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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsWhat's the last truly bad movie you watched?
Last edited Sat Jul 22, 2017, 04:56 PM - Edit history (1)
I don't mean "bad" in the sense that it was so bad that it was funny or entertaining, as in
"Plan Nine From Outer Space".
I mean a movie so "bad" that you couldn't WAIT for it to end.
Last night I re-watched "The Hurt Locker" (2008), just to see if I still hated it.
It has got to be the worst movie to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
(I can't believe it beat out The Aviator)
and it is probably the worst war movie ever made.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,674 posts)I loved Robin Williams but I hated this movie. "The Burbs" was another one - so bad we walked out.
red dog 1
(27,792 posts)And I've probably seen it at least 25 times.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,674 posts)because I thought it was so dumb and irritating. To each his own, I guess.
red dog 1
(27,792 posts)I've seen it at least 20 times.
I thought director Joe Dante made a very good film.
Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun, Bruce Dern, Courtney Gains, Corey Feldman, & Henry Gibson all were great in their respective acting roles, imo.
(Even Brother Theodore was very good in his role as Henry Gibson's brother)
But you're right - "To each his own"
Lochloosa
(16,063 posts)I didn't wait for it to be over. I turned it off
hlthe2b
(102,225 posts)Donald Trump...
And, yeah, can't wait for it to end...
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...it was on TV a couple years ago, and I think, well, it has Johnny Depp--how bad can it be? Oh, boy. Did I ever find out...
C_U_L8R
(44,998 posts)it lived up to its name. Ugh.
In the 'so bad it might be good' category,
a tie between Sausage Party and Yoga Hosers
Laffy Kat
(16,377 posts)Never heard of Yoga Hosers which is probably a good thing.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,916 posts)But it's dark, for sure.
Yoga Hosers is much more campy than Sausage Party, but those two do belong in a special category. I saw Sausage Party in the theatre and after the last scene, my friend and I sat there and said "What did we just watch?" I laughed a lot, though.
C_U_L8R
(44,998 posts)require mind altering substances
hunter
(38,310 posts)The only character I identified with was the dead guy. Nobody told me it was going to be a horror film. I prayed I'd never be like any of the characters in The Big Chill and I've pretty much succeeded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Chill_%28film%29
Melancholia on the other hand was an interesting exploration about how various humans respond when the end of the world is imminent. I saw it as a deeply metaphorical film, just as I watched Snowpiercer, and that may be why it didn't get under my skin.
Our current world civilization is almost certainly doomed, largely by horrors of our own making, the only thing that's not certain is the timescale.
Warpy
(111,245 posts)and nobody was either rich or successful. We were all plugging away at the kind of jobs that made the world a better place but paid shit.
Those people were all yuppie Republicans, not former activists.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Ilsa
(61,694 posts)Yeah, it was bad, but in a weird way.
klook
(12,154 posts)I did enjoy the opening slo-mo sequence, though. If it'd been an hour of that stuff and nothing else, it would have been more lively!
Tedium, thy name is Melancholia!
Laffy Kat
(16,377 posts)Warpy
(111,245 posts)so when a movie is turning into a total turkey with no sympathetic characters and absolutely no entertainment value, I just change the channel or pop the DVD out and into the return envelope. I can't imagine trying to endure crap in a theater just because I'd paid for a ticket and some overpriced snacks.
FWIW, "Hurt Locker" leaves me cold, also. Haven't been able to watch more than 10 minutes at a time.
red dog 1
(27,792 posts)The main character, William James, is in EVERY SINGLE SCENE!
(I wonder if the female director was in love with the guy)
And all those "pull camera in" then "pull camera out"...in..out..in..out..It made me dizzy!
I'm thinking of starting a thread asking the question;
What Oscar-winning film do you hate the most?
Warpy
(111,245 posts)Oh, boy, do I have a few contenders.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Of course, I was sitting on the veranda looking at the Ocean pounding the rocks on a Mexican Beach, having coffee. The beauty and serenity contrasted with the intensity and microworld of potential death, diseased mind and adrenaline rush of the film. I bought the cd at a knock off Mexican hut a few days before it was released, so I hadn't heard much about it.
