‘‘Mississippi’ Burning.’’ It portrayed FBI agents as Klan-busting heroes of civil rights, whereas in reality they aided and abetted those vicious bigots. I know, I was there.
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I really liked Snake Eyes too, but I’m a sucker for “in real-time” movies.
My go-to worst movie I’ve ever seen is Armageddon, which I paid to see in a cinema. I say this as someone who considers Bruce Willis a borderline modern Bogart and didn’t take umbrage at Hudson Hawk or even the unnecessary Die Hards.
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You probably would go for one of the fan edits then. I personally like:
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You would’ve traded your wife for a Fury Road ticket.
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Me too, I’m a sucker for De Palma’s extended tracking shots. Oooh! That reminds me. I meant to add The Black Dahlia to this list.
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The problem with _Black Swan_is that they really needed a real ballerina in the role. It was a movie about the physicality of dance and needed someone who could portray madness in her body. I’m not the biggest Natalie Portman fan anyway - she’s pretty overrated in my book. However, I think she was miscast in this movie despite all the hoo haa about her being the best thing since applesauce. I find her stiff and the roles she has been best in are ones where the character has a certain restraint. She did a good job of learning what she could to portray a ballerina in the time allotted, but it truly takes a lifetime to learn to dance masterfully and even someone without an experienced eye can see the difference between an actor portraying a ballerina and a real master dancer.
Many ballerinas train in drama and I think it would have been better to have a real dancer who could also act. Then I think the movie would have been a whole other level.
This is from another ballet, but imagine if the dancing had looked like this, and the acting have been as powerful.
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Also, the premise of Black Swan was so much better in the classic movie The Red Shoes. If you want to see a really great movie, catch it.
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I really should watch some more Powell & Pressburger. I’ve only seen A Matter of Life and Death and Black Narcissus.
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I got these glasses that have magnetic clip sunglasses for them. It comes with a set of three clips: sunglasses, yellow sunglasses for rainy/gray conditions, and 3D clips. I thought when I got them that the 3D clips were just gimmicky and I’d never use them or care about them. Then I used them for an actual movie. Wow. The difference in the quality with my prescription glasses was impressive. i think maybe the production of them was a little higher than the things they hand out at the theater, too. Anyway, it made a big difference. Sadly, they don’t work for all 3D movies.
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This post popped-up on my desktop notifications and I thought someone was spamming. Hah!
I thought that thing was awful.
I have a high tolerance for “awful.” So many bad movies turn into something special via camp or collective fun of making it a cult favorite. But I found no redeeming features (save for the console stereo featured in a couple of shots) in Zontar, The Thing From Venus - from this schlocky collection of 50 SciFi Classics [where the only accuracy is in the number].
Think a Roger Corman film with even less of a budget. Remaking his own films for TV was a recipe for awfulness.
Ditto the same director’s In the Year 2889 which wasn’t even set in that year.
Same guy did Mars Needs Women which sounds similarly awful, but has met with cult “success.” I have not seen it, but well-remember samples from it.
(at 0:05 or so)
(at 5:30 or so)
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As soon as you said
, I thought of The Red Shoes. Michael Powell in the first volume of his autobiography wrote that he had to have a dancer who could act; I forget how he put it, but he effectively said that with Moira Shearer he ended up with a fine dancer who could act to some degree; she wasn’t up to the climactic scene, so he bullied her to tears until he got the take he wanted.
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Well, I live with someone who’s a published Tolkien scholar, and they not only adore the LotR films, but feel they are the best adaptations of the source material they’ve ever seen. Yes, there’s changes from the books – there must be, lest we have a 55 hour movie about walking around and eating lunches – but I felt there was a deep spiritual connection, movies made by rabid fans of the books as a love letter to the world Tolkien created. It’s completely OK to not dig them – I know plenty of people who hate anything fantasy-related – but to say they have no connection to the books is most definitely an unpopular (and singular) opinion.
Now, the Hobbit movies… not a fan. The Rankin Bass cartoon captured the feel of that book perfectly, IMO.
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That’s really funny! I too, live with a folklorist who’s a published Tolkein scholar, and he hates the movies as much as I do! He wrote some stuff for a collection in honor of Tom Shippey (I forget what that’s called). Coincidence city.
I didn’t say no connection, I just didn’t get much of the spirit of the books there. Also see above… I’m not alone.
I’d put a vote in for A Canterbury Tale.
It’s a slight plot, a bit stilted, and it meanders a little; but (to me at least) it has a magical feel to it.
Sadly, yes. I probably shouldn’t be on this thread, it just makes me sad.
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My arms are exhausted just looking at that!
So beautiful…thanks!
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I hated Star Trek (2009) so very deeply that I had absolutely no expectations for Into Darkness, which I watched on Netflix long after its release.
What they’ve done to Star Trek reminds me of what they’ve done to Bond.
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I really enjoyed FotR (probably mostly because of Sean Bean), and RotK, in the main, but I just cannot stand TTT (which is my favourite of the books). And I know I mention this every time Donald starts a film discussion.
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Oh… I have separate list for movies that are both bad, and hilariously scientifically stupid. Armageddon and The Core are right at the top of the list.
Armageddon starts off okay, but then promptly goes off the rails when they propose that instead of nuking the surface of the asteroid (which might actually work if done early enough) they need to nuke the inside of the asteroid and turn it into many smaller asteroids… that will still hit the earth. The way the asteroid split in two halves was just jaw-dropping in the worst way:
Look at this terribleness. I had forgotten how cheesy it was, too.
The Core was no better. The scene where the birds lose their ability to navigate by using the earth’s magnetic field is laughable:
I think the writers and director thought, “Birds are scary, right? Didn’t Hitchcock show us that?” Apparently birds don’t have eyes, and can fly only using their long range navigation apparatus.
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It is awful but at least it isn’t a rehash. The part that makes it for me is when the invaders are in a hotel bar acting odd they get asked were they are from and respond ‘Seattle’.
Zontar is just the actors phoning it in and is paced even slower than the movie it is remaking. Even more so for Creature Of Destruction (remake of She-Creature) where you can tell the actors are deliberately pausing to pad out the film. It is does get to be hokey fun though where Zontar is just painful.
But unless you are into bad, the best advice for a Larry Buchanan film is to just avoid it.
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