Board 8 > Board 8 Ranks So Bad It's Good Movies (Sign-Ups & Future Planning)

(+) Yeah! (+)

In recent years, board 8's burgeoning film community has watched all sorts of genres, from crime films to horror to romcoms to musicals to artsy films. In fact, several recent films we've watched have been legitimate Academy darlings, including Best Picture winners and Best Screenplay winners, as well as films that critics consider some of the greatest movies ever made.

Yeah...screw that noise, time to go back to our roots with some legitimately terrible crap! That's right, I'm gonna subject all of you to how I felt having to watch things like A Clockwork Orange and The Shining and...thinking about it, prettty much ANY Kubrick movie.

But I kid. There has long been a low-key movement among film-watchers to enjoy and respect the truest of crap produced by Hollywood (or outside of Hollywood, in some cases). We've already watched a movie like Rocky Horror Picture Show for the musicals list, and that's a perfect example of a film that's less-than-good, yet it's developed a cult following for how campy and weird it is in spite of imperfect film-making. This list is meant to highlight a good number of similar movies that were made with the best of intentions and just...turned out terrible. So terrible, in fact, that they loop back around to being hilarious in their own right.

As such, we've got some truly iconic films on this list, even if they're infamous, rather than famous. I've scoured the internet for films considered "so bad they're good", as well as seeking examples from some experts in the "bad movie" genre. And now, we have thirty movies from 1936 to 2019 to determine if they're so bad they're good...or just so bad.

For now, I'm setting a due date of February 28th, 2025 for those submitting lists, giving us about 2.5 months to through all the movies and send write-ups.

THE MOVIES:
Reefer Madness (1936)
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)
Mommie Dearest (1981)
The Instructor (1981)
Extra Terrestrial Visitors (1983)
Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Cry Wilderness (1987)
Deathstalker II (1987)
Miami Connection (1987)
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)
Mac and Me (1988)
Road House (1989)
Troll 2 (1990)
Samurai Cop (1991)
Undefeatable (1993)
Showgirls (1995)
Battlefield Earth (2000)
Ryan's Babe (2000)
The Room (2003)
Suburban Sasquatch (2004)
Dangerous Men (2005)
The Wicker Man (2006)
The Happening (2008)
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)
Fateful Findings (2013)
Wish Upon (2017)
Gotti (2018)
Cats (2019)

If you haven't participated before, all you have to do is watch the movies and rank them from best to worst. Write-ups are optional but highly encouraged, but the write-ups can be anything from a single sentence to a whole essay depending on how passionate you are about a particular movie. Once completed, the rankings can be sent to [email protected] (ideally in the form of a Google doc or sheet).

Only 4 movies in the past 10/11 years are on that list.

Talk about dwelling in the past.

Do we have to watch all of the movies? Because I've only seen like six.

Anagram posted...

Do we have to watch all of the movies? Because I've only seen like six.

To participate in discussion, nah, but to be factored into the ranking yeah that's pretty much the standard. But there's several months in which to do so!

I think I've only seen 5 of these so far? And at least two of them I enjoyed

SimplePlan30 posted...

Only 4 movies in the past 10/11 years are on that list.

Talk about dwelling in the past.

Newer movies haven't had as much time to establish themselves as "so bad it's good". Also, there would be a lot more recent films if I'd included multiple entries from Neil Breen beyond just Fateful Findings.

*checks to see if The Room is there*

i approve

Holy shit this list. You absolute mad person. I'm definitely in. I'm not sure if anyone else is a fan of the How Did This Get Made podcast, but they've done like half of these I think and they're all hilarious.

And yeah kind of hard for anything to get "cult classic" sort of status so soon after release.

I may be able to do this one! I have a class from January to March, but I think this one should be pretty breezy.

Oh hey, while Bitto is here

So next list after this one I believe is confirmed to be @PrinceKaro 's Animation V

Then we've got either @Bitto with Time Travel or @LightningStrikes with DCEU. Technically Bitto signed up first but this whole thing is pretty informal so you guys are free to decide between yourselves who would go first. Keep in mind, if this is lasting until around late winter, Animation will probably take around April-June if I had to guess, and then then next list after that probably around August-October. Those are vague estimates though.

My next list will probably be Magical Realism sometime in the future, though obviously that's bottom of the priority. @Snake5555555555 I know you have a few different lists in the sheet for sometime if you want to take them on in the future, and @jcgamer107 putting together a 70s horror list sometime in the future

I have two, but I'm flexible on timing so I can go whenever there is an opening:

1) Good vs Evil (15 movies from AFI's Top 50 heroes list and 15 movies from AFI's Top 50 villains list)
2) Guilty Pleasures (Community nominated movies that we enjoy that haven't been on other lists before)

Oh boy. I might have a go at this, but I've only seen a third of the list, and some of these I've purposefully avoided watching (I don't want to taint Wicker Man's legacy in my mind by watching the remake). Love Manos, Troll 2 and The Room though.

Blaziken posted...

Newer movies haven't had as much time to establish themselves as "so bad it's good"

I've seen Megalopolis (most of it anyway) and it should definitely be on the list

I'd be fine with DCEU going before Time Travel!

I've heard of a lot of these, but have only had the misfortune of seeing two of them (cats and santa)

I think I might try and do this one, I've seen a lot of these already and some I haven't even heard of surprisingly (or maybe I did and I just forgot)

And yeah if you have the link to the sheet, I'll take a look.

Definitely interested, but not quite sure how I'll rank these. Like, for example, I'd say Wish Upon is more competently made than The Room, but The Room is far more entertaining to watch. Feels more in the spirit of the list to rank The Room higher.

