Ever since we first heard about Real Steel, the robot boxing movie starring Hugh Jackman, a small boy, and — let’s repeat ourselves — some boxing robots, we have been very, very excited. Admittedly, our excitement has never been of the, “Oh, wow, that movie looks like a wonderfully crafted piece of art!” variety. Upon seeing the trailer, our hearts quickened at the prospect of Steel being truly awfulsome, and in our fall movie preview we described it as our “great goofball hope.” In other words, we have been crossing our fingers that Real Steel is the perfect good-bad movie.
Please, argue with us. What are the perfect good-bad films? What are bad films that, in some moments, achieve good-badness? What are some films that tried for but failed to achieve the state of good-bad?