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Ricochet Movie Fight Club: Question 18
Last week Brian Watt came out of his corner raging for a Page One knockout. Philo’s Page Three uppercut sent him reeling and Brian ended up clinging to the ropes, eying the clock but still upright when the final bell sounded. His jaw may be a little sore today, but not too sore to ask: What is the worst movie (not a made-for-TV movie) ever made?
From Brian:
It should be a movie shown in a movie theater produced or distributed by a major studio (MGM, Universal, United Artists, 20th Century Fox, Columbia, RKO, Warner Brothers, Disney, etc.); a movie that others may have raved about which prompted you to see it; that was so bad, you may have walked out or griped about it and felt cheated for wasting your money on it; so bad that you may have even heckled it or made catcalls at the screen in the theater while watching it; and so bad that you may actually think less of others’ taste in movies – whether critics, celebrities, or friends — who actually hold this awful film in high regard.
Of course, the more comprehensive your answer on why the movie is so awful, the more persuasive your answer will be.
The Rules:
- Post your answer as a comment. Make it clear that this is your official answer, one per member.
- Defend your answer in the comments and fight it out with other Ricochet member answers for the rest of the week.
- Whoever gets the most likes on their official answer comment (and only that comment) by Friday night wins the fight.
- The winner gets the honor of posting the next question on Saturday.
- In the case of a tie, the member who posted the question will decide the winner.
Notes:
- Only movies will qualify (no TV shows) however films that air on television (BBC films, a stand-alone mini-series) will qualify.
- Your answer can be as off-the-wall or controversial as you’d like. It will be up to you to defend it and win people to your side.
- Fight it out.
Special thanks to Arahant for compiling a list of previous questions.
Movie Fight Club Questions by Week:
- What is the best film portrayal of a book character? Winner: Charlotte with 18 likes for Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies.
- What is the best motion picture comedy of the 21st century? Winner: split decision. In an exemplary display of genuine sportsmanship, Randy Webster conceded the fight to Marjorie Reynolds’ pick Team America: World Police.
- What film provides the most evocative use of location? Winner: Taras with 21 likes for Lawrence of Arabia. Wasn’t even close.
- What is the best film that utilizes or is inspired by a work of William Shakespeare? Winner: Dr. Bastiat with five likes for The Lion King, a film inspired by Hamlet.
- Which movie has the best surprise ending, or unexpected plot twist? Winner: Repmodad with 18 likes for The Sixth Sense.
- What pre-1970s black-and-white movie would be most enjoyed by a modern 18-to 25-year-old audience? Winner: E J Hill with 9 likes for a Casablanca. (He didn’t exactly designate it his official answer, and most of the likes may have been for the modern Casablanca trailer rather than for it as an answer to the question, but nobody seemed to dispute it on those grounds, so that’s how the cookie crumbles.)
- What movie did you go to based on the trailer, only to have felt cheated? (i.e., the trailer was 10x better than the movie?) Winner: Back to back wins by E J Hill with 9 likes for Something to Talk About.
- Name the worst movie portrayal of your profession (where applicable.) Winner: LC with 8 likes for Denise Richards’ Dr. Christmas Jones in The World is Not Enough.
- What is the worst movie that claims to be based or inspired by a true story? Winner: Tex929rr with 16 likes for the, “…terrible acting, and countless deviations from history,” in Pearl Harbor.
- What is your favorite little known movie? Winner: A last-minute rally for Tremors made the difference as Songwriter took the week 10 win!
- What is the best movie that you never want to watch again? Winner:
HitlerCharlotte with 15 likes for Schindler’s List. Sorry, Richard Oshea but Jesus won the real fight.
Week 11.5 Exhibition Match (as a make-up of sorts, since Songwriter didn’t get the week 11 question submitted in time) Name the best movie theme song ever? No winner declared but I’m pretty sure it was I.M. Fine with “Moon River.” - Name the best animated feature-length movie of all time. Winner: I.M. Fine with 10 likes for Pinocchio, and justice for I.M. Fine prevailed.
- What is the worst acting performance in an otherwise good film? Winner: In one of the most brutal fights we’ve seen yet Repmodad fended off a furious 12th-round onslaught by Gary McVey to give Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves the win with 20 likes.
- What is the quintessential American movie? Winner: Miffed White Male pulled off the comeback with 20 likes for The Right Stuff. There was a two-way tie at 19 for second place as well.
- What’s the most entertaining movie set during WWII? Winner: Arahant clearly won with Casablanca’s walloping 30 likes despite the withering onslaught by Sisyphus on the final day.
- What is the best movie love story? Winner: Songwriter with 20 likes for The Princess Bride with 20 likes. Up managed to make a strong showing and Dr. Bastiat is still conducting recounts trying to “find” some uncounted votes.
- What’s the best’ buddy’ movie? Winner: Brian Watt wins with 12 likes for The Man Who Would be King.
