You've probably played Six Degrees of Keven Bacon, but have you played One Degree of WTF? The premise is the same, only the goal is to connect any terrible cinema (or cinematic figure) to any great cinema (or cinematic figure). Because there's so much leeway, though, you only get one link to make the connection. I've played the game a lot (and seen a lot of bad movies) over the years, and what follows are some of the more dramatic connections I've uncovered. Bonus points: none of these connections were made via B-movie king/mentor to the stars, Roger Corman.
6. From 3 Ninjas: High Noon At Mega Mountain...
The first 3 Ninjas movie came out in 1992, presumably in an attempt to cash in on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle "Ninja Anything" market. Three all-American brothers study karate and ninjutsu with their Japanese grandfather, who gives them all official ninja nicknames based on their personalities: Rocky, Colt, and Tum-Tum. In the original adventure, they get kidnapped by an organized crime ringleader and have to rely on their ninjutsu and Home Alone-style boobytraps to save the day. Mediocre, yes, but nowhere near the bottom of the barrel. That's reserved for High Noon at Mega Mountain, the third (and final) sequel to the original movie. In this sequel, Rocky, Colt, and Tum-Tum decide to visit the Mega Mountain theme park at the same time that the evil Medusa tries to hold the owners for ransom. Bummer! Of course, she decides the best way to do this is to take over
the entire park with her army of ninjas. The kids team up with their computer whiz neighbor Amanda and no less than Hulk Hogan to defeat the ninja army and ruin Medusa's evil plans.
...To Letters From Iwo Jima
Mega Mountain came out in 1998, so rather than age the characters appropriately, the lead trio of brothers were simply recast. The only one of this veritable soccer team of child actors to make a proper career out of acting was Rocky. He appeared as a bloody, unnamed American marine in Clint Eastwood's masterfully done war picture.