WORLD'S WORST EVER MOVIES !

[allan downes]

Can I just point out that Allan isn't really nominating anything: he's just cutting and pasting text from the Wikipedia entries for the films from this list (sometimes with a bit of re-work to create a brief resume from a rambling entry).  Those who find themselves unable to wait for the addition to this 'thread' could save themselves a chunk of time by going direct to the source.

 

I'm not sure what the Wiki Foundation's view is on this kind of plagiarism but I doubt it is likely to be favourable.

 

 

I would in general agree that pointless remakes are annoying.  However, I would qualify that by saying that IMO the Cohen brothers' version of True Grit is very good.  I find Jeff Bridges much more convincing than The Duke as a no-good alcoholic has-been who finds redemption in the end.  For me, Wayne was always just a little too noble and righteous from the outset.

 

In which case I suggest that you read no further.

 

Of course I am paraphrasing Wikipedia. After all, It must  surely be obvious to anybody that  nobody has that kind of information to hand, let alone the illustrations  to go with it.

 

My intention was to introduce something different to the Forum and, in this case, terrible movies which, apart from your input, is being received far better than I expected - Oh, and it's not a five minute job putting up these posts that require a lot of back and forth to Wiki and a lot of copying and pasting..

 

So. you either read it, or you don't but I will carry on whether you do or not.

 

Allan.

[allan downes]

 

Myra Breckinridge (1970)

The comedy Myra Breckinridge, based on the book of the same name by Gore Vidal, directed by Michael Sarne and starring Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Mae West, John Huston and Farrah Fawcett, provoked controversy due to a scene in which Welch forcibly sodomizes a bound man while clips from various classic films play onscreen. The film was initially rated X before edits and an appeal to the MPAA brought it down to an R. It also used the technique of inserting clips from Golden Age movies in such a way that the dialogue took on sexual undertones. Several stars whose films were featured objected to the gimmick, and some (such as Loretta Young) sued to remove the footage. The film was a critical failure, with Time magazine saying "Myra Breckinridge is about as funny as a child molester".^[67] Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB (the lowest score possible) and stated that it was "as bad as any movie ever made".^[2] The Miami News critic Herb Kelly nominated Myra Breckinridge as the worst film ever made.^[68] The film is also cited in The Fifty Worst Films of All Time. It also was included in The Book of Lists' worst movies of all time, claiming there was something in the movie to offend absolutely everyone. Gore Vidal disowned it, calling it "an awful joke",^[69] and blamed the movie for a decade-long drought in the sale of the original book.^[70]

[allan downes]

 

Zabriskie Point (1970)

The second of three English-language films commissioned by producer Carlo Ponti to be directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, Zabriskie Point was said by one critic to be "the worst film ever made by a director of genius".^[71] Amidst rumors of obscenity, the use of underage actors, and possible violations of the Mann Act, Zabriskie Point was an overwhelming commercial failure.^[72]The New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby and film critic Roger Ebert were equally negative about the film.^[73][74] It was included in The Fifty Worst Films of All Time,^[75] and 20 years after its release Rolling Stone editor David Fricke wrote that "Zabriskie Point was one of the most extraordinary disasters in modern cinematic history."^[76]

[allan downes]

 

Zaat (1971)

Directed by Don Barton, Zaat was also known under various titles including Hydra, Attack of the Swamp Creatures, Legend of the Zaat Monster, and The Blood Waters of Dr. Z (the name under which it was lampooned on Mystery Science Theater 3000). The film follows a Nazi mad scientist who injects himself with a formula that turns him into a mutated catfish. Florida Times-Union critic Matt Soergel quipped Zaat "could very well be the best film ever made about a mutated catfish".^[77] Critic Jeffrey Kauffman said, "this is the sort of film Ed Wood, Jr. might have made—on a bad day" and added, "Lovers of fantastically bad films rate Zaat one of the worst".^[78] Patrick Naugle of DVD Verdict stated, "The acting in Zaat is below subpar. Actors seem to be whispering their lines and trying hard not to fully comprehend that they're in one of the worst films ever made", while Michael Rubino of DVD Verdict also claimed, "Zaat may be one of the worst films ever created".^[79][80]NPR called it a "sci-fi fiasco" when it became "the winner — er, loser —" on IMDb's Bottom 100.^[81]Zaat appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000, which gave it significant exposure,^[82] and was also featured on RedLetterMedia show Half in the Bag where they called it one of their favorite "so bad it's good" films.^[83]Total Film included it in their list of the 66 worst films of all time.^[84]

 

Mutated Catfish - love it !

