Documentaries: What are the Worst?

InformationGeek · August 28, 2011, 02:16:27 PM

Here's a topic that I doubt we've ever covered before (Man, I'm on a roll with posting tons of new topics lately!), bad documentaries. Now a bad one, I'm thinking they would have bad editing, the person who made the film has no idea what they are talking about, lots of the facts they use are incorrect or can be proven wrong with credible sources, it's really a propaganda film in disguise, information is manipulated or edited to the creator's own opinion, or similiar. I don't watch documentaries that much, so I can't say for certian what makes a bad one, but I figure things like would be the problem.

Now, what are some of the worst or most poorly made documentaries you've seen? I've heard stuff like The Other Side of AIDS, What the #$*! Do We Know!?, or America: Freedom to Fascism are among some of the worst.

claws · August 28, 2011, 04:09:42 PM

The Legend of Bigfoot (1976)

One of the worst documentaries I've ever seen. It's so bad its not even funny.

Leah · August 28, 2011, 06:40:20 PM

you really want me to answer that? I think The Jonas Brothers #-D Concert is the lowest documentary on IMDb

The Burgomaster · August 29, 2011, 12:57:21 PM

Quote from: claws on August 28, 2011, 04:09:42 PM
The Legend of Bigfoot (1976)

One of the worst documentaries I've ever seen. It's so bad its not even funny.

Yup. And Mill Creek put it in more than one of its 50 Movie Packs. Oh, the pain!

Rev. Powell · August 29, 2011, 01:09:46 PM

ZEITGEIST: THE MOVIE. Here was my original short review: "Watch this documentary and learn: 1. that the New Testament is an astrological parable and Christianity is identical to Egyptian paganism; 2. the United States government blew up the World Trade Center to get the Patriot Act passed, and 3. the Federal Reserve Bank has manipulated America into entering every war since 1915 on its way to creating a One World Government where we'll all be implanted with microchips. But hey, the news isn't ALL bad--at least there's no law that says you have to pay income tax! Note to future cranks with video editing suites: your nutso pronouncements will have more 'zing' if you limit yourself to one goofball conspiracy theory at a time."

Derf · August 29, 2011, 01:47:27 PM

Quote from: InformationGeek on August 28, 2011, 02:16:27 PM
Here's a topic that I doubt we've ever covered before (Man, I'm on a roll with posting tons of new topics lately!), bad documentaries. Now a bad one, I'm thinking they would have bad editing, the person who made the film has no idea what they are talking about, lots of the facts they use are incorrect or can be proven wrong with credible sources, it's really a propaganda film in disguise, information is manipulated or edited to the creator's own opinion, or similiar. I don't watch documentaries that much, so I can't say for certian what makes a bad one, but I figure things like would be the problem.

Now, what are some of the worst or most poorly made documentaries you've seen? I've heard stuff like The Other Side of AIDS, What the #$*! Do We Know!?, or America: Freedom to Fascism are among some of the worst.

I think this would pretty much encompass anything made by Michael Moore. I'd also add in the Al Gore's A Convenient Truth. And, just to show I'm not only including political propaganda, I'll add in the "documentaries" about UFO rods that I addressed in another thread (they're really just poorly filmed insects that the "filmmakers" claim are minuscule ufos)--bad, bad, bad "fact checking."

Flick James · August 29, 2011, 03:16:40 PM

Michael Moore would be among my least favorite as far as documentary filmmakers go. I don't have a problem with him being a liberal. Have at it. But he is such a freaking pipsqueak about it. What little of his documentary work I've watched, he's like the fat kid in school who got bullied and now makes documentaries out of revenge. The man has serious issues. As a kid who was bullied a bit myself, I can identify one several miles away. Get over it.

That having been said, pretty much ANY documentary that is so biased as to have no objective merit get on my nerves, and that goes for you righties too.

RCMerchant · August 29, 2011, 04:56:39 PM

WEIRD WORLD OF LSD (1967)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ8hN2j9PNE

Criswell · September 04, 2011, 09:25:26 PM

Quote from: The Burgomaster on August 29, 2011, 12:57:21 PM
Quote from: claws on August 28, 2011, 04:09:42 PM
The Legend of Bigfoot (1976)

One of the worst documentaries I've ever seen. It's so bad its not even funny.

Yup. And Mill Creek put it in more than one of its 50 Movie Packs. Oh, the pain!

When I saw the topic title this was the first movie I thought of.

zombie no.one · September 05, 2011, 07:15:37 AM

Quote from: RCMerchant on August 29, 2011, 04:56:39 PM
WEIRD WORLD OF LSD (1967)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ8hN2j9PNE

brilliant. the bird!!!!

Olivia Bauer · September 05, 2011, 08:38:20 AM

I haven't seen a bad documentary before. I've seen a parody of bad documentaries on the show Monk though. It was on an episode about the murder of the oldest man in the world.

diamondwaspvenom · September 05, 2011, 01:29:37 PM

Two words: Jesus Camp.

Hammock Rider · September 07, 2011, 08:50:56 AM

Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating

I haven't seen it but it sounds really bad.

Crystal Pepsi Lite · September 07, 2011, 06:06:22 PM

Ringers - the documentary on the Lord of the Rings phenomena is awful. They couldn't get the rights to ANYTHING so it was funny how they talked about all this stuff and never showed it - dumb and boring. And I loved Trekkies 1 and 2.

claws · September 08, 2011, 01:07:21 AM

Quote from: Crystal Pepsi Lite on September 07, 2011, 06:06:22 PM
Ringers - the documentary on the Lord of the Rings phenomena is awful. They couldn't get the rights to ANYTHING so it was funny how they talked about all this stuff and never showed it - dumb and boring.

rofl! sounds like a real winner. I once bought a Disco documentary on DVD and apparently they couldn't get the rights to 90% of the most important disco songs, including songs by Donna Summer. Super-fail.