10 Hilarious Films That Weren't Supposed To Be Funny

Australian Cinephile

Transcript

00:00When you start out to make a film, unless it is indeed a comedy, you're usually doing so with

00:05the intent of it being taken seriously as a piece of art. Unfortunately though, that's not always

00:11the case, thanks to either budget constraints, gaffes or huge plot holes, rendering otherwise

00:16serious films hilariously funny. So let's take a look at them today. I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com

00:21and these are 10 hilarious films that weren't supposed to be funny.

00:2510. No Retreat, No Surrender A late entry in the cinematic sub-genre

00:30known as Bruceploitation, No Retreat, No Surrender might still be marketed as such, but for an

00:35early acting role for Jean-Claude Van Damme who appears for barely 10 minutes, stays next

00:40to nothing and still walks away with the movie. It's a low-budget karate kid rip-off with a

00:45weird twist in that instead of being taught martial arts by a local Mr. Miyagi, a bullied

00:50teen is tutored by the ghost of Bruce Lee. If you're not in stitches when a badly dubbed

00:55Lee impersonator who looks absolutely nothing like the little dragon emerges from a mysterious

00:59pool of light and says, you asked me to come out, well then check your pulse. Nobody's

01:04more impressed than Van Damme who, come their final real tussle, changes his normally blank

01:09expression to mild surprise. And that is pretty much his acting range.

01:139. Cat Women of the Moon

01:16Commanding a plastic spaceship furnished with hammocks, office desks and some army

01:21surplus equipment, Captain Sunny Tufts reaches the moon only to find a matte painting, some

01:26polystyrene rocks and a pair of giant spiders on wires waiting to pounce, or at least be lowered

01:31by a crew member. Not only are there arachnids on the moon, there's oxygen aplenty, and a

01:37cardboard palace inhabited by the Hollywood cover girls, who, dressed in their chokers and

01:42black leotards, sport garish makeup, widow's peak hairstyles, and pointy ears to make them appear

01:48feline. They've never seen a man before and never seen a man like Sunny, but before he can regale

01:54them with hilarious anecdotes, the girls supply food and drink and perform a dance to pad out the

01:59runtime. Unaccustomed to receiving this kind of female companionship for free, Sunny's suspicions

02:04turn out to be well-founded when one of the Cat Women admits the crew were lured there for the

02:08purpose of stealing their ship. Never trust a moon maiden.

02:138. Prophecy

02:14Described by Stephen King as looking sort of like a skinned pig and sort of like a bear turned

02:19inside out, Prophecy's creature is the result of mercury poisoning caused by pollution from the

02:25local paper mill, basically boiling down the plot into a, yep, it's radiation, which everybody loves

02:30recycling. It's also the source of the film's unintentional laughs, especially when it starts

02:35knocking around campers who are unable to get out of their sleeping bags, and then chowing down on

02:40little kids. Looking in some shots like a stuffed animal being wheeled towards its victims, this product

02:45of the evils of capitalism was, ironically enough, the product of a cost-conscious studio. Pressured by

02:51Paramount to keep production costs down before the movie's antagonist had been properly designed,

02:56director John Frankenheimer abandoned his plans for a towering dragon-like creature and opted instead

03:01for an actor in a bear suit. Anyone watching this just for laughs is advised to forgo the first half

03:06and skip straight to the monster's attacks. And definitely do not miss the final shot.

03:127. From Hell It Came

03:14A picture guaranteed to bring out the worst puns imaginable, such as,

03:18his bark is worse than his bite, what a sap, and surely not, etc, etc. From Hell It Came convincingly

03:25depicts the old legend of Tabanga, a tree monster who, as any anthropologist will tell you,

03:31came back to avenge its wrongs. On an island of the South Seas weirdly populated by white

03:37English-speaking extras, a prince named Kimo is sentenced to death by ceremonial dagger for

03:42supposedly murdering a chief. But every B-movie fan knows that when a wrongly convicted man swears

03:47vengeance on his persecutors before being buried in a hollow tree trunk, it's only a matter of time

03:52before he returns as another actor in a silly costume. And what a costume it is. This is

03:58unlikely to scare anyone except the film's financial backers, because it looks like a

04:02bloody cucumber. Hilarious.

04:046. The Adventures of Hercules

04:06When his seven mighty thunderbolts are stolen, Zeus, the Greek god of, um, well, fake beards,

04:12calls upon Hercules to battle extras in yeti costumes and rubber monster suits in order to

04:17retrieve them. But wait, there's more. Hercules' is-is-is nemesis, King Minos, has been resurrected

04:23by the forces of evil and is sent to kill him. And if that whets your appetite for a climactic

04:28sword fight, well, I'm sorry to disappoint you. But if you just thought, well, I hope that one of

04:32them transforms into an animated dinosaur and then have a fight in outer space, well, you know what,

04:37mate? Give yourself a cigar. With its poorly choreographed fight sequences and scenes of skimpily

04:42attired maidens being sacrificed by a villain in a Ronald McDonald wig, The Adventures of Hercules

04:48proves to be a jaw-on-the-floor fantasy bit of filmmaking. But it's for all the wrong reasons.

