The world of movies is a huge one and as movie bloggers we watch more movies a year than some people will watch in 10. It is inevitable that we will see movies which won’t be of the quality we hope, which will simply be very bad. We hope we won’t see too much of those, but know this is the “risk” of a movie blogger. There are some bloggers though who will purposely seek out the worst movies and it made me think of the following question:
Do you sometimes watch bad movies on purpose and why?
If I look at my own movie watching habits I will watch a movie which has had bad reviews for a couple of reasons:
1. I will know that it could be a movie I would still enjoy (think movies like John Carter, Battle L.A. or Battleship)
2. If it is a comedy because one man’s trash is the other man’s treasure
3. I’m curious about how bad a movie is. For example I watched Plan 9 From Outer Space simply because I wanted to know how bad a Ed Wood was. I considered a bit of education.
Interested in your answers.
I always get frustrated when I see a blogger/reviewer go watch a horror film for example, when they admit themselves they don’t like the genre. Then they give the film a 1/10 because they dont like the genre. I mean, why go watch it anyway, but then if that score puts a few people off seeing something then its all messed up in my opinion. The same way I wont go and see Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2, or whatever, because I know I wont like it and its not aimed at me 🙂
Seeing a bad movie by accident happens a lot. I’ll watch something like REC 3 as I loved 1&2, yet despised 3.
Well, I guess it depends on what a review score means to you and how a blogger uses his scores. I use the scores in order to reflect how much I liked/disliked a movie. It could be a very well made movie, but if I don’t like it I will give it a low score. To me score are a personal opinion and if you know the tastes a blogger has you can keep that in the back of your mind.
When I read reviews and the blogger claims the movie is bad, I sometimes do want to see it just to know why it’s bad. While his/her words do justify it, it’s not the same thing as seeing it for yourself. That doesn’t count on movies that even I think are going to be bad, and just tend to avoid those as a whole.
Yeah, it sometimes makes me curious as well! 🙂
I watch a bad movie almost every day, but it’s a certain kind of bad movies that I am into. I like the kind made by independent or small companies for a small budget, usually with non-actors, made by a guy who has a script and a dream (even if it’s a dream of making a quick buck), who is working outside Hollywood. The reason I am into bad movies like this is because of two things: 1. I have to look for them and 2. you never know what you’re going to see, because unlike big-budget Hollywood movies, they’re not pandering to a lowest common denominator, so there’s more creativity possible. Think Ed Wood, not Renny Harlin. Although, even Renny Harlin made Nightmare on Elm Street 4, which I loved. OK, think Ed Wood, not that guy from Europe whose name escapes me right now who got in the boxing ring with critics.
Bad movies are a lifestyle choice. I started with watching Troma movies in 88 or so, when I was in high school, and it’s been downhill from there.
That is a very good explanation why you would do it and for this reason I understand. Have you seen the documentary Rewind This? I think you would like that as it deals with the VHS revolution and the amount of low quality movies it unleashed.
I generally watch movies that I do want to watch. If the movie so happens to be bad then I will write a review with a poor score. The one exception would be a film where I get an opportunity to watch an advanced screening.
If I know a movie to be bad–its been out for a while–I will avoid it. If I have a feeling a movie is going to be bad, then if I go is based on the actors and filmmakers involved.
So you try to avoid them as much as you can. I guess I’m also like that…except for Jason Statham/Nicolas Cage/Dwayne Johnson movies..I will always give those a shot as I always enjoyed seeing them.
Movies made by independent companies really have more creativity about them, and less of that cheeesy stuff we’ve seen so many times we’re all sick of it. I like watching them to discover something different, less anticipated and predictable. I would also watch a movie someone claims to be bad because I want to have my own vision of how bad it is, and it’s often interesting to think of ways I would improve it, if i could.
So there is some reasoning behind the madness 😉 I guess I’m a lot of safer with my choices in that regard.
I don’t typically go out of my way to see bad movies, in fact I’d avoid it if I know for sure I would hate it. There are some *bad* movies I don’t mind watching because there’s something that interest me (i.e. Maid in Manhattan w/ J Lo AND Ralph Fiennes!) But just because a film has bad reviews doesn’t always mean I’d hate it though, in fact I actually quite enjoyed John Carter so I’m glad I gave that a shot despite what the critics said.
I’m with you on John Carter Ruth, I really enjoyed that one. Like I said in an earlier comment…if certain actors are in a movie I am interested to see it, even if I know in advance it will probably be a bad movie.
If I know I’m not going to like a genre, I stay away from it. My curiosity occasionally gets me, but I will only seek out a “bad” movie if I know it will still be amusing. Campy horror movies are a good example. Some of them are so terribly made, but they’re still fun to watch because they’re so ridiculous. I’ll seek out bad movies if I think they’ll still entertain me.
So entertainment is top reasoning for this. So you would probably like something like Sharknado?
I like to see movies that have been given bad reviews so that I can join in the conversation. I don’t feel that I have the right to say that “Transformers” is terrible or “Breaking Dawn Part 1” is one of the worst films ever made unless I’ve seen the films.
Sometimes, so-called bad films surprise me and I enjoy them. Often they are as bad as people have said, but I’m now allowed to slate them.
Yeah I agree that you can not join the conversation if you have not given a movie a chance yourself. So I won’t talk about Breaking Dawn as I don’t see myself ever getting around to watching that! 😉
I watch movies all the time that turn out to be bad. Mostly out of curiosity or praise I hear from other reviewers or friends. Or if it’s getting a lot of hype for a big weekend release, I’ll check it out.
