c/bad-movie-appreciation

Missing the point of bad acting in The Room

I keep seeing people say Tommy Wiseau was trying to be serious and just failed. But watch his performance in The Room again. He's clearly doing a bit. The way he throws that football around? The random "I did not hit her" line? That's deliberate. I worked in a dinner theater for 3 years and saw actors do this same stuff on purpose. People miss how intentional the weirdness is. Am I the only one who thinks he knew exactly what he was doing?

Took me three watches of The Room to realize I was taking it way too seriously

I was trying to follow the plot for the first two watches and then my buddy pointed out that every single scene contradicts the last one and I finally just laughed at how nothing makes sense.

My buddy swore The Room was the worst movie ever, but I found a new champion

So my friend Dave has been telling me for years that The Room is the pinnacle of so bad it's good cinema. I finally watched it last month and yeah, it's hilarious, but I stumbled onto something even better. Found this 1980s sci-fi flick called The Alien Within on a dollar DVD rack at a thrift store in Tucson. The acting is wooden, the alien looks like a deflated pool toy, and there's a scene where the hero trips over a wire for no reason and they just left it in. Has anyone else found a movie that makes Tommy Wiseau look like a professional?

That one guy who yelled at me during a screening of The Room

I was at a midnight showing of The Room in Austin like 2 years ago and this dude in front of me kept turning around to point out plot holes. He literally stood up at the part where Tommy Wiseau is on the roof and screamed 'this makes zero sense!' at the screen. The whole theater laughed but then he spent the rest of the movie explaining why each scene was bad to his friend next to him. I get that we're all there for a bad movie but like, let people enjoy the ridiculousness without a commentary track right? Has anyone else dealt with a super intense fan who took the bad movie thing too seriously?

Nearly lost my mind watching 'The Room' with a live audience

I was at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin last Saturday for a midnight screening, and some guy in the front row kept yelling spoilers before every scene. I told the manager after 20 minutes, and they kicked him out before the infamous rooftop scene. Has anyone else had a screening ruined by someone who doesn't get the whole 'so bad it's good' vibe?

The great debate: Do bad dubs make a bad movie better or worse? I watched 'Miami Twice' from 1986 last night

My buddy laughed at me for pausing The Room every 5 minutes, now I get it

So I was watching The Room with my friend Dave last weekend and he kept getting annoyed because I was pausing to laugh at every single bad line or weird camera cut. He said I was missing the whole flow or whatever. After he left I watched the rest by myself without pausing and honestly it was way funnier. The badness just builds up when you let it roll. Anyone else have a movie that you need to just let play straight through to really appreciate the garbage?

Took me 4 tries to sit through the full cut of "The Room"

I kept shutting it off around the 20 minute mark because the dialogue was so weird. Finally made it all the way through during a snow day last February when I had nothing better to do. The rooftop scene where he says "I did not hit her" just clicked after the 4th attempt. Has anyone else had to watch a bad classic multiple times before it finally landed for you?

The old timer vs new release debate on IMDB ratings

I finally hit 500 ratings on IMDB after like 4 years of grading everything I watch. But I noticed something weird - the old classics I love are sitting at 4.5 stars while some new garbage is pushing 7. So are we all just rating based on nostalgia and craft, or are newer movies getting a free pass? What's your take on what makes a movie 'so bad it's good' actually rank higher?

I'm actually glad my movie hit exactly 4,000 copies sold

Everyone talks about how The Room sold 1,200 copies opening weekend as some sign of failure, but my crappy zombie flick hit 4,000 total and I call that a win. It meant 4,000 people sat through that terrible green screen and still told their friends about it - you can't buy that kind of word of mouth. Has anyone else found a weird number like that where it actually felt like a victory instead of a disappointment?

Hitting 50 bad movies in one month changed my brain

Started a challenge to watch one terrible movie each night after my shift. Made it to 50 by the end of the month. Noticed I started laughing at plot holes in real life. Like watching the news and thinking 'that twist was worse than The Room'. Anyone else hit a weird milestone like that?

Just compared two versions of 'The Room' and one was way worse

I watched the original 2003 'The Room' with Tommy Wiseau on a busted DVD last week... then found a fan edit that tried to 'fix' the movie by cutting out the nonsense scenes. The edit took out all the weird tangents and made it boring, like a normal bad movie instead of a glorious disaster. Has anyone else run into a 'remaster' or fan cut that totally killed the magic of a so-bad-it's-good classic?

Spent $18 on a 'so bad it's good' movie bundle off eBay that was just 3 scratched discs

I bought this lot of 80s sci-fi flicks from some guy in Omaha, said they were 'collector's items.' Two of them wouldn't even load in my player and the third was some knockoff of Battle Beyond the Stars. Anyone else get burned by cheapo movie bundles online?

