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  • Oh there are so, so many awful movies that I loved as a kid that I have a positive memory of but would be better off not watching again to ruin that memory.

    Legend would have to be one of them. It’s still a spectacle to watch, and Tim Curry is incredible as Darkness, Robert Picardo is Meg Mucklebones, but it’s so far over the top it’s a fever dream.

    Cave Man with Ringo Star, Shelly Long, and Dennis Quaid. Laughed so hard I cried when I was a kid. Watched it again not too long ago and it’s pretty bad.

    Whoopee Boys, same as Cave Man. Cannot rewatch.

    Buckaroo Banzai, Revenge of the Nerds, so many other bad movies I loved as a kid. Most of the cheap action films too. Schwarzenegger’s, Stallone’s, Van Damme’s…so bad, lol. There were some absolutely great ones, though…the original Predator (‘87) comes to mind.

  • Maximum Overdrive and Over the Top for sure.

    • I can count on one hand how many people I've met that have seen Maximum Overdrive. That was one of my favorite movies growing up, and now I'm a huge fan of Stephen King.

  • I would love to see a director's cut of that film because it was a victim of massive executive meddling after the fact.

    It was directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, who created and directed both the British and U.S. versions of Max Headroom, which is why it has a cyberpunk look. It was co-written by Ed Solomon, who wrote Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Men in Black.

    And then executives shat all over it.

    You also have to remember that in 1993, there was almost no Mario lore. Mario was a guy who jumped on mushrooms and turtles to rescue the princess and sometimes got extra powers to help him. Luigi was his brother who could basically do the same thing. There was really no characterization and plot to speak of. They had a ton of freedom to do whatever they wanted and that freedom was taken away from them.

    There is a cut out there done by my friend Garrett Gilchrist, who also restored The Thief and the Cobbler, where he tried to get it as close to Jankel and Morton's original cut as he could, using things like workprints. But we'll never know exactly how good it could have been.

    Tank Girl was a very similar situation, but still ended up an okay film.

  • 1999's The Night of the Headless Horseman. Very '90s CG but if you're able to get past that it's amazing, one of my top two favorite tellings of the tale, with voice actors including Mark Hamill, Clancy Brown, Tia Carrere, Bill Fagerbakke, and William H Macy.

  • Oh, I forgot to mention the not good movies that I watched over and over again on VHS in my childhood.

    Number one would be the 1959 version of Journey to the Center of the Earth where James Mason plays a Scotsman and doesn't even bother with an accent and Pat Boone also plays a Scotsman but gives up on the accent after about 10 minutes. The whole plot is moronic and the effects are terrible and I love every single minute of it. The only true compliment I can give it is that Bernard Herrmann's soundtrack is terrific.

    Then there was the 1980 attempt that Disney made to appeal to college kids, Midnight Madness. It was a total flop and I love every single minute of it. FAGABEEFE!

    Third would be an animated movie that was made in France and dubbed into English called The Secret of the Selenites. It was a Baron Munchausen film, but I'm guessing they thought Americans wouldn't know who that was, so they left his name out of the title. It has a terrible pop song in the beginning that is in the "so bad it's good" territory.

  • The Tripods (the BBC show). I loved it so much, still love it tbh. Still angry, that there was no season 3.

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