First thing is first.
Thanks for reading, everyone. I
never expected anyone to want to read my opinions on a bunch of bad
movies. I never had the best track
record of sharing the same opinion as other people, and it’s nice to know that
there are people out there who appreciate my opinion, however much they
disagree with it. Really, I’m truly
humbled by anyone who actually takes time out of their lives to read what I
have to say. I’m not important at all,
but you care. Thank you.
This post here is basically a personal summation of the
first twenty-five posts in my Sunday “Bad” Movie series of blog posts. Twenty-five.
Who knew that it would last this long?
Okay, some people probably did. I
do watch a lot of movies that are considered bad. That’s the reason I started this series. I watch enough bad movies, surely I could
write something about them and build up not only my knowledge, but the
knowledge of anyone reading. My
unfounded opinions and impressions of the movies have given me twenty-five posts
worth of writing so far, and there is more on the way.
This post is meant as a reflection upon the first
twenty-five. Therefore, I shall reflect
upon the first twenty-five posts, covering twenty-eight movies that most people
would consider bad. I might not agree
with that on some of them, but from what I can tell, the consensus is that
they’re bad. Why don’t I start with this
reflection now?
The blog post series began in November 2012, when I decided
I should write about some of the bad movies I’ve watched. The idea was to get interaction between me
and the readers. I would put up a poll
with three movies, and the readers would choose one for me to watch. Then I would watch it and write about
it. There were a few simple issues with
this idea, however. Though it allowed
for more interaction, I didn’t really have readers, so there was no way for the
interaction to truly happen. Most of the
time, I was still choosing the movie myself.
Then there was the timing.
Sometimes, I wouldn’t have enough time, due to my own schedule, to watch
the movie between the time of the poll and the following Sunday. The other major reason was summer. Yes, it’s still not summer. But in the summer, I will have less free
time. This made me want to have a
backlog of posts ready for weeks in which I didn’t have the time to write
one. For these reasons, I eliminated the
poll, and just watched movies as I felt like it. I don’t know if I’ll ever bring the poll
back. It was an interesting concept, but
I still don’t think I have enough readers to make it worth it. Yet, at least.
As the series went on, there were a few more changes that
happened. Soon after I eliminated the
poll set-up, I started just writing about any bad movie I saw. This led to a few movies in a row being from
the past couple of years. I wanted more
of a variety in the movies, both in genre and year, so I started to make a
schedule of what movies I would write about and when. Not only does it give a variety to the posts,
but to what I watch. This makes it more
exciting for me, as well as, I assume, any readers. Around that same time, between posts 9 and
14, I had also switched to straight reviews, which is something I don’t
particularly like. I’m not sure why I
did this. Perhaps I thought it would be
better, but it wasn’t. I struggled with
the writing a little bit. By post 16,
for Rise of the Zombies, I had decided that I would write whatever I felt like. If it was a straight review, so be it. If it was something more about a topic and
how it relates to the movie, so be it.
I’d rather enjoy what I’m doing than follow some conventions that I set
for myself in the writing area of it. I
just want to have a good time.
The writing of this blog series has been a mixture of what
felt like fun, and what felt like work.
I’ve had some pieces that I felt really good while writing. Here are my top five:
1. Rise of
the Zombies – This was my return to writing what I want instead of just
reviewing the movies. It tapped into my
history with watching movies produced by The Asylum, and I was able to work the
movie into the topic discussion without it feeling forced. It is among my favourite things I’ve ever
written.
2. Death
Race – This was the first time I did more than one movie in a blog post. I liked thinking about the series as a whole,
rather than an individual movie. Though
the theme of my writing wasn’t deep, I was still interested in what I
wrote. Something just clicked for me.
3. Playing
for Keeps – Sometimes it’s just fun to write out the horrible plot of a movie.
4. Starcrash
– The first post in the series was also among the top 5. It showed me how much potential the posts
had, and that I could actually do some good writing (by my personal standards)
if I try. Plus, when you write about a movie
with David Hasselhoff in it, everything is more fun.
5. The Room
– It’s easy to write something based on personal experience. It’s also fun to share personal stories. That’s what makes the blog post for The Room
so enjoyable to me.
Each one of these posts flowed out of me without too much
thinking. I knew, for the most part,
what I was going to write about before I wrote the post. It was all a matter of putting my fingers on
the keyboard and having the words appear on the computer screen in front of
me. They were easy to write and fun to
write. That’s always a good thing to
have when writing.
One of the things that makes the writing a whole lot easier
is having a wide variety in movies. I’ve
had movies in many different genres.
I’ve had comedy, action, horror, science fiction, musicals, and animated
movies. Some were entertaining, and
others were painful to watch. My five
favourite movies so far have been:
1. Miami
Connection – The music, action, and love for the movie itself really helped elevate
this one for me. I loved every minute
that I spent watching it.
2. Robot Jox
– The effects made this movie much better than it could have been. With poorer effects, the movie could have
easily been fumbled. It’s a joy ride
from beginning to end.
3. Starcrash
– It might be a complete rip-off of Star Wars, and a few other movies, but it’s
so earnest that it’s easy to overlook that.
4. The Room
– Everything about it might seem bad on the outside, but through the many
experiences that I have had watching it, I’ve fallen in love with these
qualities.
5. Death
Race – How can I dislike a movie with Jason Statham and Ian McShane in it? Oh, that’s right. I can’t.
As you can tell, there is some similarity between the posts
that I like and the movies that I like.
The movies that I have preferred gave me more inspiration to write. This is one thing that I hate to admit, but
know as a fact. It is much easier for me
to write on a topic about a movie I like than it is to write on a topic about a
movie I don’t like. There is more
inspiration within liking something than there is within disliking something.
Before I finish this post, I just want to give a few
statistics about the first twenty-five posts in the Sunday “Bad” Movie
series. Throughout the first twenty-five
posts, I have seen twenty-eight movies.
Four of the twenty-eight movies have been suggested by other
people. The most frequent year that the
movies featured in the series were released is 2012.
However, what I want to focus on the most are the actors who
have been featured in more than one movie.
So far, twenty-one actors have been featured in multiple movies. Three of the twenty-one were featured solely
in archive footage in one of those movies.
Three of the twenty-one were in three movies. Two of those three were only in one series of
movies. Sixteen of the eighteen actors
in two different movies appeared in two movies that were in the same
franchise. The following list is the 5
actors in the most movies, listed first by the number of movies, then
prioritized by number of franchises.
Thus, someone who has been in three movies ranks higher than someone in
two movies, and someone in two movies of different movie series outranks
someone in two movies within the same series.
Here are the top five actors:
1. Danny
Trejo – He has been featured in three movies.
He was in Death Race 2, Death Race: Inferno, and Rise of the Zombies.
2. Robin
Shou and Fred Koehler – Both were featured in all three Death Race movies.
4. French
Stewart and Chad Lindberg – Both actors were in Rise of the Zombies. French Stewart was in 30 Nights of Paranormal
Activity With the Devil Inside the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Chad Lindberg was in Alex Cross.
That brings this reflection upon the first twenty-five
movies to a close. Twenty-five movies
have been watched, and there are more to come.
Another post will be going up about what’s to come from the Sunday “Bad”
Movie series of blog posts. There are
some good things coming up for this series, and I hope that those of you who do
read it like what I have planned.