But it seem you don’t go see them on purpose much…
Oh I’ve lost count on how many bad movies I’ve seen on purpose this year alone. But most of the time I know that going in so in my reviews I reflect that.
I have sadomasochistic tendencies to watch bad movies. Sometimes it’s either out of boredom or to just watch something. Plus, I have that curiosity to see how bad it is. And a lot of them are bad. Then there’s some you expect to be good only to be very disappointed. And then, there’s those where you’re not in a good state of mind and realize that there are things that are worse.
In late January/early February of 2009, I was in a state of mourning over the death of my younger sister and I was just miserable. I was trying to find something on TV and “Meet the Spartans” was on. I watched the whole thing of that garbage and I came to the realization that there are things worse than death and this is one of them.
After that, I couldn’t watch anything by Friedberg/Selzter as I realize that they’re not filmmakers but essentially bottom-feeders who appeal to the lowest common denominator. I can’t watch a Michael Bay film because of how insane the editing is as I get physically ill while whatever images I can gather is just filled with disgust. I know that his movies are going to be bad which is why I avoid them.
Sadomasochistic tendencies, there is nothing I can bring against that!
Well, a lot of people agree with you on Friedberg/Selzter, I placed them in movie jail in a blogathon relay race I did and nobody set them free.
Never had that issue with Bay movies.
Every once in a while I’ll check out a movie that I know is bad up front. But when I review them, I always acknowledge this bias by putting them in the Morbid Curiosity Files category — I’m checking them out precisely because I’m curious as to how bad they really are, and the film and the readers deserve to have this stated up front.
Good to have a category like that, like that idea.
I make a distinction between a “bad” movie and a movie genre that I don’t like.
For me, a bad movie is poorly executed dialogue, editing, the script itself or the story line. If the movie can’t make me believe that for the time the movie is rolling, the story as told is real, then it isn’t a good movie. Which is why I liked John Carter and Battleship.
For example, I loved “Unbreakable”, “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening” by Shyamalan but I nearly put my fist through the screen for “The Last Airbender.” The last one was beautifully filmed but the child actors were pretty crap.
I loved “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” even though the guy sitting next to me hated it.
Some people can watch “Jackass” and not feel bad, whereas those sorts of movies make me want to run out of the room screaming.
To each their own.
Happy to see more people give love to John Carter and Battleship. First time I didn’t finish The Assasination, but second time it managed to stun me. Not a fan of Jackas myself either. To each their own indeed!
I was honestly very sad that John Carter didn’t do better. I would so love to see the sequels! The Assassination, to be fair, is a very drawn-out and slow movie but it was pretty brilliant.
Another movie that didn’t do quite that well in the States was Pacific Rim, which I loved. Most people I know didn’t want to see “another cheesy action flick”, which was sort of sad seeing as that it was good.
Yeah, I really would have loved to see the John Carter sequels, really liked the story.
Yeah, you told me earlier that it didn’t do well and I thought it was great.
For me, there’s all sorts of different categories of “bad” as far as movies go. There’s movies that most people think are bad because they have a low budget, inexperienced actors/directors, and go straight to home video. But I’m often able to look past those factors and enjoy the story they are trying to put across, like All Superheroes Must Die or Bounty Killer. Many people would call both of those bad movies, but I enjoyed them as much as any other movie.
There’s also “bad” movies that are obvious cash grabs, they’re often sequels to animated movies, or knock-offs of current theatrical movies, they also have low budgets, but instead of being from filmmakers trying to bring their vision to life, they’re more often from studio producers trying to put together something that will make them some quick cash regardless of quality. There’s even some big budget theatrical movies that fall into this category. I generally tend to avoid them unless they fall into my site’s niche.
There’s also a third category of “bad” movies that are just not to my tastes because I’m not in the right demographic, like the Twilight movies, the latter Scary Movies, most Happy Madison productions, and the Madea movies. They are made with a specific audience in mind, and I am far from that audience, and will avoid those movies at all costs.
Some great distinctions and I guess if you really put in some time you could think of more categories! So you will give some of these a chance…
Nice question. I won’t see a bad movie in theaters with the knowledge I could be spending my money on something better, I often watch some trashy films on Netflix, though I typically won’t admit it.
In theaters it is a waste…I even have that feeling with the Unlimited card I have. So you love trashy movies in secret?
My personal pov for bad movies are those that offend me/put me off, so i can only determined this after i watched the films. I generally think Twilight franchise are bad or i found Kick Ass 2 to be offensively unfunny eventhough i enjoyed the 1st one.
But critical bad movies sometimes are fun to watch, maybe because they were mindless and can be pure entertaining fun. Like Sex and The City for me is bad, esp compared to the tv series but i like to watch it once in a while just to be entertained by its glossy fashion XD
I think there is a difference between a bad movie and one which you get offended by. The question is whether or not you would give those movies the same score. There have been documentaries where I was shocked by people in the documentary, but if I would judge that instead of the movie itself it would have a much lower score.
Bad movies can be entertaining, I agree with you on that one!
I am actually fond of quite a few awful movies. Sometimes they are so bad they are funny, but sometimes, they fall into that weird category of “guilty pleasure.” You just like them, even though you know they are bad.
So could you name a few? 😉
The originals of Dracula, The Wolfman and Frankenstein. The Thing (with James Arness) An American Werewolf in London.
(Blush) A Summer Place (don’t say a WORD) …
I will have to admit that I have not seen any of those movies, so I won’t judge you for it 😉
I’ll watch anything as long as it looks like it will be even remotely entertaining/captivating. Some of my favorite movies are “so bad they’re good” (i.e. The Room, Troll 2, etc.).
That’s different for everyone. Have not seen The Room or Troll 2 myself.