The Golden Turkey Award Winners on Blu-Ray

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Golden Turkey Awards is still a thing? I haven't seen that book since High School. As in 30 years ago.

Same here. Hard to believe anyone still references it or cares anything about it. Even when it was originally published its target audience were casual moviegoers lying in wait to ridicule most anything they had never heard of before.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

Same here. Hard to believe anyone still references it or cares anything about it. Even when it was originally published its target audience were casual moviegoers lying in wait to ridicule most anything they had never heard of before.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Red Letter Media have filled the void. In defense of both, there's a lot of love spread around in the mockery.

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

Same here. Hard to believe anyone still references it or cares anything about it.

Sorry but I still care too!

The books are far more informative and entertaining than reading banal posts on boards like these, not to mention IMDB. They're not just lists -- they're essays that are often quite funny with a lot of production detail and also comments from other critics of the day. Most of the time they aren't just razzing Z-grade stuff but major star/studio films (many long forgotten) that are quite fun to go back and look at. Hard for anyone to believe but THE OMEN actually got slammed by critics when it first opened, and that too is interesting to see (by today's standards the movie is hailed as a Welles-like masterpiece).

One of their follow up books, HOLLYWOOD HALL OF SHAME, has several fascinating, long-form (and well-researched) pieces on disasters like INCHON. That's the kind of thing you'll never find on the net, and IMO it's well worth reading for any hardcore movie buff.

Either way, I won't piss all over the OP -- I own all the books and enjoy going back to them, and appreciate the list!

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

Such a blanket dismissal -- but have you actually READ one of their books? They are far more informative and entertaining than reading banal posts on boards like these

Then what are you doing here?

Yes, I've read the books and am still comfortable with my blanket dismissal. It's ok if we disagree so try not to worry too much about my banal post.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

Sorry but I still care too!

The books are far more informative and entertaining than reading banal posts on boards like these, not to mention IMDB. They're not just lists -- they're essays that are often quite funny with a lot of production detail and also comments from other critics of the day. Most of the time they aren't just razzing Z-grade stuff but major star/studio films (many long forgotten) that are quite fun to go back and look at. Hard for anyone to believe but THE OMEN actually got slammed by critics when it first opened, and that too is interesting to see (by today's standards the movie is hailed as a Welles-like masterpiece).

One of their follow up books, HOLLYWOOD HALL OF SHAME, has several fascinating, long-form (and well-researched) pieces on disasters like INCHON. That's the kind of thing you'll never find on the net, and IMO it's well worth reading for any hardcore movie buff.

Either way, I won't piss all over the OP -- I own all the books and enjoy going back to them, and appreciate the list!

I actually never read the Golden Turkey Awards but I did read the 50 Worst Films of All Time many years ago when I was first getting into film and that book, along with Danny Peary's Cult Movies books, got me interested in seeing many films that I had never heard of before.

A lot of the titles included in the 50 Worst Films book are head scratchers (like I mentioned earlier, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia) and I suspect that the Medved brothers' politics play a part in some of their choices, but to me it got me interested in seeking out many of these films out and seeing what was so bad (or not) about them. When Twilight Time released Lost Horizon on blu-ray I was excited because I finally had the opportunity to check out that film which I had been wanting to see ever since it was included in the 50 Worst Films book.

Inspired by this thread, I was thinking of seeking out those Cult Movies books by Danny Peary that I was talking about and maybe starting a thread on the films from those books that are on blu-ray, so thanks to the OP for starting this thread and opening up the flood of memories!

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

so thanks to the OP for starting this thread and opening up the flood of memories!

Let me clear up this much about my statements above: I have absolutely nothing against the OP for creating this thread and it is certainly not my intention to "piss" on him, as was so crudely charged in response.

I was around when these books were published and saw the authors being interviewed plenty of times promoting them. They not only visibly relished being in the spotlight, they took inordinate pleasure in ridiculing movie after movie, some of which I knew were, in fact, far being "turkeys" and were actually brilliant. Anyone who has read my posts here will know I have never been one to take kindly or patronize folks who exhibit pure glee in tearing down individual films or the medium itself. It did not sit well with me then and it doesn't sit well with me now. Of course, not every film is worthy of defense, but I judge that for myself rather than put my trust and personal taste in people who are all too ready to mock something just for the sake of mocking.

At the time these books became popular anyone who knew I was teaching film study classes and writing about film history showed no hesitation in bringing up the books and showing their contempt for anyone who was trying to believe that film was an art form. I didn't live in a vacuum of cinephiles then and I don't now and sometimes it's hard to try to convince people that movies are more than something you go to on a Saturday night.

