What media do you love that is either poorly reviewed, receives mixed reviews, or is just from a stereotypically bad genre?
Personally, I enjoyed my high school textbooks. I actually read them for fun when I was a teenager.
I also happen to enjoy the oft-called mediocre Brother's In Arms series.
Back in the 1980s, I was a huge fan of the original "Dr. Who" TV series. While watching them, I had to endure people ridiculing the cheap production values and poor acting.
Those people just didn't get it. The aspects of a story that really matter are the premises, the plot, and to a lesser extent, the characters. As long as the audience can tell what's going on, what does it matter whether it looks real or not?
Today, I often tell my children stories. Among the stories I tell them are classic "Dr. Who" episodes. I'm in the middle of telling them to my son right now. And the poor special effects and acting DON'T HINDER MY ABILITY TO TELL THE STORIES IN THE LEAST.
Personally, I enjoyed my high school textbooks. I actually read them for fun when I was a teenager.
While I wouldn't go that far, I remember times in my eighth-grade English class when, feeling bored and not wanting to pay attention, I instead perused my literature book. It had some really interesting stuff, including the screenplay for "Twelve Angry Men". I read that one several times.
This very morning, I packed my wife's old High School literature book into my briefcase. During lunch, I'll flip through it, just to see if I find anything interesting.
Oh, and "X-3: The Last Stand". I've debated with haters of that movie in this thread. I also made a point in the movie's defense in this thread.
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Ah yes, guilty pleasures, I have sooooo many.
I'll do one of each.
Books: Tough one this, most of the books I read would be considered well reviewed and generally liked. Maybe I should go for comics? In which case I will choose Garth Ennis' run on Punisher (the original one before the Max series.) A load of people hated this series but I thought it was very, very funny. As for his Punisher Max run I can honestly say this is one of the finest comic series I have read and I will defend that one to the hilt.
Movies I like Hudson Hawk. There, I've said it. It's so relentlessly bad that it aquires a charm all it's own (a bit like the Room and Birdemic.) It's bad no doubt and I see why people loathe it but honestly I revel in the sheer exuberent awfulness of it.
TV Show Tricky. Bad TV is less forgivable than a bad movie because the novelty of a bad movie can't be sustained over a series. I will go for a show that's intentionally bad, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Only six episodes were ever made but they are all hilarious.
Game Alpha Protocol. This game is bad, terrible loading times, half finished plotlines and godawful unbalanced combat. But on the other hand there's a boss fight set to Autograph's "Turn Up the Radio" between you and drugged up Russian Mafia boss who's obssessed with the 80's. How can that not be awesome?
And another movie: the "Popeye" movie with Robin Williams. I thought it was clever, the way the film took cliches from the cartoon and turned them into songs, skits, and jokes.
Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
I *always* watch Paul Verhoeven's film Showgirls when it is on TV. It's a really bad film, I don't really like it but for some obscure reason I feel a compulsive need to watch it everytime it's on air. Until today I already watched it 19 times and I'm still not bored by it.
I shamelessly love the Transformers movies. And I side with FallofCamelot on Darkplace's awesomeness.
I've received death threats for this, but I actually really liked Star Wars: Episode II (the Christopher Lee one). As a kid, watching IV - VI be released in the theatres, I always wanted to know how the Emperor took over the galaxy. Episode II gives all the clues you need, without beating you in the face with them. For that reason, Episodes I and III fill me with vast, impotent rage -- because not only were they annoying, they were also totally unnecessary. One prequel would have done it.
+1 to Star Wars: Episode II. I've said it on several threads before: That scene with thousands of flying cars in the "streets" of Coruscant is just the sort of thing the science fiction is FOR, and yet, is all too rare. Many stories MENTION streets packed with flying cars, yet we usually see only a few flying cars, and only in wilderness or "boderland" type areas. Oddly, this is true even in prose, a medium in which special effects are no obstacle. Go figger. I just wish Lucas could have given us a few MORE scenes like that.
Episode 3 did ONE good thing: it made clear that Sidius was the one responsible for Anakin's visions. And that implies that Vader was responsible for Luke's visions in Empire Strikes Back.
I can't explain it, but...Yu-Gi-Oh. Though I do tend to tune out the friendship speeches.
Also, Tench Muyo GPX. Though this one is easier to explain, it's just such goofy fun.
Episode 2 wasn't god awful, just awful.
The movie Brujo is a guilty pleasure. It's a badly scripted and has poor acting....but I love the plot. Also any movie where the plot is body or soul swapping I will watch at least once (of these The Skeleton Key and The Mephisto Waltz are two faves).
I seem to be a deer stuck in the headlights of oncoming traffic when it comes to old movies with poor plots that haven't aged well, whereas more recent movies (2000s +) with poor plots don't stand a snowballs chance in hell of lasting more than 1 minutes with me.
Not a game itself, but the Gnomeregan dungeon in WoW. I love it. I love the music. I love the end boss yelling "MORE EXPLOSIONS!" ... the look of that big center room with all the airplanes... it is awesome.
Oh, and mind-controlling all the mechs with the Gnomish Universal Remote.
