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Originally Posted By: beck123
Ishtar and Barry Lyndon! Terrific choices - one worse than the other. We seem naturally to have focused on relatively big-budget movies that should have been good, but stunk. If we widen the net to include low-budget films, there are too many really, really, bad movies to count or to rank. In fact, "rank" is a good word to use in association with this class of film. They used to be hard to find, but now they're available on DVD anywhere movies are sold. They're not all old, either. They just stink. My son and I watch them (particularly those striving to be classified in the sci-fi genre) just for the laughs they provide.



And it has to be great having a son to provide the company for that rank activity. Recently rented
Hogfather, supposedly a spoof on Christmas or something. DON'T rent it: watch 23 minutes of it before
turning it off: totally stinks. I just tell my dog who looks at me like "You're the human, why not just
take me for a walk, instead of watching that stuff".


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My contribution: "Ishtar", and "Barry Lyndon".

I never saw Ishtar, but I have always enjoyed Barry Lyndon the couple of times I have watched it (once in the cinema). I even went so far as to read Thackeray's book on which it was based. While it is not an unflawed film, I could scarce call it bad. There are so many bad films so much deserving, e.g., 1941, How the West Was Won, Green Slime, Lynch's Dune, The Horror of Party Beach, and others.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Yes! That was what the glitsjed post contained. I have seen Waterworld several times ( 2 or 3 )and Barry Lyndon 3 times even though I'm not fond of Ryan O'Neal. I still have the LP of the soundtrack.( beautiful landscapes, panoramic action scenes, the story ) I always re-watch Spaghetti Westerns ( Once upon a time in the West and: see headline of post) when they pass on TV. Love Ennio Morricone's music. Dune, wish I could see that one again. Only saw it once. Ishtar never heard of before. If it's the same sort of bad it might be good.

Also great are those spektakel movies with the wrong Odysseusses and Agamemnons and Helenas and more classical heroes and monsters.

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I really like the music to Barry Lyndon. And watch westerns
spagetti or otherwise on the western channel I receive.
Istar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_(film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093278/

The reviewer on the last reference liked the movie. I took
breaks during it to stay awake.


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I looked at the YTube trailer. No, real bad. The kind of funny that isn't funny.

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Exactly, makes you wonder who wrote the script and why.


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makes you wonder who wrote the script and why

Easy to determine. The director, Elaine may, wrote the screenplay. As to why, the Wikipedia article (link) on Ishtar says this:
Quote:
Beatty felt indebted to May, who in addition to cowriting his 1978 hit Heaven Can Wait had done a major uncredited rewrite on the script of his Academy Award-winning Reds and helped immensely with its postproduction. He began looking for a project to do with her, one she could write and direct. She had never, he believed, had a sufficiently protective producer, and by starring and producing in her next film he could give her the chance to make the film he believed her to be creatively and commercially capable of making.

At a dinner with Beatty and Bert Fields, their agent, May said she would like to do a variant on the Road to... movies of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, set in the Middle East. Her idea would feature Beatty and a costar as a mediocre singer-songwriter duo who would go to Morocco and get caught in the crossfire between the Central Intelligence Agency and a local left-wing guerilla group. She thought it would be funny to cast Beatty against type as the Hope part, the bumbler of the duo, while the costar, possibly Dustin Hoffman, would play the self-assured ladies' man that Crosby usually took.

Hoffman, who was also indebted to May for her extensive uncredited rewrite on Tootsie, intially turned it down due to "misgivings". At Beatty's request, the two met with May and Hoffman's creative confidant, playwright Murray Schisgal. The latter two felt that the action plot in Morocco overwhelmed the rest of the film and that it "should not leave New York". Hoffman was finally persuaded by Beatty's assurances that he would provide May with the room she needed to work.
When May finished the script, Beatty, Hoffman, and some other friends including Charles Grodin, had a meeting and read-through at Beatty's house. All present agreed that the script needed work, but it was funny and could be a hit.
May was a talented comedienne and writer, and even the most talented person is capable of creating something that's a flop. Creating a great notoriously difficult and even some of the greatest filmmakers (Griffith, Hawks, Fellini, et al) have some real duds to their names. (I just watched Hawks' Man's Favorite Sport?) yesterday, and I switched it off after about 40 minutes. It was a dismal little "comedy" with Rock Hudson in the lead.) Anyway, it's probably time i saw Ishtar, so I can judge for myself if it deserves its reputation.


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zmjezhd #189817 03/07/10 07:33 PM
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Just saw an item on the news here. Sandra Bullock came to pick up her Razzie for worst actor in 'All about Steve".
The little speech she gave was só funny. She is nominated for best actor in The Blind Side tonight.

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Of course you are right in that a 4 minute trayler doesn't guarantee a safe opinion, but what I saw looked a bit dated and I do suppose they selected the most persuasive parts. I never saw it pass here. Not in cinema nor on TV. But all pass on TV in the end so who knows..?

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Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8
Recently rented
Hogfather, supposedly a spoof on Christmas or something. DON'T rent it


It's based on the Terry Pratchett novel. I guess you're not a fan.

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