For today’s review I thought I’d tackle a film that I’ve long been a fan of, even when it wasn’t popular to like it. It’s the first installment in a cinematic universe, which normally would mean that it should also be the best, but in this case the film was so infamously panned by both critics and audiences that it almost killed the franchise dead before it began.
I’m talking of course about the one and only STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE.
Welcome back to BAD MOVIE MONDAY! Today’s demented doltish detritus is DAY OF THE ANIMALS. It’s a 1977 eco-horror movie starring Christopher George, Lynda Day George, Richard Jaeckel, and Leslie Nielsen that is best described using two words: Jaws Wannabe. You see, after the success of the 1975 blockbuster imitators sprung out from under every rock trying to copy Spielberg’s film. Usually using ten year old scripts that had been previously rejected. In fact, these movies were so omnipresent that Christopher George starred in TWO of them. This one and the previous year’s GRIZZLY.
Today’s review is for one of my favorite movies of all time. (I know, I know… I’ve said this before, but in my defense I’m old and I love a LOT of movies.) COMMUNION stars Christopher Walken as Whitley Strieber, Lindsay Crouse as Anne Strieber, Frances Sternhagen as Dr. Janet Duffy, Andreas Katsulas as Alex, and Joel Carlson as Andrew Strieber. It was directed by Phillipe Mora based on Whitley Strieber’s best-selling nonfiction book of the same name. Now, perhaps I’m completely in the wrong here, but I am legitimately baffled as to why this movie isn’t more popular. It is FAR superior and FAR scarier than the similar FIRE IN THE SKY, which is usually what people bring up when they’re talking about terrifying alien abduction films. Now, I know what you’re thinking. If I like it so much then why am I reviewing it on BAD MOVIE MONDAY? Well, because for some insane reason it’s considered a bad movie. Most critics at the time dismissed it and audiences have been ignoring it for over thirty years. So I suppose this review is my attempt to remedy that.
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Can a good movie be bad? I like to think so, yes. There’s plenty of examples of award winning critical darlings, like Forrest Gump, that are considered utter trash today. Conversely, a bad movie can also be good. Take something like Zardoz. Everyone hated it at the time, but now it’s mostly seen as a bold artistic and challenging film. With this paradox in mind, today I’ll be reviewing TOUGH GUYS DON’T DANCE starring Ryan O’Neal, Isabella Rossellini, Wings Hauser, and Lawrence Tierney.
I thought I’d do something a little bit different this week. Until now, I’ve only been reviewing stuff that I’ve watched with friends. However, this time I was thinking of reviewing a bad movie that I like very much but don’t think is appropriate to watch in a group. So today we’re going to tackle the buzzing bullshit that is THE SWARM.
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My favorite bad movies are always the ones that tend to combine a “WHAT IN GOD’S NAME IS HAPPENING???” factor with a certain level of competence. It can’t just be a confusing mess made by cynics or overconfident nincompoops because that’s not fun. No, the fun part for me is when the filmmakers love what they’re doing and know what they’re trying to do, but still find it difficult to relay that to the rest of us.
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Around the time that I started having BAD MOVIE MONDAY three years ago, my wife invented the term “Gratuititties” in order to describe the often gratuitous but always welcome presence of uncovered female breasts in a trashy movie. I’ve used it in as many reviews as I can, mostly because I think it’s a funny word. However, never has it been more appropriate to use than in this movie’s review. It only takes a little over one minute and thirty seconds before we see the first “gratuititties” in the film. Don’t worry though because they’ll be back again and again, and I felt like that boy at the end of ANIMAL HOUSE when a pretty girl crashes through his bedroom window onto his lap and he goes “THANK YOU GOD!” except I was thanking all the women in this movie pretty much throughout the entire movie.
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