (or more, because of ties) years in terms of their abundance in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.

1. 2012 – fifteen movies
2. 2011 – ten movies
3. 2006 and 2013 – nine movies
4. 2008 and 1989 – six movies
5. 2003 and 2007 – five movies

As I said, it was going to be heavy on the new millennium.  Of the eight years that made the top five positions, only one is before the year 2000.  That’s a lot of movies from more recent years.  And there are more coming to boost up those numbers.  I’m still heavy on newer movies.  Part of that comes from recommendations, but a lot of it also comes from me.  I’ve been trying to get through some DVDs that I have and my collection is filled with newer bad movies.  So there’s that.

Finally, the retrospective wouldn’t be complete without me thanking all of the people who suggested movies for the past twenty-five posts.  I may have made mention of the people who suggested movies in the past retrospectives.  This time, I’m going to get more personal.  I mean that as I’m going to not just list off names, but I’m going to write a bit more for each person.  Here goes.

• @Movie_Doc and @Mimekiller.  You guys suggested Gymkata, a movie that oddly blended gymnastics and karate in a James Bond style plot.  It was an interesting watch that I will never regret, as much as I don’t love the movie like so many other people do.  Thank you for bringing the movie and the pommel horse scene into my life.  You know the scene.  It’s the one in the middle of that strange village.  Yeah, that one.
• @J0shArcher.  You’ve been helping me watch bad movies for a long time.  You might not be online all that much anymore, but I still appreciate the suggestions you gave to me.  Metal Man was a great addition to my lineup that almost perfectly fit with what I like to see in these movies.  There’s someone recognizable, the movie is a rip-off, and it’s entertaining.  Thank you, and I hope you find some more movies for me.
• @KoalaInChicago.  View from the Top was a bad movie.  It means you chose right in suggesting it for me.  It gave me a little Rob Lowe, a little Mike Meyers, and a whole lot of romantic comedy clichés.  It also spawned the post that has gotten the only comment on the Sunday “Bad” Movies blog.  Thanks for suggesting it.  It was a movie deserving of the Sunday “Bad” Movie title.
• @ThatStevenC. I was mentally with you when you suggested Jason Goes to Hell (which you probably don’t remember suggesting).  I watched this movie a few years ago and didn’t like it.  But now, after you suggested it and I rewatched it, I found that I quite enjoyed it.  It was dumb, sure, and yeah, I understand it being bad, but I had a great time watching it.  Thanks for making me rewatch and reconsider this movie, man.
• @lyzetteg24.  Few movies that I have watched have been as batshit crazy as Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.  This was a whole hell of a lot of fun and I have you to thank for it.  You brought the movie to my attention, I put it on the list, I fell in love.  Thank you.
• @SincereBC.  To be honest, Shrooms has been all over the schedule.  I believe I pushed the movie back a couple times to fit in new Netflix additions.  Well, I finally got to see it and it didn’t disappoint.  It was bad but good but bad but good.  It was an experience that was worthy of the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Thanks for suggesting this one a long time ago.  I’m sorry it took me so long to see it.
• @the_gaming_king.  A Talking Cat!?! was pure torture.  I despise that movie because of how bad it was.  Poorly made, poorly acted, and the voice of the cat sounded like it was recorded in an airport bathroom stall.  But it was a good choice for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Thanks for the torture and the good choice.
• @erincandy.  Ghost Storm is one of the best bad movies I’ve seen from recent years.  It’s up there with movies like Avalanche Sharks and Android Cop.  Thanks, Erin.
• @jaimeburchardt.  You are one of the people that I want to thank most.  Your support, though not as vocal as one guy who hasn’t yet had a suggestion featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies, has helped me get through some of my rough writing periods.  And your two suggestions (only Monster Brawl in this twenty-five) have been two of the more interesting movies that I’ve watched.  Especially Monster Brawl, which had a story that was built differently than what I’m used to seeing.  Thank you for always being there, and thanks for the suggestions.
• @ER_NotR.  I had to watch Birdemic for the Sunday “Bad” Movies at some point, and your suggestion pushed it up the list.  It was a perfect choice for week 100.  Thank you for getting me to rewatch the first one, then choose to watch the second one along with it.

A couple of other people I want to thank for their support are @ImPABLO_i_WRITE and @MarceloJPico.  Pablo is one guy I can depend on to almost always retweet or favourite the links that I Tweet for the posts.  It warms my heart to see him sharing some of the work that I have done with the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Marcelo is just a guy who is supportive of anyone working on anything movie related.  He has been supportive of me and has been trying to get me on his podcast to talk about the blog.  The timing hasn’t been right on my end so that hasn’t happened yet.  I still appreciate the sentiment and hope that I’ll join him at some point to talk the lesser side of cinema.

So that about wraps up this retrospective.  It’s a fairly long one, but one that I hope you guys read.  It has been 100 weeks of watching bad movies and no end is in sight.  I have twenty-five more weeks planned out right now.  In a few months, I’ll be planning out the twenty-five after that.  So get your suggestions in.  I’m always looking for movies to add to my schedule.

One last thing I have is a thanks to everyone who reads the posts.  I like seeing that people read the crap that I write.  I know I’m not the best writer.  I like to write things though, and this is a way to get it out.  It’s been a good run and I hope you join me as I continue to venture into bad movies.  See you soon.