I tend to watch a fair amount of movies. That being said, I've found myself watching a lot less than I did a few years back. Maybe its due to the lack of movies that actually entice a viewing from me or it could very well be complete burnout from all the superhero movies that seem to fill our screens these days. I tried my hardest to make a top 10 list of films for 2022 and I think I managed to find 6 or 7 at a push. But to be fair, I did watch very little compared to previous years and to be perfectly honest with you, there wasn't really a single film I thought warranted my words. Not that films deserve to be reviewed, I mean, did I want to sit there typing up a five paragraph review on why Top Gun: Maverick was the best film of the year? no not really, i'd only be reiterating what every other positive review would be saying. But Would I sit there and write a five paragraph review of Roland Emmerich's phenomenally brilliant and also completely bat shit crazy Moonfall? You're damn fucking straight I would.
I've been reviewing movies for about 13 years, I set up my main site, Cine-Apocalypse, in 2010 and for a while, It was going pretty damn good, I reviewed a lot of genre flicks, a lot of films that I considered to be great, I had guest writers write reviews from everything from 70s British Gangster flicks to Anime and Low budget, shot on VHS trash masterpieces but as the years rolled on, I found myself, having way way more fun, reviewing the so-bad-its-abso-fuckin'-lutly-amazing films. You see for me as writer, i've always been drawn more to the oddball bunch, movies that are considered trash by some but treasure by others like the 1998 Gary Daniels action fest RECOIL or the boob-tacular sexploitation of 1993's Israeli Wamen In prison flick PRISON HEAT (its oh so bad) or to that matter anything written and directed by Andy Sidaris. These are the types of films that no-one really talks about outside of a handful of cult movie fans. Most films reviews cover the big boys, sure, they deserve their reviews, they deserve their praise, hell I've even written in-depth critiques of Quentin Tarantino movies but I guess the reason I'm saying this is because, even though I have written at length about good movies, Ive never really had fun writing reviews of good movies. I've always found more enjoyment from putting down words about absolute garbage flicks. One of my favourite reviews that I have personally written is a review I wrote for Schwarzenegger's COMMANDO (1985), (a film so utterly bonkers and enjoyable and one of, if not THE quintessential 80s action movie) because there is so much wrong with it and it's so OTT that you can't help but enjoy the ever living shit out of it. A lot of B movies review do read like the writer is taking a well earned Cleveland Steamer on it's chest but ultimately, those reviews actually come from a place of love. We watch these films to dissect them like Johnny Rico dissecting that nasty bug at the start of STARSHIP TROOPERS, We put our selves through the nightmare and torture of watching these bad movies so you don't have to or in quite a few cases, we tend to highly recommend them,
For me, writing a review of something that is generally considered a "bad" movie, is where the actual fun lies. You know what they say, "writing the villain is always more fun than writing the hero" and that is absolutely 100% true.
Film is subjective, it always has been, it always will be, what isn't right for you might be spot on for someone else. I'll happily sit down and watch the 1996 Pauly Shore masterpiece BIO-DOME and follow it up with something so polar opposite like, uh, I don't know, uh... TAXI DRIVER and I can find complete enjoyment from both but I know, as soon as I press play, which film I want to write a review for and It ain't Taxi Driver. Do I really want to delve into the complexities and underlying themes of Taxi Driver or do I want to delve into the reason why Kylie Minogue signed on to act in Bio-Dome? The answer's pretty straight forward, Scorseses' classic has been reviewed, dissected and had academic paper written about it, what more is there I, a non-professional film blogger can add? I can however look at the complexities and nuances of getting Tenacious D to perform in the background scene of Rose McGowen and Joey Lauren Adams getting back rubs from some Collage douchebags. There's a lot of information in both films but because Taxi Driver is a classic, an Icon and one of the best films ever made, Bio-Dome is cruelly cast to one side. If you can't tell, I really fucking love Bio-Dome...
In the past, when writing about "good" movies, I found myself trying to sound smarter than I am, i'm not a dumb ass or anything, but I found some of my writing was coming across as pretentious and thinking that I'm writing an important essay on the film that I'm reviewing. After a lot of consideration and looking deep within myself as a writer, I found that deep down, that ain't me bub, that ain't me at all. So, the whole point of this post is two fold, #1 to introduce to you to Bad Movie Beatdown and #2 to show the world or the 3 people who will actually read this that bad movies can sometime, not all the time, but sometimes....actually be kinda good.
I really really fucking love Bio-Dome!!!
Cheers
Pete
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