Mansfield Fox

Law student. Yankees fan. Massive fraggle. Just living the American dream.

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Good Bad Movie Premises, Part I

Coming soon: National Treasure, the story of a family of treasure-hunters seeking an ancient Egyptian treasure hidden by the Founding Fathers, who left clues to its location on the Declaration of Independence, the Dollar, the Liberty Bell, et alia.

Now that is a premise for a movie! Will the movie be good? No, but it should be fun. And a large part of that will be a result of the ridiculous set-up. One of the problems with movies today is that our bad movies are so lame and unoriginal. Good movies, as a rule, are interesting and original: that's part of what makes them good. Bad movies can be bad for a whole host of reasons - bad execution, wrong cast, interference from the studio, insufficient technology to tell the story - but often they can be made at least enjoyable by an ambitious or interesting premise. This isn't always the case (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I'm looking at you) but it usually helps, and at any rate a bad premise always sinks a movie.

What do we have out there today? Tepid remakes of British sex comedies and Japanese haunted house pics? One of several overproduced biopics of Alexander the Great? A creepy CGI version of a classic children's story? Some dysfunctional families-at-Christmas movies? Oooooo! Louis B. Mayer is green with envy.

And, with that in mind, I've decided to do my patriotic duty and start up a series of good bad-movie ideas, offered free of charge. I'll post them intermittently as they come to me. Will these movies be any good? No, but I'd like to believe that their badness at least won't be bland. That said:
First Ladies
Sexually and politically frustrated by an emotionally distant lover and a cautious, cynical campaign, the President's wife and mistress stick it to the leader of the free world by forming a third-party ticket that takes the country by storm. Comedy. Starring Susan Sarandon, Diane Lane, and Jeff Bridges.
Green light me, baby!