The Hall of Infamy

American Flatulators (1996) -

This movie is basically a one trick pony stretched out to an hour, except the one joke is neither funny nor clever and overstays its welcome after the first five minutes. Granted, I will give the film a bit of credit since a few of the fart jokes, while not clever, still made...sense, but I mean, that's to be expected with a film like this. If you throw enough shit at the wall, something will eventually stick. And almost all of it didn't stick. I will admit though that the marine yelling at and insulting a group of girl scouts was about the only time I laughed at the film. Maybe if the film had more non-fart jokes, I'd be more into it. The only other credit I can give to this film is that I appreciated some of the craft put into making it resemble how game shows look. Though yeah, I found so much of the film to be a chore to get through. By the halfway point, I was basically zoned out of the film and wanted it to end. And given that it doesn't even last an hour, that's saying something. The buildup to the challenges were overlong, the backstories to the contestants and the commercials sank the pacing like a dead weight, and the challenges themselves, while they were the more watchable parts of the film, still weren't that engaging and didn't build much of any tension like some other game show challenges I've seen have. Overall, the movie's not quite a 1/10 for me, but it's not far from it either.

Next Up: God's Not Dead

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been meaning to see R.O.T.O.R. and Manos for awhile... so there's that at least.

I'll miss your presence in here, but that's fair.

I'd be surprised if it's even that. My prejudiced assumption is that it's a circle jerk for all the "Josh's" in the audience (i.e it's asking difficult questions --- outside philosophy professor's scope, no doubt --- to which there aren't answers "Josh's" can understand, ergo God's not dead). It could work as unintentional comedy if the subject hadn't been beaten to death in real life.

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My assumption of God's Not Dead is that it's designed to appeal to the "Athiests are all evil and are trying to destroy Christianity" group of Evangelists. I'm curious what I'll think of it.

Organ (Kei Fujiwara, 1996)

So this got my nomination because when I scrolled through letterboxd ratings this was one of the few things that was rated a one-star or less and was something that was still interesting to some degree. Hell, maybe I'd even 180 on it and I could finally justify buying a dvd copy. The film does have a generally positive reputation, people like it, maybe a second chance was all it needed. During my initial viewing I recall it being a particularly frustrating film, as it definitely had some interesting ideas but just not utilizing them at all and it just being so long and so consistently dull. On viewing two however I found only the later to be true, with the little glimmers of interesting ideas not being present for me at all this time but the film being possibly even longer and more boring than I remembered, though I was fortunate enough to watch it with a friend so the experience wasn't terrible even though the movie certainly was. One of those films that just feels double its runtime. Every scene meanders about indefinitely but at the same time its so narratively dense with like a million characters that don't add anything but make the film impossible to follow. I'm not opposed to films that are difficult to follow at all but this definitely has a clear story, its just told to you so poorly. I'm actually not even sure if the film is non-linear or not. And I mean, I also just don't go for films with this much story, even when its clear and interesting. If you cut it down to like four characters and shaved off like an hour it might be okay, at best. Its a blend of art film and grimy, underground horror and it manages to only have the shitty parts of both. The best I can say about it is that the effects are ok for a film of this budget and it has the single funniest cut I've ever seen in my life in it (the editing in general is so bad but this one cut is beyond belief) and I like one track out of the score, but its always too low in the mix when it shows up lol. Yeah, this shit is just annoying, long and boring above all else. Oh, and it has a post credit scene that feels like the end of an episode of Goosebumps.

Wow, the only one I've seen from the bunch is Manos which, to a certain extent I would consider "essential" but all the others look terrible.

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When reading up lists of the "worst films ever made", it is almost sure this film will be on it. With a 7% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, it is indeed considered by many as one of the worst, if not *THE* worst film ever made. But sometimes, the story behind a film ends up being more interesting than the film itself and helps you put things in perspective. That is the case with this low-budget schlockfest.

The film is written, produced, directed, and acted by Harold P. Warren, an insurance salesman that was somewhat active in the theater scene in El Paso, Texas. The beauty of it is that the film was made as a result of a bet made by Warren upon meeting screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. Warren assured him that it would be easy to make a horror film, so he set out to make it and win his bet. Manos follows a family of tourists (Warren and Diane Mahree) who get lost on their way to a hotel in rural Texas. Somehow they end up at a house/lodge inhabited by a polygamous cult led by The Master (Tom Neyman) who might, or might not know what to do with them.

