Sunday "Bad" Movies Q&A

For the 100^th week, I wrote up a special post contributed to by the readers of the Sunday “Bad” Movies blog posts and the followers of the Twitter account.  I thought that the post went fairly well and I got some positive feedback from it.  It inspired me to make a similar type of audience participation post for every month.  This is the one for November.

With that lackluster introductory paragraph out of the way, let me explain what this post will be.  This is a sort of question and answer post for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I went on to Twitter and asked for any questions that people had about the blog and the posts within the blog.  I’m going to answer those questions.  Basically, this post is meant to allow the readers of the Sunday “Bad” Movies to get to know me a little better and have a better idea of what goes into these posts.

Here’s how I’m going to format the post.  This opening little bit and the bit at the end will be in regular old style.  The questions being asked (either by me or the people who submit questions) will be in bold writing.  And my answers to the questions will be in italics.  Got it?  Let’s go on with the post then.  Question number one, coming up.

@erincandy: Why do you like watching bad movies?

This seems like the right place to start in this post.  Start with the most basic question about bad movies and me.  Why do I like watching bad movies?  There are a few factors that play into my liking of bad movies.  Many bad movies are entertaining.  Movies such as Miami Connection, The Room, or Gymkata.  On the surface, they might look like garbage.  They are ineptly made for the most part.  But they are still quite enjoyable, regardless of the ineptitude.  The Room is one of the most poorly made movies that I have ever seen, yet I cannot dislike watching Tommy Wiseau.  He’s so captivating in how bad he is.

The other side of why I like bad movies is that they are equally as important as good movies at moving the art form forward.  Whereas good movies can be meaningful or they can help to provide new technologies for film, bad movies highlight what not to do when making movies.  If you watch a bad movie, you can pick up on the mistakes that the filmmakers made.  You see what went wrong.  If you make a movie, you can use these mistakes to your advantage because you know what not to do.  The bad movies enlighten you on things that are done well in other movies.  They are just as meaningful to film.

@ImPABLO_i_WRITE: Are there any bad movies you have thought about covering but just don't want to?

Since I began the Sunday “Bad” Movies, I have always had the first two Human Centipede films in my mind as movies that would fit into the overall list of movies fairly well.  Though the first one is arguably not that bad, the second one is definitely a terrible film.  I have seen both before and could easily write about how I came into seeing the two movies; what caused me to watch the movies and that kind of stuff.  I know I have the post in me.  The only thing holding me back is that I watch the movies before I write about them.  Every time.  For example, this week’s movie is Winter’s Tale.  I rewatched the movie for the anniversary post after having seen the movie earlier this year for a post.  In order to write about the two Human Centipede movies, I would need to rewatch them.  I haven’t yet worked up the strength to rewatch the movies, especially the second.  The second one is one of my least favourite movies ever.  But I’m open to eventually watching them and writing about them.  Maybe I’ll do that next year after the third comes out.

@ImPABLO_i_WRITE: Are there any films that you flat out won’t do?

The default answer would be that I’m not going to do any good movies.  By good movies, I don’t mean entertaining movies.  I can find a lot of entertainment in movies that I would still consider bad.  Entertainment isn’t the only thing that a good film has going for it.  What I mean is that a movie like Citizen Kane won’t be showing up on the Sunday “Bad” Movies, even if it gets suggested to me seven hundred times.  It’s not a bad movie.

But I’m sure you’re asking about which bad movies I will not do for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I consider pretty much anything that is suggested to me, and I’ve got a long list of movies that I’ve found and want to get into the schedule at some point.  There isn’t one specific film that I have been keeping out of the schedule on purpose.  I have been avoiding the porn area of films, though.  Nothing against pornography.  It’s fun to look at sometimes.  They’re just a whole different beast in the movie world.  They’re more about the sex than the actual movie, and I’m not doing the Sunday “Bad” Movies for the sex.  So they are left out.

@MarceloJPico: What’s the one “bad” movie you’ve seen the most over the course of your entire life?

This one is a little tough to answer because it depends on what your definition of “bad” would be.  A movie like Paul Blart: Mall Cop is considered bad by most people, but I think it’s a well written, well made movie.  I’ve seen it four or five times now.  That’s not the most for a movie, even one that people would consider bad, but it’s getting up there.

My go-to answer for this one would probably be The Room.  It’s a movie I’ve seen six times.  I even wrote about that for my post about The Room.  I’ve watched that movie a bunch.  Twice by myself, a few times with my friends, and once in the theater.  I’ve also read Greg Sestero’s book about his relationship with Tommy Wiseau and their time working on The Room.  Then again, even that might not be the movie.  It all depends on what you would consider to be a bad movie.  There are movies that I have seen more than that.

Do you consider Jack Frost to be a bad movie?  Not the one that I covered for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  The one with Michael Keaton.  I don’t know how many times I have watched that movie, but every time I see that it’s on television, I will watch it.  I love that movie.  If you were going to say that it is a bad movie (I mean, it was watched for the best episode of How Did This Get Made that has ever been produced), then it’s probably the one.

@JEBermanator: What’s a film that should be appreciated more as a “so bad it’s good” classic?

I’m going to put a couple of minor limitations on this question.  Really, only one minor limitation.  I’m going to take intentionally bad movies out of contention here.  I love watching movies from The Asylum, but they intentionally make bad movies.  The classics of “so bad it’s good” are really the ones that are sincere in making a good movie, yet the people behind it make a movie that is terrible.  It’s that sincerity that helps to make the movie great.  A movie like Troll 2, where the director wanted to make a good movie and the product was so bad.  His sincerity comes through in the movie, which it what makes the bad so good.

That rambling finished, a movie that should be appreciated more as “so bad it’s good” is The Christmas Consultant.  I’ve only seen the movie once and it is already in my group of movies that I want to watch every Christmas.  The movie was made by Lifetime, a channel not especially known for producing good movies.  They make television quality movies.  Not good television movies like an HBO or Showtime, but the lower end cable television movies.  I mean, the network tries to produce good stuff.  They simply don’t do it.  The Christmas Consultant is one of those movies.

What makes the movie great is David Hasselhoff.  I never thought I would say that about anything, but here I am.  The idea of a family hiring some guy to create the perfect Christmas for them sounds like a crazy idea.  Hasselhoff sells it.  He goes so far to try and keep the movie afloat that he half succeeds.  His performance as the crazy consultant character, Owen, is a shining light in a pool of bad acting and ideas.  The movie should be beloved for his wacky antics.  However, I don’t think many people even know it exists.  This needs to be changed.

So that’s it for the questions in this edition of the question and answer post.  I may do another one in the future.  That all depends on how well this one goes over with you guys reading it, and whether I feel like doing another one.  I don’t yet know what I’m going to do for the bonus post next month.  I’m thinking of maybe getting some opinions on the worst movies of 2014 since it will end up being an end of the year post.  You know what?  I like that idea.  I’ll give you some of my opinions on the worst that I’ve seen and I’ll get some opinions from people who read the blog, follow the Twitter account, and/or have suggested movies for me in the past.  And we’ll take a look back at another year filled with good, bad, and terrible movies.  Thanks for reading, guys!  And girls!