Movies so bad they're great

[Heathcliff]

I thought this might be a bit of fun at these difficult times. So - a movie so bad, stupid, poorly made... it's funny or silly enough to be enjoyable. My choice:

ATOMIC TRAIN

Yes, this classic: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144039/

It's a disatster movie where a nasty corporate boss (who works for a company which disposes of old nuclear weapons) smuggles an old Russian atomic bomb onto an ordinary freight train, because he wants to save money on transporting it on its own. Then the train's brakes fail, and it's going to crash - and oh dear! The train's filled with explosive chemicals! And it's heading for Denver!

Forgive me- the premise doesn't sound funny. The reason this film is notorious is because it is filled with factual errors and stuff that doesn't make sense. You always have to suspend belief a bit with most movies - but with this you're not so much suspending it as launching it into space.

There's a great list of mistakes in this film on IMDB, but to pick a few good ones:

- "The air brakes on a train are fail-safe. If the hose parts, the brakes go on automatically rather than becoming unusable." (Basically trains are a hell of a lot safer than the crappy train depicted in the movie.)

- "During the entire film, many different attempts to prevent a nuclear disaster were attempted. One obvious thing they didn't attempt, was to simply disconnect the box car with the bomb in it." (So they tried almost eveything except the one obvious fix that would have ended the movie too early.)

- "For no reason, the crew placing the derail has no radio, requiring a helicopter to visit them when they have to be given instruction." (This is just silly.)

- "When Seger gets onto the runaway train it is suddenly deemed vital for him to locate the bomb. Any of the crew members already on board could have done that." (A specialist agent is dropped onto the train so that he can find a crate and look at it.)

The biggest point that people complain about is that a nuclear bomb doesn't detonate just from a big explosion around it. I recently read that (technically) this is not a mistake - some very early atomic bomb types could possibly have accidentally detonated like that. So that's something in its favour.

But the film is still crap. But entertaining.

Got any examples?

[Chanel_no5]

I actually love the movie adaptation of Stephen King's "Christine". It's a TERRIBLE movie, but it's so wonderfully over the top bad that I can't help loving it.

 

[Travel]

lol I remember Atomic Train. I loved disaster movies as a kid so even one like that was something I got easily obsessed with. 

5 hours ago, Chanel_no5 said:

I actually love the movie adaptation of Stephen King's "Christine". It's a TERRIBLE movie, but it's so wonderfully over the top bad that I can't help loving it.

 

I wouldn't go that far! It's not really a good movie, but I think it's as good as a movie about a killer car can be. It has that top-notch John Carpenter directing and score! 

[Heathcliff]

4 hours ago, Travel said:

lol I remember Atomic Train. I loved disaster movies as a kid so even one like that was something I got easily obsessed with.

Actually I totally agree, I love disaster movies, I love Atomic Train, it always cheers me up (weirdly) and there are far worse movies than it. It's just a bit comic when they sort of say:

"What's that? There's a nuclear bomb on the train? And it's in a car with loads of flammable chemicals?? And the train's brakes have failed??? AND IT'S DOWNHILL ALL THE WAY TO DENVER??? OH, MY GOD!!!!!!"

[Glatissant]

Omg I have so many (have been doing monthly bad movie nights with friends for ages so have a long list). What immediately come to mind:

The Room (the Citizen Kane of accidentally bad movies)
Manos: Hands of Fate (one of the oldest I've seen, and so very bad, made by an insurance salesman when someone bet him he couldn't make a movie)
Anne Frank vs Night Wolves (this is a "purposefully bad" movie, but it's hilarious with high production value and it's on YouTube)
Dead Alive (a comedy horror movie with accidental badness around the incredible amount of puppet gore it has - still holds the record for most fake blood ever used in a movie)

[Glatissant]

8 minutes ago, Glatissant said:

Omg I have so many (have been doing monthly bad movie nights with friends for ages so have a long list). What immediately come to mind:

The Room (the Citizen Kane of accidentally bad movies)
Manos: Hands of Fate (one of the oldest I've seen, and so very bad, made by an insurance salesman when someone bet him he couldn't make a movie)
Anne Frank vs Night Wolves (this is a "purposefully bad" movie, but it's hilarious with high production value and it's on YouTube)
Dead Alive (a comedy horror movie with accidental badness around the incredible amount of puppet gore it has - still holds the record for most fake blood ever used in a movie)

^That should be Helen Keller vs Night Wolves (don't think I can edit it)

[Heathcliff]

1 hour ago, Glatissant said:

^That should be Helen Keller vs Night Wolves (don't think I can edit it) 

Good lord... is that a real movie??? (checks) Oh my God it is! That must be terrible!

I did once see a movie on TV at night called Primal Force - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194543/

Some people crash land on an island filled with genetically engineered killer baboons. A couple of good points:

- the baboons are very obviously people in costumes

- Ron Perlman is in it, and at one point some character who is a stuck-up woman says "Who's going to carry my luggage?" and in response Ron Perlman's character just shoots her suitcase with a shotgun.

[Glatissant]

On 4/17/2020 at 5:54 PM, Heathcliff said:

Good lord... is that a real movie??? (checks) Oh my God it is! That must be terrible!

I did once see a movie on TV at night called Primal Force - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194543/

Some people crash land on an island filled with genetically engineered killer baboons. A couple of good points:

- the baboons are very obviously people in costumes

- Ron Perlman is in it, and at one point some character who is a stuck-up woman says "Who's going to carry my luggage?" and in response Ron Perlman's character just shoots her suitcase with a shotgun.

That sounds VITAL, will check it out. 

And yeah, Helen Keller vs Night Wolves is very real, made by the same people who made FDR: American Badass (which is also a vital bad movie, but I'd say Night Wolves has better pacing).