Docreed2003
(16,858 posts)I liked "The Hurt Locker" as well, but it wasn't until subsequent viewings after a deployment to Afghanistan. I didn't care for it before then, but, after that deployment, I've lived that grocery store scene...I've felt it viscerally, the dichotomy between deployment and home life. I might have casually brushed off the movie like others have had I not had that experience.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Docreed2003
(16,858 posts)Yeah I'm home and good. I was in a forward surgical hospital, think M*A*S*H but more austere. We were in a very kenetic area during one of the busiest/highest casualty times during OEF. It was certainly a life changing experience and unlike anything in my civilian training. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't hesitate.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)JCMach1
(27,556 posts)Not loved.
Oscars never get it right anyway. The number of turkeys that have won in recent years.
sakabatou
(42,148 posts)What a snoozefest that was. Also, pretentious af.
I can't remember off the top of my head for home video.
LeftInTX
(25,258 posts)It was a snoozefest on Netflix. Couldn't watch it.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,848 posts)our distant human ancestors! The generally accepted myth of civilization is that about 5,000 years ago humans suddenly started writing and creating art and growing food and invented religion out of nowhere. The reality is that for tens of thousands of years humans had been moving in the direction of civilization, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams makes that long history of culture very clear.
I'm genuinely sorry you didn't like it.
sakabatou
(42,148 posts)It may have been better
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,848 posts)have very different responses to a particular thing. The parts of the movie that you don't like, I do.
Here's another comment. You and I of course don't know each other, and I haven't paid attention to notice if you and I have ever interacted before on DU. That's not the point. What is, is that for all of us, certain others are reliable recommenders of movies (or books or TV shows). It is genuinely wonderful to have someone who can call you up and say, "Oh Sakabatou! This movie (book, TV show) is fabulous and you absolutely must see (read, watch) it!" And when you know that person's tastes are aligned with yours, isn't it a treasure to have such recommendations?
It is, of course, equally possible that you and I are only slightly different in our tastes, but I want to say that I truly enjoy interacting like this. You didn't like certain aspects of that movie, and I liked them all. That's worth acknowledging and maybe even celebrating.
Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)I think I may have to check out the cave movie. Interesting discussion.
I may not be the best one to critique movies, though, since one of my faves is "RV"!
klook
(12,154 posts)and with an artist friend who was awestruck. That made it extra special. It was especially cool to see the prehistoric "animation" technique!
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,848 posts)How lucky is that! I only saw it in 2D, and it was still good, but if I ever get the chance to see it in 3D, I definitely will.
klook
(12,154 posts)you really get a sense of what it feels like to be in the cave moving around as you see this incredible art work.
apkhgp
(1,068 posts)Collateral with Tom Cruise
red dog 1
(27,792 posts)"Give the devil his due" - I thought Cruise did a good job, and Jamie Foxx was great as the cab driver (earned himself an Oscar nomination)
All the actors were great, imo, especially Jada Pinkett Smith (the lawyer Max saves) & Mark Ruffalo, who played the LAPD detective
Imo, it was well-directed by Michael Mann and had a good script too.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,338 posts)yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)The only interesting bit in the entire movie was when they identified the heroine as "age 34" - I can't make out how old they said Reacher was, but it sure sounded like 40-"mumble."
The botox-frozen, expressionless, wooden acting by Cruise (now 55) in this movie almost overwhelmed the pointlessness of the story and plotline.
I will remember this forever as a terrible bad movie.
apkhgp
(1,068 posts)Those stupid Sharknado movies
Laffy Kat
(16,377 posts)Frankly I don't know how the actors get through their lines w/o cracking up. They. Are. So. Bad.
underpants
(182,772 posts)Can't wait.
Catmusicfan
(816 posts)lastlib
(23,214 posts)If I watched it again (I couldn't possibly stomach that), it would still suck. Big.
Midwestern Democrat
(806 posts)Paladin
(28,252 posts)lame54
(35,284 posts)Paladin
(28,252 posts)"The Green Berets" comes instantly and nauseatingly to mind......
red dog 1
(27,792 posts)From NYT film review:
"The Green Berets is a film so unspeakable, so stupid, so rotten and false in every detail that it passes through being fun, through being funny, through being camp, through everything..."
