"The 50 Worst Films of All Time"...

[MartinBlank]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifty_Worst_Films_of_All_Time


Abraham Lincoln (1930)
Airport 1975 (1974)
Alakazam The Great (1961)
The Ambushers (1967)
The Assassination of Trotsky (1972)
At Long Last Love (1975)
The Big Noise (1944)
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)
Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Che! (1969)
The Conqueror (1956)
Daughter of the Jungle (1949)
Dick Tracy Vs. Cueball (1946}
Dondi (1961)
Eegah (1962)
Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1973)
The Goldwyn Follies (1938)
The Horror of Party Beach (1964)
Hurry Sundown (1967)
Ivan the Terrible, Part I and Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1946)
Jamaica Inn (1939)
Jet Attack (1958)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1971)
King Richard and the Crusaders (1954)
The Last Movie (1971)
Last Year at Marienbad (1962)
Lost Horizon (1973)
Myra Breckinridge (1970)
New Moon (1940)
Northwest Mounted Police (1940)
The Omen (1976)
Parnell (1937)
A Place for Lovers (1969)
Return of Sabata (1972)
Robot Monster (1953)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Say One For Me (1959)
Solomon and Sheba (1959)
Spinout (1966)
The Story of Mankind (1957)
Swamp Women (1955)
Swing Your Lady (1937)
The Terror of Tiny Town (1938)
That Hagen Girl (1947)
Three on a Couch (1966)
The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
Trouble Man (1972)
Twilight on the Rio Grande (1948)
Valley of the Dolls (1967)
Zabriskie Point (1970)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifty_Worst_Films_of_All_Time"


I just found it interesting that The Omen made this list...but once you find out that the list was compiled in 1978, 2 years after the release of The Omen, I guess it makes sense....sort of. I think it's a really good movie. Just that.

[Matthew Chmiel]

The book was written by Michael Medved.

If you're unaware, Michael Medved is an asshat (and probably the worst film critic out there).

[Graftenberg]

This also before the time of Michael Bay films.

[brainee]

The book was written by Michael Medved.

If you're unaware, Michael Medved is an asshat (and probably the worst film critic out there).

Exactly! Calling Medved an asshat is an insult to asshats everywhere. "The Omen" got a lot of notoriety at the time because of some graphic violence and its religious implications. Plus it was really successful. Note the inclusion of Peckinpaugh's "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" too. His opinions are meaningless. Though it'd be funny to see his updated list. Given the rampant "immorality" of movies in the last 30 years, I'm sure there'd be plenty of ludicrous choices.

[Cancer Man]

Posted by Matthew Chmiel: The book was written by Michael Medved.

If you're unaware, Michael Medved is an asshat (and probably the worst film critic out there).
01-22-06 02:25 AM

So what you basically saying, Matthew Chmiel, is that Michael Medved is a really bad critic and is the movie world's equivalent of Robert Bianco, am I right?

And I noticed all of the movies listed are not necessarily bad movies, The Omen included.

[Matthew Chmiel]

So what you basically saying, Matthew Chmiel, is that Michael Medved is a really bad critic and is the movie world's equivalent of Robert Bianco, am I right?

And I noticed all of the movies listed are not necessarily bad movies, The Omen included.
No. Michael Medved is just an idiot, plain and simple. I don't think any sort of media critic can be as bad as Medved.

[PatrickMcCart]

Most are really bad enough to be on this list...

But how dare they put Ivan the Terrible among Eegah!

[H8nXTC]

I thought, much like Citizen Kane and Gone with the Wind are considered the best, Plan 9 from Outer Space was considered the worst (though Santa Claus Concurs the Martians was a close runner-up), yet it didn't even make this list.

[Joe Molotov]

Woah, for a second there I saw Lost Horizon and thought it was Frank Capra's Lost Horizon. If that had been the case, I'm afraid I would have had to rip into this list, but as it is, I've never seen the '73 version.