Edited August 29, 2017 by allan downes

[allan downes]

 

An American Hippie in Israel (1972)

The Israeli An American Hippie in Israel is about an American hippie traveling to Israel after being involved with the Vietnam War, befriending Israeli flower children, and encountering "menacing" mimes along the way. The film was presumed lost, but after resurfacing 38 years after its production, it became a "midnight sensation" in Tel Aviv and developed a cult following akin to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was then released internationally on home video by Grindhouse Releasing. Gil Shefler of The Jewish Daily Forward described it as "perfectly awful", offering that it "probably is the worst Israeli movie ever made, and a serious candidate for the worst movie of all time".^[85] Ben Hartman of the Jerusalem Post stated the film was "surely one of the worst films ever made in Israel, or beyond".^[86]Nana 10 said it claims the title of "worst Israeli film and most amusing".^[87]

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I'm also tempted to nominate the Matrix series. Major case of style over substance. I find it particularly annoying as the first one completely overshadowed the much better/cleverer (but less massively CGI'd) Dark City which appeared at the same time.

Likewise The Thirteenth Floor which is much more sinister in what it proposes.

[allan downes]

 

Bat Pussy (unknown, possibly 1973)

A loose spoof of the 1966 Batman television series cited as one of the earliest examples of a pornographic parody film, the presumably-1970s pornographic film Bat Pussy has been "widely described" as the worst pornographic film ever made, on account of "some incredibly unarousing sex and a general attitude of awfulness".^[88][89] Possessing no credits or copyright information, there is no known record of Bat Pussy's existence prior to the mid-1990s, when it was discovered in the storeroom of an adult movie theater in Memphis, Tennessee and subsequently released on home video by exploitation film distributor Something Weird Video. Gawker Media's io9 proclaimed the film to be "the absolute nadir of pornography, period. Not just Batman-themed pornography. ALL pornography", deriding its "obese redneck" cast as rendering the film "-proof".^[90]PornParody.com, a website dedicated to pornographic parody films, acknowledged its status as "the worst adult movie of all time", describing Bat Pussy as "renowned for its technical ineptness and anti-eroticism" due to its "physically unappealing" actors.^[91]AV Maniacs contested Bat Pussy's categorization as pornography on the grounds of the lead actor's visible impotence and instead labeled the film "anti-porn", asking "How else do you categorize an adult film that completely and utterly fails to elicit even the minutest amount of arousal in its viewers?"^[92] The book The Many More Lives of Batman by William Uricchio and Will Brooker also labeled Bat Pussy "the worst porn film ever made", criticizing its poor adaptation of the source material,^[93] while Tim Lewis, the general manager of Something Weird Video, selected Bat Pussy as the one film "so nuts it has to be seen to be believed" out of the company's entire catalog, saying it was "only for the truly jaded adult film viewer".^[94]

[allan downes]

 

At Long Last Love (1975)

At Long Last Love was renowned director Peter Bogdanovich's musical homage to great 1930s Hollywood musicals. It features songs by Cole Porter and stars Cybill Shepherd and Burt Reynolds. Upon release, it received very negative reviews. CNN noted it was once considered "the worst musical extravaganza in Hollywood history".^[95]Esquire film critic John Simon said, "it may be the worst movie musical of this – or any – decade".^[96]Buffalo News film critic Jeff Simon wrote, "About 45 minutes in, it became apparent to one and all that this was one of the worst and most embarrassing major-talent turkeys of all time."^[97] Film critic Jay Cocks has said the film was "regarded as the great white elephant catastrophe of its time".^[98]Hollis Alpert stated, "This failure is so dismal that it goes beyond failure."^[99] It was included in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time and Michael Sauter's book The Worst Films of All Time.^[100] It is also included in the Golden Turkey Awards Nominees and Winners, the Worst Achievements in Hollywood History.^[101] Bogdanovich, who was also the screenwriter, sent press releases to newspapers across the country apologizing for this film.^[98]

One defender of the film was Roger Ebert, who stated, "The movie's no masterpiece, but I can't account for the viciousness of some of the critical attacks against it." He continued, "It's a light, silly, impeccably stylish entertainment ... if [bogdanovich] doesn't go spectacularly right, at least he provides small pleasures and great music."^[102] In a recent documentary on his career, Bogdanovich lamented being influenced by studio previews to cut the film before its theatrical release. He subsequently recut it again before it debuted on cable TV the next year. A fan of the film, a studio editor who preferred the director's first cut, secretly saved that original version and quietly put it in place of the others. When news of this version streaming on Netflix reached Bogdanovich, he contacted Fox, made a few finishing touches to said version, and the result was a director's cut, making its 

[Classsix T]

To save time and bandwidth, Sylvester Stallone has made two good films. Copland and Rocky.

 

Anything else he's done is fair game.

 

C6T.

[allan downes]

..Allan,

In the Fifties John Wayne did work for the McCarthy/Hoover House of Un-American Activities, there's a particularly awful bit of propaganda he did, filmed in the main in Hawaii I believe, can you dig out a review?

