Just curious what sci-fi movies everyone loves even though they were horrible. I just finished Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) and that is among the three I can remember from my youth that I loved. the others were Krull (1983) and The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982)
I actually remember NOT liking Krull when I saw it in the theater. I would have been about 12 at the time.
I did however LOVE Ice Pirates (1984) and Battle Beyond the Stars. Some really cool space ships in that one, though the one on the cover looks… suggestive of something else…
There are a great number of movies that many would consider bad or poorly produced that I enjoy, here are a few off the top of my head. And this is hardly a complete list by any means…
The Blood of Heroes (I have often considered putting this up for a Frak Party)
Trancers
Split Second
Dog Soldiers
Starship Troopers
Soldier
Dark Star
Universal Soldier
The Last Chase
The Sixth Day
MST 3000 the Movie
Dark Crystal
Ladyhawke
Total Recall
Robocop (all of them)
Bad Taste
Critters (1 and 2)
Cherry 2000
The Wraith
Mad Max
Runaway
The Mummy films
Demolition Man
Johnny Mnemonic
Judge Dredd
The Tekwar films
Chronicles of Riddick and Dark Fury
Innerspace
Dreamscape
Timecop
Mimic
The Blade films
Resident Evil films
Aeon Flux
Enemy Mine
AVP films
Barbarella
The Toxic Avenger
Big Man Japan
Machinegirl
Gene Generation
District B 13
Defend the Block
Doom
Babylon AD
Descent
Doomsday
Contagion
Priest
The Cavern
Ahh! Zombies is an excellent bad sci-fi. The zombie apocalypse from the zombies POV.
Heavy Metal 2000. I really do enjoy that movie, and not just for the major boobage. It suffers because it doesn’t stand up to the Heavy Metal name, but it’s still quite a good sci-fi adventure, with some pretty good animation happening. There’s also a song from Zilch on the soundtrack which I was big into back in High School and it’s used during a crazy gun fight in a club.
I wouldn’t really consider those badly received or perceived largely as lame or whatever. Those are a lot of pretty great movies
Dog soldiers? Really? I think it’s a stretch to have that as part of my list. Same with Demolition Man. That was just plain fun…
Same with Mad Max. And the first Mummy film ( you can keep 2 & 3).
Flash Gordon (yes, the one with Queen) makes me cringe…
Before there were work out videos, before 80s leg warmers … there was Barbarella!!!
So bad … and yet … so very good 
OB
Ancient movie, but I still enjoyed a recent Dvd watch … had not seen full uncut version before. It held up surprisingly well.
OB
That was a good one. I remember catching it TV when I was a kid. Oxygen-rich rocks!
Ice Pirates!!
As pointed out earlier a number of the films in my initial list are not bad per se, but I put them there because Geek snobs love to pick on them or look down on them (for whatever reason… elitists will be elitists…). And I don’t like to pick on other peoples choices, if it scratches a particular itch for you… Go for it! That is why they are there.
Another film that came to mind that was poorly received by audiences but I thought was brilliant and cutting edge in its presentation was ‘A Scanner Darkly’. I think it was just toooo different for most folks. But I thought some of the performances were exceptional, and the way they used the animation made not only the camouflage suits amazing… but it made it hard to tell what was real and what was a drug warped reality.
Battlefield Earth…so bad it turned the tide and became hilarious!!!
Also Return of the living dead part 2… it’s frak-rasticly BAD!!! B )
Star Trek V. “What does God need with a starship?” The story is lame but there are some very special moments especially between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. I love their camping trip. I despise the whole Sybok is Spock’s brother thing. Sybok is an ok character. I don’t understand why he had to be Spock’s brother. Anyway, the film gets a ton of craaaap but I don’t mind it.
This happened to be on TV recently (HBO) so I TiVoed it. Naturally I’ve seen it many many times.
So a couple nights ago I did a rewatch of it, having fond memories of the some of the great moments (as you say). I gotta admit, seeing it again the flaws stuck out very strongly, but I still have an affection for the movie.
The moment where the camera goes to the “To Boldly Gone Where No One Has Gone Before” plaque in “Ten Forward (not really Ten Forward)” always makes me smile.
Lady hawk. I have watched that so many times on netflex.
I must have worn out our–ehem, illegal–VHS copy of that movie, I played it so many times when I was a kid!