I generally watch only two kinds of movies: good and bad, though a strong argument could be made for the third category: ugly.

I watch good movies to escape into another world (e.g., Inception) or take a different look at the world in which I live (e.g., Man on Wire). An exhaustive list of good movies I like is daunting, but here's a selection of some of my favorite directors (in alphabetical order): Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, James Cameron, John Carpenter, Joel & Ethan Coen, Terry Gilliam, Peter Jackson, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, George Lucas, Hayao Miyazaki, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, M. Night Shyamalan, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino.

So, why watch bad movies? On one level, watching bad movies helps me to appreciate good movies. Cinematography, pacing, lighting, sound, and more obvious things like acting, writing, and directing often receive awards in high-quality movies. However, bad movies frequently stumble in one or more of these categories and occasionally lack them completely. Bad movies are often hilarious in their ineptitude; all the more so if it is clear the people involved were making an honest effort.

I primarily watch bad sci-fi, horror, and action movies. The potential for misrepresented and/or misunderstood science in these films is also especially attractive. It is simultaneously infuriating and exciting to see these movies botch basic science ("That DNA looks human!") and repurpose scientific concepts (e.g., mutation and genetic modification) to the point of absurdity (e.g., piranhas that grow by orders of magnitude).

By my best estimate, I have seen 724 bad movies. Using IMDb metrics, the average rating for these movies is 4.18 (out of 10), and the total run time is 64,832 minutes ( = 1,080.53 hours = 45.02 days). Check out my blog for periodic reviews of bad movies as I continue to add more to my list.