The Best Worst Movies of All Time

If you're looking for movies that are so bad that they can't help but be entertaining, Plan 9 From Outer Space is the best of the worst.

The Details

Released by Ed Wood in 1959, this film stars Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson and Maila "Vampira" Nurmi. However, Ed Wood also billed Bela Lugosi as a character in the film, though Lugosi had died 3 years previous.

The movie starts with Criswell as the Narrator, explaining the events of "that fateful day", before moving into the main story. In this movie, a race of aliens is attempting to get the governments of the world to pay attention to them, in order to stop the governments from creating a weapon that could destroy the entire universe.

They have tried many different options, and none have worked. Finally, they settle for Plan 9. With Plan 9, the aliens resurrect the recently dead in order to get the attention of the world, so they can get the attention of the worlds' governments, and have them stop the creation of this superweapon.

Why Is It Bad?

This is a bad movie on so many levels.

The special effects are probably the most noticeable thing that make this movie horrible. As the flying saucers fly though the scenes, in most cases, you can clearly see the string they're hanging from. The flying saucers cast shadows on the backdrops. In the cemetery scenes, the tombstones are made of cardboard, and it shows. In many cases, the tombstones wobble as the actors bump them, and one even falls over. The scene in the airplane cockpit is abysmal. The cockpit is devoid of anything resembling airplane controls, with the control yokes made from a couple of pieces of painted plywood.

The special effects could have been overlooked though, if the script were halfway decent. In the beginning narration, Criswell informs you that "future events such as these will affect you in the future", and refers to the viewer as "my friend" 4 times within the same minute. The story in general is absurd, as half a dozen reanimated corpses represent the master plan of an advanced alien race.

The acting is wooden, which really should be expected when trying to deliver such horrible lines. In the airplane cockpit, however, the most inexcusable mistake is when the first officer is visibly reading directly from the script in his lap.

The greatest of the errors, however, lies with Bela Lugosi. This film great was the original Dracula. However, while I do say that Bela Lugosi was the greatest of the errors, I cannot lay blame on him. Mr. Lugosi had died 3 years before this film was released. Ed Wood had filmed a few minutes of footage for a previous film, and decided to use it for Bela Lugosi's final film. The film shows Bela Lugosi in several instances, using the same film over and over again. However, there were several scenes where his character is used outside of that stock footage. In those cases, they used a double for Bela Lugosi. Ed Wood hired his wife's chiropractor, Tom Mason, to stand in for Mr. Lugosi. This is unfortunate, as Mason looked nothing at all like Lugosi. To attempt to hide this fact, he walks around with his cape over his face. This attempt fails miserably.

Why is it Good?

For all of its faults, or rather, *because* of all of its faults, Plan 9 From Outer Space is a thoroughly entertaining movie. While it was filmed to be a serious judgement on humanity, it fails so miserably that you can't help but laugh. The bad dialog, the horrible special effects, and the bad acting make this movie so unintentionally funny that you can't help but enjoy it the whole way through. This movie is *fun*, and entirely worth the time to watch it.

The Details

Street Fighter was released in 1994, and starred Jean Claude Van Damme, Kylie Minogue, and Rual Julia in his final performance. Julia plays M. Bison, a mad dictator, who has kidnapped a number of international aid workers, and is demanding $20 billion for their release. Van Damme plays Col. William Guile, who is tasked with rescuing the aid workers and stopping M. Bison in his mad plan to take over the world.

Why is it Bad?

First of all, this is a movie based on a video game that had no plot to speak of. The movie created a plot out of whole cloth, used the characters in the game, and hoped they could make it work.

They failed.

The entire premise of the movie was ridiculous, the script was bad from the very beginning, and many things were done for no discernable reason.

The movie was based in the fictional country of Shadaloo. Seriously. I couldn't have made up a name that stupid, but I assume they grabbed some letters out of a Scrabble box and threw them on the floor, and went with whatever showed up. M. Bison was the dictator of this fictional country, and had a hidden lair that looked to be massive, but completely undetectable. He kidnaps a number of aid workers, and the soldiers sent to protect them. Bison then takes one of those soldiers, Carlos Blanca, and runs experiments on him to turn him into a supersoldier. He increases his muscle mass dramatically, and for some reason, turns him green, with orange hair.

The dialog is absolutely horrific. Having bad dialog delivered with Jean Claude Van Damme's accent is even worse.

There is one scene where two of the characters are thrown in a jail cell, and when they escape, they've changed into their Street Fighter uniforms. Balrog, a boxer, is inexplicably wearing his shorts and a pair of boxing gloves, while E. Honda is in his sumo-wrestling outfit. Where did they have these outfits hidden, exactly?

Why is it Good?

This movie is redeemed almost solely on the performance of Raul Julia. Julia is a fantastic actor, and from what could be seen of his performance in Street Fighter, he realized that this would be a really bad movie, with horrible dialog. He gave the performance his all though, and took the role, and the dialog, completely over-the-top. He hammed it up with everything he had, and delivered one of the most entertaining characters he's ever done.

This performance, alongside the great comedy provided by the nonsensical plot, make Street Fighter an incredibly entertaining bad movie.

The Details

In this movie, a couple of thieves - Ridley and Snails (yes, that's his name) break into the Mages School, and while trying to steal random stuff, get caught up in politics between an evil mage named Profion, and the Empress, who wants equality for magic and non-magic people alike.

After escaping with a low-level mage named Marina, the thieves agree to help her find a scepter which will control Red Dragons, before Profion can get his hands on it. By doing so, they can help the Empress from being overthrown by Profion and his corrupt mages.

