dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby) (10/24/85)
>I've had it with this discussion on so-called "bad movies." > >It reveals far more about the variety of personal >taste than anything else... >Why don't we get on to reviewing movies, new and old, good >and bad, and halt this fruitless discussion. ------------------------------- > ... First we had the Totally Bad Movie list, a wonderful > and delightful discussion. Now, in the last few days, someone has suggested > a Totally Funny Movie list, another wonderful idea, on its own. And now, > we have a suggestion for a Totally Good Movie list. Another fine idea on > its own. However, there is already too much net.movies traffic for our > own good. (I found over 100 articles after being away for 3 days!) > > Can we PLEASE put the Totally Good Movie list on hold for awhile, and > bring it back out after these other 2 have died away? Please? ---------------------------------------- >Better yet stop it completely. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MY COMMENTS: The discussion on Totally Bad Movies started out to be a lot of fun, and it has been useful, though in a serendipitous way. But recently it has gotten tedious, for the following reasons, I think: (1) Some who came in late on the discussion were not aware of the rules, and nominated bad, but not totally bad, movies. (2) Many began posting instead of mailing. Presumably this is because mailing didn't work (I have found email to goof up many times). This results in duplicate postings about the same movie and arguments back and forth about the merits of the movie. (3) The network has a much longer delay time than I had anticipated. I saw postings challenging movies that I had taken off the list 2 weeks before. Many of these challenges were posted. (4) Too many nominations and not enough challenges. That is why I adopted the "seconding" suggestion of Evan Marcus. Many will go away by default, and we will end up with a manageable list. The various postings by people who are tired of this discussion, and the recent lack of new discussion on the topic, indicate to me that it is time to close up this discussion and get on to other topics. It is getting out of hand. I actually made number 15 on the list of heaviest users this month; that is not a distinction I especially cherish. Therefore, on Nov. 4, I will post "Totally Bad Movies - The Final Chapter," which will include all the movies that have made it to the list by then. That will be my last posting on Totally Bad Movies. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Kirby ( ...!ihnp4!akgub!cylixd!dave) (The views expressed herein are the exclusive property of Dave Kirby. Any person, living or dead, found with the same or similar opinions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of law.)
dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby) (11/05/85)
This is the long-awaited final posting on Totally Bad Movies. I want to thank everyone who participated in this discussion; it has given me somewhat of a celebrity status on this newsgroup, however transient it was. I have been delightfully surprised at the wit and eloquence of many of the submitters. The voluminous mail and various postings have made very entertaining reading. This discussion started way back on Sept. 24, in a response I made to the following statement by Mark Leeper: "I have never seen a film (or read a book) that was totally bad or totally good. I tend to weigh the bad and good elements..." While I saw Mr. Leeper's point, I could not resist the temptation to take his statement out of context and have some fun with it. So I established some criteria for Totally Bad Movies, and polled my colleagues at work to get a few starting nominations. (Of the original nominations, only "Silent Night, Deadly Night" has survived.) I then posted the nominations and the rules for nomination. I had expected that I would get several nominations, post them, and then get several rebuttals; eventually, I figured that all nominations would be cancelled out; I really didn't think there would be a movie that somebody, somewhere on the net wouldn't see something good in. So I fully expected the list to grow initially, and then reduce gradually back down to zero, thus proving Mr. Leeper's original point and ending the discussion. Was I surprised! I got more and more nominations, and few rebuttals, and the list grew quickly. By October 22 there were 43 nominations. I had to reduce the list by insisting, as Evan Marcus suggested, that each nomination must have a seconding. Apparently there were some films that no one anywhere could see any good in. But all good things must come to an end, and it is time for this Totally Bad Discussion to do so as well. So here is final list of Totally Bad Movies, which were nominated by at least two people, and which had nothing good to be said about them from anyone on the net. A Certain Sacrifice (Evan Marcus, Jay Maeder) Bolero (Al Sary, Mike Stalnaker) Canterbury Tales (X-rated version) (Evan Marcus, Al Sary) Dungeonmaster (Clif Purkiser, Jerry Liberthal) Felicity (Hank Walker, Diane Holt) Glen or Glenda (Dan Reynolds, David Tucker) Hercules (Shu-Ju Burgess, Kevin Chu) Humanoids from the Deep (Al Sary, Byron Howes, Dave Blickstein, Steve Shiue) I am Curious, Yellow ([UNKNOWN], Doug Mink) Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (John Wersen, Dave Kirby) Silent Night, Deadly Night (Dave Kirby, Siskel & Ebert) I won't bother to post the various submissions that have added or removed movies from this list. I have them on file, so if anyone is curious about the consensus on a particular movie, mail me a note and I'll give you everything I have received on the movie. Now, on to more fruitful discussions... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Kirby ( ...!ihnp4!akgub!cylixd!dave) (The views expressed herein are the exclusive property of Dave Kirby. Any person, living or dead, found with the same or similar opinions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of law.)