The danger in putting out a schedule for Mock the Movie is that, well, we’re not always looking at the calendar when we make our plans. For instance, we completely forgot that this week is Shark Week. We can’t let that go by without an appropriately bad movie. So, here is the revised schedule for the next three mocking sessions.
What do you get when you combine Carmen Electra, the less-popular O’Connell brother, and the daughter of a professional wrestler? Heck if I know, but it’s called 2-Headed Shark Attack. It went straight to video. We’re going to watch it and mock it this Thursday, August 16, at 9 p.m. EDT. I’m sure not all the bikinis are blatantly gratuitous. It might even be more coherent than its trailer.
If you have Netflix, you can stream the movie, or you can rent it through Amazon instant video. Sadly, this one isn’t free for everyone.
After that, we’ll give ourselves a couple of weeks to cleanse our brains, then do it again on August 30 with In the Year 2889. This charming little post-nuclear-apocalyptic tale involves telepathic cannibals. Better yet, the principal characters spend most of the movie fighting amongst themselves, so you may end up rooting for the cannibals–even more than usual. I didn’t find a trailer, but this short clip will at least introduce you to our cannibal friends.
This movie is also available for free on YouTube or on archive.org.
Then, two weeks later, at the same time on September 13, we will subject ourselves to the Lou Ferrigno version of Hercules (currently available on Netflix and Amazon streaming video). This version promises that it’s “updated” for the 1980s. That apparently means bad hair, bad special effects, and…space aliens.
“These all sound awful!” I hear you cry. Yes, yes, they do. “These must be mocked mercilessly”, you say. Well, then you’re in the right company. The instructions for playing along:
- Start following @MockTM on Twitter.
- Start watching the movie on the appropriate Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT.
- Once you’ve got the movie going, tweet your snarky comments to @MockTM. Directing our tweets to @MockTM will keep our followers from being overwhelmed with our snark!
- Set up a search for @MockTM on Twitter for the duration so you can follow along with everyone else sharing your pain.
If you have suggestions for other movies that can and should be mocked, send them to @MockTM. Preference will be given to movies that are free or stream on the major media delivery services. Watch the feed as we approach the final movie announced here, and we’ll set up the calendar for more terrible, mockable movies.
Hey now, 2-Headed Shark Attack was pure gold. One of the best B-movies of the year. Prepare for awesome!
The production company (The Asylum) appears to produce most of SyFy channel’s saturday evening B-movies.
I’m somewhat ambivalent about mocking those. Yes, they are terrible. Bad acting, bad plot, its amazing we don’t see a boom mic in most of the shots. But at the same time, SyFy appears to be going for camp, not accidentally producing it. In my mind, its the movies that strive for A and produce B that are the best to mock – the movies that take themselves seriously and utterly fail. In contrast, the movies that strive for B and achieve it are just serving their audience. Mocking them for being cheesy is kinda like mocking Spongebob for being childish: “well, yeah, that’s the point.”
Having said that, any of SyFy’s various shark-themed movies would be excellent material for shark week. 🙂
Hmmm…. Carmen Electra in a bikini? 2 Headed Shark can’t be all bad! =P
eric: I’m actually pretty certain most of the B-movies of yesteryear didn’t take themselves terribly seriously either, but they’re still mockworthy. Yeah, Syfy is churning out pap on purpose, but that’s okay. Their movies are eminently mockable for other reasons — like horrible characterization and the fact that by the end, you want all the characters to die.
Jason,
The only part of your reply I disagree with is “by the end.”
Heh.
eric, there’s often one actor who manages to shine a little in an awful part or one character who is there to be something other than stupid. Then they kill that one off. So it’s definitely by the end.
The Syfy movies are hit or miss for mocking. It varies a lot from movie to movie how seriously they take themselves and which parts of the production they take seriously. You are right, though, that it’s not a lot of fun to mock something that doesn’t take itself at all seriously.
I still contend you’re going to have a lot more fun with 2 Headed Shark Attack than you realize. Though, granted, when I saw it there were a lot of shots involved.
Unfortunately (for you; fortunately for me) I’ll be at a showing of Rifftrax Live that night! Manos: The Hands of Fate will be skewered by the masters (see what I did there? 😉 ).
2-Headed Shark done. I can hardly wait for 2-Headed Land Shark!
Am I the only person who said “Huh?” when the guy told people to run at the end of the clip? Dude, it’s a freaking shark, if you’re someplace that allows you to run, you’re basically safe.