Published in General
I finished Atonement. Soairse Ronan was very impressive. In fact, the performances all around were very good. The movie, however, was pretty weak.
I didn’t realize you were a goth kid.
If I’m anything at all, I’m nearly the antithesis of a goth kid.
Disco?
Unapologetically “white!” I was uninvited to a goth party once because I was wearing a white shirt, and said I’d just hang in the corner blessing everybody.
Amen, brother. I liked on NCIS when Abby the goth lab scientist turned out to be the devout Christian of the group. We all struggle.
I know metalheads and goths are two totally different species, but that reminds me of the young lady that wore a heavy metal t-shirt (Slayer or something) every time she came to our (rather old-fashioned, conservative) services. After a while, no one gave her any trouble about it, so she decided she liked us, and would keep showing up (mostly in a different shirt). Now, she likes to tell the story to brag on her church.
Oh my god that was so bad. And endless. It just kept going and going and made no sense at all. I wanted to slash my own throat just to make it end. But I’m thinking of Warren Beatty’s movie from 1981, not 2010.
I like Titanic. Kate Winslet has a strong resemblance to a girl I was dating and she got nekkid.
The key to Titanic is to ignore any scene that has Leonardo Dicaprio in it. He’s Titanic’s Jar Jar Binks. (While you’re at it, take out scenes with Billy Zane, the idiot fiance.) Just take out scenes with him and you’re left with a much shorter movie that is a nice historical look at a tragic sinking.
I thought the leads did well with an atrocious script. Victor Garber should’ve received more attention, and the extraordinary Jonathan Hyde was practically wasted (as he tends to be) by playing a contemptible version of the overly derided Bruce Ismay.
Come as you are.
As you were, as I want you to be.
Agreed, I love that movie. Red 2, not so much, but that’s only owing to Catherine Zeta-Jones’s unique talent for diminishing any film she’s associated with.
I just realised I used the word characters 3 times in one sentence. That would be the wine.
The scenes I really hated were the ones set in the 1990s.
Red and Knight and Day are my two go-to movies when I just want entertaining comedy-action on a weekend night.
Yes, but she looks fabulous while doing it.
Speaking to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2003: “I don’t need to tell you, but my family ties to this industry go back a long way! Please, I beg of you, give my wife an Oscar! I know it’s Julianne’s year, but there will be no peace in my house until she has something on the mantle.”
On those nights I gravitate towards skipping through scenes from the Bourne or Avengers movies. My oldest son is now 20 and over the last couple of years he’s been catching up on all of the movies his mom and I wouldn’t let him watch when he was younger. A few weeks ago we were in the kitchen talking about movies and he said he’d never heard of Red. My wife and I immediately sent him links and recommendations for it as a good, fun, action movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
I love the scene at the end where Frank asks agent Cooper, “You got this?”
I removed my “like“ from Waterworld, when I realized that I was putting it ahead of Howard the Duck.
Waterworld is bad, but in an ordinary way, like almost any other Kevin Costner movie.
Howard the Duck is the apotheosis of bad. Bad enough to give Leonard Pinth-Garnell a heart attack. It is the Khufu’s Pyramid of bad.
The only way to explain the movie is to assume that everyone who worked on it was stoned, all the way down to and including the technical staff.
I understood that reference.
😂😂 Nice
You’re giving Dennis Miller a run for the obscure cultural references dept.
Yeah, but I think the winner of this movie fight should be a bad movie that was supposed to be good, a movie that won awards (for merit, wiseguys, for merit so no Razzy’s don’t count).
But that isn’t the question.
If you win, you can ask your version of the question. But Howard the Duck… *Shudder*
It’s not not the question either. Brian had other criteria.
I don’t recall any raving about Howard the Duck. No the winner should be a supposedly good movie.
It was touted as a great movie when it came out. It was not a B-movie.
It was a bomb. It was hyped as the latest greatest George Lucas wonder and then word of mouth killed it deader than Colin Kaepernick’s talent. It ranked 15 on the tomatometer.
From 84-86 Lucas made Temple of Doom, a bunch of Ewok things, Labyrinth, and Howard the Duck. He never really recovered, creatively.
I think that was what I had claimed. It was a terrible movie that was expected by many people to be at least good, so it meets the criteria for the contest here.
The monumental nature of the achievement that Howard the Duck represents is brought out by this passage from Wikipedia:
The film received seven Golden Raspberry Award nominations in 1987 including Worst Supporting Actor (Tim Robbins), Worst Director and Worst Original Song (“Howard the Duck”). It won four trophies for Worst Screenplay, Worst New Star (“the six guys and gals in the duck suit”), Worst Visual Effects, and Worst Picture, tied with Under the Cherry Moon. … The movie also won a Stinkers Bad Movie Awards for Worst Picture.
By contrast, it’s not hard to come up with movies worse than the merely mediocre Waterworld; for example, the new Aquaman. Compared to that, Waterworld is —deep.