this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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Picking Roger Corman or Ed Wood as examples for 'bad movies' is disingenuous. They are known auteurs with limited budgets. Ken Russell almost fits, but he got a LOT of money for Tommy and that was awful -- but still worth watching because Russell directed it and it was quite a spectacle.
There are lots of shlocky cheap movies WITH redeeming features that make them worth watching, but then there are the masses of mediocre movies that aren't trying for anything and add nothing of interest to the hours of available content. You know, the stuff AI will be churning out in the near future.
Actual bad movies are things like: most anything on Lifetime -- you know, the 'scared white woman' dramas that follow the same strucure and simply change locations and threats, or most Hallmark romances with the same plot yet different cateers for the characters, or most anything Steven Segal made since the turn of the century.
A GOOD bad movie might be The Barbarians. It is bad, but also kinda amusing and really cheap. The plot is predictable, but they obvioulsy had fun making it, and that comes through. The Blackening has its merits.
4 for Texas is bad. Full stop. Yet... if you want to see a bunch of Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin movies, you'd be forced to sit through it for completion.
Death of a Unicorn was just a waste of time.
Funny you bring that up, because I just watched something straight off Lifetime—the kind of “inspirational tearjerker” wine-sipping moms usually swoon over—and it ended up being one of the most fun movies I’ve seen in ages.
On paper, The Secret Path was a hard “avoid” for me. I skipped it for years. But when I finally forced myself to sit through it, I was glad I did.
The wild part? Both IMDb and Letterboxd rate it surprisingly high. Meanwhile, plenty of Roger Corman and Ed Wood flicks don’t come close.
https://piefed.social/post/1219465
I did say "most" because there are exceptions. As you and the rating indicates, that'd be an exception.
My point is, I went in expecting this to be excruciating—because “Lifetime movie” carries a certain reputation.
If I’d just trusted that assumption and skipped it, I would’ve missed out on one of the most riveting TV movies I’ve ever seen.
sigh. I don't assume. I check. And my point is that Secret Path (aka Chasing Secrets) is generally regarded as a GOOD movie. In a different conversation, you mentioned that you don't like to follow critics or general opinions, but for me, a critic I trust is worth heeding and if I can't find that I fall back to the less precise voice of the people. Certain specific movies get hate-votes for things like an actor's scandal rather than the film, or an irrelgious item that has the church folk up in arms, but generally -- and certainly with exceptions -- if a movie rates highly with thousands of votes, it's ususally alright.
Thing is, I’ve been burned by both critics and “the voice of the people” more times than I can count.
Marvel and DC movies? Most folks eat them up. Me, I can barely sit through them. They’re the poster children for everything broken about modern blockbusters.
Meanwhile, the consensus trashes Asylum movies—but Nazis at the Center of the Earth was a blast. Near-universally panned, yet I had an amazing time with it.
So yes, sometimes the consensus gets it right… except when it doesn't.
I hear you. I feel the same about overrated Marvel movies. The trick is to find critics that share your tastes, and ideally to find a few who share your tastes for different genres. I think this was easier in the age of print newspapers. You can trust J. Hoberman for serious movies, but not so much for silly ones. If you find yourself agreeing with a review, you might check if they're on the Rotten Tomatoes critic list to figure out if their other reviews follow your tastes.