The Sunday “Bad” Movies started back in December 2012. The idea was to write about the bad movies
that I had been watching instead of just watching them. It was my way of sharing with whoever wanted
to read. I would watch movies that were
perceived as bad. I would then write
about them, their tropes, and what could be learned by watching bad
movies. It’s not only good movies that
can teach someone how to make or understand film. In fact, the bad movies might be the better
learning experiences. Mistakes teach
much more than successes.
Every Sunday since December 2, 2012, there has been a post
released. At one point it was through my
other blog. Now it’s through this
one. Not one Sunday has been
missed. Every tenth week (aside from the
first ten, where it happened on the ninth week), a franchise or part of a
franchise is covered. This week was the Mega Shark franchise. Sometimes there are bonus posts that pop
out. This is one of them.
Three hundred weeks, I’ve been writing these posts. Three hundred weeks, I’ve been watching bad
movies and writing about them. For the
three hundredth week, I decided to revisit some of the movies from the Sunday
“Bad” Movies that I had been meaning to check out again. I put together a list of twelve movies, one
from each 25 week block. The only rule
was that they couldn’t be movies that I had seen more than when I first saw
them. I watched them, and then wrote
about them again, here, in this post.
I present to you the twelve movies that were rewatched for
week 300 of the Sunday “Bad” Movies, in the order that they were featured in
the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
Slasher movies have always been a good place to find bad
movies. So many slashers are made on a
regular basis that there are bound to be bad ones. One of those was Backwoods Bloodbath, which came from a box set in the Walmart
bargain bin. A group of friends went to
a cabin in the woods where there were rumours of a monster called the Hodag
roaming the forest. Sure enough, the
friends came upon the monster, and bad things started happening. People were dying, friendships were tested,
and secrets were revealed. The box set
that the movie came from is one of many that are used from time to time to fill
out the schedule. The movies fit the
Sunday “Bad” Movies pretty well. They’re
usually made on low budgets with unknown people who just wanted to get together
and have a good time making a movie. Backwoods Bloodbath was no
different. It might not be the most
entertaining of the slashers that have been featured, but it’s still a decent
time.
Classic stories get updated in different ways all the
time. The Asylum is known for doing that
with their mockbusters. The movies might
be rip-offs, but the stories tend to vary from the source. They only need the name to sound like the
other movie to get their audience. Other
companies do similar mockbuster stuff to try and make money off of unknowing
audiences. Hansel and Gretel Get Baked worked a little differently. Instead of simply changing the story, it
tried to give a modern update to it. It
wasn’t necessarily trying to be the original Hansel and Gretel story, but it managed to capture the essence of
it while bringing the tale into a modern, stoner setting. The forest that Hansel and Gretel were lost
in became a pot farm. The trail of bread
crumbs became skittles. The witch who
made a house of candy to lure children in became a witch who grew pot to lure
stoners in. It was a great transplant
that was much better than the name hinted toward.
Animal attack movies have come a long way since Jaws, though they still keep the same
overall idea in mind. The creatures
themselves may have gotten more and more ridiculous, with flying piranha and
sharks that were fused with octopi being some of the wackier highlights, but
the main idea has stayed the same.
Animals attack places with people in them. Big Ass
Spider! took that monstrous animal role and gave it to a military
engineered spider as it attacked Los Angeles.
The hero role went to an exterminator, and one of the more entertaining
movies in the Sunday “Bad” Movies repertoire was born. Mike Mendez directed it in the most assured
manner, having fun with the story, the performances, and the look and feel of
everything. That fun came through the
screen in the most infectious way. The
audience was in on how wacky the ride was.
Big Ass Spider! truly came out
of nowhere and reminded me why I write the Sunday “Bad” Movies posts. Though many of the movies might be bad, there
are always gems out there that can teach people how to have a good time with
movies.
Low budget movies are a mainstay in the Sunday “Bad” Movies
and none have connected with me better than this action horror comedy about
Jesus Christ’s second coming being as a hunter of lesbian vampires in
Ottawa. That’s a lot to take in,
yeah. Nothing was taken seriously
throughout the run of Jesus Christ
Vampire Hunter. There were
one-liners. There was sexuality. Jesus teamed up with a lucha libre
wrestler. It was a goofy, fun time. Sometimes a name is all that it takes to be
included in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
This was one of those instances, back in the second year of the blog
series. However, the movie was much more
than just a name. Many bad movies use
their name as a way to get people in because the quality of the movie won’t do
that otherwise. This one was different. The name definitely got the audience, but the
movie itself was as entertaining as the name.
