From alarming news stories and the likes of Supersize vs Superskinny, it’s safe to say that society is informed on how fast food can lead to malnutrition. Yet the Big Mac will always be one of God’s most wonderful creations, what with its criminally delicious effects on our taste buds. Is it the same for bad films? Are they as bad for us as the critics deem them to be, or do they make a good substitute for a Big Mac?
For starters, what do we even consider to be a ‘bad film’? According to Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator, bad films are otherwise known as ‘rotten’ if less than 60% of the films’ reviews are rated ‘positive’. It’s shallow, but it essentially gives budding cinema-goers the ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ on a new movie release. A rotten habit of mine (oh stop, how could I resist?) is searching for the latest, hoping they’ll be the greatest, and pre-imposing my opinions based on that miniature tomato or bogey green splat. Should I not watch something because of a blemish composed of the beliefs of a critic?
In all honesty, we spent the majority of December watching film after film stamped with this curse. Christmas films are as sinfully awful as that tacky sing-along Santa that your Mum is obsessed with. Jingle All the Way is a personal favourite, where every year I chuckle at Arnold Schwarzenegger running across the city to get his kid a Turbo Man doll. I think to myself, “This is absolute trash” when he shouts “Get to de choppa!” Yet I continue to watch it, just like I do any Christmas film plucked from the depths of a bargain bin.
This seems to be apparent at pretty much any time of the year. The truth is, we love our trash. Twi-hards together spent hundreds of millions on seeing an awkward Kristen Stewart pout at pretty boys, whilst comedy junkies flock to the new Adam Sandler flick to see his latest attempt at ‘acting’. We dedicate the ‘Razzies’ to mocking their efforts and attempts; yet we still willingly empty our wallets to see some sub-standard cinema shite.
The question is – why? As much as critics slate these ‘bad films’, I feel they exist in their own right as an art form. Sometimes, we find that we don’t want to watch a film and be philosophically engaged, politically persuaded, or culturally inspired. Sometimes, I just want to relax at the end of a long week and get a kick out of having my senses insulted with pure rubbish. Would you prefer admiring the Mona Lisa to watching a flipbook of a cartoon cop repeatedly running over a burglar (always a highlight of Hot Fuzz)?
Of course I’m not undermining the talent and genius of these creative minds. If anything, these two art forms give light to one another. We wouldn’t know what an Oscar-worthy film was without having Syfy readily on demand to scoff at Titanic 2. Society needs that counterbalance to really appreciate what taste is and I’m glad people exist who give our cultural lives a bit of perspective. As the saying goes, ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’.