The streaming services we have access to today have many benefits. Apps like Netflix provide hours upon hours of digital content to enjoy on an average night. However, they have a problem: Among their thousands of movies are many mediocre and boring offerings, and even the critically acclaimed ones are often boring three-hour epics that take themselves too seriously.
That’s where Ottawa Bad Movie Nights comes to the rescue. Providing an old-school moviegoing experience, they arrange multiple events a month where people can gather, online and in person, to enjoy comically bad movies together. As Al, a host of the event, said, “If we’ve done our job right, [the movie] will be so bad it’s good, and you will have fun.”
The flagship show of the event is called “A (bad) night at the movies “and it runs the first Wednesday of every month at the Main branch of the Ottawa Public Library. I attended the February 7 event to watch The Disco Godfather.
View this post on Instagram
In the library’s auditorium, about 50 people gathered at 6:30pm, ready to watch some bad movies. The screening started with some ridiculous and hilarious trailers and short films. The standout trailer—not in a good way—on this night was for The Wiz, a remake of The Wizard of Oz that is set in modern New York and features some pretty laughable costumes and scenes. The fascinating part was that Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor had major roles in this movie. It elicited some laughs from the crowd to see the King of Pop dressed as the scarecrow, and not a pretty one at that.
Then we finally got to see The Disco Godfather; it was as bad as everyone had hoped. The plot follows a retired cop turned disco club owner named Tucker, who vows to take down the new organized crime gang in his city. This gang sold PCP to the Disco Godfather’s nephew, who had to be hospitalized, so Tucker vows revenge. Through comically cartoonish kung-fu fights and a lot of disco, we follow Tucker until he eventually takes down the bad guys. Between the bad acting, even worse fight scenes, and massive plot holes, the crowd laughed constantly, and everyone went home happy.
A poster for Ottawa Bad Movie Nights. Photo: Vasileios Tselios.
It is a very novel concept, but thoroughly entertaining. I spoke to Al, one of the main hosts of the event, about the event and its unique nature. He talked about the unique crowds these events attract, whose comments and feedback add as much comedic value as the films themselves. “It’s the kind of event where people can go out and heckle the movie,” he says. The atmosphere makes the whole screening so much funnier, hence why the audience “have to bring their sense of humour.” The organizers do their best to make every event as amusing as the last, so they have to choose movies that are bad enough to laugh at. Al’s criteria is “if the movie makes me laugh while I’m watching it by myself, then it’s a good contender.”
If you ever need something to do on a random night, want to laugh at bad movies rather than try to find good ones, or want to see your favourite personalities from the past act in horrible productions like Blacula (yes, seriously, it was one of the trailers) then this event is bad enough to suit your needs.
Ottawa Bad Movie Nights organizes its events through its Meetup page. They also have an Instagram. All events are free.
.gif)