It was worth the watch. It was
worth the rewatch. Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter was one of those movies that looked bad
from the outside, yet had the delicious filling.
The Asylum might be known for their mockbusters and their
animal attack movies, but they have others that they put out as well. Some of them include sex comedies. This one tied the sex comedy genre in with
the popularity of zombies and marijuana in the movies and television of the
time to create something interesting. It
wasn’t always entirely successful. The
first half of the movie was a drag with bad jokes, and terrible
characters. When the zombie outbreak
happened though, the filmmakers had enough fun with it that there was some
entertaining stuff. The characters
became slightly more interesting, many of them due to the effects of the zombie
virus or the cure. There was one really
sour note it hit, however, with some gender related issues. The second half brought about the
rewatch. The first half almost tanked
what ends up being a fun enough outing from The Asylum.
Taylor Lautner has never really been a respected actor. He was Sharkboy, but people mostly know him
for his role of Jacob in the Twilight
movies. That franchise did a lot to
tarnish the reputation of the people involved.
While Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson bounced back, Lautner never
quite got that. The closest he came to a
respectable performance may have been this parkour infused crime action movie
from 2015. In it, he played a New York
City bike messenger who owed money to some Chinese loan sharks. To make the extra money back, he joined a
group of parkour criminals. For what it was,
the movie was pretty entertaining. The
action moments were fun. The characters,
though not all that memorable, had good chemistry with one another. And it was brought together by Lautner’s
physicality. If there’s any way for him
to find success outside of Twilight,
the utilization of his physical prowess is the way. Tracers
was a decent outing for him, and may have been one of his best
performances. It was included in the
Sunday “Bad” Movies because of his presence, but rose above most of the other
stuff because it was a decently made, decently enjoyable film.
Sometimes the titles of movies lie to you. There were no robo vampires in this martial
arts film from director Godfrey Ho. The
film revolved around a Chinese drug dealer using hopping vampires to go up
against commandos who had a RoboCop
type of soldier working for them. There
was also a kidnapping story involving a drug cartel and the mercenaries sent to
save the kidnapped. If those sound like
two completely separate stories that could have been different movies, Robo Vampire sure felt that way. It was two different movies combined to
create one final product, and it was as messy as might be expected through that
treatment. There were other weird things
in there too, including a vampire with a gorilla face, and its love with a
ghost woman. This was exactly the kind
of movie that should be featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies. It was poorly put together with random story
elements and bad acting. But it was
entertaining too. That’s a sign of
something special.
An interesting anecdote about this movie is that after the
negative reception of the premiere, director Menahem Golan considered jumping
from his hotel balcony to his death.
That was an undeserved reaction. The Apple was a rock and disco infused
musical from 1980 that told an Adam and Eve kind of story through the music
industry in the futuristic 1994. There
was some great music in there, particularly from the protagonist character of
Alfie. His love steeped ballads were
some legitimately good tunes. The other
stuff was fun, too, though sometimes, such as the Coming For You song, the
message was way too on the nose. The
religious allegories worked as well.
They were heightened in the way that some musicals do for creativity
purposes, yet they landed within the story being told. Regardless of what people thought about The Apple when it first premiered, it
has had a lasting impact as a fun musical of the time when it was made. Canon Films did their thing and they did it
in the most entertaining way possible.
There’s an assuredness to Killer Condom that makes it stand out among many of the movies with
ridiculous concepts. The people behind
it knew exactly what they were getting into with a story about condoms
attacking the genitalia of the guests at Hotel Quickie in New York. The performances played things fairly
straight while the story was pretty gay.
There was much comedy to be mined throughout, which made for a highly
entertaining horror comedy about a gay detective digging into where the condoms
came from and why they were out there in the first place. This was one of those movies that was
included in the Sunday “Bad” Movies based on the ridiculous premise alone, and
ended up being a solid B-movie that I would recommend to anyone, knowing they
likely won’t see it. Offensive, funny,
and an all-around good time at the bad movie dinner table.