"There are a lot worse war movies than The Hurt Locker"??
Name some others.
Paladin
(28,252 posts)Hanover Street
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Pearl Harbor
1941
Escape to Athena
Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS
Cold Mountain
Beach Red
Castle Keep
Missing In Action
Red Dawn
And that's just for starters.....
red dog 1
(27,792 posts)I have to admit that I haven't seen most of those war movies, but I did like Pearl Harbor.
(The action scenes were great, imo)
Paladin
(28,252 posts)red dog 1
(27,792 posts)LeftInTX
(25,258 posts)My boyfriend took me to see it at the outdoor.
I had just turned 18 and it was rated X
Paladin
(28,252 posts)LeftInTX
(25,258 posts)Denis 11
(280 posts)I lost trust in rotten tomatoes, after this awful mess of a movie.
hunter
(38,310 posts)It reminded me why I fled Los Angeles. My wife and I were living and working in Los Angeles when my wife was accepted to graduate school in another state and I enthusiastically followed her.
My grandma and her sister were born in San Francisco but they were crazy about Hollywood and landed there as teens. My great aunt ran especially wild in the roaring 'twenties and 'thirties. (The Great Depression largely spared her business in Hollywood.) I have many of her photographs of famous people and movie sets.
My parents were both working in the industry when they met.
My grandma tried to get me and all my siblings into the movie business as children. She failed entirely with me. I was a little Asperger's kid who tended to stare at important people as if they were interesting insects or creatures living under rocks, and I couldn't be counted on not to keep my hands off cameras and other expensive machinery.
Two of my siblings did get into the business, with various screen credits for bit parts, but they never made it big. My brother played rough cowboys and biker types (which he is), and my sister the stereotypical California blonde and sometimes the tough girl. (And yes, she was a waitress between acting jobs.) My sister is a UCLA graduate, but you'd never know that from the parts she played. In her late twenties she wasn't getting much work and had herself a regular career unrelated to the movie business.
Maybe my problem is that I don't think the Hollywood lifestyle is anything worthy of celebration, especially when Hollywood cynicism is part of the thing being celebrated.
Nailzberg
(4,610 posts)Hollywood just LOVES movies about Hollywood.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,848 posts)Hollywood just LOVES movies about Hollywood.
And therein lies the tale. The rest of us aren't quite so enamored of the movie business. Just make movies that are entertaining in some way. No need to masturbate in front of us.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)mainer
(12,022 posts)Interesting that it's the same director who made the excellent "Whiplash," also about music and musicians.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)friend with Parkinson's and a cain. After the movie, we danced in the parking lot. I dare say that our steps were almost as good as the stars, though umpracticed.
ploppy
(2,162 posts)Just yuck. That's my review.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,174 posts)Just curious.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)underpants
(182,772 posts)Nailzberg
(4,610 posts)Turned it off after ten minutes.
Gave it a second shot another day. Turned it off after five.
trc
(823 posts)Turned It off a third of the way in. Had to struggle to watch that long. Place this in the unwatchable category with Waterworld.
It was terrible, nothing could match the cinematography of the originals!
SCantiGOP
(13,869 posts)before I listed it.
It was monumentally idiotic. This is supposed to be a time after civilization collapsed, but all of the vehicles run despite being shot up, set on fire, etc.
iamateacher
(1,089 posts)I didn't finish it. It may be one of the worst movies in years.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Oh, wait. That will be the plot to Independence Day 3.
freddyvh
(276 posts)But I didn't really watch it, I was reading
I had it on for the sound track
Great music
red dog 1
(27,792 posts)I've seen The Blues Brothers many, many times..and I still love it.
But, except for Godfather ll, I can't think of a single sequel that was any good.
freddyvh
(276 posts)red dog 1
(27,792 posts)I did like all the Star Trek sequels, though, especially "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"
egduj
(805 posts)Different Drummer
(7,613 posts)but I'd have to go with "Final Justice." Couldn't make it through it, not even the MST3K version.
catbyte
(34,374 posts)3 years later, the memory of it still pisses me off.
rurallib
(62,406 posts)forgot how bad it was until I saw it listed on the grid for the free HBO weekend.
