Bad Taste (1989)

Redundant and unnecessary.

Awesome Movie

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This movie compels me to use words I've never used in a review before - like revolting, perverse, appalling, pointless, disgusting and putrid. I may have used the word disgusting before, but you get my drift. I know everyone has to start somewhere, and for director Peter Jackson, this was his somewhere, but gosh, this is so dreadful it just boggles the mind. And to think it made IMDb's Top 250 Best Movies list back in 1996. Check it out, right there between "Duck Soup" and "Patton" at #178. Anyone able to explain that to me? This was one of those movies that if I could have fallen asleep while watching I would have, but it was just too engrossing, with the emphasis on 'gross'. Just a colossal waste of time, money and celluloid, with the only redeeming factor being that Jackson went on to give us what's arguably the best fantasy film series of all time in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The mind boggles.

If you enjoy cheesy humor, bad special effect, blood, gore and bad acting, then this is the movie for you to enjoy. This movie is one of those so bad it is good. But the reason for me to give it 3 is because it is slow paced, and for most part i didn't find it humorous. through out the whole movie i was thinking to watch another movie. I admit i have seen worser movie but this is on a top 10 list of bad movie. My biggest issue with this movie is I felt like they just did something random, the sound effects was awful, and the acting was to much over the top, not anything could be taken seriously in this movie. I know that also was the point, but i guess it is just not my kind of fun. Maybe i am the one with "bad taste".

I am simply astounded by the 9 and 10 star reviews for this movie. Surely, we all have our own opinions and tastes, but are we really putting this movie on a par with Halloween, Elm Street, Frankenstein? What scale are these people really using to judge movies?I first came to Peter Jackson's work through The Frighteners, which I actually saw in a theater. I am a big fan of that movie as well as Jackson's work in Dead Alive, both of which I'd consider to be among the Top 100 horror movies of all time. So, this opinion is not coming from someone who is simply not a fan of Jackson's earlier work, or from someone expecting LOTR.I, also, watch hundreds of low budget horror films, so do not disregard this opinion as that of someone who has been "tainted" by big budget Hollywood horror because, in general, I do not prefer the big budget films, but tend to lean more towards indie and underground horror.All that said because I know the lovers of this film are just going to discount my opinion, but so be it. I used to make movies with friends when I was a teenager and we'd show them to our friends for fun. This movie is not much better than any of those were and they were NOT GOOD. The only positive going for this movie is a good level of copious gore and fun splatter. There are certainly plenty of moments of candy- colored blood and guts galore, which does have a certain charm. They aren't enough to save this movie, though, which I barely made it through.I've been trying to come up with some verbose way to explain this movie, but in reality it boils down to STUPID. This movie is stupid. Plenty of reviews will talk to you of the humor, but it's just not there. It's not broad humor. It's not sophomoric humor. It's just dumb humor. The kind of gags that the people making this movie probably thought were hilarious, yet failed to bring even a slight chuckle out of me. If you feel that driving a car with Beatles cut-outs in the window is laugh out loud, then you may find humor. The rest of you will just roll your eyes.There is no plot, no acting, nothing that actually makes this movie worth its' reputation. Can I credit for imagination? Sure, but there are plenty of people on Kickstarter right now with plenty of imagination and that won't make their movies any more watchable than this one is.If you like Troma films, then this movie is probably right up your alley. For those of us looking for something a little more cinematic in our horror, don't be tempted by the underground rep of this movie. You will be sorely disappointed.

I sometimes jokingly remark how Peter Jackson's career was perfect until he directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's hard to imagine that this director, who now specializes in big budget Hollywood movies, started off by creating twisted and gory low budget movies – his directorial debut, Bad Taste, being the prime example of this early, strange phase. Bad Taste was by no means an easy experience for Jackson, since the filming took 4 years. However, the hard work paid off and Bad Taste can be used as a valuable lesson in "do-it-yourself: low budget film making". It's amazing how, in spite of rather limited resources, Jackson managed to make it all work and look good – he created the masks and firearm replicas for the movie himself. He even constructed his own counterweighted steady-cam. Bad Taste is a definite must see for every aspiring movie maker, if only for Peter Jackson's creativity.The movie follows 4 agents (called 'The Boys') of some sort of secret service, who investigate alien activity in a small town. Apparently, the aliens have killed the whole population and replaced it. Things become more complicated when the aliens kidnap a charity collector passing through, and it's up to The Boys to save him, by using any means necessary. As you can see, Bad Taste's plot is fairly simple, there isn't much "story" to it – the movie is mainly action and dialogue driven. Due to this fact, the movie gets boring from time to time and I find it to be the worst from Peter Jackson's early phase. I also find it to be the least funny one. While there are quite a few amusing scenes, it doesn't even come close to other early classics like Braindead and Meet the Feebles. But at least there is enough violence and gore in it to make it interesting. The movie does get pretty graphic. Did you first notice the guy missing the top of his head or the Peter Jackson cameo?The effects in the movie (influenced by the cult special effects artist Tom Savini) are surely its best quality. You'll see heads exploding, limbs being torn off and even some chainsaw action. The scene which impressed me the most was the one where a character, played by Peter Jackson, fights with another character – also played by Peter Jackson. Actually, if you're not informed prior to the watching of movie, you may not notice he plays two different characters since they don't really look alike. Who knows – maybe Jackson has an acting talent waiting to be further developed? Speaking of acting, the actors did an OK job for this kind of movie, no one is laughably bad. On a side note, I think it's important to remark that all of the dialogue was dubbed in post production; that, however, isn't much of a bother since it isn't very apparent.While I wasn't really keen on Bad Taste (like I said – I found it to be somewhat boring and I prefer other early Jackson works) I would definitely recommend it to everyone. It's a gory, funny trash/cult flick about some guys fighting off a bunch of butt shaped aliens, set to an 80s heavy metal soundtrack. Why wouldn't you watch it?Rating: 6/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.wordpress.com/