Meta horror has become a big subgenre of horror since the
release of Scream in 1996. Horror fans like to revel in the tropes of their
favourite movies. They know how
predictable the situations can be.
There’s something about a movie that can play with those expectations,
pointing out its own story while being an entertaining story in itself. Remote
Control was a few years before that popular trend hit, and was forgotten
about because people weren’t ready for that kind of commentary in their horror
yet. It was a 1988 horror movie playing
on the tropes of 1940s and 1950s science fiction horror, and commenting on
itself throughout. There was a video
tape that was causing people to murder each other, and the movie on the video
tape involved people watching a video tape that caused them to murder each
other. As the movie went on, the
audience saw more of the movie on the video tape, and it was playing out very
closely to what the actual movie was. The
main cast worked well together, having a lot of fun with the concept, and that
bled right through the screen. There
might be a good number of movies now that play on similar ideas, though maybe
not the old sci-fi stuff, but Remote
Control should be in the conversation as much as any of them. It’s a solid addition to the subgenre.
Bram Stoker is mostly known for Dracula. He has some other
works as well, and The Lair of the White
Worm was based on his novel that shared the name. It may not have been the most faithful
adaptation, taking major liberties with the material to make it a strange
horror comedy. There were some
psychedelic dream or hallucinatory images mixed among the snake and worm puns
and visual gags. It was a movie that
wasn’t afraid to go off the rails into the weird while also keeping itself
interested in the low hanging fruit of the snake jokes. Even with this dichotomy, it blended together
in a highly entertaining, if not altogether good, movie that brought to life
one of the most poorly received Stoker works.
The film was included thanks to a suggestion, and quickly became a
favourite. It is the reason the Sunday
“Bad” Movies exist. Movies such as The Lair of the White Worm show that entertainment
can trump the overall quality of a film.
Having a good time is as important as smart writing with a message for
the audience. There was no message here. It didn’t matter. There was some good stuff in the acting, and
some interesting stuff in the dream sequences.
The jokes were funny, if dumb, and the movie ended up being solid fun.
Biopics usually hold themselves for the higher quality
performances and award seeking filmmaking.
For the most part, at least.
Movies like Ray, Walk the Line, and The Theory of Everything take well known personalities, and give
them a film to show everyone what their lives were like. Buffalo
Rider took a lesser known person in Buffalo Jones and told his story of
saving as many buffalo as he could from the hunters of the prairies. The thing is, it forgot the quality in
putting the movie together. It played
out as though a bunch of nature documentary footage was stitched together with
a loose story thread. The narrator even
sounded like he came from a documentary.
He stated what was happening on screen right before it happened or while
it was happening. The footage that was
shown was captivating in that the danger looked real because it was real. A man was mauled by a cougar. Two bears were fighting. A buffalo kicked a wolf. That was all real and happened in the movie,
as well as a bunch of buffalo hunting.
Animal cruelty wasn’t cared about during the movie. The one outright good thing about it was the
theme song. It was catchy, and easy to
listen to. Buffalo Rider was a strange movie to watch the first time. It was just as strange upon rewatch.
Going through these twelve movies was a trip down memory
lane that only helped to remind me why I write about bad movies on a weekly
basis. Backwoods Bloodbath was during that nearly ten week period where I
was choosing movies based on what I was watching anyway, rather than picking
movies specifically for the blog. Hansel and Gretel Get Baked was a movie
that I watched with a couple other people in a “live” viewing through Twitter,
and we were all surprised by how good it actually was. Tracers
was one of those movies where I scheduled it, then realized that it probably
didn’t deserve to be in the Sunday “Bad” Movies when I watched it. And then there was Buffalo Rider, which I made a big thing within my friend group at
school. Each movie that was chosen for
this post meant something to the blog.
Each was an important part of making the 300 weeks something special.
The Sunday “Bad” Movies has had a long and interesting life,
and it won’t be stopping any time soon.
There are plans going forward for a few more bonus posts, particularly
leading up to the sixth anniversary. Did
you know I have a novelization of The
Swarm? That’ll be a post at some
point. And I still need to get on that
review of The Disaster Artist that I
promised around the time of the fifth anniversary. Plus, there could be some other stuff coming
up. Who knows? I don’t, so how could you? Anyway, next week will be back to a normal
week for the Sunday “Bad” Movies with Airborne
being covered, so make sure to come back for that. See you then.
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