The 10 Lowest Rated Movies on My NAS
One of my hobbies for a long time now has been the building of a digital library of movies and TV shows. I originally undertook this using media stored on a combination of USB drives and a DLNA server, but just over a year ago purchased a NAS and hosted an instance of Jellyfin. Jellyfin is amazing and I plan to write a separate entry about that later.
Today, out of curiosity, I decided to see if it were possible to sort my media in order of how well it was rated (community rating/general consensus), and yes, Jellyfin provides this. And once I'd sorted my movies in order of community rating, I just had to know: What's the worst rated stuff I have here? What follows is that list, in descending order -- my "Bottom 10 Movies", so to speak.
#10 - Can't Stop The Music
Starring Steve Guttenberg and The Village People
Is It Really That Bad? Yes
Okay, okay, I need to make something clear at the outset: I love bad movies. And this one is...woof. Bad. It's bad. It's a pseudo-historical documentary about the founding of the 1970s pop culture sensation which was The Village People. It's about 30 minutes longer than it needs to be, but I had to pick this one up because A) it's a bad movie, and B) it has a commentary track with Bruce Vilanch, who helped write it (uncredited). It's a musical comedy (of sorts), containing many of their hits, and ending with the track "Ready For The '80s" (spoiler: they were not).
#9 - Meteor
Starring Sean Connery and Natalie Wood
Is It Really That Bad? It's Not Awful
This one's a late '70s disaster thriller about a meteor headed towards Earth. It's been ages since I've seen it, but remember it being okay-ish. It's in my Jellyfin library to encourage me to give it another chance. Or at the very least to brush up on my Connery impression.
#8 - Baffled!
Starring Leonard Nimoy
Is It Really That Bad? Yes and No
This is actually a pilot for a TV series that didn't sell (and if it had, we never would've gotten In Search Of -- at least, not with Leonard Nimoy as the host). It's about a race car driver (Nimoy) who suddenly develops flashes of psychic insight. The casting of Nimoy as the race car driver is kind of bananas, and the plot itself meanders a bit, but by the time it was over I'd enjoyed it. It also features one of the coolest theme tunes I've ever heard by a guy named Richard Hill. You can check it out here. There's 3 different versions I've found of the film (UK, US, and "unidentified YouTube cut"). I purchased the film on DVD, and somehow, somewhere, there was a Blu-ray release as well. It would probably have been forgotten had Nimoy not starred.
#7 - Hangar 18
Starring Darren McGavin
Is It Really That Bad? No
This one plays out more like a made-for-TV movie than the theatrical release it was. The US government captures a UFO, but needs to silence two astronauts who know about it. This movie was one of the original KTMA episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The original Blu-ray release of this from Olive Films claims to contain a commentary track, but no such track is on the disc, and Olive Films didn't respond when I reached out to them about it.
#6 - Wonder Woman
Starring Cathy Lee Crosby (and Ricardo Montalban as the most polite villain ever)
Is It Really That Bad? I don't remember
Now this one actually is a made-for-TV movie, from 1974, that I caught in syndication in the '90s. Apparently this was someone's take on the property before the Lynda Carter TV series. In this version, Wonder Woman has no powers and is more like a super spy, and Ricardo Montalban is the main bad guy, with impeccable manners.
#5 - Highlander II: The Quickening (Original Version of the Film)
Starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery
Is It Really That Bad? Yes, in the best possible way
The tagline to the original Highlander was "There can be only one." Well, there should have been only one, but they kept cranking out crappy sequels, of which this was the first. In this film, all the mystery of the original film is explained away with "They were aliens all along." Then they tried to fix it by creating the "Renegade Version" which removes all the references to them being aliens. The "aliens" version of the film hasn't been available since, but it's my favorite version in a "so bad it's good" way.
#4 - The Kidnapping of The President
Starring William Shatner
Is It Really That Bad? No idea
In this film, the US president is kidnapped, and it's up to William Shatner to rescue him. And that's all I know. I haven't watched the movie yet. Moving on...
#3 - MegaForce
Starring Barry Bostwick, Persis Khambatta, and Edward Mulhare
Is It Really That Bad? Yes, in the best possible way
A movie I had long heard about, and totally lived up to the "Meh, it's okay" response I got when asking people who'd seen it what they thought of it. This is a good "bad movie". MegaForce is a super secret super team of super cartoony soldiers. Directed by Hal Needham, of Smokey and The Bandit and Cannonball Run fame.
#2 - Law Enforcement Guide to Satanic Cults
Starring Gordon Coulter, Eric Pryor, and Kelly McGhee
Is It Really That Bad? Yes. Yes it is.
This is an "educational video" originally released on VHS to teach police how to deal with satanic cults during the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s (even though the video was released in 1994). It starts with a man describing the evils of satanic cults, and ends with...this same man pulling up a burlap sheet to reveal a seemingly unconscious woman wearing a checkered bikini. Yep. Truly bizarre. I first heard about this via a podcast I subscribe to. My description here does not do it justice.
#1 - The Star Wars Holiday Special
Starring The Best Variety Show Talent from the 1970s, as well as the cast of the original Star Wars
Is It Really That Bad? Yes. It deserves this place on the list, and is tough to get through.
Not technically a movie, but for TV specials like this, one of the ways to organize them in Jellyfin is by adding them as movies. This one is so hard to get through. Even though I love bad movies and TV and pretty much everything 1970s, this one is brutal, and even the Rifftrax version is a challenge.
And that's it! You may be wondering why I have some of this stuff taking up valuable storage space on my NAS. The truth is, I often enjoy bad movies and TV. And I often need a good laugh. That Star Wars special is rough though.
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