Batshit crazy plot, appallingly unfunny script - clearly masterminded by deeply disconnected madmen. But well executed - great effects and technical filmmaking.
I remember Kevin Smith in one of his talks discussing Jon Peters, the producer of WWW, coming up with ridiculous suggestions and demands for a superman project they were both involved in, including a giant mechanical spider. Kevin was dropped from the project (it never got made) and then later he sees a giant mechanical spider in WWW and was like 'well that's all Jon'.
Smith's story is pretty epic. Probably wasn't the first time he told it, of course. And it became quite famous: in the end, Nicolas Cage, who was supposed to play Superman in Burton's film, had a cameo as Supes in 2023 ‘The Flash’ (iirc) fighting a giant spider.
It's also kinda funny that Silent Bob is rather chatty in real life, and toured colleges with these talks, releasing six of them, like three hours each. Whereas, whenever he brought Jason Mewes with him, the latter was mostly quiet.
The sexual dynamic between the two characters makes me more uncomfortable the older that movie gets, and it makes me very uncomfortable that such a young actor is playing the role The way they do. The plot too is silly, nobody, not even an emotionless assassin would try to teach a kid to be an assassin for any reason. Kids are impulsive idiots and there's literally no upside to it. But holy hell does Gary Oldman absolutely rule in that movie.
If you ignore the anime series, and just watch the live action movie with zero expectations, it can be kinda fun. Realistically, pretty much nobody did that, and that’s why they hated it.
The question was what movies have horrible taste AND poorly thought-out plots but were excellently executed. So, my question stands: Does Avatar have horrible taste?
The plot of Yellow Submarine is basically "the Beatles have a contractual obligation to make a movie but they can't be bothered, so let's get impressionists to voice cartoon Beatles and draw a bunch of drug-addled fuckery to illustrate some of their songs for an hour and a half."
In execution, it's a bizarrely compelling and beautiful piece of work that I enjoy a great deal despite not being into either the Beatles or drugs.
I remember my family going to that one expecting a silly "haha they're trapped in old TV where stuff is old-timey" thing and unexpectedly getting something really genuinely special.
I remember when my wife and I watched Morbius, we were pretty impressed with the sound mixing. We could hear what everyone was saying without our ears getting blown out by the explosions and such.
I feel like the effects and such were all petty solid too, but there's no saving the fact that the story, writing, and acting were just trash.
I mean they weren't THAT bad... They weren't at the level of most stuff on !bmoviebonanza@lemmy.world . They were just kinda bland and not worth the price of a movie ticket.
Pacific rim. Plot is fucking stupid but it doesn't matter. Only one robot has guns. They don't use the sword until the end. They never attack the rift that spawns the kaiju.
I got to see giant robots do wrestling moves on giant monsters. It's my favorite movie.
I think Shia, I can't spell his last name, acting was the weakest part, but outside of that I thought it did a good job by most accounts.
There is a pretty decent cast that does a good job hitting the comedic and serious tones for what is a ridiculous premise (advanced robots disguising themselves as vehicles). The plot also gives a somewhat reasonable explanation for why the transformers are on earth and links it to human history in a neat way. And I don't think anyone could argue for the action sequences, at least for the time it released.
Sure its no Oscar winner, but for what it's supposed to be I thought it hit most of the marks.
Now the sequels and future movies, those are all a mess.
I actually really like it for the very simple narrative. The natives win against the colonial slavers. Kind of sucks they needed outsiders, but still, it is the rise up and finally beat these assholes story generally only dreamt of in showers.
Solid listing here. Funny and some killer fight scenes. Roger Workman gets a busted nose, too.
It's hard for me to pin down to be honest because good execution hides a lot. I've found the Ocean Twelve movie really dumb but enjoyed it ... not sure if it's horrible taste though?
I thought they had confirmed that they intended it to be a 40k movie but never got the rights to the name so they made it a "generic" future but kept the script essentially the same.
