Badmovies.org Forum

There are some movies I see, or see trailors of and think, now how the f**k did someone possibly pitch this story AND got the money to produce it for the big screen????

My first I remember was Jack Frost with Michael Keaton.  It's about some father who dies, and the son wishes for him to come back...so what happens?  He comes back as a f**king snowman!  Is this suppose to be touching???  No!  It's the worst film for a kid to watch...totally f**king with his mind, for God forbid if a parent dies in REAL life, he will probably sit outside talking to the snowman he just built hoping it will come alive as his dead father!  Sick!

NOW I just saw a trailor called "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2"  Yeah, we really needed this one cuz the first one just blew us away.  BUT watch out Exocist!  Here comes a REALLY creepy movie.  Those babies talking with computer generated mouths is enough to give anyone the willies!

So anyone else have a movie that they just can't believe made the big screen?

The trailer for National Treasure made me ask that out loud.  It boggles my mind that s**t like that and BG2 can get green-lit, but stuff that's out there that's more deserving of a chance collects dust.

Not so much the Movies as the Parents dumb enough to let the Kid´s watch it.

i.E. A Child died of choking on Popcorn from being scared of Alien vs. Predator (Was in the papers yesterday). The child was mere 3 Years of age and the parents excuse was "Our kid liked monsters so much"...

Bheliom wrote:

> Not so much the Movies as the Parents dumb enough to let the
> Kid´s watch it.
>
> i.E. A Child died of choking on Popcorn from being scared of
> Alien vs. Predator (Was in the papers yesterday). The child was
> mere 3 Years of age and the parents excuse was "Our kid liked
> monsters so much"...
>

Well that's an obvious one that should not be for kids, especially a 3-year-old!  I don't know about some people.

 My concern is mostly with films that are MEANT or made for kids that are quite disturbing, like Jack Frost.  But when I say something about it, some say how touching it was for kids or a great holiday flick...what????  Ah well, what can else can I say?

Yes, Jack Frost is a downright bizarre idea for a heartwarming family film.

The AVP thing, I think, ties in nicely with the discussion of the PG-13 rating. There are fewer decent kids' movies or adult movies, because Hollywood is always going for maximum bums in seats. So we get action-horror that is watered down just enough to squeak into a PG, and we get kids movies with inappropriately raunchy humour thrown in. Practically everything is PG, and the lines between what is suitable for kids and what is clearly for adults get blurrier all the time.

Of course, the other side of the coin is the parents who can't exercise any judgement.



Post Edited (08-24-04 09:44)

Well okay a good example for a Kidz movie that was rated too low...

Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkanban!

Was rated PG.

Yep.
Never liked those kinda "Family" films.
Too creepy for me. Or am i applying too much logic here?
Heh...wonder what kinda "Children movies" they make on Vulcan?....

Hollywood is afraid to take big risks.  Cheap sequels are pretty much an easy score, even if they are terrible.

People hear an idea, think it'll make money, decide how much to waste on it, and see how many dumb people can show up on opening night.

I have no respect for hollywood, especially nowadays.

I think what amazes me more than anything is Hollywood's love with remakes.  I'm not just talking about remaking classic films, I'm talking about remaking good foreign flicks.

The Ring was awful compared to the original Ringu.

Ju-On: The Grudge is being remade here in America and should be out this october.  Why remake a really good horror film with Sarah Michelle Gellar!?

The Eye is also in the works.  I have no clue how they are going to take the Pang bro's flick and "Americanize" it.  The original was fantastic.

Versus is also on Hollywood's list.  If I'm not mistaken, Icon Entertainment had bought the rights to the flick.  THERE IS NO WAY THIS WILL EVER WORK.  It involves Samurais.  How the hell would that work in AMERICA!?

OldBoy is the one that I'm really starting to get upset about.  This film has been praised as one of the best films ever made.  I just recieived this flick in from Hong Kong on DVD yesterday and will watch it tonight.  If it is as good as the critics say, then I seriously hope it will not be remade.

All that I ask is that Hollywood start getting creative.  I'm so sick of everything being a remake.

Skaboi wrote:
>
> The Eye is also in the works.  I have no clue how they are
> going to take the Pang bro's flick and "Americanize" it.  The
> original was fantastic.


Agree with you by the way about Hollywood constantly doing remakes...

however I know I recently saw a movie, but don't remember it being forriegn, but it was a horror spoof on a reality website where they will win 1 million if they stay in the house...but they start dying off one by one (don't want to spoil ending)

I know it had Eye in the title...would this be it or am I thinking of something else?

Loyal1,

The Eye is actually a Japanese (Possibly Cantonese) film about a young woman who has been blind most of her life.  She goes through an experimental surgery that will replace her cornea with that of a deceased woman.  When she wakes up from the surgery, she starts seeing spirits.

