Released in 1941, Citizen Kanes depiction of a William Randolph Hearst-like publisher attracted the ire of Hearst himself, who used his influence to ensure that the film played to mostly empty houses. Fearing a lawsuit from the publisher, many cinema owners refused to screen the picture, which lost hundreds of thousands of dollars for RKO. Kanes status as The Greatest Film Ever Made grew after it gained popularity on television, where it caught the attention of critic Andrew Sarris, who called it the work that influenced the cinema more profoundly than any American film since Birth Of A Nation. Propelled by similarly laudatory reviews from Pauline Kael and David Thomson, Kane topped Sight & Sounds top ten list for the first time in 1962, a position it held until 2012 when it was dethroned by Hitchcocks Vertigo. But you know what? Kane just isnt that much fun to watch. When the BFI compiles a list of movies that people admire rather than enjoy, Kane will take pride of place, followed by Vertigo, The 400 Blows and Jean-Luc Godards entire filmography. Far more interesting are the films that, though indefensible on any artistic level, just want to give you a good time. Man-in-a-suit monster movies, 80s action films, chicks with guns, that kind of thing.
12. Sharknado
You have to admire the audacity of a production company that makes a movie about leaping, flying sharks that can use rope ladders, mounts it on a budget of $1.98 and casts Tara Reid as the female lead. The Asylums office parties must be epic. For good measure, they throw in the kind of action scenes youd expect to see in a movie like San Andreas: a Ferris wheel crashes into a skyscraper, the Hollywood sign is destroyed, sharks fly into power lines etc. The cheap digital effects means it all looks about as convincing as one of Nicolas Cages wigs, but that only adds to the fun. As any meteorologist will confirm, the only way to combat a Sharknado is to fly explosives into the eye of the storm, causing it to rain sharks that can then be picked off by a sharpshooter. Should one swallow your girlfriend, its no biggie, just feed yourself to the shark while carrying your trusty chainsaw. It worked for Ishmael in that Melville story.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
