The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made

50 Worst Movies Ever Made, The (2004)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Whenever a magazine, critic or documentary tries to come up with a "Best Of" list you know controversy is going to follow. I think this documentary takes quite a bit of heat so let's just get some of the issues out up front. If you're looking for talking heads to explain why these movies are so bad then this isn't the film for you. We really don't even get clips showing us why the films are so bad as this is clearly a public domain documentary as it uses clips from the trailers and adds a few comments over them. The film runs just under an hour and when you consider there are fifty-movies that makes it very clear that not too much time is spent with any of them. I understand why many see the dumbness of any list but I've always enjoyed them simply because I enjoy reading other opinions on films. This one here has the obvious selections like GLEN OR GLENDA?, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, ROBOT MONSTER, KILLERS FROM SPACE, BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, TEENAGE ZOMBIES, THE WILD WOMEN OF WONGO, EEGAH, THE CRAWLING HAND, TROG and FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER. Now, the debate will always be how many films are worse than what's selected and that's certainly true here. I've seen countless Al Adamson films and God knows he's made many, many bad ones but only Dracula VS. FRANKENSTEIN gets mentioned here. I think many people would agree that this film is one of his better ones or at least more entertaining ones. Ed Wood's PLAN 9 cracks the top five but is KILLERS FROM SPACE really a better movie? I don't think so. Is SPIDER BABY really one of the worst movies ever made? Not to me. We even get some Italian films like GREAT WHITE and THE GREAT ALLIGATOR but anyone who is familiar with the genre will know there are much worse out there. So, there's a lot to disagree about but if you asked 1000 people to name the fifty worst movies ever made then every list would be different. There's certainly a lot more that could have been done with this thing but if you're a fan of bad movies then you'll get plenty of nice rentals here.

This looks like someone's homemade YouTube video, and the level of analysis is no better. In nearly all the cases, all that is shown of the film is the theatrical trailer, which often provides no indication of what makes the film so bad. Early on, we get an exception, with _Mesa of Lost Women_, where the documentarian provides examples of his claims for how bad the film is, but most of the time, we get snide remarks about why the writer perceives the film as bad, without any real demonstration or support, which is certainly difficult if all you can afford to pay for is the trailer. Each film is covered for only about a minute or so, and the segments are broken up with an amateurish computer sequence of thrown popcorn. A coffee table book would be more useful and more fun. This film gets an F.

I love watching bad movie and have gleefully done so since I received Harry Medved's great book "The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time". However, despite the same title, this film is not based on Medved's book. Some of this is good--after all, the book came out in the late 70s and there have been a lot of bad films since. However, it also seems like the makers of this film were cashing in on Medved's idea and made no mention of him or his book and that just seems a bit sleazy.

What also didn't impress me is that although the film was about bad films, the overall look of the documentary was incredibly cheap. For instance, the same exact cheap animation of an audience throwing food at the screen was used again and again and again. Also, while the narration wasn't too bad, the same guy did everything and the film would have benefited from a panel of experts on bad films--something to make it more interesting.

I have a few other negative observations. There was too strong an emphasis on 50s-60s cheap drive-in horror films. A more well-rounded list would have been more interesting. While most of the picks were fitting, a few of the films weren't quite bad enough to merit inclusion. Now I am NOT saying that THE KILLER SHREWS, TROG, THE APE and SPIDER BABY were wonderful films, but they just weren't that bad and several had excellent "camp value". Also, while THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK definitely deserved inclusion, the clips they showed were all pretty good. None of the over-the-top wretched scenes were included (such as the kid with a claw hand chasing a pet bunny as the evil national guard shot him down). Finally, there also is a fair amount of nudity, so parents are cautioned about letting little ones watch the film--and that all seemed a bit unnecessary. I'm not upset that some rather adult films were chosen, just baffled why they chose to include some clips that make this a very family-unfriendly film.

However, despite my complaints, the documentary certainly was enjoyable, albeit the pace is a bit rushed to get it all into just 60 minutes. As I sat watching, I wrote down titles to watch. Most of the picks were NOT included in the book, so it gives me a lot of ideas. Plus, many of Medved's choices of films are simply impossible to find today (being unavailable on VHS or DVD)--so it's nice to find that most films listed in the film are available. In general, the clips and commentary were well done--making this a must-see for bad film fans like myself.

This abomination of a list makes WatchMojo look like Siskel and Ebert. The announcer is clearly being overly ecstatic and it's horrifyingly bad. Trash.

This 2004 compilation of 'worst' movies includes many of the usual suspects and doesn't provide much information beyond what is now readily available on Wikipedia, IMDB etc. "Worst" is subjective and I'm sure that many people will object to inclusions and/or omissions (IMO 'Black Belt Jones' (1974) is a reasonably good film for its genre and any cinema-merde list must include 'Manos: The Hands of Fate' (1966)). Clips from these kinds of films are always entertaining, as is the advertising, the 'teasers' and the marketing hyperbole, but this compilation's commentary is smug and superficial. If this is your first look at a collection of this type, it's OK; but if you are already an aficionado of celluloid-crap, this opus offers little new (admittedly, it did inspire me to watch 'Bloodsucking Freaks' on TUBI).