Do rent this film.  I know it sounds a lot like Sixth Sense but it is by far one of the best horror / suspense films to be released in years.  It is taught and frightening and mind blowingly original.  I can almost bet that if you check out your local Blockbuster that they have it in stock on DVD.

Thanks!  Sounds good really and will probably rent it tonight.  For the tough to find movies, I have to go into Boston (which is about an hour away taking public trans!)  But hopefully blockbuster will have it...thanks for the tip.

When Jurassic Park came out, we wentto an early showing.  There were all these parent with toddlers to see the "Dinosaur Film", I guess they were thinking cute dinosaurs or something.   When the T. Rex ate the lawyer there was a deafing wail going up from dozens of kids who had entered nightmare territory and probably didn't much like dinos after that.  
Seems that they should have done some movie research there.
-Ed

Maybe someone should have done a remake of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  What a steaming dog-log.  All hype.

As for the other films, most of us don't have our fingers on the pulse of that creative powerhouse, the Asian film industry.  As best I can tell, if you make enough Drunken Master movies, you are bound to make a good one once in a while.  You just can't fight the law of averages.

My take..... let the movies be remade.  It's akin to remade or cover songs.  I can enjoy them for what they are, even if some (well, most) are never be as good as the original.

P.S.  Watching foreign film doesn't make you a film expert.  It makes you a foreign film expert, nothing more, nothing less.

George,

Kinda harsh in the post there.  Sure, some of the remakes can be good.  Take Reservoir Dogs for example.  Although Tarantino has never said it is a remake of City On Fire (Long hu feng yun), it is most definently a remake.  And it is better than the original.

All I am asking is that Hollywood start coming up with their own ideas.  I'm sick of people never getting to see the originals which are in most cases better than the remakes.

As for saying that I'm not a film expert, I never claimed to be.  I'm not a foreign film expert, I just have an interest in Asian cinema being as it is a more daring film market and the films have much more originality.

From The Prisoner (http://www.prisonflicks.com/reviews.php?filmID=82)
----
Cult movie afficionados often like to point out how heavily Hollywood plagerizes from Asian sources. However, this tendency goes both ways. Jackie Chan is the Prisoner, better known as Island of Fire, is a good example of this cross fertilization. This movie borrows heavily from American sources, most notably the classic Cool Hand Luke. This borrowing is frankly bizarre. It does not move the plot forward in any particular way. Indeed, outside of a spoof, I don't think I have ever seen a movie recreate scenes from another movie in quite such a gratuitious manner. What is odd is that these literal quotations rather detract from the plot, which is a serious concern in a movie that seems to lose its way for most of the running time. But, as is often the case, I am getting ahead of myself.
----

Dave Barry wrote a parody of The Davinci Code that eerily forshadowed the trailer for National Treasure that ran a few days before that came out.

Foreign movies that were remade practically one year later: The Vanishing, Little Nikkita? Not sure of that last title. Should nave just dubbed it or put in subtitles. Retards would throw stuff at the screen, but it'd be so much less risky finacially.

I saw the ad for Baby Geniuses 2, with the line "America's favorite talking babies are back!" and was immediately struck with two soul-crushingly depressing thoughts:

1. America has enough talking-baby movies that it actually has the ability to choose favorites.

2. I could personally think of talking babies that are more heavily favored (Rugrats, anyone?)

Just curious, but where do you go in Boston for obscure movies? I go to college in Boston (and live in central Mass when I'm not there), and would love to know about more offbeat video stores!

Dave,

Right about about The Vanishing.  "Spoorloos" was a fantastic film, while the American version "Vanishing" went the way of standard horror fare.

I'll have to respecfully disagree with you on Crouching Tiger.  I found it to be a fantastic movie for several reasons:

- Great story (tragic, funny, interesting)
- Great acting (Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, and pretty much everone else)
- Great fight sequences, beautifully choreographed
- Beautiful cinematography, often breathtaking
- The love story was so deep and heart-wrenching- one of the few movies that made me cry

There's more, but I'll leave it at that.

What did you not like about it?

Well, "Saved!" was one of those films I could see was doomed from the get-go. What amazed me was not so much that anyone would give the film the go-ahead (given Hollywood's long history of making Christian-bashing films no one wants to watch), but  that the people producing it were able to say with a straight face that they were trying to appeal to some of Mel Gibson's audience.

Man! How can they do it? If I were pitching "Michael Moore Hates America" to a bunch of rabid Michael Moore fans, there is just no way I'd be able to keep a straight face when claiming that it's actually a pro-Moore film. It would be just like that "Biggus Dikkus" scene from "Life of Brian" where the Roman guards couldn't help laughing.

