Weekend assignment

Love a movie that you know is really really really bad? Then have I got a Weekend Assignment for you:

Weekend Assignment #67: Bad Movie Marathon! Share your favorite bad film of all time. Tell us why you love it so.

Extra Credit: Your favorite quote from the aforementioned film.


   My first thought when I read this assignment was the 1986 movie Highlander, starring Christopher Lambert and sean Connery. Then I thought, "wait a minute! Just because some people think Highlander is a bad movie doesn't mean it is a bad movie. I liked it. I like it. I bought the DVD, and I can watch it again and again.
   Sure, it's not Shakespeare. It is fairly badly filmed, and the DVD soundtrack is notorious in the industry for how poorly it is reproduced. The characters are cartoonish, and the story is fantastic, but come on, it is a story about immortals. If you aren't capable of suspending your disbelief, perhaps you should be sticking to documentaries.
   Connery imbues the character of Ramirez with a huge amount of fun, and Lambert, although he can't act in English to save his life, has enough smoky intensity, and animal charisma to drive the narrative forward with pace. Clancy Brown, as The Kurgan, was larger than life. A bigger ham in a movie I do not think I have seen. And Roxanne Hart, who's work since includes a stint on the prime time soap Chicago Hope, and the made for TV docudrama Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story, manages to share most of her screen time with either Lambert, or extras, making her appear, respectively, invisible, or adequate.
   So, the story is over complex, the pacing is all over the map, and some of the scenes are so disjointed as to be incomprehensible... Hangon. This is a bad movie! But in a good way. It's a good bad movie. Am I making any sense here?

   No, when I thought further about it, and did a more detailed inspection of my DVD collection, I realised that I have another candidate, that I spent good money on, that I actually went out and searched almost a dozen stores looking for, that is a truly bad movie. A film that was originally intended to be a medium budget, science fiction television series, but was cobbled together into a theatrical release after the unprecedented success of Star Wars.
   I am talking about Battlestar Galactica. Where Star Wars had Sir Alec Guinness, Galactica had Lorne Greene. Where Star Wars had Harrison Ford, Galactica had Dirk Benedict. Where Star Wars had a clever robot, Galactica had a mechanical dog
   Maybe it is not fair to compare the two movies... What am I saying? By attempting to capitalise on the success of its predecessor, the producers of Battlestar Galactica invited comparison.
   Star Wars employed the latest special effects technology. The technical team invented many of the techniques used to show us spaceship battles in ways we had never previously dreamed. In contrast, there were only three or four effects shots ever filmed of 'colonial Vipers' flying in space. The entire Battlestar Galactica film used those few effects shots for every dogfight scene in the movie. In fact, no new effects shots were ever filmed for the TV series. The entire two year run of the series was done with those same three or four Viper shots.
   Star Wars used classic art direction, and costume and set design. Thirty years later it still looks fresh. Battlestar Galactica opted for a more contemporary look, resulting in it looking dated by the time it entered reruns on TV. A recent promotional campaign for the series on Canada's specialty cable TV station Space used the tag line, "who knew the future would look so much like the seventies?"
   In my own review of the DVD ofthis movie on one of my favourite websites, I wrote:

The movie... well, the movie proves that we remember our childhood fondly. It's nowhere near as good as I seem to remember it. This disc is only for the hardcore fans.

   You know, I have just come to the realisation that I don't really like this movie after all. Yes, I own the DVD, but after watching it once, I put it on the shelf, where it currently sits, collecting dust. So, Battlestar Galactica doesn't really fit into the criteria for this weekend assignment.
   Which brings us back to Highlander. I think I'm going to go watch it again.

Extra credit: The signature line of the film, of course...

"There can be only one!"