Bad Cult Movies

by Will on October 29, 2009

I had the great misfortune of attending college just as several obviously bad movies – Clerks, Napoleon Dynamite, National Lampoon’s Van Wilder – inexplicably achieved cult status. The worst of the bunch, however, was The Boondock Saints, which, for reasons unknown, has just spawned a sequel.

Tagged as: Bad Cult Movies, The Boondock Saints

Will writes from Washington, D.C. (well, Arlington, Virginia). You can reach him at willblogcorrespondence at gmail dot com.

{ 10 comments }

1 E.D. Kain October 29, 2009 at 9:33 am

Dude, Clerks achieved cult status before Napolean Dynamite had ever been imagined.

2 JosephFM October 29, 2009 at 10:23 am

It’s also in no way a “bad movie”. It’s a cheap, goofy, and occasionally obscene movie, but unlike its sequels, not bad. It’s still pretty hilarious, and what it does it does brilliantly.

3 E.D. Kain October 29, 2009 at 10:51 am

Agreed. I like Clerks, though it’s not the sort of movie I can really watch over and over again…

4 Mark Thompson October 29, 2009 at 9:53 am

I liked, but didn’t love, Boondock Saints. And I like Napoleon Dynamite a good amount, but I’m not willing to go to the mat for it. Van Wilder was pretty worthless.

But you’re going to go after Clerks? Them’s fightin’ words. That movie got me through years of working behind the register in the mid-to-late ’90s.

5 JosephFM October 29, 2009 at 10:27 am

I know, seriously. I get not liking its legacy (six Jay & Silent Bob movies, really?), but Clerks itself is still great.

I had roommates that were Van Wilder fans though, and was forced to put up with it because they put their TV near the kitchen. I loathe it so.

6 Mark Thompson October 29, 2009 at 10:30 am

It seems I should be very, very grateful that my college days were over before Van Wilder hit.

7 timmy October 29, 2009 at 10:46 am

I’m right there with you on Boondock Saints. It’s like there’s a national bit of performance art going on, by which people claim they would take a bullet for this crappy movie, much to the vexation of guys like me not in on the gag.

8 Ryan October 29, 2009 at 11:01 am

Clerks: 1994
Boondock Saints: 1999
Van Wilder: 2002
Napoleon Dynamite: 2004

How long were you in college?

9 Will October 29, 2009 at 11:21 am

Movies often find cult followings years after they were released. If I remember correctly, Napoleon Dynamite came out either my freshman or sophomore year.

10 ASKlein October 30, 2009 at 9:18 am

Napoleon Dynamite is one of those love-it-or-hate-it films—the film equivalent of olives. Hopefuls in Netflix’s open-source challenge—improve its Recommendation Engine by 10%—were frequently monkey wrenches in the algorithm. It was impossible to determine whether someone would like the movie or not based on past rentals.

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