Oscar, Schmoscar. What makes a BAD movie?

There are as many ways to make a bad movie as there are to make a good movie. What are the categories, elements, taxonomy, and causes of bad movies? Author David Schmader (who uses Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Showgirls’ as the ur-text bad movie), author and radio host John Moe, movie critic and author David Thomson (any movie with Alan Alda), movie critics Jeff Shannon and Christy Lemire radio and podcast host Jeannie Yandel, and callers dissect the elements and taxonomy of bad movies. Nominees included ‘Amos and Andrew’, ‘Xanadu’, ‘The Apple, ‘Starship Troopers’, ‘Columbus’, ‘Taipan’, ‘Brazil’ (!), Napoleon Dynamite (!!), ‘Eyes Wide Shut (!!!). One caller reveal the movie that was so bad/funny, he wet himself.

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Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep

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Atul Gawande: Being Mortal. What matters in the end