21 Movies That Thought They Were Way Better Than They Were

The beauty of the colorful continuum of cinema is that it ranges from high art to some real stinkers. That doesn’t mean those at the lower end can’t be enjoyable — you’re lying if you say you’ve never cued up a dumb comedy just to turn your brain off for a little while. But it can become a problem if you start to suspect that dumb comedy was made by people who thought they were really Saying Something. As insufferable as Jack and Jill was, imagine if it was trying to make a point about gender inequality.

It was a scenario on Redditor thebigeverybody’s mind recently, when they were “thinking about a Jaws rip-off called Orca: The Killer Whale,” they told r/Movies. “It’s stuck in my mind all these years because it’s the perfect blend of executives trying to cash in on a trend while filling it with as many exciting things as possible, not giving a damn if the story makes any sense or not.” They went on to explain that “the plot is about an angry killer whale that attacks a small town and blows up buildings trying to get revenge on a fisherman who killed the whale’s wife and son. It’s not a comedy, camp or anything remotely self-aware.”

They then asked, “What are some movies you’ve seen where they take themselves perfectly seriously even though what they’re putting on screen is totally barking mad?” and Reddit looked back fondly on some of the most unhinged acts of pretension ever committed to the silver screen.