[Joe Molotov]

I thought, much like Citizen Kane and Gone with the Wind are considered the best, Plan 9 from Outer Space was considered the worst (though Santa Claus Concurs the Martians was a close runner-up), yet it didn't even make this list.

I don't think Plan 9 was "discovered" by Michael Medved until the 80's, after this list had been published.

[thegingerbreadm]

Medved is an ass-hat (giving away the ending to Million Dollar Baby alone gives him that status), the list is typical for the day...(everyone loved to spew hatred for Lost Horizon, Dolls, Myra, etc) although i liked Airport 75...(Karen Black as the plucky stewardess forced to fly the plane when disaster strikes, whats not to like?) and picking on Spinout is stupid...its a later day Elvis movie...what did you expect?

[dhmac]

Medved is ultra-conservative and ultra-religious, so he tends to go overboard whenever he thinks a movie is portraying Christianity or Judaism in a negative light. Given that, him thinking The Omen is one of the worst films ever isn't surprising in the least.

On the plus side, he can (or used to be able to) write funny, and his The Golden Turkey Awards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Turkey_Awards) book is quite a humorous read.

[Sondheim]

"Last Year at Marienbad" and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" both make Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies, and rightfully so, in my opinion. (Though, admittedly, the latter got especially mixed reviews.) And putting the great "Ivan the Terrible" on this list is surely a sin. "The Omen," "Zabriskie Point" and "Valley of the Dolls" have certainly gained some appreciation through the intervening years, but I can understand why he'd include them on his list at the time. Otherwise most of the films on there are pretty crappy.

[Giles]

no worst films list can't be complete without the inclusion of

Manos: The Hands of Fate

[dom56]

Where Batman and Robin?

[wergo]

I guess Medved must have really liked 'Salo' and 'Pink Flamingos', huh?

[ReservoirDog45]

Since when was "Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia" a bad movie?

[DieselsDen]

Medved is ultra-conservative and ultra-religious, so he tends to go overboard whenever he thinks a movie is portraying Christianity or Judaism in a negative light. Given that, him thinking The Omen is one of the worst films ever isn't surprising in the least.

On the plus side, he can (or used to be able to) write funny, and his The Golden Turkey Awards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Turkey_Awards) book is quite a humorous read.

I also believe that all film fans (liberal, conservative or whatever) should also take a look at his best book, HOLLYWOOD VS. AMERICA, which is one of the most penetrating and thoughtful history and analysis of the film industry I have ever read.

[Sex Fiend]

Well, as asserted, Medved is a major league dillhole. And if you've ever heard or read any of his film 'criticism' (and I use the term loosely), it's pretty obvious that it has a clear political/cultural agenda that has nothing to do with the actual qualities of the material he's critiquing, which is pretty much a no-no for any critic that wants to be taken seriously (and of course, Medved is not). He's really more a self-appointed arbiter of morality then anything that has to do with actual critical analysis of art.

The fact that he filled out his list with films of bad repute from the decades prior to the year the list was compiled, doesn't make his opinion of badness particularly relevant. Several of those films aren't even particularly bad, and as mentioned a few (Ivan the Terrible, Last Year at Marienbad) are genuine acknowledged classics (if not everyone's cup of tea). I'm guessing they were probably too dull and hard to understand for Medved's tiny brain, and thus "bad."

[dhmac]

"Last Year at Marienbad" and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" both make Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies, and rightfully so, in my opinion. (Though, admittedly, the latter got especially mixed reviews.) And putting the great "Ivan the Terrible" on this list is surely a sin. "The Omen," "Zabriskie Point" and "Valley of the Dolls" have certainly gained some appreciation through the intervening years, but I can understand why he'd include them on his list at the time. Otherwise most of the films on there are pretty crappy.

Well, actually, Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible (I and II) are movies that were panned by a lot of critics as overlong and too stagy, so they also belongs with movies that were later critical re-appraised and now are well-regarded.

[Lateralus]

That list needs to be updated as I can name about 50 movies released in the last 10 years that make movies on this list look like gems.