Personally, as bad as the internet can be sometimes, and I realize that it can be as bad as anything gets, it still offers a diversity of opinion in the public eye that was largely missing decades ago. That will always be a good thing. I'll take the members of this message board over the Medved's any day of the week.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

Let me clear up this much about my statements above: I have absolutely nothing against the OP for creating this thread and it is certainly not my intention to "piss" on him, as was so crudely charged in response.

I was around when these books were published and saw the authors being interviewed plenty of times promoting them. They not only visibly relished being in the spotlight, they took inordinate pleasure in ridiculing movie after movie, some of which I knew were, in fact, far being "turkeys" and were actually brilliant. Anyone who has read my posts here will know I have never been one to take kindly or patronize folks who exhibit pure glee in tearing down individual films or the medium itself. It did not sit well with me then and it doesn't sit well with me now. Of course, not every film is worthy of defense, but I judge that for myself rather than put my trust and personal taste in people who are all too ready to mock something just for the sake of mocking.

At the time these books became popular anyone who knew I was teaching film study classes and writing about film history showed no hesitation in bringing up the books and showing their contempt for anyone who was trying to believe that film was an art form. I didn't live in a vacuum of cinephiles then and I don't now and sometimes it's hard to try to convince people that movies are more than something you go to on a Saturday night.

Personally, as bad as the internet can be sometimes, and I realize that it can be as bad as anything gets, it still offers a diversity of opinion in the public eye that was largely missing decades ago. That will always be a good thing. I'll take the members of this message board over the Medved's any day of the week.

I definitely see where you're coming from.

I did not see any of those interviews you are talking about, but I know that Michael Medved can be a bit of a prick. I am also not a fan of that arrogant style of film criticism that seems to have contempt for the medium as a whole. However, I have no problem calling a spade a spade and putting the boots to a movie that I personally think is bad, even if others really like it.

I also take books like this at face value. After reading The 50 Worst Films of All Time I sought out many of those movies and found myself enjoying a great deal of them, some because they were so bad they're good, and others because I found them to actually be genuinely good movies. So clearly I did not always agree with their choices, but what they wrote about and how they wrote it actually made me interested in seeing those films. I actually found reading that book to be fun, more so than most "greatest films of all time" type books, and I found that seeking out and watching many of those movies was also fun.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

One of their follow up books, HOLLYWOOD HALL OF SHAME, has several fascinating, long-form (and well-researched) pieces on disasters like INCHON. That's the kind of thing you'll never find on the net, and IMO it's well worth reading for any hardcore movie buff.

I'd second that recommendation - it drops (for the most part) the relentless Weisenheimer tone of the earlier books for decent research and it actually defends the reputation of some flops. It does get a bit carried away with misfires like Che and understandably revels in the often comical chaos of Inchon, but it's their one book that holds up well today.

[RCRochester]

Re: The Ambushers - it's listed on this site under this DVD collection:

[Spootnek]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Re: The Ambushers - it's listed on this site under this DVD collection:

[Show spoiler]

Thanks! I added it!

[Spootnek]

Originally Posted by Aclea

I'd second that recommendation - it drops (for the most part) the relentless Weisenheimer tone of the earlier books for decent research and it actually defends the reputation of some flops. It does get a bit carried away with misfires like Che and understandably revels in the often comical chaos of Inchon, but it's their one book that holds up well today.

I've read the earlier books fairly recently and their is no ''relentless Weisenheimer tone'' in any of them and they all hold up pretty well. The only thing that dates them is that they were written before a lot of the more notorious recent crapfests (Battlefield Earth, Troll 2, Howard The Duck, Catwoman, The Phantom Menace, Jack And Jill) and Hollywood Hall Of Shame has that same problem.

We should just be glad that they do a better job than some more recent books about bad movies. The guy who wrote 100 Movies You Should Die Before You See pretty much just does variations on ''This movie was so bad I wanted to gouge my eyes out.'' Plus he has movies like Reanimater on his list.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Spootnek

I've read the earlier books fairly recently and their is no ''relentless Weisenheimer tone'' in any of them

I completely disagree: they're perfect examples of using movies purely as raw material for jokes and cheap shots rather than any attempt at serious writing (indeed, one of the Medveds admitted in interviews that he didn't think The Omen was one of the worst films, merely an easy target, especially since their publisher wanted more films ordinary people had heard of). Sometimes the jokes are funny but often they're forced - so much so that they even invented a fictional golden turkey (Dog of Norway) to use up material that they couldn't fit on a real film. Ironically while the entries feel like transcripts of standup routines, when they actually toured with films like Plan 9 talking over them from a podium next to the screen in a proto-rifftrax approach, it fell completely flat.