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10 Hilarious Films That Weren't Supposed To Be Funny
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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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