The Absolute Worst Science Fiction Movies Ever Made

[Creator]

Nightfall!

THE most horrible Sci Fi Film - bar NONE!!!

for your amusement read:

goatdog.com/moviePage.php?movieID=197

[danlo]

Agreed--Sci-Fi really isn't William Hurt's forte, is it?

[Edge]

Agreed--Sci-Fi really isn't William Hurt's forte, is it?

Actually, I thought he was brilliant in 'Altered States' - one of my all-time favourites.

[danlo]

That's true (forgot about that one)...but after that: Dune miniseries, Lost in Space, Nightfall...

[Edge]

Yeah, good point! (actually, 3 good points. )

[Loredoctor]

Agreed--Sci-Fi really isn't William Hurt's forte, is it?

Actually, I thought he was brilliant in 'Altered States' - one of my all-time favourites.

Altered States. Yes, a classic.

[safetyjedi]

What about Wing Commander? Complete trash.

[matrixman]

I never saw Wing Commander, but it must have been the Battlefield Earth of its time, judging by how soundly it was panned by, oh, just about every film critic in the universe.

As for Lost In Space, I didn't think the movie was terrible so much as just terribly dull. William Hurt was neither a help nor a hindrance to that movie.

Altered States: one of the scariest movies ever made, in my mind. It freaked me out, in kind of the same way that The Exorcist did.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention another superb sci-fi film Hurt was in: Dark City.

Heh, this has turned into the William Hurt thread.

Back to Worst Sci-Fi Movies:

Anyone else remember Megaforce from 1981? This "futuristic action thriller" was about a phantom hi-tech army secretly funded by the "free nations of the world" that combats the "forces of tyranny" around the world. Talk about politically naive! Still, the premise could have made for a terrific action movie, but it was undone by lousy, lousy execution. Megaforce was the brainchild of director Hal Needham, the man behind The Smokey & The Bandit and the Cannonball Run films. Needham was a former stuntman, and that background was very much reflected in the devil-may-care action that was at the heart of his films. But while his happy-go-lucky mentality perfectly suited the Bandit films, it undermined his attempt to make a more "serious" kind of action film in Megaforce. It was more like Megafarce, really: lame and crude jokes abound that should have been left behind with the Cannonball Run films. You couldn't take this army seriously either: Needham had a bunch of not-very-talented B-grade actors slinking around in tight spandex suits pretending they were a skilled military force to be reckoned with. You wouldn't want to have these slackers defending your freedom! (They might be good at a fashion show, though.) At least they were led by a somewhat credible Barry Bostwick (Megaforce commander "Ace Hunter").

Other notable participants in this sorry picture were Edward Mulhare (yes, Devon Miles from Knight Rider) and Persis Khambatta, who was fresh off her wonderful debut as Lt. Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. But her career in Hollywood went up in smoke after the fiasco of Megaforce.

Megaforce cost $20 million to make (in 1981 dollars). To compare, The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 cost around $15 million (I think). Yet, the visual effects and production values in Megaforce sucked badly, even for its time. The ironic thing is that Megaforce was supposedly a deliberate attempt to start a new film franchise. The film turned out to be a spectacular example of how to kill a franchise before it can even begin.

If you're still reading this post, you might be wondering how I know so much about this film and why I'm foisting such useless knowledge upon you all. Well, I actually liked Megaforce at the time (the mind of a 10-year old is easily impressed) and I even "enlisted" in the, er, noble cause-- that's right, I'm a card-carrying member of Megaforce. It may have disbanded by now, but I've never been officially retired from service, so I guess I'll, uh, continue the fight against tyranny everywhere. Sadly, my membership did not entitle me to one of those spiffy Megaforce spandex suits. How am I supposed to fight the bad guys when I can't even look good doing it?

[Dragonlily]

Persis Khambatta, who was fresh off her wonderful debut as Lt. Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. But her career in Hollywood went up in smoke after the fiasco of Megaforce.

I read a book about the making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. According to the writer, Persis was a model who looked perfect for the part, but after they hired her they made the appalling discovery that she couldn't act. Apparently they had to go to all kinds of straits to make it look as if she could.

Unfortunately, I read this many years ago and can't find the book, so if I am remembering this wrong (even though it somehow stuck in my mind all these years) I hope someone will correct me quickly.

[Edit = Was it Walter Koenig's memoir, maybe?]

[aTOMiC]

Good Lord, Matrix! MEGAFORCE? Thanks for bringing that horrible memory back from the dead. I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight. I saw and own Wing Commander on vhs. Though its not my favorite film by any measure its not bad. The biggest critics of the film seem to be the gamers that expected it to be more closely linked to the games. Whatever. Here is a treat. I wen't to the theater to watch Buck Rogers and at the time I enjoyed it. I'm so ashamed. So very ashamed. I own Lost In Space on dvd and have tried to give it every chance but I'm a long time fan of the original series and though it was frequently stupid beyond belief I have to say I enjoyed it most of the time. The film has some very cool music. Some of the special effects are cool. Some are annoyingly bad. I really don't know what to make of it after all this time. No sequel forthcoming I'm sure.

[danlo]

Ok I give--Altered States and Dark City are such cool movies--they simply outshine all his bad efforts by a magnitude of 2000 degress--Hurt can be forgiven. I take back what I said, mostly.

[Dragonlily]

Aah, I'll forgive William Hurt because of The Big Chill. I just hope they paid him enough for some of those bad movies to make up for what they did to his reputation.

[danlo]

But will you forgive Kevin Costner (oh no now the Sci Fi isn't Costner's [Waterworld, which HEY is a great candidate for this thread and The Postman] forte either disc. begins! )? He did some of his best acting in The Big Chill!

[Dragonlily]

I like The Postman as a movie, and technically I think Costner did some excellent casting for it. Saw it in the theater, where the cinematography showed to best advantage.

[danlo]

Trivia: Who did Costner play in The Big Chill? (I, actually, liked The Postman [Tom Petty was awesome as the Tramkeeper] but the book is very different and very, very cool--the mystic in the book rocks! more trivia: what was his name?)

[Dragonlily]

Costner played Alex -- I think that was the name of the guy who committed suicide.

Gordon Krantz
(Thanks to Amazon.com)

[danlo]

right! He played a great corpse!

[matrixman]

I read a book about the making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. According to the writer, Persis was a model who looked perfect for the part, but after they hired her they made the appalling discovery that she couldn't act. Apparently they had to go to all kinds of straits to make it look as if she could.

I guess it just shows once again that looking good is more important than acting ability for breaking into Hollywood. So they didn't bother to audition Persis before hiring her? Well, whatever they did to help her act, it worked, because I think she acquitted herself decently in ST:TMP. But in Megaforce, it was a case of bad acting from everyone, not just Persis.

As for Kevin Costner sci-fi...I didn't see The Postman, but I did see Waterworld. It was a disappointing movie.

[Avatar]

I quite liked WaterWorld, but then, I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic epics. (The Postman though, I didn't like so much.)

Altered State was awesome.

--Avatar

[danlo]

Altered States really is great movie and I have a great story to tell about the premier back in 80 or 81. I really need to revamp my IM cause it's not appropriate for this board! I thought the best part of Waterworld was the Universal "earth's" polar icecaps melting in the very beginning. I actually like Costner--but it's rare to find someone who liked the movie.