The unofficial trilogy is Event Horizon (1997), Sunshine (2007), and Pandorum (2009). Three entirely different takes. But, Ironically, I watched The Black Hole (1979 Disney response to Star Wars) and Event Horizon back to back. It's the same damn plot.
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Team America: World Police yet. That one has highly innovative puppetry behind it as well as brilliant engineering... all for a horrible film with a badly written plot as well as (shudder) horrible depiction.
The first one that leaps to mind is The Phantom Menace. World-class score, Duel Of The Fates alone is utterly epic. Casting is almost perfect, probably don't ruin that poor child's life. Get a teenager to play Anakin. Set and costume design are great, the plot is ridiculous. The boys at RedLetterMedia articulated it better than I ever will, but, you could fix it with a script rewrite or two.
Popeye also jumps to mind. The 1980 live-action movie starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. Paramount lost the bid to make Annie, the studio had their hearts set on making a broadway musical adaptation of a depression-era IP, and the first thing that occurred to anyone was they had the rights to Popeye. Of all things. Annie is a broadway musical, so songs complete with dance numbers were already built in. Popeye is a cartoon wedged somewhere between Betty Boop and Bugs Bunny. They decided to make a Popeye musical. And commenced principal photography before writing any songs. They ADR'd songs over top of scenes they shot before the songs were written. Which is why it's...not really remembered as a musical. Directed by Robert "I directed MASH" Altman very much in his style, much of the film consists of characters blathering over each other incessantly. The collision of the cartoon physics and character proportions with the very grounded Altman style is uniquely jarring. AND YET. The set design, cinematography and costume design are excellent. It's a badly conceived stupid idea executed by consummate professionals.
I really like American Hustle (2013). The plot is kind of ridiculous. The emotional abuse amongst the characters should make me hate everyone, but there's so much star power charisma, and it was shot well enough, that it's a fun watch that I find myself going back to despite not being a remarkable film.
While a lot of the plot is embellished, cause it's a movie, the base premise is based on actual events. The Wikipedia has a good section on the historical accuracy - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hustle(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hustle)
There’s a movie called Crime 101, it’s got pretty good actors, it’s shot very well, the writing is even decent but it’s the most cliche boring heist/crime plot I’ve ever watched. You can guess basically everything the entire movie. Afterwards it was very clear that everyone involved was capable of making a far better movie but the plot was so terribly predictable
It depends how high you set the bar, and how broadly you interpret "taste" but I really want to say most. (I want to include the sense of how humans actually talk, interact, and how the world works, and count following conventionalized but shallow ideas of those as bad taste.) Production technology and skills have gotten very high.
73 Comments
pulsewidth@lemmy.world · 52 pts · 3d
Wild Wild West.
Batshit crazy plot, appallingly unfunny script - clearly masterminded by deeply disconnected madmen. But well executed - great effects and technical filmmaking.
I remember Kevin Smith in one of his talks discussing Jon Peters, the producer of WWW, coming up with ridiculous suggestions and demands for a superman project they were both involved in, including a giant mechanical spider. Kevin was dropped from the project (it never got made) and then later he sees a giant mechanical spider in WWW and was like 'well that's all Jon'.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 3d
Smith's story is pretty epic. Probably wasn't the first time he told it, of course. And it became quite famous: in the end, Nicolas Cage, who was supposed to play Superman in Burton's film, had a cameo as Supes in 2023 ‘The Flash’ (iirc) fighting a giant spider.
It's also kinda funny that Silent Bob is rather chatty in real life, and toured colleges with these talks, releasing six of them, like three hours each. Whereas, whenever he brought Jason Mewes with him, the latter was mostly quiet.
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2d
Kevin Smith is great at talking about his favorite subject, which is Kevin Smith movies.
someguy3@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
I assumed he didn't talk in the movies because he wanted to focus on directing.
treadful@lemmy.zip · 41 pts · 3d
Every Wes Anderson movie.
runs
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works · 23 pts · 3d
I once told a woman on a dating app that I can’t stand Wes Anderson films, and she immediately unmatched with me.
