10 Awful Movies With Just One Great Character

2. Skeletor - Masters Of The Universe

The story of the first attempt to bring He-Man to the big screen is legendary and deserves way more attention than it ever gets. Made by former adult movie makers Cannon Films, it was their great hope and they pinned so much on it that when it failed, they were forced to re-evaluate everything, scrapping the sequel part-way through production (and turning it into another film entirely) and giving up on their dream of making a Spider-Man movie. Given the details that have emerged of that film, it's a mercy they couldn't make it.

And all of that was down to the fact that Masters Of The Universe is terrible. Sure, it has its cult fans now, but a lot of that comes down to ironic, revisionist appreciation. Or it surely must, because it's genuinely terrible, even if you put your kitsch-tinted glasses on.

There is, however, one stand-out, because somehow Cannon got Frank Langella - a Proper Actor - to play Skeletor and the result is one of the truly great villains trapped in a film you suspect he knows is awful. He's far from the screeching camp version of the cartoons (and latterly Twitter), but he's menacing, has power and presence and he actually doesn't look as terrible as he could have.