A lot of my friends call me a “movie snob” because I try to look for deeper meanings and more relatable characters that I can connect with in the films that I watch. Essentially, they think that I can’t watch a movie for purely entertainment reasons and enjoy it. But that isn’t true. I’m actually a big fan of bad movies as long as they’re awesome, the type of bad movies that know what they are and have fun with it.
For a more detailed explanation of what I’m trying to say, here are five cues you’re watching a bad movie that’s awesome.
It’s not boring
The worst crime that any bad movie can commit is being boring. A film can be the most ridiculous, outlandish, and unrealistic piece of cinema that I’ve ever watched but as long as it’s got at least one thing interesting is going on, either with the characters, the plot, or even something as small the effects, I’m in. What makes a bad movie the a truly awful movie is when it doesn’t care whether it entertains its audience and simply bores them instead.
It’s full of one-liners
The cheesiest, and typically most entertaining, bad movies are filled with quotable lines that you and your friends can keep repeating for weeks on end. If the words that the characters are saying aren’t forgettable, there’s a much better chance that the characters themselves (and hopefully a lot more about the film) will actually be memorable even if they’re not technically what one would deem as “good.”
It understands what it does well
Even the worst movies (well, maybe not all of the worst movies out there) do something right. What makes so many bad movies great is when they understand that there’s one or two things that they excel at, whether it’s over-the-top action, simple and stupid comedy, or (and this is the case most of the time) just putting really good looking actresses on screen to distract from what the plot of the film is even about.
It pokes fun at cliches while embracing them
Bad movies are similar to math when it comes to cliches – plug every character, line of dialogue, and plot point into a cliche equation in order produce the finished film product. However, the best kind of bad movies don’t simply stop at embracing cliches. No, instead they follow them while also pointing out how ridiculous they are the entire time. It’s that type of self-awareness that viewers appreciate so that they can still feel smart even while watching something incredibly dumb.
Its actors are committed
There’s a reason why Samuel L. Jackson’s picture from Snakes on a Plane is at the top of this article, and it’s because he totally and completely committed to his role in that movie, allowing for it to be a hilariously campy thrill ride. When actors take Jackson’s approach to Snakes on a Plane and truly invest themselves into the material on the page, no matter how insane it may seem, it ensures that we as an audience will be interested. As long as the actors in a bad movie can believe (or at least attempt to believe) in what they’re saying and doing, then we’ll believe in it, too.
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