Great But Bad Sci-Fi Films

After listening to the recent podcast and the comments about Waterworld and The Postman, I've been thinking about some really awesome but terrible sci-fi films. Not necessarily the garbage you see on SyFy (sigh) but real made for the big screen films. Here are some of my favorites,

• The Core
• Chronicles of Riddick
• Battlefield Earth
• Aliens Vs Predator 2
• Alien Resurrection
• Fortress
• Judge Dredd

How about you guys?

Freejack.

Oh, and Dark Angel which I think is called I Come In Peace in some parts of the world.

Johnny Mnemonic.

Event Horizon?

Event Horizon.

Equilibrium, though I would argue its more in cheesy territory than so-bad-its-good.

There's nothing questionable about the writing and acting in Starship Troopers. That stuff is 100% intentional.

Cube.

G-Saviour and Starship Troopers.

The original Cube is almost Oscar-worthy compared to the sequels. Oh my god, those are bad.

Evolution

Female Space Invaders aka StarCrash

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079946/

It's like Hasselhoff's first movie...

/thread

Absolutely Event Horizon. It's a gothic haunted house movie in space. If you have the DVD the director's commentary is super interesting, especially regarding the set design.

Seconding Starship Troopers. I haven't seen the sequels but I've heard those are just terrible, and not great.

Exactly what I was gonna say. Starship Troopers is another movie like that.

Blade Runner.

What? Come at me bro.

Starship Troopers isn't so bad it's good; it's so good it's amazing. I've always likened it to the perfect B-movie, with just the right amount of cheesiness to make it tongue in cheek, without there being so much that it's distracting in any negative way.

Judge Dredd is also good. This one is a little overly cheesy at some points, but overall, it's enjoyable, which should be the primary reason for watching a movie anyway. I always enjoy watching it when it's on, so that counts for something.

Oh man, I remember seeing that with my Grandpa in theaters. I hated it, even though I was around 12 years old. Go to hell dolphin!

Wouldn't mind checking it out again though.

Mega Force

@ripelivejam:

Event Horizon is awesome.

Also, even though it's not really sci-fi, In The Mouth of Madness is kind of in the bad but good category.

Demolition Man.

Demolition Man.

Demolition Man.

Demolition Man.

Demolition Man.

Demolition Man.

Oh, Eight Legged Freaks!

Slither

The Running Man

Short Circuit 2 and maybe Fifth Element...is Fifth Element a bad movie, I can't tell, but I love it.

I don't think it's a bad movie, it's awesome.

How about Batteries not Included and Dune?

Alien Resurrection (if only as prototype-Firefly)

Death Race 2000

Flash freakin' Gordon

Little movie called ZARDOZ

More Connery: Outland, possibly Highlander too

Spawn (purely for Leguizamo)

Ice Pirates (chomp)

Was gonna say They Live, but that movie is basically perfect...

Ohh, a new but good little gem, Outlander with Jim Caviezel!

Strange Days. Not very high profile, but just great. Especially the setting and the acting.

Critters

I just got done watching every Gundam series, OVA and movie, and specifically skipped G-Saviour because I heard it was so bad. What did you like about it?

A Sound Of Thunder is worth watching for Ben Kingsley's wig alone.

Planet of the Apes 2001, the Tim Burton one.

@jordanarama: First thing that came to my mind, immediately. I think it actually wins this category.

Soylent Green comes to mind, even though I know its considered a classic.

Enemy Mine with Dennis Quiad is a particular brand of awful that everyone must experience to believe. Also, very appreciative of the Demolition Man shout out. I made an obscure reference to a Simon Phoenix quote in class, and one my 8th grade students fired back with John Spartan's retort. I was concerned for that child's mental stability immediately after.

All that said, this thread starts and ends with Starship Troopers.

Jurassic Park 3

Event Horizon, It's got a 40k vibe to it I love, if it wasn't for that, it would be cheese.

Dark City, y'all. The design of the Strangers alone is worth a watch (and the excellent final shot).

Creature. It's a terrible 80s sci-fi movie that hits all the right spots.

I'm sure someone already said it but Zardoz is a great fucking watch.

I thought it was actually pretty good, its terrible but I still really liked it.

Sunshine, Sci-fi into slasher film.

Dune! Dune is one of my favorite movies, but at the same time it's totally awful. I LOVE IT!

The Thing, even though the story is super flimsy.

@ford_dent: id argue that's just a fantastic sci fi movie, not a so bad it's good or bad/good type movie. love it to bits regardless. SLEEP NAOW.

looks like i have a lot of catching up to do based on this thread.

I reject this notion that Dune is bad movie. Perfect? Certainly not but still it is awesome. Especially considering that this taking a book that is so steeped in minutiae and making it as the setting as alien as possible.

I love Dune. You get Patrick Stewart, Jurgen Prochnow, and Brad Dourif. Not to mention Kyle Maclachan's hair is incredible.

Hell Comes to Frogtown - The movie feels like a low budget adaptation of an erotic Post-Apocalyptic Rowdy Roddy Piper fan fic.

Southland Tales - From the director of Donnie Darko and featuring one of the weirdest cast ever assembled including The Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, Amy Poehler, Wallace Shawn, Sean Williams Scott, and John Lovitz as a corrupt cop. Seen it twice and still have no idea what the fuck this movie is about.

Suburban Commando - An awful but somehow charming sci-fi comedy starring Hulk Hogan, Christopher Lloyd, and a young Undertaker.

@predator said:

I believe the reason so many people hated on it was because how different it was from the OVA/series/etc... The cast were adults, the villain did not wear a metal mask, nobody's hands were shining and there was very little angst/melodrama in it. But I found that refreshing. It did have good points. I loved the Mobile Suit fx (especially the "Beam Shield") and the fight scenes were exciting. If you're trying to get someone into Gundam, this could be a good gateway to it.

The key to enjoying it is to disenfranchise it from the source material and just take it as a fun sci-fi movie.

...... all of the movies I'm reading are good. I tend to watch a lot of 70s and 80s sci fi..... those were really scrapping the bottom of the barrel trying to chase after the success of Alien and Star Wars.

I give you STARCRASH! It's more like a Harryhausen style adventure film where the female lead, Caroline Munro, is the hero as she's trying to rescue David Hasselhoff who is the damsel in distress. It's not bad, it feels more focused then most of these italian productions (also distributed by roger corman) which can go on the verge of just sleaze and crap. But still even Christopher Plummer's eyes glaze away to realize what kind of film he's on.

Hunter Prey. I can't decide if it's great but good, or great but bad.