The Worst of the Worst, part II

[Gary7]

What's the worst sci-fi movie you've ever seen?

Back in 2008, there was the first part. Rather than bumping that thread, I figured why not start a new one.

I normally don't keep an active memory of movies that I've found distasteful or so horrid that I'd never watch them again (why waste the valuable time when life is so short?). But recently I had the misfortune of watching... Laserblast. An atrocious movie from 1978, a sci-fi adventure that did no more than try to capitalize on the painful gap of great sci-fi movies between Star Wars: A New Hope, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

I'd only known about this movie because of Starlog articles on sci-fi weaponry that would always seem to get around to mentioning Laserblast and showing a photo of the weapon. I never saw it in theaters or on TV. Recently I discovered it on YouTube quite by accident and... wasted about an hour watching it.

What a horrible useless trash of a movie, in pretty much all respects. The only semi-redeeming quality about it is the use of Enterprise warp engine sounds for the alien ship. The story is just plain dumb. There are so many filler scenes that don't make much sense. And there's no real story to it. The plot is: taunted pretty boy finds alien weapon, gets revenge on his aggressors (which are pitiful by the way) while "partially" being transformed by the weapon, until some guardian aliens eventually find him and put him out of his misery. The most surprising thing was to find that Roddy McDowall appeared in it, apparently desperate during his major acting dry spell after his Planet of the Apes movie run.

Honestly, I think it's worse than Plan 9 from Outer Space.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Carrie Fisher was in one called The Time Guardian (1987). Apparently like Roddy, done during a dry spell for parts in good movies.

It had a time traveling city from the future that came back to "save humanity". I don't remember too much else, probably blocked it out.

 

[Roshi]

The Cell. J-Lo, worst actress ever.

 

[Sindatur]

Carrie Fisher was in one called The Time Guardian (1987). Apparently like Roddy, done during a dry spell for parts in good movies.

It had a time traveling city from the future that came back to "save humanity". I don't remember too much else, probably blocked it out.

I caught that on Comcast On Demand a year or so back, had lots of red and blue lens flare during the "traveling" , if I remember correctly. First look, I hoped it would be up to Logan's Run quality <...SIGH...> Sadly, That didn't happen

I haven't watched anymore yet, but, I got a 50 movie SciFi pack for my Birthday in March, and started a thread asking for advice what to try. First post lists the contents of the box, and is likely a fairly good "Worst of SciFi List" for the most part, otherwise, why would it be in a $30 (or cheaper?) box set of 50 Movies? Some, are apparently "So bad they're good" or actually underrated in some folks opinion

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=169879

 

[Biffette]

Moontrap (1989) starring Walter Koenig and Bruce Campbell was the worst movie I have ever seen, sci-fi or no. On top of being terrible, it was also incredibly boring.

 

[sojourner]

Moontrap is so bad I don't remember Bruce being in it.

 

[MacLeod]

I vaguely remember seeing Moontrap.

 

[Klaus]

I'm a traditionalist on subjects like this... Horror of the Blood Monsters

aka
Blood Creatures from the Prehistoric Planet
Creatures of the Prehistoric Planet
Creatures of the Red Planet
Flesh Creatures of the Red Planet
Horror Creatures of the Prehistoric Planet
Space Mission to the Lost Planet
Vampire Men of the Lost Planet

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I checked the part I thread, and the three that immediately sprang to my mind, which I paid actual money to see first run, were already mentioned in there (suckiest first):

Nightfall
Hardware
Waterworld

 

[marillion]

It would be unfair (and too easy) to count movies I've seen on Mystery Science Theatre 3000...

I think the worst I ever paid money to see was "Warning Sign".. Back in the mid 80's.

About some kind of experiement in a lab facility that gets away from the scientists and turns everyone into zombies or something like that.

Quite possibly the only movie I've REALLY walked out of, pissed off that I had spent money on it..

 

[Aragorn]

Lifeforce

 

[Rhaven]

The worst was The Keep. Moontrap was bad. Waterworld was horrid but I kind of liked Lifeforce.

 

[sojourner]

I kind of liked The Keep, though I admit it's been at least 20 years since I've seen it. And Lifeforce? it gets a pass for having enough nudity in it to forget there's a plot.

 

[Harvey]

I saw a print of The Keep about a year ago -- what a waste of a good cast. At times, the movie is completely incoherent. At other times (the obligatory hero must sleep with the love interest scene) it's just laughable.

 

[auntiehill]

I checked the part I thread, and the three that immediately sprang to my mind, which I paid actual money to see first run, were already mentioned in there (suckiest first):

Nightfall
Hardware
Waterworld

YES. Nightfall was the most breath-takingly bad film I have ever seen in a theater. It's not like The Keep, The Cell or even Waterworld . Nightfall is bad in a way that even a MST3K couldn't make it bearable. It's so bad that it actually made me angry at how bad it was. It's so bad that the memory of it will make you think that, in comparison, JAWS 4: The Revenge actually had a few redeeming qualities.

It is always the first thing that springs to mind whenever one of these "worst ever" lists comes around.

 

[Silvercrest]

Boy, there are so many candidates.

Normally I'd vote for Robot Holocaust, but that's in "so bad it's good" territory. Laserblast is somewhat on that side of the line as well, plus I like the special effects. Lifeforce has ... certain redeeming qualities I won't go into here. Never got around to seeing Moontrap. I saw The Keep shortly after it was first released and liked it, then saw it again about ten years later and wondered what the hell I liked about it so much. So, undecided. At least until I see it again.

Movies that simply torqued me off when I saw them include Leviathan, Doomsday Machine, and Journey to the Center of Time. Probably Alien Contamination and Idaho Transfer as well. I'd have to list these among the Worst of the Worst.

I should feel the same way about Invasion From Inner Earth (aka They) and End of the World (featuring Christopher Lee at the absolute nadir of his career), but for some reason I occasionally pull them out and watch them anyway.

 

[Starbreaker]

From the movies that are actually trying to be good: Oblivion and Millennium.

 

[Gary7]

Lifeforce was more horror than sci-fi. I thought they did a great job with the effects for the time. True, the story was a real stretch, but as you said there were some redeeming qualities that keep it out of the trash bin. Also, I'd completely forgotten that Patrick Stewart had a small role in it (Dr. Armstrong).

Robot Holocaust is definitely a joke movie. I couldn't watch the whole thing, and was never inspired to revisit it. But from what I did see, there were some pretty funny scenes in the midst of all the mediocrity. Laserblast is worse though, IMHO.

 

[sonak]

not counting MST3K material and obvious low-budget B movies, I think it's "Battlefield Earth" for regular mainstream sci-fi.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I don't know if you'd call it science fiction, but I hated hated hated Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows.

Ugh!