It depends how high you set the bar, and how broadly you interpret “taste” but I really want to say most. (I want to include the sense of how humans actually talk, interact, and how the world works, and count following conventionalized but shallow ideas of those as bad taste.) Production technology and skills have gotten very high.
- Borderlands
- The Beach Girls
- Malibu Bikini Shop
- Revenge of the Cheerleaders
- Atilla Flagello di Dio
- Malibu High
- Savage Beach
- Miracle Beach
- Ski School
- Screwball Hotel
- Valley Girl
- Up the Creek
- Hamburger: the motion picture
- The Van
- Gator Bait
- Picasso Trigger
- Snack Shack
- Bottoms
- Weekend at Bernie’s
The first one that leaps to mind is The Phantom Menace. World-class score, Duel Of The Fates alone is utterly epic. Casting is almost perfect, probably don’t ruin that poor child’s life. Get a teenager to play Anakin. Set and costume design are great, the plot is ridiculous. The boys at RedLetterMedia articulated it better than I ever will, but, you could fix it with a script rewrite or two.
Popeye also jumps to mind. The 1980 live-action movie starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. Paramount lost the bid to make Annie, the studio had their hearts set on making a broadway musical adaptation of a depression-era IP, and the first thing that occurred to anyone was they had the rights to Popeye. Of all things. Annie is a broadway musical, so songs complete with dance numbers were already built in. Popeye is a cartoon wedged somewhere between Betty Boop and Bugs Bunny. They decided to make a Popeye musical. And commenced principal photography before writing any songs. They ADR’d songs over top of scenes they shot before the songs were written. Which is why it’s…not really remembered as a musical. Directed by Robert “I directed MASH” Altman very much in his style, much of the film consists of characters blathering over each other incessantly. The collision of the cartoon physics and character proportions with the very grounded Altman style is uniquely jarring. AND YET. The set design, cinematography and costume design are excellent. It’s a badly conceived stupid idea executed by consummate professionals.
The plot of Yellow Submarine is basically “the Beatles have a contractual obligation to make a movie but they can’t be bothered, so let’s get impressionists to voice cartoon Beatles and draw a bunch of drug-addled fuckery to illustrate some of their songs for an hour and a half.”
In execution, it’s a bizarrely compelling and beautiful piece of work that I enjoy a great deal despite not being into either the Beatles or drugs.
The Star Wars sequel trilogy. What a waste of money and time.
Leon: The professional
The sexual dynamic between the two characters makes me more uncomfortable the older that movie gets, and it makes me very uncomfortable that such a young actor is playing the role The way they do. The plot too is silly, nobody, not even an emotionless assassin would try to teach a kid to be an assassin for any reason. Kids are impulsive idiots and there’s literally no upside to it. But holy hell does Gary Oldman absolutely rule in that movie.
Dazed and confused. Really no plot, but it’s great.
Having just finished Event Horizon, I’m gonna go with that. Great cast, very interesting practical effects, silly plot, senseless gore.
I recently saw a video essay that argued that Event Horizon should be considered WH40K. They made some decent points.
I thought they had confirmed that they intended it to be a 40k movie but never got the rights to the name so they made it a “generic” future but kept the script essentially the same.
Maybe. I never looked into it, just kinda went “huh, that’s neat,” when I ran into the video.
One of my favorite movies.
ATBGE? I missed that subreddit.
It’s hard for me to pin down to be honest because good execution hides a lot. I’ve found the Ocean Twelve movie really dumb but enjoyed it … not sure if it’s horrible taste though?
/c/atbge@lemmy.world exists and could be nudged back into activity if folks here are into it.
Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift
Fantastic cars, driving scenes, stunts. Great sets, locations, lighting, cinematography. Genuinely interesting soundtrack. Some good acting.
The plot is suitably silly and culturally relevant to Japanese themes.
BUT, the one woman with more than two lines of dialogue is willingly treated as an object by both the protagonist and antagonist. Anything else could have been used as a point of contention between them, but no, we have to have 1950s level sexism thrown in.
Wild Wild West.
Batshit crazy plot, appallingly unfunny script - clearly masterminded by deeply disconnected madmen. But well executed - great effects and technical filmmaking.
I remember Kevin Smith in one of his talks discussing Jon Peters, the producer of WWW, coming up with ridiculous suggestions and demands for a superman project they were both involved in, including a giant mechanical spider. Kevin was dropped from the project (it never got made) and then later he sees a giant mechanical spider in WWW and was like ‘well that’s all Jon’.
Smith’s story is pretty epic. Probably wasn’t the first time he told it, of course. And it became quite famous: in the end, Nicolas Cage, who was supposed to play Superman in Burton’s film, had a cameo as Supes in 2023 ‘The Flash’ (iirc) fighting a giant spider.
It’s also kinda funny that Silent Bob is rather chatty in real life, and toured colleges with these talks, releasing six of them, like three hours each. Whereas, whenever he brought Jason Mewes with him, the latter was mostly quiet.
Kevin Smith is great at talking about his favorite subject, which is Kevin Smith movies.
I assumed he didn’t talk in the movies because he wanted to focus on directing.
The run down
I actually really like it for the very simple narrative. The natives win against the colonial slavers. Kind of sucks they needed outsiders, but still, it is the rise up and finally beat these assholes story generally only dreamt of in showers.
Solid listing here. Funny and some killer fight scenes. Roger Workman gets a busted nose, too.
Every Wes Anderson movie.
runs
The one exception being his horror masterpiece The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders.
Hands down his best work.
I once told a woman on a dating app that I can’t stand Wes Anderson films, and she immediately unmatched with me.
Fair.
His career really took a weird turn after Nightmare on Elm Street
There’s a movie called Crime 101, it’s got pretty good actors, it’s shot very well, the writing is even decent but it’s the most cliche boring heist/crime plot I’ve ever watched. You can guess basically everything the entire movie. Afterwards it was very clear that everyone involved was capable of making a far better movie but the plot was so terribly predictable
The clue was right there in the name
Oh I saw that movie. It was hilariously boring.
Worst film I have seen this year hands down.
The writing is awwwwful! The love interest has to be the least curious character to have ever existed in all of cinema.
I have so much to say about how bad this movie is it’s making me upset all over again.
Bad Santa?
It is deeply satisfying to watch talented actors indulge in saying every shitty thing you wish you could ever say.
The level of debauchery is a goddamn delight.
It is a dirty treat to watch, and I think that anyone who likes movies should at least watch it once.
Jesus Christ… God damn it… Kid, are you fuckin’ with me?
Everything single thing about you is ugly. Your soul is dog shit.
That was my yearly Christmas watch for many years. It has a surprisingly heartwarming ending, and what a cast!
