When Bad Is Good - I was thinking about Peter Jackson, and so I decided to watch one of his older films - Dead-Alive (aka. Braindead). Wow! This film pushes the boundaries of silly low-budget gore films, and explores new levels of tastelessness. Obviously tongue-in-cheek, it's stil a wonder anyone trusted him with the money and responsibility of bringing Tolkien's books to the big screen.

My two all-time favorite movies vying for the worst "so-bad-they-are-funny" award are Circle of Iron (A David Carradine film written by James Coburn and Bruce Lee, is obviously meant to be "deep" but comes off "cheep.") and the inexplicable They Call Me Macho Woman (aka. Savage Instinct - a production with the worst acting of all time .) If you can see these movies for free sometime, it might be worth it. If you're drunk, perhaps. Or laid up.

Jackson probably earned the credibility to warrant a shot at Tolkien with his critically acclaimed Heavenly Creatures - a bizarre film about an even more bizarre true crime. Two young girls (one portrayed by Kate Winslet) invent their own fantasy world and become obsessed with it to the point of comitting murder. Heavenly Creatures is worth seeing, especially if you'd like to see what Peter Jackson was doing before he was filming hobbits.