In 2005 for the 25th anniversary of the Golden Raspberry Awards, founder John Wilson published a book titled "The Official Razzie Movie Guide", detailing his list of the 100 funniest "so-bad-its-good" movies of all time. Movies included in there by sections are:
ALL GODS CREATURES LARGE AND LAME Anaconda (1997) - Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, Owen Wilson, Kari Wuhrer (Dir: Luis Llosa) A*P*E (1976) The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) Goliath and the Dragon (1960) - Broderick Crawford Jaws: The Revenge (1987) - Lorraine Gary, Michael Caine, Lance Guest, Mario Van Peebles (Dir: Joseph Sargent) King Kong Lives (1986) - Linda Hamilton, Brian Kerwin (Dir: John Guillermin) Trog (1970) - Joan Crawford
CAN'T STOP THE MUSICALS Body Rock (1984) - Lorenzo Lamas Can't Stop the Music (1980) - Village People, Valerie Perrine, Bruce Jenner, Steve Guttenberg (Dir: Nancy Walker) From Justin to Kelly (2003) - Kelly Clarkson, Justin Guarini (Dir: Robert Iscove) Glitter (2001) - Mariah Carey, Max Beesley (Dir: Vondie Curtis-Hall) Lost Horizon (1973) - Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, George Kennedy, Sally Kellerman, Olivia Hussey, John Gielgud (Dir: Charles Jarrott) The Pirate Movie (1982) - Kristy McNichol, Christopher Atkins (Dir: Ken Annakin) Rhinestone (1984) - Sylvester Stallone, Dolly Parton, Richard Farnsworth, Ron Leibman (Dir: Bob Clark) Roller Boogie (1979) - Linda Blair (Dir: Mark L. Lester) Spice World (1998) - Spice Girls, Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, George Wendt, Roger Moore (Dir: Bob Spiers) Staying Alive (1983) - John Travolta, Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes (Dir: Sylvester Stallone)
DISASTERS IN EVERY SENSE Airport 1975 (1974) - Linda Blair, Helen Reddy Avalanche (1978) - Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow The Concorde: Airport '79 (1979) - Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner, George Kennedy, Eddie Albert, Charo, Cicely Tyson, Jimmie Walker, David Warner On Deadly Ground (1994) - Steven Seagal, Michael Caine, Joan Chen (Dir: Steven Seagal) The Poseidon Adventure (1972) - Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson, Pamela Sue Martin, Red Buttons The Swarm (1978) - Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Olivia de Havilland, Patty Duke, Lee Grant, Ben Johnson, Richard Chamberlain, Jose Ferrer (Dir: Irwin Allen) The Ten Commandments (1956) - Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter (Dir: Cecil B. Demille)
DOOFY TWOSOMES The Bodyguard (1992) - Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston (Dir: Mick Jackson) Indecent Proposal (1993) - Robert Redford, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson (Dir: Adrian Lyne) The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980) - Loni Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger Shining Through (1992) - Melanie Griffith, Michael Douglas, Liam Neeson, Joely Richardson, John Gielgud (Dir: David Seltzer) Sincerely Yours (1955) - Liberace The Specialist (1994) - Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Eric Roberts, Rod Steiger (Dir: Luis Llosa) Sweet November (2001) - Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron (Dir: Pat O'Connor) White Comanche (1967) - William Shatner
NOW'S THAT A DUMB IDEA! The Car (1977) - James Brolin (Dir: Elliot Silverstein) Cocktail (1988) - Tom Cruise, Elisabeth Shue, Bryan Brown (Dir: Roger Donaldson) Color of Night (1994) - Bruce Willis, Jane March, Ruben Blades, Lesley Ann Warren, Brad Dourif, Lance Henriksen, Kevin J. O'Connor, Scott Bakula (Dir: Richard Rush) Eegah (1962) Fever Pitch (1985) - Ryan O'Neal, Giancarlo Giannini, Catherine Hicks (Dir: Richard Brooks) High School Confidential (1958) - Russ Tamblyn Impulse (1974) - William Shatner Perfect (1985) - John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marilu Henner, Laraine Newman, Jann Wenner (Dir: James Bridges) Road House (1989) - Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch, Ben Gazzara, Sam Elliott (Dir: Rowdy Herrington) Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989) - Lou Ferrigno Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983) - Reb Brown Zardoz (1974) - Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling (Dir: John Boorman)
THE ROLES THAT MADE THEM SHAMELESS The Betsy (1978) - Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Katharine Ross, Jane Alexander, Lesley-Anne Down (Dir: Daniel Petrie) Beyond the Forest (1949) - Bette Davis (Dir: King Vidor) The Conqueror (1956) - John Wayne, Susan Hayward The Godfather Part III (1990) - Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Sofia Coppola (Dir: Francis Ford Coppola) Harum Scarum (1965) - Elvis Presley The Jazz Singer (1980) - Neil Diamond, Laurence Olivier, Lucie Arnaz (Dir: Richard Fleischer) Julie (1956) - Doris Day Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) - Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Julia Nickson-Soul (Dir: George Pan Cosmatos) She (1935) Strait-Jacket (1964) - Joan Crawford (Dir: William Castle)
