Have you ever seen a movie that is so bad that it becomes funny? It may have started off with the best intentions but somewhere along the way it went horribly – and hilariously – wrong. Hindsight is 20/20 so it’s easy to sit here in the future and mock these movies for decisions that might have seemed like good ideas at the time. However, these movies are great because it’s near impossible to understand why they would have even considered some of these decisions.
Troll 2
Don’t worry if you haven’t seen the first Troll movie. For starters, the movies have nothing to do with each other, as there are no actual trolls in Troll 2. Another and more vital reason is that the movie is so bad you wouldn’t want to watch another, be it about trolls or goblins or whatever. Performed by actors who thought they were volunteering to be extras – true – and written in English even though the writer and director didn’t speak it – also true, they’re Italian – Troll 2 can be best described as a fever dream, something you’ll look back on weeks later and ask “Did I really watch that or make it all up in my head?” After seeing it a few times now I can definitively say that your guess is as good as mine.
Birdemic 1 and 2
Oh, lucky day, here’s two bad movies for the price of one! The Birdemic films make you work for your laughs – each film feels like they’re 4 hours long, giving you plenty of time to question your sanity. When the laughs come however, it makes it all worth it. The people behind this film may be the most technically inept individuals to ever make a movie and it shows, gloriously I might add. There are two takeaways from these films – first, that if you took your phone and shot a movie where you made everything up on the fly it would probably be better than both these movies. Second, there’s an important and subtle message hidden deep at the core of both Birdemics – here’s a hint, it’s about the environment. Both these movies are highly recommended, though if you watch them back to back be warned that you may spend the next week questioning every life decision you’ve ever made.
Batman and Robin
Let’s take a moment to once again thank Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, because if they weren’t as amazing as they were, we might still remember Batman and Robin. Before Nolan, Batman movies were known for their campiness and focused on making everything seem straight out of a comic book, not even attempting to give it any sort of reality whatsoever. Batman and Robin is by far the worst offender, full of lame gadgets (George Clooney’s Batman not only has Bat Ice Skates hidden in his shoes, but a Batman credit card as well) and horrible puns (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s villain Mr. Freeze finds every possible excuse to work ice into his lines). It was bad at the time and only looks worse after seeing just how good a Batman movie could be.
Sharknado
The most recent entry on the list is probably also the simplest – the SyFy channel wanted viewers and weren’t confident enough that they could make something good enough for people to tune in, so instead they went with a movie about a tornado filled with sharks. You have to admit it’s pretty genius, because if you’ve never heard of Sharknado before, I bet you’re Googling it now. The movie itself is done about as well as you’d expect a low budget film about sharks flying around in a tornado could be done, which is to say not very well. Still the laughs are plentiful and the concept was apparently good enough to warrant making it into a franchise. You can call Sharknado lots of things, but you can’t call it stupid… Well maybe you can but just watch it first.
The Room
The best bad movie of all time. Everything about it from the performances to the production value is hilariously awful. It’s the kind of bad that will leave your mouth agape, your head shaking and your insides hurting from all the laughing you’ll be doing. The movie is written, directed, funded and stars Tommy Wiseau a man just as head scratching as the film he made. If you don’t know who he is, look up any interview with him and you’ll get an idea of his acting skills. Intentionally or not, The Room is one of the funniest movies of all time.
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