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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-30-1999, 02:03 AM:
What is the worst movie that you have ever had the pleasure to exhibit to an
audience? I think that perhaps mine was the recent "Godzilla". What a
disappointment, to say the very least. The movie was laughable and the sound,
well, it sucked too. I'm sure there are many other bad movies that I have shown,
but this one pops into memory first.
Posted by Brad Miller on 05-30-1999, 02:05 AM:
Well, I'll have to agree with you on the Godzilla...but then anything put out by
Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin is a waste of film. Anyone ever see a 1969 film titled "I Drink Your Blood"? This is a 69 minute
p.o.s.! I'd have to say that was the WORST film I've ever ran anywhere. But on
the flip side, it was so bad it was hysterical with a large audience.
As to the worst "business" film..."Another You" with Richard Pryor and Gene
Wilder gets top honors. The theater I was working at the time was an incredibly
busy 12 screen. We ran this movie for 3 people the entire 2 week run! After
Friday's turnout of two people for the 7:00 show (they walked out) we just left it
threaded, with instructions at the box office to call the booth should it sell a ticket.
On that last Thursday night, we actually had to run the film through again just so
we could break it down. Talk about bad bookings.
Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 05-30-1999, 02:05 AM:
I'm not a exhibitor, but I love to watch the 50's type movies that were often so
bad, they were good. Probably the worst I can remember is "Fire Maidens From
Outer Space" far worse/better than Plan 9.
Posted by Brett Rankin (Member # 31) on 05-30-1999, 02:06 AM:
I do not (yet) work in the theater business and have limited knowledge of
distribution and printing. I just collect the films and watch them. How often (and
how many) 16mm reduction prints are made from today's movies? Why do they o
that, as 16mm is used so little as an exhibition medium? I saw a recent screening
of Jurassic Park at the local park (the screen was small, the picture dim, and the
sound nearly inaudible) and that had been the first I had seen of 16mm reductions.
Why bother?
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-30-1999, 02:06 AM:
It is true that most of the previous markets for 16mm (television, airlines, etc.) no
longer use that format. Still, the "non-theatrical" market is fairly constant and is
almost entirely dependent on 16mm (except for a few colleges/universities that
have 35mm equipment). I'd guess that fewer than 100 reduction prints are made
of any given title, but most titles with theatrical distribution of more than, say, 250
prints are available in 16mm. The quality of recent reductions is all over the place
though, and generally not up to the standards of the work done in the 1960s and
1970s. Just tonight, I ran "Shakespeare in Love" in 16mm...the print was beautiful
and they did a nice pan-and-scan job (the original was flat/1.85...I ran it many
times in 35mm) for that title. Unfortunately, though, the timing didn't match
between reels.
Posted by Brad Miller on 05-30-1999, 02:07 AM:
OOOPS! Don't you mean 2.35 scope? What I want to know is why doesn't DTS step in and create 16mm digital? 16mm
wouldn't be so bad if they printed anamorphic with DTS digital.
Just tonight, I ran "Shakespeare in Love" in 1
: 6mm...the print was beautiful and they did a nice pan-and-
: scan job (the original was flat/1.85...I ran it many times
: in 35mm) for that title. Unfortunately, though, the timi
: ng didn't match between reels.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 05-30-1999, 02:07 AM:
: OOOPS! Don't you mean 2.35 scope? Yep...I was thinking of a different film.
Seriously, though, it didn't look half bad at 1.33. 16mm scope with DTS would be
great!
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-30-1999, 02:07 AM:
I have heard that DTS has a 16mm reader used for special venues. I have not
heard much else about it. This was at a time when they were bragging to be the
only provider of 70mm digital sound and the press release also mentioned
something about 16mm...I will post more if I find out more.
Posted by Chris Trainor (Member # 9) on 05-30-1999, 02:08 AM:
Most 16mm reductions are not meant for US distribution. They are mainly used in
smaller overseas venue's where shipping 35mm films is just really unpractacle.
Posted by Erika Hellgren (Member # 22) on 05-30-1999, 02:08 AM:
The worst movie that I've seen/exhibited would have to be Meet Joe Black. It
was three hours long, and if that weren't bad enough, the poor editing drew it out
so that it felt like 10 hours. Anthony Hopkins upstaged all the actors, but still left
something to be desired. The scene where Brad Pitt gets hit by a car in the
beginning was laughable. The effect was probably the worst I've ever seen - and it
was a great example of how new technology has the potential to rip the
intelligence right out of filmmaking 
Plus, both prints we had at our theatre read
very poorly in dolby digital, and I heard that other theatres had the same problem.
