10 Excruciatingly Bad Films You Should Die Before You See

Endorsed by Roger Ebert as “a spectacularly bad film – incompetent, unfunny, ill-conceived, badly executed, lamely written and acted by people who look trapped in the headlights”,  Burn Hollywood Burn is a would-be Tinseltown satire from Joe Eszterhas who, having fallen out of favour after Showgirls, was biting the hand that once fed him.

The film's one joke concerns Alan Smithee (Eric Idle), who can’t take his name off his latest disaster because the name used by the Director’s Guild when a filmmaker refuses credit is….Alan Smithee! In fact, so desperate was Burn’s director, Arthur Hiller, not to be associated with this misfire that he took the Smithee pseudonym, making An Alan Smithee Film a true Alan Smithee film. No, really, this is the funniest ‘joke’ in the movie. 

Shot as a pseudo-documentary, this might’ve worked had it eschewed cheap gags in order to build a credible story, but not only is writer Eszterhas only interested in sophomoric puns, the cast overplay at every available opportunity. When a picture’s comedic heavyweights include Robert Evans, Sylvester Stallone and Ryan O’Neal, you know you’re in trouble.