10 Hilarious Films That Weren't Supposed To Be Funny
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00:00When you start out to make a film, unless it is indeed a comedy, you're usually doing so with the
00:05intent of it being taken seriously as a piece of art. Unfortunately, though, that's not always the
00:11case, thanks to either budget constraints, gaffes, or huge plot holes rendering otherwise serious
00:16films hilariously funny. So let's take a look at them today, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:21and these are 10 hilarious films that weren't supposed to be funny.
00:25Number 10. No Retreat, No Surrender
00:27A late entry in the cinematic subgenre known as Bruce-ploitation, No Retreat,
00:32No Surrender might still be marketed as such, but for an early acting role for Jean-Claude
00:37Van Damme, who appears for barely 10 minutes, stays next to nothing and still walks away with
00:41the movie. It's a low-budget karate kid rip-off with a weird twist in that instead of being taught
00:47martial arts by a local Mr. Miyagi, a bullied teen is tutored by the ghost of Bruce Lee.
00:53If you're not in stitches when a badly-dubbed Lee impersonator who looks absolutely nothing like
00:58the little dragon emerges from a mysterious pool of light and says,
01:01you asked me to come out, well then check your pulse. Nobody's more impressed than Van Damme,
01:06who, come their final real tussle, changes his normally blank expression to mild surprise.
01:14Number 9. Catwomen of the Moon
01:16Commanding a plastic spaceship furnished with hammocks, office desks, and some army
01:21surplus equipment, Captain Sonny Tufts reaches the moon only to find a matte painting, some
01:26polystyrene rocks, and a pair of giant spiders on wires waiting to pounce, or at least be lowered by
01:32a crew member. Not only are there arachnids on the moon, there's oxygen aplenty, and a cardboard
01:38palace inhabited by the Hollywood Cover Girls, who, dressed in their chokers and black leotards,
01:43sport garish makeup, widow's peak hairstyles, and pointy ears to make them appear feline.
01:49They've never seen a man before, and never seen a man like Sonny, but before he can regale them
01:54with hilarious anecdotes, the girls supply food and drink and perform a dance to pad out the
01:59runtime. Unaccustomed to receiving this kind of female companionship for free, Sonny's suspicions
02:04turn out to be well-founded when one of the catwomen admits the crew were lured there for
02:08the purpose of stealing their ship. Never trust a moon maiden.
02:13Number 8. Prophecy
02:14Described by Stephen King as looking sort of like a skinned pig and sort of like a bear turned
02:19inside out, Prophecy's creature is the result of mercury poisoning caused by pollution from
02:24the local paper mill, basically boiling down the plot into a, yep, it's radiation,
02:29which everybody loves recycling. It's also the source of the film's unintentional laughs,
02:34especially when it starts knocking around campers who are unable to get out of their sleeping bags,
02:38and then chowing down on little kids. Looking in some shots like a stuffed animal being
02:43wheeled towards its victims, this product of the evils of capitalism was, ironically enough,
02:48the product of a cost-conscious studio. Pressured by Paramount to keep production
02:52costs down before the movie's antagonist had been properly designed, director John
02:56Frankenheimer abandoned his plans for a towering dragon-like creature and opted instead for an
03:01actor in a bear suit. Anyone watching this just for laughs is advised to forgo the first half
03:06and skip straight to the monster's attacks. And definitely do not miss the final shot.
03:127. From Hell It Came
03:14A picture guaranteed to bring out the worst puns imaginable, such as,
03:18his bark is worse than his bite, what a sap, and surely not, etc, etc,
03:23From Hell It Came convincingly depicts the old legend of Tabanga, a tree monster who,
03:29as any anthropologist will tell you, came back to avenge its wrongs.
03:33On an island of the South Seas weirdly populated by white English-speaking extras,
03:38a prince named Kimo is sentenced to death by ceremonial dagger for supposedly murdering a
03:43chief. But every B-movie fan knows that when a wrongly convicted man swears vengeance on
03:48his persecutors before being buried in a hollow tree trunk, it's only a matter of time before
03:52he returns as another actor in a silly costume. And what a costume it is. This is unlikely to
03:58scare anyone except the film's financial backers, because it looks like a bloody cucumber. Hilarious.
