Sunday, July 19, 2015

Sometimes...

Huey Lewis and the News never released their song "Bad is Bad" as a single, but back in the days when radio stations would play album cuts that had never been hits it got some airplay. The idea is  that even though the word "bad" can be good (cf. Thorogood, G.), there are times when it simply means "bad."

There are movies that fall into the "so bad they're good" category, in which the ineptitude visible in one or all aspects of the movie is amusing in and of itself. There are also movies that are bad and only become watchable when mocked (a la Mystery Science Theater 3000) or they become participatory (The Rocky Horror Picture Show).

And then there are movies that are just bad and no fun to watch even for mocking purposes, which brings us to SyFy's "Sharknado Week 2." The slate of swill centers on Sharknado 3, a second sequel to the overgrown Saturday Night Live sketch that garnered unmerited and inexplicable renown when aired in 2013. The idea of a movie about a tornado that sweeps up sharks and deposits them on land is funny as you contemplate how dumb it would be. The actual movie is 85 minutes of that laughter fading away into echos and then beyond, supposedly livened up when human beings are shown eaten by the flying bad-CGI sharks. The idea has ceased to be funny before the credits roll, which means there's no laughter available for the sequel or a third movie.

The same can be said for the rest of the Sharknado Week 2 lineup. "So bad it's good" can be true once or twice, or maybe even a dozen times. But when repeated endlessly in scenes that are supposed to mock the same bad acting or callous dispatch of characters in ways designed to be funny? Well, to quote another flashback character, "Stupid is as stupid does."

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