Bad Movies We Love

1993, undated later edition, from Plume
Edward Margulies and Stephen Rebello
Bad Movies We Love
Bought new for $12.00
Worn paperback with stains
C-

I originally bought this book because I felt like sometimes the Medveds acted like turkeys are a punishment to watch (even when you're writing books about them).  What a nice change, two people who love bad movies.  I guess I should've paid more attention to the "we" in the title.  "If you love wallowing in glossy, overproduced absurdities, you'll be howling through the length of" Doctors' Wives (1970).  Well, no, I don't generally love wallowing in those kind of movies, or the ones in here that sound like big-screen bad soap operas.  I understand that they're reacting against the emphasis by the Medveds (and soon the MST crew) on unglossy, underproduced absurdities, but I don't think a low or a high budget automatically makes a bad movie (or Bad Movie as they insist on capitalizing) more enjoyable to watch.  And considering that Margulies and Rebello find even rape scenes funny (as long as the dialogue and acting are bad enough), I'm unlikely to even like most of the movies they love.

That said, there are a few movies in here that they're on target about-- The Swinger (1966) and Can't Stop the Music (1980) spring to mind-- and it was nice to see that they found Fatal Attraction (1987) as funny as I did.  But a whole chapter on Sharon Stone?  (She was good sport enough to write a short foreword.)  Other chapters dedicated to Mickey Rourke and Troy Donahue?  (OK, I am curious about Susan Slade [1961], but mostly because of the cast.)  And, no, this book isn't so bad it's good.