SHOWBIZ LAID BARE Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) (Dir: Russ Meyer) The Carpetbaggers (1964) - Carroll Baker, George Peppard (Dir: Edward Dymytrk) The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) - Charlton Heston, Gloria Grahame, James Stewart (Dir: Cecil B. Demille) The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) - Kim Novak, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine (Dir: Robert Aldrich) The Love Machine (1971) - John Phillip Law, Dyan Cannon Valentino (1977) - Rudolf Nureyev, Michelle Phillips, Leslie Caron, Carol Kane (Dir: Ken Russell) Valley of the Dolls (1967) - Patty Duke, Barbara Parkins, Sharon Tate, Susan Hayward (Dir: Mark Robson) The Wild Wild World of Jayne Mansfield (1968)
THEY CAME FROM PLANET RAZZIE The Astounding She-Monster (1957) Barbarella (1968) - Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law The Creeping Terror (1964) Devil Girl from Mars (1954) The Green Slime (1969) Mac and Me (1988) - Jade Calegory, Christine Ebersole (Dir: Stewart Raffill) Robot Monster (1953) Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) Supergirl (1984) - Helen Slater, Faye Dunaway, Peter O'Toole (Dir: Jeannot Szwarc)
WELL SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS SEXY! Barb Wire (1996) - Pamela Anderson (Dir: David Hogan) The Blue Lagoon (1980) - Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins (Dir: Randal Kleiser) Duel in the Sun (1946) - Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten, Lillian Gish (Dir: King Vidor) Ghosts Can't Do It (1990) - Bo Derek, Anthony Quinn (Dir: John Derek) Kitten with a Whip (1964) - Ann-Margret, John Forsythe Love Crimes (1992) - Sean Young, Patrick Bergin (Dir: Lizzie Borden) The Naked Kiss (1964) - Constance Towers (Dir: Samuel Fuller) A Night in Heaven (1983) - Christopher Atkins, Lesley Ann Warren (Dir: John G. Avildsen) Orgy of the Dead (1965) The Scarlet Letter (1995) - Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall (Dir: Roland Joffe) Sextette (1978) - Mae West, Timothy Dalton Sheena (1984) - Tanya Roberts, Ted Wass (Dir: John Guillermin) Where Love Has Gone (1964) - Bette Davis, Susan Hayward, Joey Heatherton (Dir: Edward Dymtyrk)
WHEN MAD SCIENTISTS GO BAD The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) Frankenstein's Daughter (1958) The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) - Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, David Thewlis, Fairuza Balk Maniac (1934) The Tingler (1959) - Vincent Price (Dir: William Castle)
THE VERY BEST OF THE VERY WORST The Adventurers (1970) - Bekim Fehmiu, Candice Bergen, Olivia de Havilland, Ernest Borgnine (Dir: Lewis Gilbert) Battlefield Earth (2000) - John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker (Dir: Roger Christian) Body of Evidence (1993) - Madonna, Willem Dafoe, Joe Mantegna, Anne Archer, Julianne Moore, Jurgen Prochnow (Dir: Uli Edel) Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) - Linda Blair, Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, Max Von Sydow, James Earl Jones (Dir: John Boorman) Glen or Glenda (1953) - Ed Wood, Dolores Fuller (Dir: Ed Wood) The Lonely Lady (1983) - Pia Zadora, Lloyd Bochner, Bibi Besch, Joseph Cali, Anthony Holland, Jared Martin (Dir: Peter Sasdy) Mommie Dearest (1981) - Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest, Mara Hobel, Rutanya Alda (Dir: Frank Perry) The Oscar (1966) - Stephen Boyd Showgirls (1995) - Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, Gina Ravera (Dir: Paul Verhoeven) Xanadu (1980) - Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck, Gene Kelly (Dir: Robert Greenwald)
[ 02. August 2011, 15:42: Message edited by: Leo Logan ]
Posted by Chris the CandyFanMan (Member # 3197) on :
I have this book, and it is a bona fide laugh riot from cover to cover. Proof positive that things can be just as entertaining when they go horribly wrong. Among the funniest when I look back over it:
-Stallone singing the virtues of Budweiser ("Drinkenstein") in Rhinestone wearing a coonskin cap (!!!???),
-the entire ape man transformation seen in Maniac ("Oh, stealing through my body! Oh, creaping through my veins! Pouring in my blood!!...I can't stand it, this torture! This torment...!!!"),
-A*P*E's poorly plotted low budget rampage in Toyland,
-Bo Derek's ridiculous hat collection in Ghosts Can't Do It,
-William Shatner is...THE...WHITE...COMMANCHE!!! (and his half-brother, but who's...really...keeping....track...Bones...?,
-Jayne Mansfield's wild, wild world makes most "bad" stars look completely normal by comparison
[ 12. July 2011, 20:55: Message edited by: Chris the CandyFanMan ]
Posted by Crash (Member # 7484) on :
"A*P*E" is terrible, but you guys haven't seen a truly terrible movie until you see "The Mighty Gorga" (1969) about a giant ape. It's one of the single worst movies that you will ever see. I bought a copy for a bad-movie-loving friend for his birthday, and he was rubbing his eyes and laughing. He couldn't belive that this thing was actually released as a "film." Here's what you get:
1. One take for every scene. So what if an actor flubs a line or the sound recording is bad. Cut! Print! And while the thing is in focus--mostly--I've seen better cinematography done by some five-year-olds using a Fisher-Price pixelvision toy video camera from the 1980's.