Tag

I will try to participate this time, I meant to join the last list but I wasn't functioning enough as a human being at the time.

I feel it was a dereliction of duty for me to allow that disgraceful film Baby Driver into the top 10. I must atone for this error in the coming lists.

Snake5555555555 posted...

I think I might try and do this one, I've seen a lot of these already and some I haven't even heard of surprisingly (or maybe I did and I just forgot)

And yeah if you have the link to the sheet, I'll take a look.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BU5FjXnnNQgnHN9VSCAvGTNlA4ZTvkQDAhLoLwW95pQ

This may be something I do, but likely not. I won't be available much for 3+ weeks of that whole period and as you all know, I've struggled with my movie-viewing as it is.

Zombi 3

Seen five of those movies through MST3K, and also Plan 9 and The Room.

I have seen 8 of those movies.

Nine if we count compilation clips of Paul Rudd on Conan.

I've seen five of these already. Not sure I could commit to rounding off that list...

Most of these look like they're available via Plex, Tubi and Prime. Some of the earlier ones via the Internet Archive

i actually liked Maximum Overdrive and would love to see a modern day rendition of it (I know there was a copycat movie done in the 90s I think, but let's ignore that)

I also enjoyed Maximum Overdrive when i saw it as a teenager

1/30

Out of this list the only ones I had seen before were The Room and The Wicker Man, both back in my teens.

Watched three so far and these... certainly are movies

PrinceKaro posted...

these... certainly are movies

Debateable

oh btw @LightningStrikes , at some point I'll just ask that you fill out the list for DCEU movies in the Planned Lists tab of the master sheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BU5FjXnnNQgnHN9VSCAvGTNlA4ZTvkQDAhLoLwW95pQ/edit?gid=1741886915#gid=1741886915

I started going back and making Letterboxd lists of previous list to have them saved for prosperity. Basically starting from the most recent and going back, so if you have ones old enough that they can't be found on that site, I might ask for help locating them

so far I've got:
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/b8-ranks-organized-crime-films/
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-satire-films/
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-road-comedies/
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-80s-horror-films/
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-art-films/
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-crime-films-ii-disorganized/

didn't grab Animation IV yet since I figured it might be easier to do all the animation ones at once

3/30 complete

Bitto posted...

I'd be fine with DCEU going before Time Travel!

Thanks!

Johnbobb posted...

oh btw @LightningStrikes , at some point I'll just ask that you fill out the list for DCEU movies in the Planned Lists tab of the master sheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BU5FjXnnNQgnHN9VSCAvGTNlA4ZTvkQDAhLoLwW95pQ/edit?gid=1741886915#gid=1741886915

Done, no embarrassing errors I hope. Both Justice Leagues are on there, as they are meaningfully different films, and strictly speaking a majority of the content in the Snyder film is not in the Whedon film. On the other hand I definitely dont think its worth doing both BvS cuts. Should I mandate a version or just let users pick their poison?

LightningStrikes posted...

Should I mandate a version or just let users pick their poison?

I'd probably lean toward letting people go with whichever is most easily available, that's lately been the case with movies that have director's cuts in the past

I also didn't realize how short the DCEU is, damn, it really just kinda collapsed

Whats even weirder is that half of it was after the pandemic, and a solid quarter was in 2023 alone!

7/30

all I can say is that it is merciful how short these all are

3.5 watched

Fell asleep watching one and haven't bothered yet going back

Me seeing this thread for the first time

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/fd3f3e59.jpg

I might participate

wallmasterz posted...

Me seeing this thread for the first time

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/fd3f3e59.jpg

I might participate

Theyre going to be watched by them! And thentheyre going to be watched by me!

Oh my gooooooooooooooooooooooodddd!!!

maybe we should just crown Troll 2 the winner and call it a day

Out of curiosity was Chinatown ever ranked in any of these?

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Out of curiosity was Chinatown ever ranked in any of these?

Chinatown is planned for Crime 3 whenever that happens

Up to 5/30 now. Week was a little slow for me.

I just realized: the email address should be [email protected]

Put together more lists of past films. I was going to try to do the "series" (like Animated) all at once but not all of them are easily available online so I'll have to get in contact with those who ran them for the earlier ones:

https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-animated-movies-4/
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-2010s-horror-movies/ (included ABCs of Death in the comments)
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-the-marvel-cinematic-universe/
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-animated-movies-3/
https://letterboxd.com/johnbobb/list/board-8-ranks-westerns/

If anyone happens to have any of the older lists, these are the ones I'm still looking for:

Animation II
Disney
Musicals 1
2000s Horror ( @Snake5555555555 I assume)
Bond
Bluth
Pixar

https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Gauntlet_Crew_Ranks_the_2000s_in_Horror_Films

Snake5555555555 posted...

https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Gauntlet_Crew_Ranks_the_2000s_in_Horror_Films

oh I didn't even think to check the wiki

edit: so Dreamworks was also on the wiki but that was it

Nothing like kicking off Christmas with a bad movie. 10/30

Johnbobb posted...

If anyone happens to have any of the older lists, these are the ones I'm still looking for:
Bluth

Not sure why, but I kept the ranking+writeups to a few of these on my old hard drive years ago despite never personally participating in one of these, and noticed I still have the Bluth ranking. This was the list (can post point values, breakdowns of each ranking and writeups if requested).

#12 - A Troll in Central Park
#11 - Thumbelina
#10 - Pete's Dragon
#9 - The Pebble and The Penguin
#8 - Rock-a-Doodle
#7 - Bartok the Magnificent
#6 - Titan A.E.
#5 - An American Tail
#4 - All Dogs Go to Heaven
#3 - The Land Before Time
#2 - Secret of NIMH
#1 - Anastasia