DashOneBravo
(2,679 posts)elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)ouch ouch ouch horrible
sdfernando
(4,930 posts)what a load of crap that was!
CountAllVotes
(20,868 posts)It was not so Wonderful IMO; walked out.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,848 posts)Hilariously pretentious. And totally dumb.
Really, men in gorilla suits? It is somewhat prescient about Pan Am going out of business. The load factor on the shuttle to the moon isn't a sustainable business model. And the whole thing with the sentient computer? Really? It may be that I didn't see the movie when it first came out, although I was more than old enough. Maybe by the time I did see it, some 15 or so years later, I was too jaded.
I had read the truly wonderful short story by Arthur C. Clarke "The Sentinel" that was the basis for part of the movie. I'd recommend it to anyone and tell them to skip the stupid movie if you haven't already had the misfortune to waste a couple hours of your life watching it.
But I've been reading science fiction since I was about 7. I'm 68 now, so you do the math. Although, maybe that's the essential problem: I'm steeped in the tropes of science fiction. The people who make movies may never have read a decent s-f novel, although they certainly know how to go about making movies.
Of course, I have a huge problem with most science fiction movies. As a life-long reader of the genre (and an occasional writer of the stuff) I'll say outright that most supposedly science fiction movies really aren't science fiction. They're movies with a hand wave at being science fiction. At best.
For my money, the most truly science fictional movie I've ever seen is "Twelve Monkeys". Just astonishing. A reasonably close second is "The Butterfly Effect" because it stayed true to the essential premise. That doesn't often happen.
Meanwhile, there are some truly wonderful s-f novels that are crying out to be made into movies. I don't know why they haven't been, but it's a shame. And to name some of my favorite candidates: Door into Summer, Time For the Stars, both by Robert Heinlein. The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov.
hunter
(38,310 posts)...far, far worse than Kubrick's 2001. Clarke was happy enough with 2001 that he wrote the novelization.
Harlan Ellison collaborated with Asimov in the late 'seventies on an I, Robot script that didn't get produced, partly because special effects of the time were not up to the task, largely because of friction between Ellison and movie producers (who, I imagine, were looking for something more like the Will Smith movie...)
Ellison's script was turned into a graphic novel which I enjoyed.
https://www.amazon.com/Robot-Illustrated-Screenplay-Harlan-Ellison/dp/1596870419
The I, Robot movie irritated me immensely.
red dog 1
(27,792 posts)I'm a huge fan of Harlan Ellison, even though I'm not much into science fiction
Ellison might be the best writer alive, partly because he writes well in several different genres besides Science Fiction, including
- Fantasy
- Humor
- Non-fiction
- Politics
One of the most celebrated magazine stories ever published was by Gay Talese in the April 1966 issue of Esquire called "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold"
It contains a hilarious encounter Sinatra had with a young Harlan Ellison.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018912736
NBachers
(17,107 posts)Not just lame, but lame in an English Movie kind of lame. Maybe something happened after I turned it off to redeem it, but I wasn't hanging around to find out.
miyazaki
(2,239 posts)I'm not sure which title is worse to an already bad movie.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Where would I even start? Cinderella plot, but a young, beautiful Mexican wife is thrown away by her cruel, wealthy Mexican husband, who she offended, for her to be a be a sexslave, heroin addict in Mazatlan. Costner finally finds and rescues her, Clint Esatwood style.
He takes her away in his arms and rescues her, but she dies of diseases, STDs.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)1. None of the techno-gibberish made sense.
2. Humanoids are not built for fighting. They are built for surviving in a Savannah by the means of using tools. So why would you design your Jaegers to look like humanoids???
3. Instead of posting guards at the hole where the monsters are coming out, they think it's a better strategy to defend THE ENTIRE PACIFIC COAST-LINE???
4. Fake feminism.
Fucking Mako Mori.
She was hailed as a female hero and there were articles trying to replace the Bechdel-test with the Mako-Mori-test. WTF?
She was a boring character who existed solely for the purpose of falling for the chiseled white Bro with killer-abs.
Just because you can throw a punch, that does not make you a "strong female character".