04:046. The Adventures of Hercules
04:07When his seven mighty thunderbolts are stolen, Zeus, the Greek god of, um, well, fake beards,
04:12calls upon Hercules to battle extras in yeti costumes and rubber monster suits in order to
04:17retrieve them. But wait, there's more. Hercules's nemesis, King Minos, has been resurrected by the
04:23forces of evil and is sent to kill him. And if that whets your appetite for a climactic sword
04:28fight, well, I'm sorry to disappoint you. But if you just thought, well, I hope one of them
04:33transforms into an animated dinosaur and then have a fight in outer space, well, you know what,
04:37mate? Give yourself a cigar. With its poorly choreographed fight sequences and scenes of
04:42skimpily attired maidens being sacrificed by a villain in a Ronald McDonald wig, The Adventures
04:47of Hercules proves to be a jaw-on-the-floor fantasy bit of filmmaking. But it's for all
04:53the wrong reasons. 5. Anaconda
04:56So in the Amazon on a documentary shoot, Jennifer Lopez and her crew instead find John Voight,
05:01who despite his sneer and accent of rather dubious Provence, is able to convince them to
05:06begin a hunt for the eponymous 40-foot reptile. Don't be fooled by the $40 million budget and the
05:12starry cast, though, because Anaconda is a sci-fi movie to the core, full of hilarious moments and
05:18even funnier monsters, who alternate between hysterically unconvincing rubber props and an
05:23equally lousy digital creation. In a movie with no shortage of show-stopping moments, the pick
05:28of the bunch has to be the scene where the Anaconda swallows Voight whole, at which point
05:32the director treats us to something we never got to see in any black-and-white creature feature,
05:36a point-of-view shot from inside the Anaconda's throat. It's spellbinding and totally, totally
05:43weird. 4. Undefeatable
05:45Released straight to video, Undefeatable became a YouTube sensation in later years when its
05:51literally eye-popping finale was viewed over 7 million times, much to the amusement of actor
05:56Don Niem. Niem plays Stingray, a mullet-haired, bug-eyed psycho with a tendency to experience
06:02childhood flashbacks while looking in a mirror. He's also a dab hand at being the worst person
06:07ever, committing sexual assaults against his wife while also cooking a steak. And when his
06:11wife understandably leaves him, he goes out and kills every woman who reminds him of her.
06:16Unfortunately, and rather weirdly, not only do all of his victims know Kung Fu,
06:20but he also crosses the path of waitress-by-day, street fighter-by-night Cynthia Rothrock,
06:25who's serving donuts and snapping collarbones to pay her sister's tuition.
06:29It's a tale with a lot going on, and none of it is good.
06:323. Lady Terminator This is your typical
06:36Indonesian Terminator rip-off. The villain is the South Sea queen of Asian folklore,
06:41whose sexual partners lose their pride and joy to, um, how do I describe this,
06:45an eel that is between her legs. And when one gentleman caller removes the eel,
06:49the queen vows to avenge the insult by returning to claim the man's ancestors.
06:54A century later, the queen possesses a bikini-clad anthropologist,
06:58causing her to act and dress like an Austrian bodybuilder. So far, so good, right?
07:02But then it really kicks into gear, as they start ripping scenes straight from James Cameron's movie,
07:08including a shootout at a tech-noirish bar and a sequence where our injured antagonist makes
07:13a pit stop to address her wounds. The running gun battles are probably the least interesting
07:18part of the movie, because this has got so much blood, nudity, stupidity, bad hair,
07:22and laughable dialogue. It's the kind of experience that words alone do not do justice to.
07:272. Robo-Vampire Picture a cheaply-made
07:30robo-cop knock-off, where the lead actor wears a tinfoil suit, shin pads, goggles,
07:35and a silver crash helmet. Right, now next, imagine him interacting with footage ripped
07:40from two other movies, including a Thai cop thriller and a Hong Kong supernatural comedy.
07:45That is Robo-Vampire. Three movies for the price of one. And yet you're still gonna demand your
07:51money back. Hilariously, the Hong Kong footage features Chinese hopping vampires, so when Robo
07:56isn't fighting gangsters whose machine guns don't produce muzzle flares, he's seamlessly reacting
08:01to vampires that can hop, fly, and disappear at will. These creatures also possess the ability
08:06to make our hero fly through the air on clearly visible wires, and the actor's attempts to move
08:10robotically while being thrown are hilarious. And for bad measure, the filmmakers also decide
08:16to throw in a kung-fu-kicking female ghost who turns into an obvious double in every other shot.
08:23Brilliant.
08:241. Plan 9 From Outer Space
08:28With its amateurish performances, dime-store effects, and absurdly quotable dialogue,
08:33Plan 9 is the gold standard of cinematic ineptitude, the Citizen Kane of bad movies,
08:39as it were. It's also terrific fun when seen with a crowd. Like all great entertainment,
08:44this baffling tale of pompous alien-zombie wrestlers and stock footage just wants to
08:48have a fun time. But it's even better when enjoyed with a receptive audience.
08:53Edward's signature film was becoming a midnight favorite just as its creator was losing out to
08:58alcoholism and his creditors. Its popularity actually brought it so much attention that
09:02it was awarded the Golden Turkey's Worst Film of All Time, beginning an interest in Edward's
09:07back catalogue that led to a string of books and documentaries, as well as eventually a
09:12Tim Burton-helmed biopic. And Wood saw none of it. He died on the morning of December 10, 1978,
09:18three days after being evicted from his tiny Hollywood apartment. Sad times, right?