Drusas@fedia.io · 37 pts · 3d
Fair.
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2d
The one exception being his horror masterpiece The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders.
blargh513@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2d
Hands down his best work.
Mrkawfee@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
Stop-motion mouse really stole the show.
moondoggie@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 3d
His career really took a weird turn after Nightmare on Elm Street
Agent641@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 2d
Leon: The professional
The sexual dynamic between the two characters makes me more uncomfortable the older that movie gets, and it makes me very uncomfortable that such a young actor is playing the role The way they do. The plot too is silly, nobody, not even an emotionless assassin would try to teach a kid to be an assassin for any reason. Kids are impulsive idiots and there's literally no upside to it. But holy hell does Gary Oldman absolutely rule in that movie.
disregardable@lemmy.zip · 28 pts · 3d
Bad Santa?
Almacca@aussie.zone · 10 pts · 3d
That was my yearly Christmas watch for many years. It has a surprisingly heartwarming ending, and what a cast!
toiletobserver@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 3d
Everything single thing about you is ugly. Your soul is dog shit.
Mac@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 2d
Me in the comments of Republicans:
guitarfosec@infosec.pub · 5 pts · 2d
Jesus Christ… God damn it… Kid, are you fuckin’ with me?
blargh513@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 2d
It is deeply satisfying to watch talented actors indulge in saying every shitty thing you wish you could ever say.
The level of debauchery is a goddamn delight.
It is a dirty treat to watch, and I think that anyone who likes movies should at least watch it once.
AcidBurn@retrofed.com · 24 pts · 3d
XeroxCool@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 21h
Tokyo Drift starts with a street race with a girl as the prize, too.
Anyway, Donut Media's video on ranking best and cringiest FaF movies/scenes/lines is excellent. Might be two videos
AcidBurn@retrofed.com · 1 pts · 19h
I'll check that / those videos out, thanks
I forgot about the opening, but at least in that the woman has agency since she volunteers herself (even if she's portrayed very negatively)
shittydwarf@piefed.ca · 17 pts · 3d
The first one that comes to mind was Avatar
chaosCruiser@futurology.today · 2 pts · 2d
If you ignore the anime series, and just watch the live action movie with zero expectations, it can be kinda fun. Realistically, pretty much nobody did that, and that’s why they hated it.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 2d
Not The Last Air Bender, James Cameron's big budget screen saver.
hogmomma@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3d
Avatar has horrible taste?
shittydwarf@piefed.ca · 11 pts · 3d
Live action Fern gully is pretty meh?
hogmomma@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
The question was what movies have horrible taste AND poorly thought-out plots but were excellently executed. So, my question stands: Does Avatar have horrible taste?
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 2d
The plot of Yellow Submarine is basically "the Beatles have a contractual obligation to make a movie but they can't be bothered, so let's get impressionists to voice cartoon Beatles and draw a bunch of drug-addled fuckery to illustrate some of their songs for an hour and a half."
In execution, it's a bizarrely compelling and beautiful piece of work that I enjoy a great deal despite not being into either the Beatles or drugs.
brown567@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 2d
"John! Don't pull that lever!"
"Can't help it. I'm a born leverpuller!"
gedaliyah@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 3d
Pleasantville looks like a cheap gag in the preview, but honestly one of my favorite movies.
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
I remember my family going to that one expecting a silly "haha they're trapped in old TV where stuff is old-timey" thing and unexpectedly getting something really genuinely special.
Fondots@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 3d
I remember when my wife and I watched Morbius, we were pretty impressed with the sound mixing. We could hear what everyone was saying without our ears getting blown out by the explosions and such.
I feel like the effects and such were all petty solid too, but there's no saving the fact that the story, writing, and acting were just trash.
