Pacific rim. Plot is fucking stupid but it doesn't matter. Only one robot has guns. They don't use the sword until the end. They never attack the rift that spawns the kaiju.
I got to see giant robots do wrestling moves on giant monsters. It's my favorite movie.
The sexual dynamic between the two characters makes me more uncomfortable the older that movie gets, and it makes me very uncomfortable that such a young actor is playing the role The way they do. The plot too is silly, nobody, not even an emotionless assassin would try to teach a kid to be an assassin for any reason. Kids are impulsive idiots and there's literally no upside to it. But holy hell does Gary Oldman absolutely rule in that movie.
Batshit crazy plot, appallingly unfunny script - clearly masterminded by deeply disconnected madmen. But well executed - great effects and technical filmmaking.
I remember Kevin Smith in one of his talks discussing Jon Peters, the producer of WWW, coming up with ridiculous suggestions and demands for a superman project they were both involved in, including a giant mechanical spider. Kevin was dropped from the project (it never got made) and then later he sees a giant mechanical spider in WWW and was like 'well that's all Jon'.
Smith's story is pretty epic. Probably wasn't the first time he told it, of course. And it became quite famous: in the end, Nicolas Cage, who was supposed to play Superman in Burton's film, had a cameo as Supes in 2023 ‘The Flash’ (iirc) fighting a giant spider.
It's also kinda funny that Silent Bob is rather chatty in real life, and toured colleges with these talks, releasing six of them, like three hours each. Whereas, whenever he brought Jason Mewes with him, the latter was mostly quiet.
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Team America: World Police yet. That one has highly innovative puppetry behind it as well as brilliant engineering... all for a horrible film with a badly written plot as well as (shudder) horrible depiction.
The plot of Yellow Submarine is basically "the Beatles have a contractual obligation to make a movie but they can't be bothered, so let's get impressionists to voice cartoon Beatles and draw a bunch of drug-addled fuckery to illustrate some of their songs for an hour and a half."
In execution, it's a bizarrely compelling and beautiful piece of work that I enjoy a great deal despite not being into either the Beatles or drugs.
The first one that leaps to mind is The Phantom Menace. World-class score, Duel Of The Fates alone is utterly epic. Casting is almost perfect, probably don't ruin that poor child's life. Get a teenager to play Anakin. Set and costume design are great, the plot is ridiculous. The boys at RedLetterMedia articulated it better than I ever will, but, you could fix it with a script rewrite or two.
Popeye also jumps to mind. The 1980 live-action movie starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. Paramount lost the bid to make Annie, the studio had their hearts set on making a broadway musical adaptation of a depression-era IP, and the first thing that occurred to anyone was they had the rights to Popeye. Of all things. Annie is a broadway musical, so songs complete with dance numbers were already built in. Popeye is a cartoon wedged somewhere between Betty Boop and Bugs Bunny. They decided to make a Popeye musical. And commenced principal photography before writing any songs. They ADR'd songs over top of scenes they shot before the songs were written. Which is why it's...not really remembered as a musical. Directed by Robert "I directed MASH" Altman very much in his style, much of the film consists of characters blathering over each other incessantly. The collision of the cartoon physics and character proportions with the very grounded Altman style is uniquely jarring. AND YET. The set design, cinematography and costume design are excellent. It's a badly conceived stupid idea executed by consummate professionals.
The unofficial trilogy is Event Horizon (1997), Sunshine (2007), and Pandorum (2009). Three entirely different takes. But, Ironically, I watched The Black Hole (1979 Disney response to Star Wars) and Event Horizon back to back. It's the same damn plot.
I thought they had confirmed that they intended it to be a 40k movie but never got the rights to the name so they made it a "generic" future but kept the script essentially the same.
It's hard for me to pin down to be honest because good execution hides a lot. I've found the Ocean Twelve movie really dumb but enjoyed it ... not sure if it's horrible taste though?
I remember my family going to that one expecting a silly "haha they're trapped in old TV where stuff is old-timey" thing and unexpectedly getting something really genuinely special.
I remember when my wife and I watched Morbius, we were pretty impressed with the sound mixing. We could hear what everyone was saying without our ears getting blown out by the explosions and such.
I feel like the effects and such were all petty solid too, but there's no saving the fact that the story, writing, and acting were just trash.
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