[thegingerbreadm]

Medved also wrote a decent book about his high school reunion...class of 59? at least i remember it being decent...at the time i had nothing else to read so i wouldve enjoyed reading the back of a toothpaste box. We should create a new updated list of the 50 worst of all time: i hearby submit "the lonely lady" with Pia Zadora...truly awful and not quite bad enough to be good (ala showgirls) although the acting was groan-inducing. the only movie i almost walked out of...

[marty888]

The list is laughable - as is Medved's credibility. As a matter of fact, on a recent list of the <b>10 WORST FILM CRITICS</b>, Medved was 7 of them.

[cfloyd3]

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is my favorite film of all time so according to Wikipedia I should be watching Uwe Boll instead I suppose.

[mndtrp]

I've never heard of this guy, and I've never heard of most of the movies listed. He may be correct, but judging from people's reactions, I'm guessing he isn't.

I liked The Omen a lot.

[Jason]

no worst films list can't be complete without the inclusion of

Manos: The Hands of Fate

I'm not entirely comfortable with putting Manos on these lists. Yes, it probably is the actual worst movie ever made, in that the acting, script, directing, editing, sound, titles, costume design, location scouting, and probably even the catering are the worst examples ever put on celluloid, but it's an incredibly obscure movie. Before it was played on MST3K, it was completely unknown. I doubt it played more than a handful of times or had any actual distribution. It languished forgotten in some film vault until it was stumbled onto by the MST3K crew. A "worst movie of all time" has to be something that people have at least had the opportunity to see.

[das Monkey]

<i>Orgy of the Dead</i> was released in 1965.

das

[naughty jonny]

If it's revised, then Highlander II should be in the list.

[Numanoid]

Last Year at Marienbad:jawdrop:

I know that Medved is an idiot (he's a right-wing talk show host too, is he not?) but that's just silly.

[DealMan]

After looking over his website, I too can confirm that Micahael Medved is an asshat as previously stated.

[Ketamine]

From his site, best and worst of 2005. (http://www.michaelmedved.com/agnosticchart?charttype=minichart&chartID=5&formatID=1&size=100&useMiniChartID=true&position=0&destinationpage=/pg/jsp/general/moviereviewstext.jsp)

WORST OF 2005
1. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
2. The Devil's Rejects
3. Domino
4. The Dukes of Hazzard
5. Stealth
6. Alone in the Dark
7. The Brothers Grimm
8. Kicking and Screaming
9. Sahara
10. The Interpreter


BEST OF 2005
1. Cinderella Man
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Walk the Line
4. Downfall
5. Crash
6. Saint Ralph
7. Match Point
8. Coach Carter
9. The Great Raid
10. Ushpizin

Haven't seen a number of these, but these movie picks don't seem to be way out there.

[Damed]

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1973)

Say it isn't so!!!

[Ms. M]

Medved's early writings, especially his bad film books, are actually pretty good. While you could make a case today that some of these movies were misplaced (like The Omen, Ivan, and Bring Me the Head...), most of these films are entirely terrible. I especially enjoy The Trial of Billy Jack as an unintentionally hilarious film.

Medved did a lot of popularize the enjoyment of bad movies as fun, campy entertainment. Without his work, there probably wouldn't be programs like Mystery Science Theater 3000, which I loved, so I'm grateful to him. There are updated versions of this kind of book, like 2005's The Official Razzie Movie Guide that include stuff like Manos.

[Groucho]

I read this book a number of years ago, and it's a funny read even if you don't agree with some of the choices. I've met Medved, and he's an intelligent guy who knows a lot about film. However, I disagree 100% with his theory that Hollywood has a determined agenda to destroy America's values.

[Sex Fiend]

However, I disagree 100% with his theory that Hollywood has a determined agenda to destroy America's values.

