Do They Know?

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just get in the mood for a really bad movie.  I don’t mean bad in the sense of “lots of violence and nudity” but bad in a sense of “everything about this movie is poorly made.”  Most often I can turn to the trusty Mystery Science Theater 3000 to curb my craving, but the other day, i wanted something a bit newer.

So I watched Battlefield Earth.  This movie is bad.  What makes it wonderful is that it falls within the “so bad it is good” category.  Acting?  There are scenes where the only spoken lines are “ooga booga.”  Special effects?  They are indeed very special.  Plot?  Utterly ridiculous.  This was the most enjoyably bad movie I have seen in a long time.  And I’ve seen some bad ones.

What blows me away is that this was not some backwater production.  It was a pet project of John Travolta, and he starred in it along with Forest Whitaker.  It had a multi-million dollar budget.  Even with all of that, it is still a horrendous movie.

Almost every scene is shot at a strange angle, and the acting is beyond campy.  The one thing I always wonder is this: when the actors finish a horrible movie, or a scene in a bad movie, do they sit back and think, “wow, this is some great stuff we’re doing” or do they think, “why did I ever agree to do this?”

Take a peek from one of the better scenes in the movie.

Bad, right?  If you’re ever in the mood for a horrible movie, this is one that should be on your list!