Sergio@piefed.social · 6 pts · 3d
I mean they weren't THAT bad... They weren't at the level of most stuff on !bmoviebonanza@lemmy.world . They were just kinda bland and not worth the price of a movie ticket.
GrayBackgroundMusic@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 2d
Pacific rim. Plot is fucking stupid but it doesn't matter. Only one robot has guns. They don't use the sword until the end. They never attack the rift that spawns the kaiju.
I got to see giant robots do wrestling moves on giant monsters. It's my favorite movie.
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 2d
And the soundtrack. MAN.
That CG Netflix series was actually pretty rad in expanding the universe, too. I thought it was neat.
TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website · 14 pts · 3d
The first Transformers by Micheal Bay … think of it most of Bay’s work before 2010
jacksilver@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d
I think Shia, I can't spell his last name, acting was the weakest part, but outside of that I thought it did a good job by most accounts.
There is a pretty decent cast that does a good job hitting the comedic and serious tones for what is a ridiculous premise (advanced robots disguising themselves as vehicles). The plot also gives a somewhat reasonable explanation for why the transformers are on earth and links it to human history in a neat way. And I don't think anyone could argue for the action sequences, at least for the time it released.
Sure its no Oscar winner, but for what it's supposed to be I thought it hit most of the marks.
Now the sequels and future movies, those are all a mess.
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 2d
All that and...damn...I could hear Peter Cullen talk all day. Rest in peace. :(
Toasticus@piefed.social · 2 pts · 2d
It was the only honest one of the whole bunch. The rest were just drenched in Bay's style.
chaosCruiser@futurology.today · 11 pts · 2d
The Star Wars sequel trilogy. What a waste of money and time.
wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io · 10 pts · 3d
Nice try “how did this get made”.
pipe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
Man, I wish Zouks was here just chillin' and talkin' tang.
toiletobserver@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 3d
The run down
theherk@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 3d
I actually really like it for the very simple narrative. The natives win against the colonial slavers. Kind of sucks they needed outsiders, but still, it is the rise up and finally beat these assholes story generally only dreamt of in showers.
Solid listing here. Funny and some killer fight scenes. Roger Workman gets a busted nose, too.
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 2d
Sean William Scott is such a good "lovable scoundrel" in that movie, too. So many good moments lol.
"FIERCE GAZE! I know Portuguese, I'll talk to them." 😂
Also I later learned there was like, 4 seconds of Capoeira the rebels were using, so, that was neat.
lobut@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 2d
ATBGE? I missed that subreddit.
It's hard for me to pin down to be honest because good execution hides a lot. I've found the Ocean Twelve movie really dumb but enjoyed it ... not sure if it's horrible taste though?
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2d
/c/atbge@lemmy.world exists and could be nudged back into activity if folks here are into it.
kalpol@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 2d
Having just finished Event Horizon, I'm gonna go with that. Great cast, very interesting practical effects, silly plot, senseless gore.
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2d
I recently saw a video essay that argued that Event Horizon should be considered WH40K. They made some decent points.
Nibodhika@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
I thought they had confirmed that they intended it to be a 40k movie but never got the rights to the name so they made it a "generic" future but kept the script essentially the same.
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d
Maybe. I never looked into it, just kinda went "huh, that's neat," when I ran into the video.
Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 2d
Yep, the first time humanity flew through the Warp and realized the necessity of a Gellar field.
XeroxCool@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 21h
The unofficial trilogy is Event Horizon (1997), Sunshine (2007), and Pandorum (2009). Three entirely different takes. But, Ironically, I watched The Black Hole (1979 Disney response to Star Wars) and Event Horizon back to back. It's the same damn plot.
Macallan@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
One of my favorite movies.
ChaosCatWitch@feddit.online · 7 pts · 2d
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Team America: World Police yet. That one has highly innovative puppetry behind it as well as brilliant engineering... all for a horrible film with a badly written plot as well as (shudder) horrible depiction.