 

C6T.

I'll try C6T. Probably after I've posted a few more worst movies ever.

 

Cheers.

 

Allan

 

I  couldn't find anything definite, C6T, but there's plenty of mention of it in this link.

 

https://results.searchlock.com/search/?q=John+Wayne+did+work+for+the+McCarthy%2FHoover+House+of+Un-American+Activities&

 

Cheers.

 

Allan

[Classsix T]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Jim_McLain?wprov=sfla1

 

That's the fella. Thanx Allan.

 

C6T.

[bertiedog]

This is too rich an area......worst films.....it  goes far beyond the Golden Turkey awards listings, as Hollywood, and the rest of filmland have produced thousands of stinkers, the films that should never have been issued in the form that they came out in, lost money and audiences just disliked them.

 

Some of the failures are only in retrospect, they made money at the time, and if low values, in their terms were a success. B grade Sci-Fi from the fifties mainly made money.

 

The ones to note are the films that had big budgets, and still failed to gather in the crowds, or the really boring ones......Big failures were "Lost Horizon", the musical, " At long last love", a musical, and most 1960's UK kitchen sink dramas.

 

 

A real stinker was the 1945 UK musical spectacular "London Town" with Sid Fields, it failed in almost every area. J A Rank financed a curates egg, but it did not stink in parts, but all over. The restored longer version is watchable for the acts in it, but it lacked a story and had a director who had never made musicals. Kay Kendall said it ruined a nice start to her acting career.

One number is completely unexplained by the story, and in the credits another is mentioned but is not in the film at all.

 

Even now famous films like "The Wizard of Oz" were box office failures at first, and bear the scars of last minute cost cutting in efforts to save it.

Edited August 29, 2017 by bertiedog

[Rugd1022]

I'll nominate 'Dark Star', a cult science fiction effort if ever there was one, but must admit in broad daylight to all and sundry that it's actually one of my favourite films of all time. The byline when it was released (1973 / 74 I think) was 'Bombed out in space with a spaced out bomb', made on the hoof by a bunch of Californian misfits on a budget which just about allowed them to use an inflatable beach ball as an alien. George Lucas has sited it as a big influence on him when he started the pre-production process for 'Star Wars'.

[andyram]

 I noticed a few Sci Fi film references earlier in the thread. Any fans of the comedian Dara O'Braian will know of his hatred for the film "2012" and his amusing references to it during a previous stand up show.

 

 I will also throw in the dreadful live action version of "Thunderbirds" from a few years ago.

 

Thunderbirds is a 2004 British-American-French science fiction action-adventure film^[3] based on the 1960s television series of the same name, directed by Jonathan Frakes. The film, written by William Osborne and Michael McCullers, was released on 24 July 2004 in the United Kingdom and 30 July 2004 in the United States, with later opening dates in other countries. Whereas the original TV series used a form of puppetry termed "Supermarionation", the film's characters are portrayed by live-action actors.

Thunderbirds received mainly negative reviews and was a box office bomb. The creator of the original series, Gerry Anderson, disliked the film and called it "the biggest load of crap I have ever seen in my entire life".^[4] The film's soundtrack includes the song "Thunderbirds Are Go" by pop rock band Busted, which peaked at number one in the UK charts and later won the 2004 UK Record of the Year award.

 

The film only had a couple of saving graces. Ben Kingsley actually produced a very good depiction of "The Hood" whilst Lady Penelope was played by Sophia Myles - need I say more!

[Classsix T]

Superman 4, what a clunker!

 

The available information as to why it's so very dire, is of rather more interest by the way, and would make a far better film.

 

C6T.

[allan downes]

And, just for the record, my brother was a movie star by jove.

 

Check his movie out here.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsU8XJo97Gs

A western movie made in England, By the Remuda Western Club http:// www.remuda.org.uk and The Harrow College of Technology and Directed by Phillip King 

 

[jjb1970]

I'm also tempted to nominate the Matrix series. Major case of style over substance. I find it particularly annoying as the first one completely overshadowed the much better/cleverer (but less massively CGI'd) Dark City which appeared at the same time.

 

I thought the first one was quite a clever film which was based on a distrurbingly plausible premise and which had some terrific action sequences. The second and thrird installments were truly awful.

[jjb1970]

To save time and bandwidth, Sylvester Stallone has made two good films. Copland and Rocky.

 

Anything else he's done is fair game.

 

C6T.

 

I'd add a third - First Blood. The Rambo films became something of a joke and the sequels were awful but I thought the first one was an excellent film in every way and told a surprisingly intelligent story given the descent into trashdom of the sequels.

[jjb1970]

Star Wars Episode 1 was a dire let down given the hype and anticipation that preceeded it. I thought the big box office blockbuster Pearl Harbour was truly awful too despite its apparent success, Tora Tora Tora is much better in every way.