Had to pick between The Room and Birdemic for a bad movie night with friends

Last Friday I had to choose which disaster to show 5 friends who never saw either. I went with The Room because I figured the weird love triangle and plastic spoons would be easier to digest. Two people walked out after 20 minutes saying it was just boring bad not fun bad. But the rest of us stayed and by the end we were laughing so hard at the rooftop scene. I think Birdemic might have worked better since the bad CGI birds are more ridiculous from the start. Has anyone else had a bad movie night backfire like that?

Unpopular opinion: The Room is actually a cinematic masterpiece if you watch it drunk

I was at a buddy's place in St. Louis last Saturday and we threw on The Room for laughs, but after three beers I started seeing this weird brilliance in how every scene just falls apart. The way Tommy Wiseau delivers lines like he's reading them off cue cards for the first time actually made me appreciate the raw honesty of it all. Has anyone else had a movie flip from 'so bad' to 'so good' after a few drinks and a different mindset?

The secret to enjoying Birdemic is watching it with the captions on

Appreciation post: That scene in The Room where Tommy Wiseau throws a football underhand

I watched The Room for the first time last night with a group of friends and we couldn't stop laughing at how weirdly he tosses the ball around. It's like he's never seen a football game before but he's trying to look cool doing it. Does anyone else have a specific moment in a bad movie that just breaks them every single time?

Vent: My buddy swore The Room was a masterpiece so I hyped it up for a month then realized he was trolling me

I spent 4 hours convincing my girlfriend to watch it with me and by the time Tommy Wiseau threw that football she was giving me the death stare, has anyone else been set up by a friend claiming a bad movie is actually good?

Watched The Room for the first time with a buddy in 2015 and waited 45 minutes for the famous scene.

I thought I was doing bad movie nights all wrong. I used to skip around looking for the funny parts. My friend Mike made me sit through the whole thing without any fast forwarding. He said you have to earn the bad moments by seeing everything else around them. That 45 minute wait for the "You're tearing me apart, Lisa!" scene made it hit so much harder. Now I watch every bad movie from start to finish like that. Has anyone else had a viewing ritual that totally changed how you enjoy these movies?

My buddy convinced me to watch The Room for the first time last night

I always avoided it because I thought it was just a meme, but my friend Mike kept bugging me about it for months. He said 'you haven't seen bad until you've seen Tommy Wiseau throw a football.' So I finally caved and watched it on streaming around midnight. I was skeptical at first but by the time he was tossing that football in the tuxedo I was completely hooked. The whole thing felt like a dream someone had after eating too much cheese before bed. I laughed so hard at the 'you are tearing me apart Lisa' scene that my wife came downstairs to see if I was okay. Now I want to find more movies like this where the director had zero self awareness. Has anyone else had a friend force them to watch a classic bad movie and it totally changed how you see the genre? I need recs for stuff that hits that same weird spot.

My buddy insisted we watch 'The Room' for his birthday last weekend

I had heard about it for years but never actually sat through it. We got together at his apartment in Chicago with six people and a bottle of cheap whiskey. By the time we hit the third weirdly placed sex scene, everyone was laughing so hard we missed half the dialogue. The rooftop football toss with zero context still has me confused. For a movie that tries so hard to be serious, it's probably the most fun I've had at a screening all year. Has anyone else found a bad movie that accidentally became your go to for parties?

Had to choose between watching "The Room" dubbed or subbed - went with the dub and it was WILD

Last night I finally sat down to watch The Room with my buddy Mike from the roofing crew, and we argued for 20 minutes about whether to watch it in English or with Spanish subtitles since Mike's bilingual. We went with the English dub because I wanted to hear Tommy Wiseau's voice in all its glory, and honestly the delivery on lines like 'You are tearing me apart, Lisa!' made it 10 times funnier than I imagined. Has anyone else tried a dubbed version of a bad movie and found it changed the whole experience?

Just found a VHS copy of 'The Room' at a thrift store in Tulsa last week

Picked it up for $2. Couldn't believe it. Watched it with some friends Saturday night and we were losing it over the football scene. Has anyone else found a bad movie gem in a random thrift store lately?

My buddy's backyard screening of The Room changed how I watch bad movies

I was at a cookout in Austin last Saturday and someone threw on The Room on a projector against his garage door. Halfway through the football scene, everyone was yelling and laughing so hard I realized I'd been watching these movies alone in my room for years. Anyone else find that bad movies hit totally different with a crowd?

That drive-in theater in Ohio changed my mind about bad horror movies

I went to the Starlite Drive-In near Columbus last weekend for a double feature of old slasher flicks. The projector kept glitching and the audio was a mess, but the crowd was laughing and shouting at the screen the whole time. Has anyone else had a live viewing experience that made a terrible movie suddenly fun?