How do you rate movies that are so bad they're good?
 

In an attempt to create a viral thread... Please pretend I am, UnamedUser24, who will never again revisit this site after making this, my first and only post. Also, if it helps, envision that I did not even capitalise my user name and added a few more numbers and random letters to the end. Like.... unameduseR24jvxl7.

Without further ado, my content:

i rate them, 1 star and in rare cases 5

(Please post about something only vaguely related to the title. Reading my OP post, is not required at all. And please note my lack of capitalization, incorrect placement of a comma, lack of a period, and extremely sparse content. Read my comment as if it's the entirety of this post. Also note that I did not end this parenthetical explanation with a closed parenthesis, and optionally feel free to reply entirely on topic and to the entirety of my post...

#hafcerius

#inabritishaccent #buhauwsojokin'

Edit: Also pretend I have no avitar, and my title is, "Registered User."

if you actually posted like that it'd be an improvement

But seriously, I just rate them like I do any other movie - based on whatever appreciation/enjoyment I derive from its various elements. In this regard, I don't care too much about whether the filmmaking is "objectively" good - it's easy to compliment elaborate cinematography or editing in a vacuum, but in my experience I find it's still possible for "well-made" films to not work so well when it comes to the story they're supposed to be telling (thinking of films like 1917 or The Revenant here). Conversely, it's hard to imagine Who Killed Captain Alex being anywhere near as much of an achievement if the technique was better - not only because of how the film embodies zero-budget-no-training enthusiasm but because the iconic built-in commentary only got kept in the film because they accidentally erased the version without commentary. Truly the kind of happy accident that makes for the best so-bad-it's-good movies - and even then I have trouble thinking of Who Killed Captain Alex as so-bad-it's-good because it's trying to be a fun movie and it succeeds, whereas a key characteristic of a so-bad-it's-good movie is that it's trying to be (relatively) serious but fails. That's an important factor - you have to be able to determine how much of the enjoyment you're getting out of is actually unintentional. The Room is a good example because it's obviously trying to be a serious drama but it's so inept in virtually every regard that you can't help but laugh, but Miami Connection is a little further down the spectrum also trying to be a fun musical/kung-fu/ninja movie while also trying to develop a straight-faced story about how its cast members are all tragically orphaned. Go too far in that direction and you get stuff that is trying to be so-bad-it's-good but that approach almost never works because it lacks the sincerity that makes for the genuine article (Kung Fury being an obvious example). That can even happen in a sequel where the creators become self-aware (e.g. Birdemic is unintentionally bad and a fun time, but Birdemic 2 is intentionally bad and a bad time).

Everyone has different ways of rating so-bad-it's-good movies. For me, when it's a 5/10 it starts approaching that area while 8/10 is the highest rating I can give (any more than that and it starts looking like I'm comparing it to genuinely great movies).


I hear you about Birdemic 2. Birdemic did have its boring parts, but even those were kinda funny in their awkwardness. Birdemic 2 was so dull I turned it off halfway through. What a giant letdown.

Re: How do you rate movies that are so bad they're good?
 

Forgot to mention numerical ratings, but I guess the same rules apply - 0.5 for stuff I absolutely hate, 3 for stuff I think is okay, 5 for stuff I love, etc. I also use the 8/10 cap when it comes to rating movies so very few that could reasonably qualify as so-bad-it's-good make it past that.

How do I rate a movie that's so bad it's good?...

this is how, probably the best review I've wrote too.
https://www.movieforums.com/communit...98#post1230198

Re: How do you rate movies that are so bad they're good?
 

Some movies simply are so bad that they are good. I consider The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Iron Sky and The John Johnson Skeleton Key series to be so bad that they are good. :)

Zotis get banned again? What a rebel :laugh:

I think i just rated them based on a whim. Not see much of them though.

Re: How do you rate movies that are so bad they're good?
 

He's so banned it's good.

Re: How do you rate movies that are so bad they're good?
 

When they're so bad that they're good, I would go with a "serious" rating, but I would also probably not do that unless I could accompany the rating with some text that says where the good part came from. My list of so-bad-it's-good movies is long and changes with time.

I recall one archetype, Plan Nine was widely reviled as the worst movie ever made years back. Then it started showing at festivals, midnight events and costume parties and got elevated to a lofty status. When I look at it, I see a cheap movie, made with a sense of humor that has its own sort of cinematic rhythm, that's a lot of fun. I've seen many FAR worse and nowhere near as enjoyable. That so bad it's good title has to be well earned after a movie has a track record.

Re: How do you rate movies that are so bad they're good?
 

I rate then good. Because my rating is about how I felt about it and nothing else.

If they're so bad they're good, they're good, so I rate them as good.

Now, we must be careful we don't go overboard with pictures of Asian girls. Too much cutesy and sugar might cause MoFos to get diabetes!

the fact is too much diet coke on mofos daily doses! Let's ruin them pancreas!
https://youtu.be/AJOEuPnwQ8c

Too. Much. Sugar. Thanks, now I'll have to watch hairy manly man for 2 days straight in order not to get diabetes.

But let's not go offtopic any further and move our conversation to East Asia Corner. :)

Re: How do you rate movies that are so bad they're good?
 

The movie Asian School Girls (2014) is probably the worst movie I've seen. However, I suppose you could technically say it's so bad that it's good, but it's just so bad, I don't know if I can get there.

One movie that is so bad that it's good in my opinion is The Birth of a Nation (1915), and I find it unintentionally funny but it's not suppose to be.

Re: How do you rate movies that are so bad they're good?
 

That doesn't exist. If a movie is bad, is bad.

It's quite a good movie. It's a technical achievement, too. It's not as great as Griffith's follow-up Intolerance, sure, but you can't call it bad only on the basis of its racism. Many propaganda films are brilliant. For example, Triumph of the Will is a propaganda masterpiece.

Well, to further torture the language here, it depends on what you mean by "good".

There are quite a few movies that I admire--on a technical level, as with something like Birth of a Nation or on a "achieved its goals" level--but do not enjoy. And calling them "good" feels like an inadequate word for the relationship I have with them. From a contemporary point of view, the propaganda of something like Birth of a Nation is less impactful because it now looks so over the top that it borders on parody.

"So bad it's good" falls into a similar category for me. Something like Troll 2 is not technically well made. And it does not achieve its own goals (to be a commentary on environmentalism . . . or something?). And yet I enjoy watching it. So is it a good film?

Trying to put a numerical value on art (which is what we do when we rate a film) is a complex endeavor. I tend to use ratings as a metric of my personal enjoyment, but with the awareness that I might value aspects (like narrative) more than other people (who might put more emphasis on technical achievement). It's why context and a review is so important, especially if your ratings are meant to help others. I might enjoy The Big Sleep and Troll 2 equally, but if someone asked me for a "good" movie recommendation I wouldn't just throw those two titles out there with no clarifying context.

Re: How do you rate movies that are so bad they're good?
 

Its hard because I dont watch many "Bad" movies. The only movie I know that is so bad its good is "The People Under The Stairs". Its funny to see how bad it was.

So you consider all the commentary movies we did in the past are good?

They are better than the one I mentioned but "A Chinese Torture Chamber Story" I and 2 were kind of bad but a fun watch .. especially with our commentary.

It's a movie that achieves exactly what it wants to be. It's not a bad film.