B100 List Update

Here's the latest update. Actually from a while back on 17th July 2007. They'll be quite a few on the way soon though. As you can see, an eclectic bunch.

IMDB Bottom 100 Update and Reflections

Well, I’ve been plugging away at the bottom100 list for a couple of months now and quite feebly only made it to number 94 – although I’ll be posting up the next review of Underclassman soon. It’s time for a much need update of the list as, if you click the image to the left, you’ll see a lot of changes. This is the list from May 8th 2007. You can see there is a general downward trend of films leaving the bottom 100 over time. Possibly because as films receive more votes it gets harder to maintain such a low score. There are also a number of new entries that have just received the necessary 650 votes, and newly released films which get a very bad kneejerk reaction at first, then claw their way out soon after. None of my reviewed films are there anymore, although some do pop in from time to time if you check regularly.

Looking back on the films so far I can conclude that bad films know no limitations in genre, age, budget, or the talent of cast and crew. The 50s and 60s films Beginning of the End, Monster A Go-Go and Eegah were cheap, nasty, and thoroughly silly films. In fact, so were the Ator the Invincible (80s) and Werewolf (90s). In all cases they were laughable enough to be watchable and to some extent enjoyable. These films all touched on that rare filmic status of 'so bad they’re good’. Perhaps they only fell short by making too much sense, or having at least one good actor.

Then we have the more modern films. The King and I (1999), which I can imagine has been largely voted for by adults, parents, babysitters, and the like. I doubt that all the votes are from computer savvy 7 year olds who this film is aimed at. Nevertheless, it was a largely painful experience to watch and remains the worst I’ve seen yet. I wasn’t even expecting to see an animation on this list let alone hate it so much.

If Rollerball (2002) had been an ultra low budget film I think it may have been hilariously. Unfortunately it had enough of a budget only to homogenise it and bore me to death. Not to mention having a stupid, stupid, ending. Finally Underclassman (2005) – I don’t want to spoil my next review but this deservedly left the bottom 100 since February. It’s bad, but certainly no Werewolf.

I suppose what I’m also concluding is that, so far, the cheaper and older films provide the most fun in terms of unintentional laughs and sillyness. The inflated budgets of later films give a feeling of failure due to lack of effort and poor judgement, resulting in annoyance and boredom. Whilst watching some locusts filmed close up being chucked into a puddle of water is somewhat endearing in its attempts to entertain. Considering this is only 8 films in though we’ll see if this pattern maintains. After all, I still think that Con Air (1997) fits in the so stupid it’s funny category, and that has an enormous budget by comparison. So it can be done.

At this point a special mention to Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) has to be made. An old TV show that found its fame through mocking bad movies. Read the Wiki entry here for more info. So far five of the eight films (Beginning of the End, Monster A Go-Go, Eegah, Ator the Invincible, Werewolf) have featured on their show, and I know more are to come. It’s no surprise that those films are from the episodes released on DVD. They’ve done more to highlight awful movies than anyone else I can think of, and in doing so had a profound effect on this list.

That’s enough from me.
Jaune

It was the best of times...

Hello. My name is Jaune Heatley, and I am a writer and director for Bear & Beyond. Hopefully you will enjoy some of my offerings in the near future. In addition to that I am undertaking a shameless attempt to encourage extra funding for Bear films, by taking a look at the state of human films over the years. I will be reviewing every film on the IMDB bottom 100 list. Being a fan of low budget and most genre movies I will not prejudge these films because of their status. What I’m looking to see is whether they deserve to be where they are.

Here’s how it works. On 1st February 2007 I took a snapshot of the bottom 100 list. You can see part of it here [click for bigger picture]. Next I start watching them from number 100 onwards. Some of these films are understandably hard to get hold of. It took 4 weeks to get Werewolf flown in from the US. Anyone who regularly looks at the list will see it changes quite frequently. So at natural breaks I will update the snapshot and continue watching from whatever number I am at. Reviews will be posted here counting down from No.100 right to the very depths of the No.1 worst movie of all.

First review coming soon…