Infinit01 and I kind of talked about this in another thread in terms of a certain film. However, I thought it deserved its own thread, since we talk a lot about movies on here.
Movies are one of those things where nothing is universally loved or loathed. For every uber popular film, there will be people who don't like it. (sometimes, I'm one of those) But, I don't want to talk about negativity on here, I want this to be a thread about positivity. So, we're going to do a thread about the opposite: Films that are massively disliked, though you like them anyway. They could be box office bombs, critical failures, failures with fans, or all of the above. It's OK if the film has reached cult status, after all a film has to be a failure for that to happen.
So, here are some of my favorite "bad" good films:
1. Batman & Robin (1997) Yup, I went there. When it comes to filmed Batman, there's goofy, incredibly dark and somewhere in between. In the 1960s, we got the goofy Batman. While that was wildly successful at its time, people were thrilled with Tim Burton's dark and serious Batman, inspired by the original comics. However, parent groups complained about its sequel, leading to Burton being replaced by Joel Schumacher. Schumacher's take on Batman definitely leaned towards the goofy side, especially in his second outing. This film was a commercial, critical and viewer failure, but I love it. It's got the spirit of the 1960s TV series, but it was done 30 years too late to be popular. It's a fun and funny film and needs to be viewed from that perspective of it being a love letter to the 1960s.
2. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) Following the commercial success of the first film, a sequel was inevitable. That sequel was a commercial, critical and viewer flop. However, I love it. Are the story or acting particularly good? No. But, it's fun and has lots of fun martial arts fights in it. Also, for Maul fans, this is Ray Park's second screen credit. He played Reptile #3, was Raiden's fighting double and other stunt roles. This is a great movie for enjoying a bowl of popcorn and some mindless fun. Unfortunately, this movie wasn't kind to the career of Brian Thompson, who played Shao-Kahn. (I like his work on Star Trek)
3. Dune (1984) This movie was a commercial flop, not even grossing its estimated $40 million budget. I've always liked it, though. It has a stellar cast. The special effects were really ambitious and well done. It should be noted that this one has achieved cult status.
4. Masters of the Universe (1987) An adaptation of the popular He-Man comics, this movie was judged too harshly by fans of the cartoon series. However, it was never an adaptation of the cartoon. In the early comics, He-Man was a barbarian who fought the forces of evil using enchanted gear and other weapons. He wasn't Prince Adam. This movie was optioned before the cartoon hit the airwaves, and nobody from Filmatiom was involved. It has a great cast, some great set pieces and costumes and great special effects. It feels a lot like Star Wars. Frank Langella, who played Skeletor, loved working on the film while Dolph Lundgren, who played He-Man, hated it. This is another commercial failure that has achieved cult status.
Anyway, those are a few of my favorite "bad" good movies. I have more, but I'm almost to work. I'll get into more modern stuff in a future post. What are some of your favorite unpopular movies? C'mon, you know you have some, so list them. Note: you don't have to go into the level of detail that I did. It's a long bus ride to work.
