Back to One: Good Bad Movies

As Opposed to Bad Good Movies

Original Cinema Quad Poster - Movie Film Posters

Okay, I hit on Speed last week as a movie that had a ridiculous premise but was still fun to watch. Another one for me is Con Air. The story is basically so stupid, I can’t believe someone was actually paid to write it – but whenever it’s on – I will watch it. I mean come on, it’s got Nic Cage, Dave Chappelle, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi and Johns – Malkovich and Cusack. If you don’t know the plot it’s pretty simple – Nic Cage, is the good guy who is jailed for accidentally killing someone – he serves his time but then ends up on a prison transport plane called the Jailbird with a bunch of hard core inmates including Malkovich as criminally named mastermind Cyrus the Virus and Buscemi as a not very scary serial killer. Of course, the bad criminals hijack it and head to some airport near Vegas, while the good criminals try to stop them. John Cusack is the federal marshal in charge of the flight – but he’s not on the actual flight. Lots of action ensues – as Cage saddled with the name Cameron Poe – tries to get control of the plane so he can meet his daughter. It is a Jerry Bruckheimer produced film so crazy physics defying stunts happen, a lot of one liners are tossed about, a ton of scenery is chewed and it is awesome.

So Deadsplintalorians, what movies do you love that are so bad they’re good? I promise in the next post I will come out of the nineties and into the 21st century. 

The answer to last week’s poll is C) He was still using a flip phone. He actually likes to be called Bob and is very soft spoken and nice. He did not check himself out all of the time. This was a few years ago on A Walk In The Woods.

This week’s poll:

Which of these statements about Dave Chappelle would you think - is not true? I worked with him on Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
16 votes · 16 answers
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45 Comments

  1. I love your inside scoop anecdotes. I suspect that one becomes acclimatized to working with the stars, but I would totally fan girl. (Yes, I work from home, and don’t get out much.)

    • In my experience, it does become a lot easier to deal with celebrities the more one is around them.  I’m trying to remember if there was one in which I lost my shit but the moment nobody is coming to mind.  What is really odd is being around a very niche celebrity–the kind who is super famous for only a very specific subset of fans, and is otherwise completely unknown to the rest of the world–and then seeing one of their fans almost have a heart attack when asking for an autograph.  That’s weird.

    • Haha – I’ve only ever really had two serious star struck moments – which I think I’ll keep for a couple of polls. But I will say since some of you have asked – I work in the Costume Dept.
       
      One time I was doing a fitting with my friend who was a Costume Designer on a Hallmark or Lifetime tv movie – the actor that was coming in was Sam Elliot.  I had worked with her for a while and she had never ever been starstruck by anyone – always very professional and very little chit chat in the fittings – just get the work done and move on to the next one. This one though – she told me just before he came in –  that she might not be able to do the fitting. I was like Okay – that’s weird, but whatever. Sure enough – he walks in – we do our introductions and as she’s talking to him about his character and costume – I notice that she’s turning completely red – I mean tomato red –  and isn’t making eye contact with him. It didn’t seem like it was bothering him – so I just stood back like a good assistant and let her keep going. As he’s trying on some things,  he made some little joke – I couldn’t tell you what it was – I don’t remember – but she just started giggling. And, she couldn’t stop. She would get control of herself and then she would look at him and start giggling again. I started handing him things and trying to kind of take over the fitting because she literally couldn’t speak. He was starting to get a little uncomfortable so she finally motioned to me to carry on and she left the room. I did the rest of the fitting with him – he’s lovely  – and made small talk trying to ignore what had just happened with the giggling Costume Designer. Anyway –  when we were finished  – she had composed herself but when he came out of the fitting room and was saying good bye to her – the giggling started backup again. 
       
      She was mortified.  He actually hugged her and told her it was okay as he was leaving , but she was so embarrassed that she sent our PA out for some beer for us and I think she got some whiskey for herself. We teased her about that for years. So – don’t worry even us die hard “professionals” have moments too. 
       
       

  2. I love Con Air. It’s one of those movies that if it’s on, I’ll watch it. And it’s always freaking on. I mean [spoiler alert] land a plane on the Las Vegas strip. 

  3. I’m a sucker for Jay & Silent Bob movies…
     
     


     
    I also enjoy a silly Jackie Chan movie.  Best part of this one is the Vancouver backgrounds supposed to be the Bronx.  You can even see Grouse Mountain in a few shots.
     
     

    • I love Jackie Chan movies – Rush Hour is hysterical.
      I know what you mean about Canada subbing for US cities. Back before everything was being made in Atlanta – people would always but these bustling big rivers with board walks and wharfs in anything set in Atlanta just because we have the Chattahoochee. It’s like come on guys – the Chattahoochee is more like a really big creek than the Mississippi. 

  4. I’m going with C on this one.  Humor is very subjective so while I think Mel Brooks is a 1,000 times funnier than Dave Chappelle that doesn’t mean everyone thinks so.  So, my guess is that he’s self-aware enough not to try and work his stand up material on set.

     

    For me it’s National Treasure, or The Rock.  Nic Cage is the God of the Good Bad Movie.

  5. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I love The Fast and the Furious franchise. They keep jumping the shark and I will never not watch the next installment or spinoff.
     
    And of course Nic Cage is the fucking best and always delivers…even in shitass movies like Jiu Jitsu.

    • Not an unpopular opinion in my house – I think within the last month – we’ve seen every F&F ever made at least 5 times. It feels like at least one of them is on 24/7.  RIP Paul Walker

    • i love the early f&fs
      thems good cheese 🙂
      the newer ones lost me a little…i think im happy till..what…5? is that the one with the bank vault chase?
      i just cant seem to get into the later ones…i mean..i probably could if i was watching with someone.. but on me tod…ive not been able too…and get bored after like 15 minutes

  6. Nic Cage definitely wins the Oscar for “Leading Man In A Movie That Should Suck But Is Insanely Rewatchable.”

    As for loving bad movies, I’ve cooled a lot on Sandler as I’ve aged out of his demographic, but “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore” are absolute riots as far as I’m concerned. And it’s deeply flawed and wildly miscast in a few places, but “Rat Race” has some really hilarious moments that have stuck with me and would get me to rewatch it again.

  7. I’m a sucker for bad movies where the plot involves a dance off. I’m talking about you, entire Step Up franchise. 

    Also, original Footloose is amazing. Remake Footloose did some things well plot-wise (like it made more sense with timelines and it was nice to not be an all-white cast) but the casting was craptastic and the Blake Shelton butchering of Kenny Loggins’s classic song hurt my soul. 

  8. It’s got a lot of problematic stuff, but it had a great soundtrack, and some really cool visual scenes (steampunk zombie nazis, bunny-faced mecha, katana-wielding schoolgirl fighting giant samurai, a dragon…)…
    Not the trailer, but for some reason, none of the trailers have the actual soundtrack music…

  9. …I have a sinking feeling that if I thought about this long enough I could come up with a frankly embarrassing list

    …but in my defense I have a friend who as a teenager developed a bizarre fondness for watching anything with a 3 in the title (as in the third film in a franchise) so I may have simply seen an embarrassing number of bad movies…it might also be part of why I think the best fast&furious movie (or at least the one with the coolest driving bits) is the third installment

    …that said two I’m surprised don’t seem to have come up yesterday would be tremors & starship troopers?

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