However, since we're talking about oddball turkey's that are so bad they're memorable then how about this one:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083178/

 

Or this one, which was so bad it is worth watching just to callibrate your movie badness standard:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106471/

[62613]

 

At Long Last Love (1975)

At Long Last Love was renowned director Peter Bogdanovich's musical homage to great 1930s Hollywood musicals. It features songs by Cole Porter and stars Cybill Shepherd and Burt Reynolds. Upon release, it received very negative reviews. CNN noted it was once considered "the worst musical extravaganza in Hollywood history".^[95]Esquire film critic John Simon said, "it may be the worst movie musical of this – or any – decade".^[96]Buffalo News film critic Jeff Simon wrote, "About 45 minutes in, it became apparent to one and all that this was one of the worst and most embarrassing major-talent turkeys of all time."^[97] Film critic Jay Cocks has said the film was "regarded as the great white elephant catastrophe of its time".^[98]Hollis Alpert stated, "This failure is so dismal that it goes beyond failure."^[99] It was included in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time and Michael Sauter's book The Worst Films of All Time.^[100] It is also included in the Golden Turkey Awards Nominees and Winners, the Worst Achievements in Hollywood History.^[101] Bogdanovich, who was also the screenwriter, sent press releases to newspapers across the country apologizing for this film.^[98]

One defender of the film was Roger Ebert, who stated, "The movie's no masterpiece, but I can't account for the viciousness of some of the critical attacks against it." He continued, "It's a light, silly, impeccably stylish entertainment ... if [bogdanovich] doesn't go spectacularly right, at least he provides small pleasures and great music."^[102] In a recent documentary on his career, Bogdanovich lamented being influenced by studio previews to cut the film before its theatrical release. He subsequently recut it again before it debuted on cable TV the next year. A fan of the film, a studio editor who preferred the director's first cut, secretly saved that original version and quietly put it in place of the others. When news of this version streaming on Netflix reached Bogdanovich, he contacted Fox, made a few finishing touches to said version, and the result was a director's cut, making its 

We had this on a ship; can't remember which one, but quite often you had to endure some dross to get at the nuggets. There was usually a poor 'Eytie' western, or French gangster movie in every box of films. Anyway, this one came up; within about 5 minutes of the start, I reckon the saloon was empty, apart from the cadet showing the film.

[Classsix T]

I'd add a third - First Blood. The Rambo films became something of a joke and the sequels were awful but I thought the first one was an excellent film in every way and told a surprisingly intelligent story given the descent into trashdom of the sequels.

You're probably right and I should possibly give First Blood another viewing. Especially given the frankly deplorable way conflict veterans are/have been treated by those who choose to send these people to do their bidding but subsequently wash their hands of them once rotated back into Civvy Street.

 

Be aware though the film came out whilst I was a teenager and there was a schoolmate that had an unnatural obsession, not with the reintegration of veterans in society, but guns and knives. Which kinda put me off the film before I'd watched it. Sly then put out gems such as Cobra (FFS) which further clouded my judgement on his acting abilities.

Even before his sacrilegious assault on British culture with Get Carter, he'd done the same with Judge Dredd. And Driven was, well just pants.

 

C6T.

[allan downes]

I liked Rocky cos Stallone gets beat up !

 

I also liked Rocky 2 cos he gets beat up again !

 

Allan.

[Classsix T]

Star Wars Episode 1 was a dire let down given the hype and anticipation that preceeded it.

I've said again and again though that George Lucas probably never intended The Phantom Menace to be aimed at fortysomething Star Wars geeks (like myself) hence Jar-jar, well, jars. It's a fairy tale. It works. Buy the toys, do your own stories.

(Force Awakens did actually make me feel like a teenager again BTW). C6T.

[Classsix T]

Ooh, and by the way.

 

I'm not sitting down with popcorn at the ready anytime soon with PatB for a viewing of the Matrix trilogy or the Spielberg/Cruise War of the Worlds. Both of which I rate highly! BUT!

 

If anyone even hints that David Lynch's Dune (yeah, the one with Sting) should be included in this thread, I'm gonna hurt them. That film is absolutely gorgeous, and it's failure at the box office is purely down to the fact the cinema going audience are idiots. Admittedly, not having read Frank Hetbert's book of the same name, it's taken me time to appreciate it properly, but given a desert island and electrical feed, I'll watch that sucker 'til the grooves wear out.

 

C6T.

[jjb1970]

Anything with Francesca Annis in it is worth watching. Dune was visually stunning with a great soundtrack and some first class acting talent but I think it over compressed the novel and as a result felt a bit incoherent in places. Well worth a watch though. The original novel is a genuinely great book, not just a great sci-fi book but a great book period. The sequels were turgid to the point of being almost unreadable.