The Obscure and Usually Terrible Parody Film Appreciation Thread

I do remember Saturday the 14th. I thought it was great as a kid. I have no desire to see now.

Oh man, I can't believe that someone else has seen that. I have it on DVD as I remember years ago coming across some review online which says it's far better than you'd expect. I got it (it's a Troma DVD, which usually is a warning sign to stay away, but hey, it's from Charles Kaufman, so it explains that) and really, I didn't think it was nearly as bad as you thought it was. I mean, it's far better than the beginning of the DVD, which is a Troma promo and it's the very worst that you associate with that company. The movie itself is crude but I was amused by it. Also, it's far better than the films from the Friedberg/Seltzer douchebags.

Plus, the cameo appearances in the movie are really just strange. From Morey Amsterdam to pro wrestling manager Freddie Blassie, to Gates McFadden, G. Gordon Liddy, baseball legend Willie Mays, and William Smith. What a bizarre grouping of people, especially for a really low-budget movie.

By the way, as you mentioned a National Lampoon movie, NEVER see National Lampoon's Movie Madness, i.e. National Lampoon Goes To The Movies. That is awful beyond belief and may be the least funny comedy I've ever seen, let alone worst and least funny parody film I've ever seen. It's three mini-movies, each one worst than the last, and do not be fooled when you see that the cast includes Diane Lane, Robert Culp, Fred Willard, Joe Spinell, Olympia Dukakis, Robbie Benson, Richard Widmark (this has to be his worst movie ever... even worse than The Swarm, which is a horrifying statement to make), and Christopher Lloyd. Really, Lloyd is the only person to deliver a semi-interesting performance, as a serial killer.

For some reason it was randomly on a local TV station back in like 2004 and I watched it, and was appalled at how terrible it was. Yet, I bought the DVD when it came out shortly thereafter. I mean, there was a lot of nudity in the movie that they couldn't show on TV... but I exchanged that DVD long ago. Trust me Ratty, if you thought that the movies you watched weren't that good, you'd better stay far the fuck away from this one.

The godawful Spaceship, aka The Creature Wasn't Nice, belongs on this thread.

Does The First Nudie Musical count? Because it's actually pretty good.

Pandemonium is the one with Tom Smothers as a Mountie, right? And the killer who turns people into furniture? If so, I remember it being pretty weird, but haven't seen it since I was a kid, so I don't recall too many details beyond that. I'm just glad to know that I'm not the only one who remembers that movie.

2001: A Space Travesty certainly lives up to its title, and is kind of the king of this thread. I caught it on Comedy Central one afternoon a couple years back, and it is truly awful. Seriously, just completely incompetent in every respect, and not in the least bit funny. It was just sad, and I kinda felt bad for Leslie Nielsen while watching it, but then it ended, and I felt good again.

Repossessed probably belongs here. I haven't seen it since I was a kid, but I'm almost 100% sure the test of time has not been kind.

And yet, probably still more coherent than Exorcist II.

It sure hasn't stood the test of time. I saw a chunk of it recently, and it made me feel embarrassed, for the cast and for myself. Ned Beatty is all right in it.

No, there's a long history of that, going back to Bob Hope and Danny Kaye movies at least. Slightly more recently, there was John Hurt riffing Alien in Spaceballs.

Well, Hurt's was a cameo, not a lead role. I'm no parody film expert, though, so there may be plenty of examples. Does Brando in THE FRESHMAN count?

Repossessed is pretty awful. I do remember there being a tits shot and the climax where Mean Gene Okerlund and Jesse Ventura show up providing commentary for the exorcism. Just silliness.

What's the word on Hollywood High?

Sure. Now, was Charlie Sheen's participation in Scary Movie 3 a nod to The Arrival?

Lugosi and Chaney in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein?

Damn, there it is.

It's pretty anemic. I watched it for the first time the last time we ran by Saturday the 14th on the calendar. It's the type of film where you find yourself almost smiling out of pity, because the effort is there, but the material is just so predictable.

I then followed it up with its sequel, Saturday the 14th Strikes Back, which I kept nodding off to, and couldn't finish.

I vote The Villain, aka Cactus Jack, as the most obscure and terrible.

Maybe not too obscure, but arguably, one of the best of the terrible...

A*P*E. Oh god A*P*E.

I'm not sure that one was supposed to be a parody.

It didn't start out that way, but it sure looks like they just said, "Aw fuck it" half-way through and made it one.

This post must never ever get taken out of context.

I caught Not Another Teen Movie on HBO the other night. Love that movie. What's funny though is that Chris Evans is more likable and charismatic than Freddie Prinze Jr. in a parody of him.

Another- Richard Crenna in Hot Shots Part Deux, giving exactly the same epically Shatnerian performance as in the Rambo movies. Does he realize he's in a comedy? Does it even matter?

National Lampoon's Class Reunion is a really bad movie, by the way. I wouldn't call it lazy like some of the spoofs around today, it's just the ZAZ kitchen sink approach as done by very unfunny minds. Anne Ramsey as the lunchlady is about the only thing good in it. Makes Pandemonium look good by comparison (though to be honest I haven't seen that one in quite a while, and it's possible my memory is just being soft on it because it's from Alfred Sole, who did the fantastic Alice Sweet Alice)

The Flint movies were campily fun.

How's Fatal Instinct? I have a soft spot for parody films AND Sherilyn Fenn.

Would "Walk Hard" count as parody or satire?

I think the big difference between the lousy spoofs/parodies of the past VS the current crop is in the gags. Repossessed and it's ilk had some silly, bad jokes, sure. But they were straight jokes - they're bad any time you watch them, whether it be 1995 or 2050. They're just bad jokes.
Superhero Movie/Meet The Spartans/Vampires Suck and so on don't have jokes as much as they have topical pop culture references. The Youtube Britney fan crying his eyes out, whoever the latest "reality TV" star airhead is, stuff that dates the film by the time it's gone from production to actually hitting the cinema.

And all of these references have no lasting impression at all in today's society - they're forgotten about for the next fad/meme/whatever just as quickly as they became famous. Someone could watch Repossessed thirty years from now and just say "Wow, that's an awful joke - someone actually WROTE that?!". But someone watching Meet The Spartans thirty years from now just flat out won't understand ANY of what they're seeing.

I know after a lifetime of watching Airplane!, when I finally watched Zero Hour!, it played like it was a parody of the Zucker film. I loved that.

Playing Devil's Advocate here, I do love it when I'm watching some old comedy thing - National Lampoon, Muppets, All In The Family - and they throw in an outdated popcult reference that I then get to hunt down.

Granted, the exampes I cited have other, more timeless comedic skills to get people's attention with. Superhero Movie is unlikely to inspire legions of future googlers (something like 30 Rock, which is also very heavy on the references but also good at, you know, actual humor, might, though.)

Likewise, Top Secret! is indebted to The Conspirators, a very obscure propaganda flick from 1944. The scenes with the blind novelty vendor are particularly accurate recreations.

I saw it awhile too. The way the plane lands is the same too.

While Airplane 2 justs repeats the plot of the first one, William Shanter is excellant in it.