What Makes This Movie Bad?

There are so many reasons this is a horrible movie. The story, as mentioned above, is a level of bad that I haven't seen in too many movies. The story is ridiculous, doesn't make sense in many places, and the characters go off on tangents you don't expect.

The dialog in the script was terrible. Far from being serious dialog, every chance they get, they throw in one-liners developed by 13-year-old boys.

The acting was horrendous. Jeremy Irons, a normally fantastic actor, delivered his lines like an overeager teenager in his first high school play. He wasn't the only one, though. His acting was still the best in a movie where everyone overacted. Almost every scene will have you rolling your eyes at just how bad they act.

The special effects were probably the best part of the movie, but that doesn't say much. Even for a movie made in 2000, the CGI dragons were far less realistic than Jurassic Park's dinosaurs in 1993.

Why Should You See This Movie?

All the reasons that make this a bad movie are the same reasons you need to see this. The bad dialog is hilarious. I'm certain that all the actors in the film realized just how bad this movie would be, and decided to have fun with it. They overact their bad lines to the point that you can't help but grin.

The script is really random. It twists and turns, and you're never sure exactly where you're going to go next, which makes it a fun and hilarious ride. I fully believe that I know how the script was written. What I think they did was get a group of nerds together, start a game of Dungeons and Dragons, and just wrote down what happened in the game. Since everyone that played was 14-years-old, it would explain the script fairly well...

There are main characters, like the dwarf, who have only a line or two of dialog, but otherwise serve no purpose whatsoever.

In one scene, Ridley and Snails (yes, that's his name) have to visit the head of the thieves guild to retrieve a ruby called the Dragon's Eye. In order to do this, Ridley has to navigate a maze and survive, in order to retrieve the Eye as a prize. The "maze" consists of 3 chambers with various traps that kill. It's a very complicated maze, if you have trouble with straight lines. The sheer idiocy of the maze scene is truly amusing.

Overall, through the bad script, the overacting, and the childish dialog, this was a very entertaining movie. You can't help but enjoy the ridiculousness of the entire thing.

The Details

Howard The Duck is a movie about a duck. His name is Howard. Now that I've cleared up that confusion.... Howard is a duck that evolved on a different world, where ducks are the dominant species and live like people do here. Howard is randomly pulled from his world to ours by a laser, and befriends a rocker chick named Beverly.

Eventually, he finds out how he got to our world, and the scientists that accidentally brought him to earth agree to send him back. While doing so, they accidentally bring another alien back. This one isn't quite so nice as Howard though, and he infects the body of Dr. Walter Jenning, and plans to take over the world. Howard and Beverly then work to destroy the alien and save the world.

Why This Movie Sucks

Howard the Duck takes a ridiculous story idea, throws in bad duck puns, and finishes it off with dialog that should have had the scriptwriters fired.

Howard the Duck is an incredibly dumb story idea. A duck, from a planet just like earth, except that they have walking talking ducks instead of humans. When I watch a movie, one thing that will completely break me from a movie is bad science. The laser being used to pull creatures from another planet was silly science.

Tim Robbins played the young scientist, and his performance took corny to an entirely new level.

Why You Need To See This Movie

I had to give credit where credit is due. For a movie from 1986, the special effects were pretty good. Howard looked pretty realistic, and they had his beak move well when he spoke.

Lea Thompson was actually very good in her role as Beverly Switzer. She treated the role seriously, worked with Howard as if it were a real actor, and made herself very believable.

I mentioned above that the movie was littered with duck puns. Howard was good at Quack-fu. His driver's license stated he was from Marshington, DC. There are so many other puns that will make you groan throughout the movie.

The pure campiness of Howard the Duck is what really makes this entertaining though. Every scene is loaded with pure cheese, over the top acting, and bad one-liners. You can't help enjoy yourself, and you can't help but laugh even though you know you probably shouldn't.

The Details

Judge Dredd is set in the distant future, in a world where the environment seems to have been destroyed, and everyone lives in supercities. The cities are greatly overpopulated, and are controlled by the police force known as the Judges. The Judges are the police, the jury, the judge, and the executioner.

Judge Dredd is the best of the Judges. He is framed for a murder, and instead of executed, is sent off to the prison colony. Able to escape, he heads back to the supercity to clear his name, and judge the ones responsible for the growing crime in the city.

Why This Movie is Horrible

First of all, while this movie has been rated by many as one of the worst movies of all time, I didn't think it was too bad. Admittedly, it took the source material from the comic, and pretty much ignored everything except the name.

It did, however, have Rob Schneider as a supporting character, and he actually used up a fair amount of screen time. He didn't serve a useful purpose beyond serving annoying one-liners throughout the movie.

The "science" of the movie was pretty ridiculous. Near the end of the movie, the "clones" were released from growth early, skin missing, showing bluish-white muscles. Programmable bullets make their debut in this movie, and are used to almost comedic effect.

Why This Movie is So Fun

If you're looking for a great action movie, this isn't it. If you're looking for a movie that'll make you laugh at unexpected moments, this is your guilty pleasure.

Rob Schneider, for all of his inability to not be annoying, did deliver his one-liners perfectly, and will make you laugh. Stallone was great at being the type of character that Stallone plays, and takes his performance over the top. He's a lot of fun to watch.

The plot borders on the ridiculous, and is fairly predictable, which seems to make it more fun.

Judge Dredd, while not being a high art film, is just a great ride for an hour and a half or so, and should be watched with a group of friends.