Sweping, inflammatory, and absurd generalizations like that should be reason enough to discredit every other opinion that Micheal Medved ventures about anything having to do with art or culture. Medved has long been one of the most vocal leaders of the conservative right trying to villainize any artistic expression that they don't see as fitting in with their own moral ideologies. While he masks his agenda under an appeal to promote "family values", in the end, he's just another ranting bully who wants to inhibit free intellectual and/or artistic expression.

[Jason]

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1973)

Say it isn't so!!!

It's hardly the worst Godzilla movie, let alone one of the 50 worst movies of all time. Maybe he just picked because of it's pro-environment message.

[caligulathegod]

I thought, much like Citizen Kane and Gone with the Wind are considered the best, Plan 9 from Outer Space was considered the worst (though Santa Claus Concurs the Martians was a close runner-up), yet it didn't even make this list.
Plan Nine From Outer Space was voted Worst Film by the readers of the 50 Worst Films of All Time. The result was published in the Golden Turkey Awards, which pretty much single handedly instigated the infamy surrounding that movie.

[riley_dude]

This also before the time of Michael Bay films.
and Brucheimer!
:toast:

[grem458]

This also before the time of Michael Bay films.

rotfl

He could easily have the top 5 worst of all time himself: Bad Boys, The Island, Armageddon, The Rock (#1 on my list :sad: ), and Pearl Harbor.

[Buford T Pusser]

I'm a trained observer and have noticed that Michael Medved is fond of wearing a hat made of ass. Not sure if anyone has ever noticed that before.


BTW, Alfredo Garcia has Warren Oates and Sam Peckinpah's involvement so it can't be that bad.

[raven56706]

Battlefield Earth isnt on that list.... so i call a Technical foul on that list for being wrong

[RevKarl]

Actually, the original "worst" film books were written by his younger brother Harry (He was a teenager when the first one came out)...but since Michael was a published writer of note, having written "Whatever Happened to the Class of '68," he "edited" his brother's stuff and took co-author credit. Years later, after his career as a novelist dried up, Michael turned his "film expertise" into a full-time job.

[digidoh]

Actually, the original "worst" film books were written by his younger brother Harry (He was a teenager when the first one came out)...but ... Michael ... "edited" his brother's stuff and took co-author credit.

I don't know about the business of editing-then-taking-writing-credit, but the first book in the series The Fifty Worst Films of all Time was credited to Harry Medved and Randy Dreyfus. In a later book in the series, an introduction claimed that Michael worked on the first book but did not take credit, in order to avoid being a defendant in any possible lawsuits. Dreyfus, according to the intro, really didn't write any of the book; he simply drove one or both of the brothers around while they did their research.

[Y2K Falcon]

No Wing Commander = No Sale.

A movie so bad, a 30+ year old list should have preemptively listed it.... -ohbfrank-

[Mr. Cinema]

"Batman and Robin" and "Stealth" would have to show up on a list made today.

[Philzilla]

It's hardly the worst Godzilla movie, let alone one of the 50 worst movies of all time. Maybe he just picked because of it's pro-environment message.

If it actually had a pro-environment message, instead of its confused "I'm not sure what message I wish to convey" message

Godzilla's Revenge is far worse then Gvs.SM

[Mr. Cinema]

From his site, best and worst of 2005. (http://www.michaelmedved.com/agnosticchart?charttype=minichart&chartID=5&formatID=1&size=100&useMiniChartID=true&position=0&destinationpage=/pg/jsp/general/moviereviewstext.jsp)

BEST OF 2005
8. Coach Carter
9. The Great Raid

:hscratch:

[Legolas]

As subjective as these lists are, what is the actual criteria to determine badness? Because all those straight-to-video T&A-fests starring Shannon Tweed or on Cinemax, all those straight-to-video cheapo action flicks starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson and Steven Seagal, all those really really cheap straight-to-video horror flicks are pretty much the bottom of the barrel and will never achieve goodness.

Of course, they aren't as widely seen as theatrical releases, and I suppose studio films with nice budgets that turn out crappy may be viewed as being worse for wasting all their resources.