I do remember the Bigus Dickus scene, but forgot one thing...what was his wife's name...I keep thinking something that begins with a C like Cordelia...

Way off topic here, but I have always loved the fact that clitoris is Latin for a small hill (I think). So it seems pretty likely that at some point in history some general like Fabian or something may have said something like "Sieze the clitoris and the field is ours".

"All I am asking is that Hollywood start coming up with their own ideas."

Skaboi, I used to think this very same thing... and then I saw White Girls.  If you have the remake blues like I did, just rent this one when it hits the video stores.

Hollywood, if White Girls is what your original thought amounts to, then just keep those sequels and remakes coming!

"Way off topic here, but I have always loved the fact that clitoris is Latin for a small hill (I think). So it seems pretty likely that at some point in history some general like Fabian or something may have said something like "Sieze the clitoris and the field is ours".

Or "Hold on to this clitoris to the bitter end!"  Or "I need two battalions to storm that clitoris!"

Incontinentia

>When Jurassic Park came out, we wentto an early showing. There were all these
>parent with toddlers to see the "Dinosaur Film", I guess they were thinking cute
>dinosaurs or something. When the T. Rex ate the lawyer there was a deafing
>wail going up from dozens of kids who had entered nightmare territory and
>probably didn't much like dinos after that.

I'll bet they never looked at Barney the same way again.

Eirik wrote:

> Or "Hold on to this clitoris to the bitter end!"  Or "I need
> two battalions to storm that clitoris!"

Hehe!
And I thought I was a pervert!

I'm sure you are.    :)

Well, if the film traumatized the kids, at least it had a decent side effect: they'll never trust that purple monstrosity again.

I've seen worse, where age appropriateness is concerned: I worked for a movie theater for a short time taking tickets, working the registers, and cleaning the place. Once, when we were showing Green Mile and the Pokemon movie, some redneckish guy came in with his two young blonde daughters in tow. (We're talking 8-10 years old here.) I expected he was going to drop them off at the Pokemon movie before going to see something aimed more at him, the way a lot of other parents were doing, but instead he took them in with him to see the Green Mile!

I couldn't say a word about it because the customer is always right, but I was thinking to myself "Duuude... What is wrong with you?"

While I wouldn't take a child to see The Green Mile, I do believe it would be better than taking them to some slasher flick.  

Atleast Green Mile had circus mice.  

:o)

I can't believe that half of the films that Hollywood put out, made it to the Silver Screen. "Phone Booth" anyone? ; )

They should probably make more Trilogy Of Terror, Cat's Eye, The Illustrated Man type movies, where it's about three short films and maybe something linking them. I think Phone Booth and Cujo both would have been better that way. Not that I've seen Phone Booth, just sounds like that kind of premise.

Incontinentia BUTTOCKS!

Heh, Hollywood doesn't have a monopoly on crappy movies.

I get the impression that anthology movies don't do that well in US theaters anymore. Which is a shame since like Dave Munger said, there are some plots that would work better as short films in an anthology, but suffer when padded out to feature length. And BTW "Trilogy of Terror" was originally a TV movie, no idea if it later got a theatrical release like some other TV movies did.

I'd prefer that Hollywood just release the foreign originals here rather than drastically re-edit them (Shaolin Soccer, lots of Jackie Chan films) or remake them in usually weaker US versions. I know they are in business to make money, but they hurt themselves quite often with what they screw up. I thought the US version of "Insomnia" was a great little thriller, but I've yet to see the original to compare. But I could do without "Point of No Return", "The Ring", "Welcome to Collinwood", "The Italian Job" (2003), etc. For every remake that came out great (Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars, a handful of others) you get way too many "Get Carter"-style trainwrecks.

Just makes me glad they never remade "The Killer" with Richard Gere, like I read Hollywood wanted to do years ago. Then again looking at what John Woo has done since he came here, it's still a shame. And that the "Kind Hearts and Coronets" remake with Eddie Murphy didn't go ahead either.

Uh... yeah... whatever.

Heck, I could envision a father taking his kids to see a movie a bit over their heads, but to this piece, in which two young girls who looked remarkably like his own daughters get brutally and graphically murdered? What can that guy have been thinking?

"Okay, kids. Here's a fun little bedtime story. Once upon a time, there was this farmhand guy--who looked a lot like any number of people in this area that we know--who kidnapped these two little girls--and by the way, they sure looked a lot like you--and took them out into a field where he raped and murdered them. Then another guy got accused for the crimes, and they sentenced him to fry in the electric chair, along with the guy who really was the killer and several other guys who probably deserved to die too. Some of their deaths were really gruesome. The end. Sweet dreams..."