10 Terrible Films That Are Actually Awesome
Who knew that Channing Tatum was in so many awesome films?
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Sometimes, movies get a bad reputation. Even if you haven't seen them, you know there's
00:04some that just blow. The Wicker Man remake is embarrassing, The Godfather Part 3 sucks,
00:10and Batman & Robin ruins cinema, to name but a few. However, for as fun as it is to dunk
00:15on bad movies, not all of them deserve the reputations they've garnered.
00:19So with that in mind, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com and these are 10 Terrible Films That Are Actually
00:24Awesome.
00:25Okay, here's the pitch. It's Die Hard, but in the White House, with Channing Tatum
00:32taking out the villains that are threatening his daughter. Now here's the problem with
00:36this movie. White House Down opened three months after Olympus Has Fallen, which pretty
00:42much told the same story, only with more cliches and worse CGI. Lack of originality aside,
00:48the White House Down has all the big-books action sequences that you'd expect from
00:52this sort of thing. And it's sheer joy as no-think escapism leaves Olympus Has Fallen
00:57choking on its dust. Put simply, if you want to see a car smash through the wall of the
01:01Oval Office and President Jamie Foxx take on his enemies with a rocket launcher, well
01:06you need to see this movie. Further fun is provided by a car chase on the White House
01:11lawn with helicopter gunships and machine guns and whatnot, and if you still need convincing
01:16about the film's merits, just try sitting through a double bill of Olympus Has Fallen
01:20and London Has Fallen back-to-back. Yeah, I know there's more than those two movies,
01:25but even I wouldn't want to put you through three of them.
01:28Number 9. Spider-Man 3. Okay, here we go. Spider-Man 3 owns. And I'm not just saying
01:34that because there's currently a Sam Raimi-verse love-in since Nowhere Home came out. No, Spider-Man
01:393 has owned since 2007. Now let's get some things out of the way. Is it as good as the
01:45first two instalments that preceded it? No. Does it have its problems? Absolutely. Is
01:50it a bad movie though? Hell no it isn't. Yes, the film is overstuffed, the Uncle Ben
01:56retcon sucks and Venom is done dirty, but there's so much to love surrounding those
02:00pitfalls. Raimi's movies always put the focus first and foremost on the interpersonal
02:04drama of the characters, and that shines through in this sequel still. The breakup of Peter
02:09and Mary Jane's relationship is handled really well, as is Peter's spiral caused
02:14by his own arrogance. Also, it's just really, really funny. Peter's black suit antics
02:20are funny, the dancing in the street is funny, Bruce Campbell's over-eager waiter is really,
02:26really funny. Only the hand of the action is well handled, with Raimi's passion still
02:31being there for that. The final fight in particular is gnarly as hell and directed with such gusto.
02:37With all of this in mind, for this to be lumped in with the worst superhero films of all time
02:41is an absolute crime.
02:43Legion casts Paul Bettany as a machine gun wielding archangel who arrives at a truck
02:49stop in the Mojave Desert to protect Waitress Charlie, who's about to give birth to the
02:54future saviour of mankind. The forces of evil are also present and manifest themselves as
02:59potty mouthed old ladies who can spider walk across ceilings or zombies that can only be
03:03stopped by heavy artillery. It sounds awesome right? Like a real slam bang supernatural
03:09thriller that just wants to give you a good time. Well, it absolutely is. Though not quite
03:14as good as Constantine which released in the same era. That's another movie that gets
03:17labelled as terrible by the way, that's also Kenny Goode so you can have that one
03:21as an extra.
03:22Legion though is dumb fun, and not to be one of those Noel Gallagher types who screams
03:26that they don't make them how they used to, but it's even better in hindsight knowing
03:30that a movie like this probably would never get a budget like this now. Plus, it's simply
03:35difficult to dislike a movie where Paul Bettany leads Tyrese Gibson and Dennis Quaid in a
03:39heavily armed assault against zombies dressed as ice cream vendors.
03:46All a slasher movie really asks is that you get on its wavelength to enjoy it for what
03:50it is. Although given alcohol's mysterious ability to lower expectations, being good
03:55and loaded for these probably doesn't hurt either. Backed by WWE as a vehicle for teacher
04:00turned grappler Kane, real name Glenn Jacobs, See No Evil casts the 6'10 behemoth as Jacob
04:07Goodnight, one of those unstoppable killing machines with mummy issues. He just so happens
04:11to be holed up in the Blackwell Hotel when a bunch of people are sent there on a cleaning
04:15assignment, but if you think this is a regular hotel without secret passageways and one-way
04:20glass, you're sadly mistaken.
04:23Is it going to completely blow your mind? Absolutely not. Is it going to fill the void
04:27in your life when it gets to 2am and you're looking for something to do? Well, it might
04:30do just that.
04:34When Transporter 3 arrived in cinemas, the response was expectedly harsh. In fact, The
04:39Hollywood Reporter called it, a nonsensical, choppily edited bore. But if you need reassuring
04:44as to just how awesome this movie is, just watch the Transporter refueled instead. Put
04:49simply, when you combine Corey Young's fight choreography with Jason Statham's general
04:54badass charisma, you're really onto something special. And this sequel has a shot at being
04:58the most demented entry in the franchise to boot. Wearing a bracelet that will explode
05:03if he gets more than 75 feet away from his car, Statham's character has to travel across
05:07Europe to deliver a package, and in the process gets involved in the usual martial arts standoffs
05:12and car chases. The standout is the climactic sequence shot in real time without models
05:17and CGI, where Statham drives his car onto a moving train in order to catch villain Robert
05:22Knepper. Both actors seem to be having a whale of a time, relishing playing off each other
05:26and you'll have fun watching them to boot.
