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My sisters and I had a tradition in college. Every here and there we would get together to watch a really, really bad movie. Our “Bad Movie Nights” were a lot of fun, as we tore apart the plot, the acting, the special effects… anything that caught our interest. It made some really horrible movies quite watchable.

And yes, for the most part they were rented rather than watched in the movie theater. Can’t have near as much fun when in a theater and other people are there, wanting quiet.

So, in no particular order, otherwise known as the order in which I remember the titles:

1. Independence Day - Gosh, you can hack alien technology with a Mac? I guess Apples really are superior. Never did understand why some people thought this move was so brilliant. Good special effects, but for the rest… meh.
2. Batman & Robin - What the hell were they thinking when they made this movie? Stupid effects, campy even for a superhero movie.
3. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie - Watched as a result of a dare placed after watching the #2 movie on this list. Which would be worse? We couldn’t believe what a close call it was.
4. Plan 9 From Outer Space - You can’t have a list of bad movies without mentioning this classic from Ed Wood, can you?
5. The Day After Tomorrow - Really lousy environmental disaster movie. The basic plot has been done over and over; only the details differ. Scientist makes prediction. He’s mocked. He’s right, but his child is in the path of danger. Blah, blah, blah. Nice special effects, although I don’t consider that a big accomplishment given current technology.
6. The Core - Whimper, whimper. Anyone bring the jumper cables? The core of the earth has stopped spinning and we need to start it back up again!
7. Broken Arrow - “Please do not shoot at the nuclear weapon” and other such gems for daily living. And of course that endangered mud. Guys, if you introduce that kind of factor into a movie, have it be more than a bit of throwaway environmentalism. Please.
8. The Avengers - True torture for my stepmother, who grew up watching the show. Just a mess of a movie.
9. The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Make yourself a promise. You will never, ever watch this movie unless it is in a theater, at midnight, with a bunch of lunatics who have the whole thing memorized and are prepared to shout out lines and comments while dressed the part. It’s just not worth it any other way.
10. The Puppet Masters - I’ve never really understood how they could call it modernizing Robert Heinlein’s story when they cut the technology down to mighty close to what we have now. And the characters, ouch!
11. Starship Troopers - Take a novel. Cut it down to the most basic plot, but save the character names. Then claim your movie is based on the novel. That’s about what they did to this Robert Heinlein novel.
12. Godzilla - Or perhaps just Godawful. The title might just work as well.
13. Battlefield Earth - Bad even by bad movie standards. Psychlo? Can’t you get more creative than that, Mr. Hubbard? Travolta, the costumes needed a lot more work. A lot.

Of course, there are plenty more out there. We did this regularly for years, but I can’t remember all the titles.

And if you heard a scream as you read #11, that was when my fingernails hit an odd combination of keys and deleted the saved only up to #4 post.

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