The 50 Worst Movies
Ever Made (DVD-Video)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C- Main Program: B
We have seen so many bad major motion pictures since the
1980s arrived that we have lost track of the mega-budgeted disasters. With the 2005 box office so choppy in part
because of such bad films, The 50 Worst Films Ever Made is a very
welcome release. It covers some films
that are much easier to agree on as far as their awfulness is concerned. The list starts in the early 1950s as the
Hollywood Studio System does anything to compete against television and
independent production companies spring up all over the place, and then ends
with a few films in 1987.
It should be said that this is a great list. It happily does not include Michael Cimino’s
Heaven’s Gate (1980), which is now acknowledged as a bold epic, while I
was surprised The Incredible Melting Man (1978) surfaced because it is a
film that actually deserves some revisionist thinking. Brian De Palma’s Greetings (1968) is
also here, which we would like to see a good print of before passing judgment,
especially since we reviewed the DVD of its sequel Hi, Mom! Instead of listing an alternative choice for
Melting Man, which could be a long essay in itself and would heavily
focus on films since the 1980s, we’ll cover some of the highlights this
hilarious hour-long show delivers.
Most of the films are from the Horror genre and several of
them are from Ed Wood. Some have to do
with freaks or “savage creatures” and more than a few abuse the Frankenstein
name. The Fat Spy, which we have
reviewed on the site, actually made the list, as well as the Darren McGavin
film Firebird 2015 A.D. which a few of us here are still curious to
see. A few Blaxploitation films made
the list, including Black Belt Jones (1974, with Jim Kelly, Gloria
Hendry and Scatman Crothers), TNT Jackson (1975, shot in the
Philippines) and J.D.’s Revenge (1976, also a Horror film). That is an example of what you will find on
this disc without ruining the laughs and surprises. For its price, this DVD delivers the value. Anyone who loves movies needs to get this
disc. If only the list ran 100 films or
so, the pain from laughing would be unimaginable.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image is predictably varied and
sometimes has letterboxed images from the many trailers used to unwind its
countdown, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is as varied, as you could imagine
no one is running out to preserve and restore these wacky flicks. There is one riotous, short text extra,
which explains the high standards these films had to meet to make the
list. This is one of the must-have DVDs
of the year for any serious film collector who likes something fun and
different. The 50 Worst Films Ever
Made delivers.
- Nicholas Sheffo