Just a bad bad bad bad movie all around. Yuck yuck yuck. I can't believe I sat
through that piece of shit!
Posted by Jim on 05-30-1999, 02:09 AM:
Orgazmo takes the modern cake for a terrible film I had heard about and not
seen. I heard it was a knockout with kids doing the midnight tour in Salt Lake and
booked it on the blind. Watta Dog!! Poor production values, stupid story,
marginal acting and the whole thing more than semi-sucked. With a title like Orgazmo, what did I expect? Duh!
Posted by Brad Miller on 05-30-1999, 02:10 AM:
I gotta disagree with you there. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at
a movie as Orgazmo. In recommending it to more than a dozen people, only one
came back with a negative report. It was "supposed" to be bad. That's half the
joke. If you went into it seriously, no wonder you hated it. Look who made
it...Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the Southpark guys. That's the biggest tipoff right
there.
So if your theater played it, did you get trailers???
Posted by Dave Pynchon on 05-30-1999, 02:10 AM:
I believe that one of the worst movies was
called "50/50". It was distributed by Cannon Films. At the time I was working for
Cinemark. They were given no info on the film and no as slicks for advertising.
We called Cannon for Info and all that we spoke with there had no info and some
had no knowledge of the films existance. Exhibitionwize, I believe only a few
came for the week that it was there and they all left long before it was over. The
other film series that drove me bats wasfrom the 70's, the original Pippi
Longstockings series.
Posted by Brad Miller on 05-30-1999, 02:11 AM:
"The other film series that drove me bats wasfrom the 70's,
the original Pippi Longstockings series." Yes, those were pretty bad. The ones I saw were shot silent and voices dubbed
over in the studio. They do get better if you misthread your lower loop. Make 'em
REALLY out of sync and it becomes just plain funny. That's great for those Hong
Kong films too.
Posted by Rob Brooks (Member # 186) on 10-31-1999, 12:58 PM:
For me it was "Car 54" The Movie. If you saw it, your probably laughing right now. It opened in our smallest theater and was gone in one week for ever.------------------
Rob
Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 10-31-1999, 05:59 PM:
Zardoz (sp?) with Sean Connery. Total garbage movie and the yardstick I use to measure other films. The first night, we actually had a fair amount of people, because this was the first film he did after "offically" announcing that he would not be James Bond anymore. Although I did like Charlotte Rampling (belive me, not for any honorable reasons.)
Posted by Stephen Winner (Member # 8) on 10-31-1999, 07:47 PM:
Didn't hear "Southpark" mentioned. This turned a fair audience in the suburban theaters, but bombed here. After you've heard 2-3 f-word jokes, it's unamusing. The best part of the movie was Bill Gates getting killed.
When I came up to the boot to run this show, I noticed it was never built up, and the head projectionist was running it off the shipping reels! I asked why thinking it came in late, but he mentioned it wouldn't be here long enough!!!! Sure enough 3 days later, it was gone!
Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 10-31-1999, 09:19 PM:
Carnival Magic was real crap. It was about a talking monkey.
Posted by Scott Ribbens (Member # 180) on 10-31-1999, 09:25 PM:
DTS does have a 16mm reader. The Guy who does all of those ski movies(can't think of his name right now) has at least some of the 16mm prints printed with a DTS time code. I could not tell you what if any additional cost there is to printing them up, or how many labs can do it.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-31-1999, 10:01 PM:
I'll put in a vote for "Grease." I know that a lot of people really love this film, but I personally can't stand it. It was one of the first 35mm films that I ran (the recent reissue prints) and I probably saw it a dozen times over the course of a week.
Posted by George Roher (Member # 91) on 10-31-1999, 11:45 PM:
I'll vote for Phantom Menace.
Posted by Rick Long (Member # 213) on 11-01-1999, 12:29 AM:
Anyone out there remember the 1968 release "The Green Slime" in "sort-of" 3-D? That'd be my vote.
Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 11-01-1999, 12:50 AM:
Yes, I saw Green Slime double billed with Destroy All Monsters. Both were real bad!
Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 11-01-1999, 01:11 AM:
Yup, I'll vote in Phantom Menace there too. I loved the real one (which was eventually called episode 4) and I never ever thought I'd want to walk out of a Star Wars film, but...then along came episode 1.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-01-1999, 04:10 AM:
Mesa say can't imagine why?
Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 11-01-1999, 04:27 AM:
Ya HAD to do it, didn't you? :-)
Posted by James Dunn (Member # 188) on 11-01-1999, 11:43 AM:
My vote would be stuck with a draw.
Great Expectations and Batman Forever. The only 2 films I have ever seriously contemplated walking out on. Both horrible.
Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 11-01-1999, 11:58 AM:
The Ruling Class starring Peter O'Toole. Many people like this film. I was seeing changeover cues, and hoping that "The End" was going to pop on screen...over and over..."Man From LaMancia" put me to sleep. I woke up when the person behind me bumped me when he stood up to leave. Glad I dont snore....
Posted by Tom Ferreira (Member # 70) on 11-01-1999, 02:57 PM:
The guy who does the ski films is Warren Miller.When I was managing for General Cinema in the early 90's, I got my bookings one week, and was told to play something called Keaton's Cop. I called the DM's office and asked who was in it(I had no one sheets and it had not been advertised). The DM's secretary asked him who was in the film. In the background, I heard a very gruff "Abe Vigoda". It was my one fond memory of working for GCC. Turns out it was a Cannon film starring, yes, the great Abe Vigoda, and Lee Majors. It sure in hell wasn't the six million dollar movie. It had mostly no-shows for a week, and as I remember, was horrid. I've never even seen it available on video.
For a while, we were a test market for New Line. Not their good films, but Suburban Commando and Mr. Nanny with Hulk Hogan, and most notably T Rex with Whoopi Goldberg. There were no one sheets available and Movie Ad had to custom make translites. I think it did $100 for the entire week.
Personally, the worst thing I've ever exhibited was the painful "Fresh Horses" with Molly Ringwald. And I've shown Steven Seagal and Pauly Shore films.
Posted by George Roher (Member # 91) on 11-01-1999, 10:19 PM:
When I worked for General Enema, the vast majority of the films we got were garbage.
Posted by Rick Long (Member # 213) on 11-01-1999, 11:27 PM:
I believe that often, your reaction to a film (especially as viewed from a booth) is related to many factors, apart from the film's technical or artistic merits."The Sound of Music" was a beautifully crafted film yet, after running it for twelve weeks in a single house, I began to wish that the Nazis would capture the Von Traps.
One of my first performances to the public was a Saturday matinee' double bill of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (before it became "camp"), and "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians". Both films would rank quite high in any list of "Worst Movies". yet I remember them with a fond nostalgia.
Posted by Hunter Mann (Member # 204) on 11-02-1999, 12:04 AM:
Great reading!
Two movies I saw many times at the cinema turn out to be what many people consider terrible:
Cold Turkey(Dick Van Dyke)
& Murder By Death(Truman Capote, Peter Sellers and other greats)
One of the worst movies I've seen is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The background painted scenary is so phony it has the viewer rolling in the aisles(or booth).
I have a friend who assistant-managed a cinema in SF in the mid-80's. They showed "Annie" for 3 1/2 months, up to 5 shows a day. The theater's lobby was wired for sound so that people could still hear the dialogue and music if they went to the snackbar. This meant that the theater staff had to listen to that syrupy soundtrack over 300 times!! To this day if I sing the first line from the film's song "Tomorrow", my friend goes balistic!
Has anyone seen this really great film called Wild Wheels? It's an off-beat doc about art cars and the eccentric artists who create them. I have screened it over 550 times so far(16mm). I wonder what the record is for most screenings actually watched/screened by one person. Most booths don't have a very good view for watching the entire film.
Has there been any forum discussions about the film Cinema Paradiso? That is the film that greatly inspired me to start my own free cinema roadshow.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 11-02-1999, 04:46 AM:
At college we did a "Worst Film Festival" where we showed 3 HORRIBLE movies back to back. I can't remember what the first one was, but the second one was "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" and the third was "Plan 9 From Outer Space".Admission was free...you paid to get out!
(no joke)
Posted by timothy johnson (Member # 83) on 11-03-1999, 04:59 PM:
hated the movie D.A.R.Y.L. and Godzilla 1998,and Batman & Robin, The Gate.
Posted by Art Averett (Member # 367) on 11-05-1999, 08:42 AM:
A film I showed back in late 1979 was "The Runner Stumbles" with Dick Van Dyke playing a priest. Watership Down was another one. Couldn't quite picture a bunch of rabbits with a british accent trying to cross the street.
Another one is "Newsies". Also, Oliver Stone's, The Doors.
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 11-05-1999, 10:12 AM:
Ok...let see (there are so many of them)...That little film known as "THE KEEP" (winter 1983)
or how about "GOING APE" (1981, I believe)
There are a bunch of bad 3-D films too)
Ooooo I just remembered...another bad film...ZAPPED If seeing a kid with his pants down floating around the screen doesn't make one want to leave the theatre, I don't know what will.
Steve
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 11-06-1999, 11:26 PM:
For the recent bad flix, how about GATTACA?