2. One actor plays a sad clown at the decrepit circus and, with silly make-up, the African tribal witch doctor in a cost-cutting move. This guy is particularly hilarious intoning stuff like, "Mighty Gorga...we give you the blood of the virgins..."
3. "Mighty Africa," as depicted here, is actually some sort of drive-through animal park. I think that some of the other scenes were filmed outside an abandonded supermarket in California, in a cost-cutting move.
4. There is a lot of stock footage of dinosaurs and volcanoes and stuff, in yet another cost-cutting move. (I'm not sure how much this thing cost to make, but I'm sure that the change in my sofa could have covered it.)
5. "Mighty Gorga" is a guy wearing the worst gorilla mask that you've ever seen. (It's cheaper than junk that you'd buy for Halloween at WalMart. It's cheap latex, doesn't move, and has ping-pong ball eyes.) And hairy gloves. Gorga is also filmed only from the chest up since they didn't have a full gorialla suit. (I'm not making this up.) To make Gorga look huge, they just angled the camera upward. We're not talking forced perspective here. They just try to make him look big by angling the camera upward.
6. There is a fight between the Mighty Gorga and an immobile plastic dinosaur. We are not talking Ray Harryhausen animation or even rear-projection here. The scene is filmed against what appears to be a background projected on a bedsheet hanging on the wall. Someone just holds up the dinosaur and pokes at Gorga with it. I couldn't make this up.
I laughed the whole way through this thing. It makes "The Creeping Terror,"--the movie without a synched dialogue track--about a maneating carpet from outer space, look like it was directed by Spielberg. If you check around, you might still be able to find "Gorga" on a DVD double feature with "One Million AC/DC." Trust me. If you love to laugh at bad movies, you'll love this one.
[ 20. July 2011, 14:17: Message edited by: Crash ]
Posted by Zach (Member # 9459) on :
Crash, I heartily second the hate for the Mighty Gorga. I've always maintained that there are two types of bad movies: bad movies that still manage to be watchable and fun (i.e., The Food of the Gods, Commando, Beyond the Door, Slugs, Missing in Action, just about anything by Ed Wood) and bad movies that have no redeeming values and are just plain torture to watch. The Mighty Gorga falls into the latter category for me.
The plastic toy T-rex sums it all up for me. It really shows that the people making it just didn't care about making a good movie. They simply just wanted to get it in the can as quick as possible and release it. Considering the director was David L. Hewitt, who gave us equally unwatchable movies like Gallery of Horrors and Journey to the Center of Time, I'm not surprised at the lack of effort put into the Mighty Gorga.
Back to the topic at hand, I used to have a copy of this book and enjoyed it a whole lot. The majority of these movies fall into the "bad but still watchable" category. I can count myself as an unabashed fan of The Giant Spider Invasion, The Tingler, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, Glen or Glenda, and Robot Monster. Great movies? No, not by a long shot, but they certainly are loads of fun to watch!
Posted by Crash (Member # 7484) on :
Right on, Zach. You are correct: There are "good-bad" films and "bad-bad" films. The most enjoyment you can get from "Gorga" is watching the trailer because so much of the movie is just padded out filler of folks walking through a zoo--a "bad-bad" film.
Old David L. Hewitt, a lazy, fast-buck operator. Just as you said, they didn't care at all about the film. You have flubbed line all over the place. Even Ed Wood got Dudley Manlove and Bela Lugosi to get their speeches down pat. When this bad film appreciation cult sprung up years ago with the book by the Medved brothers, the Razzies, etc., I think that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" got an unfair rap. Obviously folks had never seen "Gorga" or "The Creeping Terror" which are much, much worse.
I like all your watchable bad movies too, though I would beg to differ with you on "The Tingler." It's not a "bad" movie (good production, acting, etc.). It's an outrageously in-your-face ludicrous movie that's just nuts. Now "Robot Monster" on the other hand... ROFL
[ 28. July 2011, 06:34: Message edited by: Crash ]
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