Ridiculous Movies (but not B movies)

I know this is a broad topic but I’m generally fascinated by how really off the Wall movies get made. Not talking about low budget stuff like The Room or B movies like Sharknado, but reasonably budgeted flicks with people you’ve heard of that are just batshit insane.

Lately I’ve been thinking about Wolf. Anyone remember that one? It’s from 199(something), started Jack Nicholson as a guy who gets bitten by a wolf and then spends the movie slowly becoming a wolf. Also had James Spader as the antagonist who also (spoilers!) ends up turning into a wolf after Jack bites him, and Michelle Pfeiffer, though I don’t think she ever turns into a wolf. Directed by Mike Nichols for pete’s sake!

And I think it reviewed pretty well, for a movie that had Jack Nicholson getting progressively harrier and doin stuff like howling at the moon and pissing on the floor to mark his territory. Three stars from Roger Ebert! So it’s, like, nuts with a pedigree! Which I find funny. Anyway, just thought it would be funny to dedicate a little corner of the forum to these oddities.

I enjoyed Perfume the Story of Murder, it was very strange. Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman had small parts in it also! :)

Using the scents of dead women to make the ultimate perfume. D:

I did not know that was a movie! I remember I read the story that I assume this was based on back in the 90s, after I heard Kurt Cobain wrote the song “Scentless Apprentice” after reading it. I was a big Nirvana fan.

Shoot 'Em Up y’all.

So the requirements are?
a) It’s ridiculous story-wise
b) It’s moderate to big budget, AA and AAA movies
c) It reviewed modestly well

Does that sound right? I just want to explore this idea with a better idea of the targets.

To me a/b/c sound spot on!

I guess I wasn’t thinking it was absolutely required that the movie reviewed well, but that probably would make it more interesting.

If you exclude reviewing well, I would propose Mannequin. Hoo boy that was confusing to watch as a young lad. Confusing in my underpants, at least.

Hey, looks like Splash reviewed well. That was pretty ridiculous.

How about Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? Maybe we need to exclude sci fi or else stuff like MiB might fit.

Do sequels count? I think the Transformers movies went way off the rails and qualify. Didn’t they go back in time in the last one and become kinghts or something? Who got that shit made?

How about Cowboys vs. Aliens?

The one with the knights was one of the better Transformer movies. :)

Actually I think that’s a pretty great example. They spent a crapload of money on effects and getting people like John Turturro and Anthony Hopkins on board basically just to bash giant metal objects into each other.

Now here’s where I say, at least I think so, because I must admit I’ve never seen any of the Transformers movies. One of the reasons Wolf stands out in my mind is that it’s played totally straight. At no point does anyone mock Jack going around sniffing everything or pissing all over a bathroom floor. It’s just a guy getting in touch with what’s real. It’s great in a very WTF kind of way. Is that how Transformers plays out or does it have a hint of self awareness?

How about the ridiculousness of getting Steven Seagal (during his “prime”) into a movie only to have him fall out of the plane in the opening act?

No dude, that’s just awesome.

The first Transformers was basically centered around Megan Fox’s hotness, and by the second one they were writing extended jokes about robot testicles.

Ah, so it’s more or less a 100 million plus goof off. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because apparently it made tons of bank.

But I do kind of feel like summer blockbusters are a bit outside what I’m thinking, since they’re going to have an element of over-the-top just inherently. It’s hard to imagine an executive going, “giant robots who turn into cars? Get the hell outta here with that crap” to Michael Bay. They had to go big or go home, I figure.

OK let’s see, maybe another example. You guys ever see Explorers? The one where Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix as kids figure out how to make this bubble technology to fly objects around, even go into space? There’s this wonderful feeling of discovery when they get it working and find aliens in orbit above the earth! Then the aliens just turn out to be idiots who are obsessed with our pop culture.

I guess you could say that’s more of a crazy left turn in plotting, but still someone had to hear that pitch and say, “Awesome! When can you start?”

If you ever want to watch one, go with the third. Dark of the Moon.

They all kind of blur together to me at this point, but that was actually a decent movie about the Transformers’ impact on the world, and humans working together with them to defeat more space robots. It even has evil humans as the bad guys. The rest are all “blah blah Optimus vs Megatron”

That reminds me, there’s a great video on YouTube by Red Letter Media where they play the first three (I think) Transformers movies side by side and they’re floored by how they follow the same beats.

Have you seen Transformers: Age of Extinction? The second act turns into a Stanley Tucci comedy where he’s comically trying to get away from the bad guys in Hong Kong while a giant magnet comes to attack the city. It’s bonkers, but in a delightful way. Act 1 and 3 are not as good, but it still is worth a watch. I didn’t think the other Transformer movies were worth wasting time on. But I haven’t seen Dark of the Moon and the latest one.