HOW DOES A HORRIBLE MOVIE GET CREATED

I am not talking about the most obvious reasons/excuses like a bad script, over-the-top actor, overbearing studio or incompetent director, those are all a given as to why a film goes from bad to fucking, pathetically awful. I am asking what factors have to be in play to actually cloud the vision (and senses) of everyone from the director and producers all the way to the crew as to the true shit they are churning out? How is it that no one involved in the movie just stops and points out "hey, this is fucking terrible"? Does no one have the balls to point out the overly obvious flaws to the head honchos? Even the Grip or the Caterer must see that the movie sucks (even if that fact is glossed over by those who have stock in the film) yet no one seems to voice a dissenting opinion.

    Now, I have to, unfortunately, leave Battlefield Earth out of this due to the blind adoration to the author that EVERYONE (minus a few of the actors) has for the hack L. Ron Hubbard. To them it was like transcribing the word of god onto the screen, and please remember that altering the word of god is a crime in Scientology, so this film was made by people that not only intentionally overlooked the
glairing problems in the story but were happy to do so. On a picture like Superman IV or Exorcist II that is not the case. What are the kinds of films I believe are part of this faction of horrid movies that
SOMEONE should have stopped?
Highlander II: The Quickening
Superman IV: The Quest For Peace
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Exorcist II: The Heretic
Alien 3
Hellraiser III
Planet Of The Apes (2001)
Godzilla (1998)
The Blair Witch Project
Jaws IV: The Revenge
Conan: The Destroyer
Maximum Overdrive
Independence Day
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation
Batman And Robin
Universal Soldier II
Wild Wild West
Beverly Hillbillies
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace etc... (did I leave any out that
you feel should be here)?

    Now, not all of these have an obvious reason for being as bad as they are, in fact in some of the cases they had extremely talented directors (Fincher, Borman, Mulcahy) and actors working on them (all for naught apparently) If taken on a purely visual appeal they are not bad at all. But alas, good visuals do NOT a good movie make...

    Notice that a good portion of the films I listed above are sequels and usually are trying to make something more where there is nothing more to be made (at least with the people that were trying*). Sequels are, far more often than not, simply a way to wring more money out of a film that they studios feel didn't do well enough in the first instance (but since usually only successful films get a sequel at all isn't is odd that the above "logic" is used?).

    How can a bad script get past studio brass, the producers, the director and the main actors without at least one of them seeing just how bad it really is? Some writer has to "write" that script and then some producer had to read it and think "This is pretty good. This would make a good movie." Then a director had to think the same thing. Then a studio exec and so on. Are these people really so dumb that they honestly can't see how bad this movie will be? And the actors. Why can't they read the script and say "No way. This is really below me."? Are these people just blind and so in need of work that they will
sell (or rent in some cases) they "talent" for a measly few bucks, or are there other factors at work that we in the public are not privy to?

    Is it a collective ignorance of the true "quality" of the film being made or is it the ideal that since the public is made up of people that will actually pay to see Charlie's Angels or Scooby Doo that they are
low enough on active brain cells that they will (insert horrid movie here)?

    I am not asking these questions in a way that I expect a real answer, I am asking, more or less, in a rhetorical manner that will have you asking the same questions. I do, however, look forward to your responses to this quandary.

*Exorcist II, for example, expanded NOTHING while Blatty would later come and do a gorgeous job of expanding and even surpassing the original when he made Exorcist III

Josh Hadley. 

(Josh Hadley is a regular contributor to scifi2k.com)

Comments: 1  David Blackwell (no releation)