…at least according to the folks at totalfilm.com:

http://www.totalfilm.com/features/30-movies-that-aren-t-as-bad-as-you-remember

Of the films listed, I’ve seen a whopping 19 of them and bits and pieces of another five or so (but not the whole film).

Given this is an opinion piece, and opinions are just that, I would agree with them on some of the films I’ve seen -ie the listed films weren’t that awful- while disagreeing with them on others.

For example, Spawn, Hudson Hawk, Spider Man 3, Tron Legacy, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, The Last Action Hero, Superman Returns, and Superman III I still consider pretty bad films.  It’s interesting to note that going into each and every one of those films I felt a sense of optimism, that the film would be enjoyable, but was ultimately disappointed in big ways and small.

Tron Legacy, for example, looked absolutely spectacular in the theatrical trailers.  But when I finally saw the film I realized that apart from those spectacular visuals the viewer was saddled with a story that, frankly, meandered and never caught fire.  Hudson Hawk, which I admittedly haven’t seen since it was first released (who knows, my opinion of it might change) I found to be an incomprehensible mess…a film that tried to be cheeky in its humor and simply bored the hell out of me, despite the megawatt charisma of Bruce WIllis.  Similarly, I eagerly anticipated seeing Superman Returns, but my first attempt to see the film was aborted after only watching about twenty minutes.  I was so bored I just had to shut the film off.  Brandon Routh was good in the title role, a tough act to follow from Christopher Reeve, but later, on my second (and final) attempt to see the whole film my worst fears were confirmed:  Superman Returns was a much, much duller remake of the original -and vastly superior- Superman.  Worse, they added elements into the film that never amounted to much (Lois Lane having a boyfriend, Superman leaving Earth for a number of years, Superman’s son).

As for Superman III, that’s one of those terrible films that nonetheless has at least one thing worth watching, and that’s the “evil” Superman versus the “good” Superman/Clark Kent.  If only the rest of the film was even a fraction as good as the parts leading up to this:

Which brings us to the films I agree with them about.  I won’t list them all, but deserving mention as films that I felt weren’t quite as horrid as others made them out to be are Cutthroat Island, John Carter, Miami Vice, Terminator: Salvation, Waterworld (yes, Waterworld), and Exorcist III.  I don’t think any of these films will ever be viewed as “lost classics”, but none of them, again in my opinion, were as terrible as the general public seemed to view them.

It’s an interesting list nonetheless, and provide me with some food for thought…