05:295. Barb Wire
05:31If there's one type of film that Hollywood does well, it's the straight-to-video action
05:34movie writ large. Take a Z-grade script, give it a studio budget and presto, you've got
05:40yourself a cult classic in the making. With Pamela Anderson in the lead, Barb Wire unfathomably
05:46rips off the plot of Casablanca, with Pam in the Humphrey Bogart role as the nightclub
05:51owner who attempts to help an old flame escape the country. I mean, I could probably just
05:55stop right there, right? That's surely enough of a pull. Well, if it's not, though
05:59it was panned on release, the flick did have some supporters. Hell, Roger Ebert even conceded
06:05that the movie quote, has a high energy level and a sense of deranged fun. And deranged
06:10fun is exactly what it is. Taking its visual cues from previous comic book adaptations
06:15like The Crow, Barb Wire knows it's B-grade material and never attempts to take itself
06:20too seriously. It promises trash and oh boy does it deliver trash. And hey, what's not
06:25to like about that?
06:29Returning to the director's chair for the first time since the original, Paul W.S. Anderson
06:33opens Resident Evil Afterlife with one of the most outrageous action scenes in the series.
06:38With hundreds of clones of Hero Alice attacking Umbrella HQ before bad guy Albert Wesker detonates
06:44a bomb that destroys everything in sight. It might be the peak of the whole thing, but
06:49the rest of the film isn't bad either. In fact, there's more madness in store along
06:53the way, including mind control devices, a reanimated Wesker with glowing red eyes who's
06:58been eating test subjects and an encounter with a giant axe-wielding monster. With Anderson
07:03at the helm, the action has more snap to it than its predecessors and he lets nothing
07:07get in the way of giving the audience a good time. And that's ultimately what all of
07:11these movies are, a good time. Even as a hardcore fan of the games myself, I have to appreciate
07:17just how much Anderson commits to doing his own thing, even if his own thing was pretty
07:22insane.
07:23For better or worse, the Wachowskis have always made movies for themselves. Though they received
07:29huge mainstream success with The Matrix, the sisters have since used that as a jumping
07:33off point to create huge blockbusters with distinct identities. And that exact element
07:38has allowed Speed Racer, one of their most criticised projects, to shine so many years
07:43later. See, the Wachowskis have always worn their anime influence on their sleeves and
07:48that made them the perfect candidates for this adaptation. The phrase, it's like a
07:52comic book movie come to life, always gets thrown around willy-nilly these days, but
07:56here that assessment is true. Speed Racer has such a sense of style, brightness and
08:01levity that's sadly marked it out as being too goofy in an era where the Dark Knight
08:06was just about to change blockbusters forever. Speed Racer though is more accessible than
08:10ever in the 2020s and it absolutely is worth a look.
08:142. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4 – The Next Generation
08:18So many of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies have been trashed over the years, but the
08:22one that's universally hated is the René Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey starring
08:26fourth movie. This thing has been criticised to death, to the point where I went into it
08:32with dangerously low expectations. Which is why it was such a surprise to realise that
08:37this movie is actually kinda awesome. In a way it's a knowing retread of the original,
08:42pitching in-universe that the Texas Chainsaw story, you know, a family terrorising a young
08:46woman in their house, is some kind of cyclical ritual that plays out constantly. It's a
08:52weird meta-angle that eventually goes off the rails towards the end, implying that shady
08:56supernatural businessmen have been controlling the family the whole time.
09:00But before we get there, we do get to enjoy one of Matthew McConaughey's best performances,
09:05and I'm deadly serious when I say that. He is absolutely committed to making this
09:09character as nasty and brutish as he can. He totally goes for it and it works, creating
09:15a genuinely threatening aura and making for the franchise's best villain outside of
09:20Leatherface. It obviously has issues, it is panned for a reason, but there is a surprising
09:25amount to like in here, especially considering just how safe the other instalments in this
09:30series played it.
09:34The Fast & Furious franchise is now one of the biggest in cinema history, but for a while
09:38it looked like it was dead in the water before it really even had a chance to shine. After
09:43two middling instalments, the series continued with Tokyo Drift, a spin-off that lacked any
09:48of the original stars. One of the lowest rated flicks in the whole franchise, this
09:52effort is often written off as the one movie that doesn't belong. The thing is though,
09:56Tokyo Drift, in one sense, is actually the movie that saved the franchise, not nearly
10:01ended it. And that's because it was directed by none other than Justin Lin. Lin, as you
10:06may know, is instrumental to the success of the franchise in the long term, being the
10:10man who fully clicked with the material and directed 3, 4, 5 and 6, and is set to return
10:15for the upcoming two-part finale. He brought this franchise back from the brink, and his
10:20talents are entirely on show in this maligned third flick. Seriously, if you're a fan
10:25of these movies, Tokyo Drift shouldn't be ignored. Not only do we get so much of a hand,
10:30but if you like 4, 5 and 6, well this is almost on the exact same wavelength.
10:35So that's our list. I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
10:38What do you think about these movies? And am I talking just complete gibberish? Have
10:42I lost my mind? Let me know. And while you're down there as well, could you please give
10:46us a like, share, subscribe and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news
10:49like this every single day. Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for
10:53watching, and I'll see you soon.