04:545. Anaconda

04:56So in the Amazon, on a documentary shoot, Jennifer Lopez and her crew instead find John Voight,

05:01who, despite his sneer and accent of rather dubious Provence, is able to convince them to

05:06begin a hunt for the eponymous 40-foot reptile. Don't be fooled by the $40 million budget and the

05:12starry cast, though, because Anaconda is a sci-fi movie to the core, full of hilarious moments and

05:18even funnier monsters, who alternate between hysterically unconvincing rubber props and an

05:23equally lousy digital creation. In a movie with no shortage of show-stopping moments,

05:28the pick of the bunch has to be the scene where the Anaconda swallows Voight whole,

05:31at which point the director treats us to something that we never got to see in any black and white

05:35creature feature, a point-of-view shot from inside the Anaconda's throat. It's spellbinding and

05:41totally, totally weird.

05:434. Undefeatable

05:45Released straight to video, Undefeatable became a YouTube sensation in later years when its

05:51literally eye-popping finale was viewed over 7 million times, much to the amusement of actor

05:56Don Neum. Neum plays Stingray, a mullet-haired, bug-eyed psycho with a tendency to experience

06:02childhood flashbacks while looking in a mirror. He's also a dab hand at being the worst person

06:07ever, committing sexual assault against his wife while also cooking a steak. And when his wife

06:11understandably leaves him, he goes out and kills every woman who reminds him of her.

06:16Unfortunately, and rather weirdly, not only do all of his victims know kung fu, but he also

06:20crosses the path of waitress-by-day, street-fighter-by-night Cynthia Rothrock, who's serving donuts and

06:26snapping collarbones to pay her sister's tuition. It's a tale with a lot going on, and none of it is

06:32good. 3. Lady Terminator

06:34This is your typical Indonesian Terminator rip-off. The villain is the South Sea Queen of Asian

06:40folklore, whose sexual partners lose their pride and joy to, um, how do I describe this? An eel that

06:46is between her legs. And when one gentleman caller removes the eel, the queen vows to avenge the insult

06:51by returning to claim the man's ancestors. A century later, the queen possesses a bikini-clad

06:57anthropologist causing her to act and dress like an Austrian bodybuilder. So far, so good, right?

07:02But then it really kicks into gear, as they start ripping scenes straight from James Cameron's movie,

07:08including a shootout at a tech-noirish bar and a sequence where our injured antagonist makes a

07:13pit stop to address her wounds. The running gun battles are probably the least interesting part of

07:18the movie, because this has got so much blood, nudity, stupidity, bad hair, and laughable dialogue,

07:23is the kind of experience that words alone do not do justice to.

07:272. Robo Vampire

07:29Picture a cheaply-made RoboCop knock-off, where the lead actor wears a tinfoil suit,

07:34shin pads, goggles, and a silver crash helmet. Right, now next, imagine him interacting with

07:39footage ripped from two other movies, including a Thai cop thriller and a Hong Kong supernatural

07:45comedy. That is Robo Vampire. Three movies for the price of one. And yet you're still going to

07:51demand your money back. Hilariously, the Hong Kong footage features Chinese hopping vampires,

07:56so when Robo isn't fighting gangsters whose machine guns don't produce muzzle flares,

08:00he's seamlessly reacting to vampires that can hop, fly, and disappear at will. These creatures also

08:05possess the ability to make our hero fly through the air on clearly visible wires, and the actor's

08:10attempts to move robotically while being thrown are hilarious. And for bad measure, the filmmakers also

08:16decide to throw in a kung fu-kicking female ghost who turns into an obvious double in every other

08:22shot. Brilliant.

08:24And number one, Plan 9 from Outer Space. With its amateurish performances, dime store effects,

08:31and absurdly quotable dialogue, Plan 9 is the gold standard of cinematic ineptitude,

08:37the Citizen Kane of bad movies, as it were. It's also terrific fun when seen with a crowd.

08:42Now, like all great entertainment, this baffling tale of pompous alien zombie wrestlers and stock

08:47footage just wants to have a fun time. But it's even better when enjoyed with a receptive audience.

08:53Edward's signature film was becoming a midnight favourite just as its creator was losing out to

08:58alcoholism and his creditors. Its popularity actually brought it so much attention that it

09:02was awarded the Golden Turkey's worst film of all time, beginning an interest in Edward's back catalogue

09:08that led to a string of books and documentaries, as well as eventually a Tim Burton-helmed biopic.

09:14And Wood saw none of it. He died on the morning of December the 10th, 1978,

09:18three days after being evicted from his tiny Hollywood apartment. Sad times, right?

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