Manos: The Hands of Fate has all the cards stacked against it. Made by an inexperienced crew with a shoestring budget, featuring inexperienced actors, the result is - well - not the best. The acting is atrocious (Mahree, in particular, is awful), the script is a jumbled mess, full of scenes that are either inconsequential to the plot or just laughably executed (a lengthy "catfight" near the end comes to mind); the pace is clunky, the film is full of abrupt cuts, choppy editing, awkward pauses, and the music is obnoxious and intrusive. The truth is that I've seen community theater plays far more polished and with better acting than this. If anything, I'll give it that the ending was bold, for lack of a better word.

But when you put things in context, I can say that I have more respect for this than I have for, say, Transformers. One has to admire the sheer will of someone like Warren who just set out to do something, and did it (he won the bet). Despite the poor reception, the critical panning, the mocking from his own crew, the paltry earnings, and its falling into obscurity, Manos resurfaced during a 1993 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Ever since, it has been featured in dozens of "worst films" lists, helping it to achieve cult status.

I'm sure that Warren (who died in 1985) never expected his film to transcend to the point that it has today. Even he called it "the worst film ever made". The thing is that, even if it is for the wrong reasons, we know about it, we talk about it. In recent years, the film has been referenced in numerous popular TV shows, a few documentaries about its making have been released, and there are even talks about a new film being made. After all, Manos is permanent!

Grade: N/A

Even though I'm not in this, there's the review I wrote a while ago when I first saw this. I really wouldn't mind rewatching it

I'm about 15 minutes into Going Overboard, and I've definitely seen this much of the film before. Hopefully once I get through this, I can purge the memory from my mind a second time.


Update: haven't seen anything else in the last few minutes, so I definitely bailed out around the time I paused earlier to take a break and post haha.

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This was somewhat my reaction to the film. If you judge it solely based on what's shown onscreen, it seems like a poorly made film. However, if you look at it through the lens of its historical context, I find it fascinating since it has a lot to teach on how low budgets and restrictions are essentially ingenuity tests for filmmakers to work around.

I'll give American Flatulators this much (but I don't want to): at least it looks like the cast is having fun. The only good thing about this movie is that it has an MXC spirit. So, already it's not the worst I've ever seen, but I feel like I need to watch Animalympics after this to get this image out of my head.

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I watched this years ago because I learned it was directed by the actress from Tetsuo, and I was hoping for some of that same feverish, perverted body horror energy. Alas, it was just really ponderous and unpleasant to sit through.

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The fact that someone made a movie and called it American Flatulators pleases me very much.


But I'm equally pleased that I don't have to watch it.

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American Flatulators Review - The Jokes Fell Flat

OK, an entire movie dedicated to fart jokes? You don't have to witness this big waste of time to realize it's bottom of the barrel. No comedian could've saved this film, not even Chris Pratt. It's nothing but a cheap non-theater hour made by a bunch of bums in tight clothing. I honestly pity anyone who laughs at this movie at least once.

See, the movie is geared to look like an actual Olympic event specifically for different techniques and performances involving flatulence. You can tell by the big opening. When the sound of trumpets fills the air, you know there's no real development involved. But no one;s sitting down in this movie. They're all filled up and ready to go, so they had fun with it, despite the crappy acting.

OK, butt jokes aside, every line and every character name had to be a butt joke. Honestly, it was like watching ten year olds who watch Olympics make a stage play. I didn't even laugh once. Timon and Pumbaa have done better butt jokes on their own sitcom, so what does that tell you about this movie? This is the single most unfunny movie I've ever seen.

I think this movie was built to potentially be the worst movie ever (think about the simple premise). However, there are problems with this. First, the fact that they're TRYING to be as bad as possible is revealing. By merit, a movie that tries to be good and fails should likely be worse, especially if they're in the same league of badness, just bumping into each other. Second, like I said, the bad cast seemed to enjoy it. And thirdly, the movie is only 53 minutes long. If it reached 90, I don't know if I could sleep at night. SO, no, this isn't the worst movie I;ve seen, but it's close.

Anyway, sorry about all the butt cracks.

I am in, and I sent you my nomination a few days ago, The Still Life.

Do I get any extra points because my nomination was so terrible that the HoF host's brain protectively deleted it from his memory?

Oh, sorry. I was under the impression you were going to wait to see the nominations first, but it looks like I misread your post.

Either way, welcome aboard!

Anyways, Takoma's nomination is now included in the first post of this thread.

My wife and I were just talking about watching a movie tonight if I don't have to go back out. She says let her pick it out this time so she whips out her list. First suggestion, Tindler Swindler, second suggestion, friggin God's not Dead lol. I said you ain't picking out jack.