MrScorpio
(73,630 posts)One of the worst adaptations of a Stephen King story ever.
mainstreetonce
(4,178 posts)The actress didn't look like Jackie. She didn't talk like Jackie. The history didn't feel right. It was terrible.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Jackie was trying to hold it together. Reflections back. She wasnt sanctimonious. It was a slice of time, surrealist ic to her, depressing, over whelming loss, threatening, without a script. I also like how LBJ was woven in as a nice person to Jackie and the kids, not pressuring her to move on, even out of the White House, until she was ready.
I lived through this time though, though very young.
CrispyQ
(36,457 posts)I even went to the theater to see it. Awful movie. Depressing.
LeftInTX
(25,258 posts)He was one of those most powerful men in the 20th Century.
I wanted to know more about his career and how he kept in power etc. etc.
The movie started off good, then it started veering into his private life.
I knew where this was going and I switched it off.
Bayard
(22,061 posts)It irritated the hell out of me.
Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)It really bothers me. It makes me feel dizzy.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Utter shit, Jared Leto gives the worst performance I've ever seen.
mainer
(12,022 posts)Not recently, but I remember how awful they both were.
I give slack to schlocky horror films because they don't have any pretentions about them. But both Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut) and Aronofsky (The Fountain) thought they were making "art". I'd much rather watch a stupid horror flick.
Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)I hadn't thought about that movie in years. I thought it was pretty interesting both in the plot but also visually. I've never seen Eyes Wide Shut.
I'm also a Mainer, btw.
Response to Zing Zing Zingbah (Reply #94)
Zing Zing Zingbah This message was self-deleted by its author.
VOX
(22,976 posts)It's sooo bad in multiple dimensions. Cruise's lines consist of hesitatingly repeating the previous lines of dialog as questions.
-You're very short.
-I'm...very...short?
-Yes, and you're a strange person.
-I'm...a...strange...person?
And the god-awful "score" by Wendy Carlos, which sounded like a 7-year-old at piano practice. *Dun-dun-dun*, etc., followed by a *plink*.
As great as Kubrick was, and he made 5 or 6 solid classics, this is his weakest effort. And the whole sex-cult-thing was no big shocker. A big-money, big-name, big-advertising FLOP.
Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)It was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't my kind of funny.
Initech
(100,063 posts)Good lord that movie sucked!!!
niyad
(113,263 posts)as a heinlein fan, I was seriously annoyed and disappointed in what was done to the story.
JCMach1
(27,556 posts)By the director of Welcome to the Dollhouse.
dubyadiprecession
(5,706 posts)CTyankee
(63,903 posts)I like war movies based on historical wars. That's why I loved Pearl Harbor and Tora tora tora. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the devastating scenes of the attack was terrifyingly real....
Miles Archer
(18,837 posts)Two nights ago on either Netflix or Hulu, son't remember which.
It WAS NOT "so bad it was good." It was so bad that it was SO BAD.
A shower scene ripped off from "Cruel Intentions 2."
Keanu as an architect ( ! ) who used to be a DJ ( ! )
"A devoted father helps two stranded young women who knock on his door, but his kind gesture turns into a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse."
BendigoJeff
(31 posts)Caught in on cable one afternoon, was about some women who get kidnapped and tortured by a gang of local hillbillies. The whole town seems in on it. The women escape and exact sick revenge on their tormentors.
Awsi Dooger
(14,565 posts)Pulp Fiction is the answer to every bad movie question.
I'll never forgive the friends who took me to that movie in Las Vegas.
lame54
(35,284 posts)Caught it on HBO
I want my hour and fifteen minutes back
It's longer than that but I couldn't make it to the end
It was awful
Upthevibe
(8,038 posts)I was really disappointed because the reviews were good and it had a good cast - Selma Hayek and John Lithgow.
NeoGreen
(4,031 posts)...(apologies for shouting)...where my dislike for cruise solidified.
By Zeus I couldn't wait for that dreck to end.
mackerel
(4,412 posts)I still don't get the hype...
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)A guy has a tragedy and goes to a house in the woods and meets God Jesus and the Holy Spirit as people and god basically tells him to get over it and think happy thoughts. It sucked and my wife just thought it was going to be a The Notebook kind of "chick flick".
Special Prosciuto
(731 posts)made. They die Break Dancing