[net.sf-lovers] Bad SF vs. Bad Moviemaking vs. Cheap moviemaking vs. I didn't like it

brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (02/03/85)

People don't seem to be talking about the same thing when they are talking
about bad SF.  Mostly the seem to be using the last quality, "I didn't like it",
about which most of us don't care.

There have been several films I thought were terrible (Blade Runner, Dune
for example) that other people have liked.  Some films I have enjoyed
(TRON, Wargames) have been attacked.

The most basic category is bad moviemaking.  The kind of movie everybody
looks at and says, "how silly, what a bad movie."  Plan 9 from Outer Space,
and my favourite, "The Eye Creatures."  A bad movie is one that no serious
moviegoer would say is good, or at least no reasonable percentage.

And of course, there are the misunderstood movies.  I rate "Dark Star", "TRON"
and the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" as classic movies, and so do a lot of
people.  They should never make it onto anybody's "bad movie" list, just onto
the "I didn't like these movies" list.

(As a brief explanation on TRON for those who heard what it was about and
stayed away - TRON is a comedy for computer scientists, by computer scientists,
and the video game theme was just to get backing.  It's rare to see soo much
money spent to please such a small group.  The lines in that film that are
funny aren't mistakes - they were put there deliberately as jokes.)

-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473