Bad movies can be so addictive

As Hollywood prepares to celebrate the worst of the worst of film-making at Sunday's Golden Raspberry Awards, JAMES CROOT asks why bad movies can be so addictive.

Everyone has one. A film that failed to find favour with the critics, is none of the cast and crew's finest hour and one that most people usually laugh at rather than with, but that yet you find yourself easily watching it over and over again. Battlefield Earth, Troll 2, Howard the Duck and even Patrick Swayze's Road House are all examples. But why are we drawn to such flawed pieces of trash art?

One man who knows all about watching "bad" movies is Michael Adams. The Australian film critic spent the whole of 2007 viewing more than 400 alleged crimes against cinema in order to produce the recently released book Showgirls, Teen Wolves and Astro Zombies. Inspired by being forced to watch the Duff (sisters) movie Material Girls as part of his work for Empire magazine's Australian edition, his year-long madness became a search to find the worst movie ever made. He says the gap between ambition and execution is what makes a bad movie, and that sometimes the result makes for compelling viewing.

"Take for example a film like The Room [which has become a cult hit worldwide], the director and star Tommy Wiseau wanted to make a soulful-tearjerker, a Tennessee Williams-style melodrama but the result is as far from that as you can possibly get . . . and yet it is supremely entertaining in its own way because of that gap. Likewise, with Plan 9 From Outer Space Ed Wood set out to create a massive alien epic but succeeded in making a film where two people sat in a cockpit made from a couple of chairs and a shower curtain and where a model-kit flying saucer bobs around a cardboard cemetery.

"Whenever people strive for the stars but end up in the gutter it is kind of amusing and fascinating. Because films have depicted perfect worlds, perfect people, heroics and romance executed by gorgeous people who in real life are paid a fortune and live glamorous lives, there is something irresistibly funny about seeing things go terribly wrong.

"For example, we were supposed to be thrilled by the action heroics of Speed 2 and instead you get to be heartily amused by how 400 to 500 people spending US$90 million [NZ$128.6] couldn't see what we can see which was the concept was never going to work.

"In a way, bad movies are like folk art, you as the viewer receive entertainment from the film in a completely different way from what was intended."

Adams says it is this increasing reliance by Hollywood on sequels, remakes, adaptations, spin offs and origin stories that is actually leading to more "badly made" movies that lack any redeeming entertainment value.

"There is, of course, the problem of heightened expectations - if James Cameron decides to make Avatar 2 you can almost guarantee people will be disappointed - but there is also the fact that even 'original' movies like Valentine's Day and Couples Retreat are so finely calibrated by studios to make money, the end result is sanded off on all sides. It means that rather than being bad in an entertaining way, they are often offensive, disappointing, banal and have nothing new to say.

"Batman and Robin [recently voted the worst movie ever by Empire's United Kingdom readers] was bad but was also fascinating. Joel Schumacher made a misguided attempt to make a modern camp spectacular and ruined a franchise while spending US$125m. Compare that to last year's Transformers 2 which I thought was appalling and a cynical waste of money. "That film's director Michael Bay just didn't seem to give a damn about script or character and even the much vaunted special effects were poorly edited and forced together so you literally couldn't tell what was going on half the time."

Admitting that one man's trash is another one's treasure, Adams says he quite likes Kevin Costner's much reviled The Postman but isn't a fan of the "howlingly awful" The English Patient or last year's Flight of the Red Balloon.

Christchurch film-maker and critic Charlie Gates cites Beyond the Valley of the Dolls or Showgirls as his favourite bad movies. "I also love Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom even though no-one seems to. It has a musical number, bugs, crazy food, rollercoasters and rope bridges. Man, it is awesome."

He believes bad movies are best seen as a shared interactive affair. "There's nothing better than goofing on a crappy movie over a few beers with some friends."

One man who facilitates such experiences is Ant Timpson, the man behind the annual 24 Hour Movie Marathon and other assorted celebrations of the cult, the crap and the cheesy. He is a firm believer that if it is memorable it's not bad.

"We need to put an end to the 'guilty pleasure' palava. If it is enjoyable there is no guilt associated."

Marathon regular Andrew Todd is another who revels in the trashy side of cinema. "I would describe a bad movie as being something made without any passion or care - which makes Ed Wood's movies good."

Christchurch-based clinical psychologist Fran Vertue says the answer to why we love watching bad movies lies in the reasons that we love movies in general. "We love to experience strong emotion in response to enactments of love, loss, achievement, death, sex or danger while remaining safe from the real-life consequences of these enactments. We love the opportunity to experience a life apart from our own while being free to leave the painful bits behind at the movie theatre and take the pleasurable bits with us. So, even when the movie is badly scripted [stilted, unrealistic dialogue and inconsistencies in the plot] or badly filmed [lighting and camera effects are poor] or badly acted [wooden, hammed-up or indifferent performances], we might still respond positively to its central themes.

"For example, there are innumerable romantic comedies around that are really badly made, but they're still box-office successes. We love to experience the emotions of falling in love or losing love and finding it, and even if the film has a sad ending, we will leave the theatre re-writing the ending to make it more satisfying.

"Likewise, Anaconda is a dreadful film about huge snakes but squillions of people went to see it, even after the horrific reviews came out. It is still held up as an iconic example of herpetology-horror, and given our evolutionary preparedness to fear snakes, we love the opportunity to be terrified or disgusted with no real danger.

"There are also badly made movies about huge human issues like war, betrayal, and suffering, and we still flock to see them. We find answers to our own difficult questions about these things, and possible solutions to our own dilemmas.

"It's like therapy in that we get to think about our own lives and how we'd like them to be, and sometimes even make changes for the better in our real lives."

HAVE YOUR SAY: Which is your favourite 'bad' movie?

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