Posted on 03/28/2010 11:11:17 AM PDT by re_tail20
This month, "Battlefield Earth," the blockbuster bomb based on the novel by Sciento logy founder L. Ron Hubbard, won the Razzie for "Worst Movie of the Decade." J.D. Shapiro, the film's first screenwriter, accepted the award in person. Shapiro, who also wrote the screenplay for "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," "We Married Margo," and is developing a King Arthur spoof called "524 AD" (524AD.com), explains what it's like to be attached to one of Hollywood's most notorious flops.
Let me start by apologizing to anyone who went to see "Battlefield Earth."
It wasn't as I intended -- promise. No one sets out to make a train wreck. Actually, comparing it to a train wreck isn't really fair to train wrecks, because people actually want to watch those.
It started, as so many of my choices do, with my Willy Wonker. It was 1994, and I had read an article in Premiere magazine saying that the Celebrity Center, the Scientology epicenter in Los Angeles, was a great place to meet women.
Willy convinced me to go check it out. Touring the building, I didn't find any eligible women at first, but I did meet Karen Hollander, president of the center, who said she was a fan of "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." We ended up talking for over two hours. She told me why Scientology is so great. I told her that, when it comes to organized religion, anything a person does to reward, threaten and try to control people by using an unknown like the afterlife is dangerous.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Battlefield Earth is so bad, yet watchable and conversation inducing, that it is worth owning for beer drinking, movie watching with buddies.
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Sound rule of movie going — If John Travolta is in the movie...STAY AWAY.
The real problem with BF is that Scientology believes it’s real.
Except for Pulp Fiction.
And “The Dumb Waiter”
I was told that I would love Pulp Fiction, sorry can’t do it. Anything with Travolta sends me the other way. I’m still trying to figure out how he gets any roles.
He’s right, B.E. is right up there with Manos the Hands of Fate and Gigli as evidence mankind should never be allowed into the Galactic Federation.
My favorite part was the instantaneous fly-ability of thousand year-old Harriers.
I though it was pretty good and WAY BETTER than that other movie recently that used the same movie-template - Avatar.
It was definitely a turkey, but the snuff film about President Bush and others make this a distant runner for worst movie. Some of those Michael Moore movies make it look like a classic.
Awful movie based on an awful book based on an awful pseudo-religion. Being upset about having paid to see it is like being angry about being bitten by a rattlesnake after it has already hissed and rattled at you. You had more than enough warning.
I thought the book was great, and unlike a lot of science fiction stories, the storyline was long and interesting.
***I’m still partial to “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, a real all time stinker.***
I’ll counter your Plan 9 with “The Creeping Terror” (1964)!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057970/#comment
I have not seen that many movies but the worst one ever for me was “Surf Nazis Must Die”. I have never understood how it got something of a cult following.
It is simply awful with no other description possible.
How about "Snake Eyes" with Nicholas Cage? That movie really sucked. He get shot, beat up, stabbed and blowed up like 300 times and was still walking a super over-acting trudge right up until the very end.
I know it isn't true that a man can take that kind of damage. For example, if on my way to the bathroom at night I step on one of my kids Lego blocks barefooted, I am going down for several minutes. But ol' Snake Eyes just keeps going.
The ability to suddenly fly jets for the humans was a real eye roller. However I really did like Barry Pepper as “rat brain.”
If you’re looking beyond B-movies, Ishtar still ranks as one of the biggest bombs in Hollywood history. In fact, it was such a turkey, it has never been released on DVD (and rightfully so). Better yet, it starred some of the biggest libs in Hollywood, including Warren Beatty.
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