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loujoseph's review against another edition
4.0
Seems like this could have been a little too much to read in one go, since they were originally intended to be read one at a time on the AV Club, but Rabin groups them smartly and writes with a different approach for each, so it doesn't get repetitive. It's also interesting to look through somethings considered failures for one reason (with movies, the box office) and re-considering if there's something to take away- he re-rates each a secret success, a failure or fiasco, of which the failure seems to be the worst rating- at least the fiascos are entertainingly confounding and have some sort of takeaway.. Also glad Rabin steers clear of movies like Showgirls, which have clearly found their audience.
quietdomino's review against another edition
2.0
It turns out it's not that much more pleasant to read about someone else watching bad movies than it is to watch bad movies yourself. Which is why the Mystery Science Theater model is more effective for me: I get to combine the experiences.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
I liked Rabin's "My Year of Flops" column for the AV Club so I was really happy to see that his book - also titled My Year of Flops - contains extra book-only reviews and a few interviews as well. I especially enjoyed the interview with Roberto Benigni about Pinocchio, a movie I've had the misfortune of seeing (I saw the subtitled original Italian, not the dubbed-in-English-by-Breckin-Meyer one, so I'm sure it was better than the theatrical dubbed release but it was still creepy with a 50-year-old Italian man-child playing a bratty wooden puppet). Some of the movies are, yes, bad movies that result from spectacularly poor judgement on the part of directors/stars/studios/writers/producers (like The Conqueror, The Scarlet Letter, and Exit to Eden not to mention Waterworld) but some of the movies Rabin reviews are secretly quite enjoyable (The Rocketeer is one, and I'm surprised that it was considered a flop because my little brothers watched it all the time). Rabin has a great writing style and I really hope he writes more (I loved his memoir, The Big Rewind).
medium_dave's review against another edition
4.0
Really fun. I loved the web series so I'm happy to have it in book form on my shelf.
Also, as an aside, perfect for reading in the bathroom. I'm just sayin'.
Also, as an aside, perfect for reading in the bathroom. I'm just sayin'.
kpolly's review against another edition
4.0
Hilarious. Nathan Rabin makes me want to seek out bad movies. "Bad" movies.
jenniferdenslow's review against another edition
3.0
Just as I'm a big fan of compilation albums, or collections of music labeled "A Tribute to...," I'm also a fan of books that amount to surveys of the best or worst of something, so I was prime audience for Rabin's catalog of some of the reportedly worst movies to ever come out of Hollywood. Rabin talk tough, but his affection for movies is clear evidence that he is, as someone says of him in his memoir, [b:The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture|5846386|The Big Rewind A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture|Nathan Rabin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437498743s/5846386.jpg|6018527], "so hard on movies because he loves them so much."
soulpopped's review against another edition
3.0
It would have been a lot more entertaining if I had seen more of the movies he chronicles, but at least I have a handful of new ones to watch now!
oohsarracuda's review against another edition
2.0
I love bad movies. My husband and I watch bad movies every Friday night, and have for over 4 years (and counting). I love reading about bad movies, and about pop culture in general. But I didn't really like this book, because I don't really like Nathan Rabin. Nathan Rabin is very much like so many writers you can find at Gawker/Gizmodo and AV Club - he can kind of write, he's occasionally funny or incisive, but mostly he's just a guy. A guy who gleefully throws himself into sexism, classism, slut-shaming, ageism, sizeism/fatphobia, and so on. Rabin punches down, and often, while being entirely too impressed with his (perceived) cleverness. It's tiresome and, I'll reiterate, unwarranted. I'll keep this book to pad out my list of future bad movie viewings, but I cannot recommend it.
Credit where credit is due, though: "All cinephiles reach a moment in their intellectual development when they realize that Oliver Stone is full of shit" is one of the funniest and truest lines I've ever read. I laughed out loud, hard and for a long time.
Previously: I'm only about halfway through this book so far, but here's pretty much everything you need to know about Nathan Rabin as a writer: his (unwarranted) smugness & self-assurance render him too lazy to so much as glance at Prince's Wikipedia page before describing "Prince" as a "ridiculous, prance-about stage name" when, in fact, it's his actual, birth-given name.
Credit where credit is due, though: "All cinephiles reach a moment in their intellectual development when they realize that Oliver Stone is full of shit" is one of the funniest and truest lines I've ever read. I laughed out loud, hard and for a long time.
Previously: I'm only about halfway through this book so far, but here's pretty much everything you need to know about Nathan Rabin as a writer: his (unwarranted) smugness & self-assurance render him too lazy to so much as glance at Prince's Wikipedia page before describing "Prince" as a "ridiculous, prance-about stage name" when, in fact, it's his actual, birth-given name.