8. Battlefield Earth
What's it about? Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's novel of the same name is adapted by Roger Christian: Earth has been under the rule of the Psychlos for a millenia, but when the occupiers try to force humans to work in their gold mines a rebellion begins to stir. After a few days of training they fire up a few dusty Harrier jump-jets and start to fight back. Why was it doomed to fail? The sheer idiocy of having enslaved humans somehow figure out how to fly a jump-jet in a matter of days is just one of the many narrative flaws which made Battlefield Earth such a laughable mess - the fact that Christian was a protege of George Lucas goes some way to explaining the film's complete lack of regard for logic and coherence. Being a truly terrible movie was clearly a major factor in its failure to perform at the box office, but long before it was released many were laughing it off as a strange vanity project for Scientologist John Travolta. For his part, the delusion that he'd actually made a good film continued well after it "won" a raft of Golden Raspberry Awards: "Here I was taking big chances, breaking a new genre ... I'd rather my films connect with audiences than with critics because it gives you more longevity as a performer." Writer J. D. Shapiro was more honest about his work in his Razzies acceptance speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKlEE18R5d8