ChaosCatWitch@feddit.online · 3 pts · 2d
Then again, almost every Trey Parker movie is tasteless.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 2d
The first one that leaps to mind is The Phantom Menace. World-class score, Duel Of The Fates alone is utterly epic. Casting is almost perfect, probably don't ruin that poor child's life. Get a teenager to play Anakin. Set and costume design are great, the plot is ridiculous. The boys at RedLetterMedia articulated it better than I ever will, but, you could fix it with a script rewrite or two.
Popeye also jumps to mind. The 1980 live-action movie starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. Paramount lost the bid to make Annie, the studio had their hearts set on making a broadway musical adaptation of a depression-era IP, and the first thing that occurred to anyone was they had the rights to Popeye. Of all things. Annie is a broadway musical, so songs complete with dance numbers were already built in. Popeye is a cartoon wedged somewhere between Betty Boop and Bugs Bunny. They decided to make a Popeye musical. And commenced principal photography before writing any songs. They ADR'd songs over top of scenes they shot before the songs were written. Which is why it's...not really remembered as a musical. Directed by Robert "I directed MASH" Altman very much in his style, much of the film consists of characters blathering over each other incessantly. The collision of the cartoon physics and character proportions with the very grounded Altman style is uniquely jarring. AND YET. The set design, cinematography and costume design are excellent. It's a badly conceived stupid idea executed by consummate professionals.
brown567@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 2d
I might have to watch that. I could tell at first glance that it was bad, but I didn't know it was bad XD
RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 2d
Dazed and confused. Really no plot, but it's great.
CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 2d
The Big Lebowski is sort of like this too I think. I actually can't remember if he even gets his rug back lol, but also it doesn't matter.
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 2d
IIRC yep that's pretty much the plot! Lol
mika_mika@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 3d
I really like American Hustle (2013). The plot is kind of ridiculous. The emotional abuse amongst the characters should make me hate everyone, but there's so much star power charisma, and it was shot well enough, that it's a fun watch that I find myself going back to despite not being a remarkable film.
jacksilver@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 3d
While a lot of the plot is embellished, cause it's a movie, the base premise is based on actual events. The Wikipedia has a good section on the historical accuracy - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hustle(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hustle)
CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 3d
There’s a movie called Crime 101, it’s got pretty good actors, it’s shot very well, the writing is even decent but it’s the most cliche boring heist/crime plot I’ve ever watched. You can guess basically everything the entire movie. Afterwards it was very clear that everyone involved was capable of making a far better movie but the plot was so terribly predictable
GeorgimusPrime@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d
The clue was right there in the name
DudeWhoYapsTooMuch@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3d
Oh I saw that movie. It was hilariously boring.
calamitycastle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3d
Worst film I have seen this year hands down.
The writing is awwwwful! The love interest has to be the least curious character to have ever existed in all of cinema.
I have so much to say about how bad this movie is it's making me upset all over again.
WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 2d
Depends upon your perspective, but The Rocky Horror Picture Show might qualify.
smiletolerantly@awful.systems · 2 pts · 3d
The Creator
Relatively small budget, but looks better than basically anything else that landed in cinemas at the time, or since.
Guess they saved on the script...
blackbrook@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 2d
It depends how high you set the bar, and how broadly you interpret "taste" but I really want to say most. (I want to include the sense of how humans actually talk, interact, and how the world works, and count following conventionalized but shallow ideas of those as bad taste.) Production technology and skills have gotten very high.
bookmeat@fedinsfw.app · 1 pts · 2d
XeroxCool@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 21h
I'm thinking you just read the titles off your DVD collection
bookmeat@fedinsfw.app · 1 pts · 9h
Nah, but these are ones I enjoyed that more or less fit into the question parameters.
Melobol@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 3d
Under the Boardwalk
2023 American animated musical romantic comedy.
The animation, sound - all the production was there. The plot and characters were just bad. (I haven't finished it so maybe it gets better?)