The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made

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.

Some of the narration's not as funny as it thinks it is, but how can you go wrong with choice cuts of turkeys like these?

The narration is rather forgettable, but at least it offers occasional interesting info (sometimes dubious) about the movie in question. Obviously, such a short list cannot possibly please everyone, and will be omitting many fan favourites, so to complain about why such and such was not on the list is just childish. After all, there aren't 50, but probably around 20,000 truly bad films. Personally, I could complain that "Malcolm X", "Yentl" or any Gus van Sant or Emil Kusturica film didn't make the list, but what's the point? The fun is in anticipating what the next film in the countdown will be...

There were some films I've seen, some that were ripped apart by MST3K, and some that are so obscure I've never heard of them. Some useful tips here...

One criticism is that I'm not sure I can trust everything that was said here. For example, the narrator claims that Bela Lugosi died before "Plan 9" was completed. Utterly wrong. The movie was never even started during his lifetime; Ed Wood used old reels that had nothing to do with it. I wonder how many other pieces of misinformation there are...

Not as entertaining as "It Came From Hollywood", but quite solid.

It was fun watching the clips from these fifty movies, many of which I have not seen, but which appear to be great BadFilm. In fact, apart from actual trailer compilations like Something Weird Video's Extra Weird DVD, I haven't seen this much BadFilm outside of Arise! The SubGenius Video.

However, this compilation is only sixty minutes long, so little more than a minute can be spent on each one. Some clips run longer than others, so some movies barely appear. The running time could have stood to be doubled! However, from the end credits, it seems many of the clips came not from the movies themselves, but from the trailers for the movies (they credit Trailers on Tape).

There's also an irritating animation of silhouettes throwing popcorn at a movie screen which punctuates every entry on the countdown. This also really cuts into the amount of time they can spend showing clips from the movies.

There are no really surprising or bold choices here, and some obvious ones like Plan 9 from Outer Space, and Ishtar. I don't know that I would agree that these are the 50 Worst Movies Ever Made, I'm not sure if any of them are, honestly - but they are certainly mostly pretty bad. I'll stand up for Spider Baby as not deserving to be on this list; I think it is not a bad film, just a weird good one.

There is some brief nudity in it, and due the the heavy representation of horror films, some gore. And we can marvel at how many once-popular (even award-winning!) actors would up in these movies.

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.