Question: With all the best- and worst-of-2005 lists I've seen, I've been wondering about the worst movies of all time. But though I've seen dozens of lists, with the exception of Plan 9 from Outer Space and Glen or Glenda, the movies on the lists all seem to have been made between 1980 and the present. Are there any bad-movie lists that go back to the early days of film, or is it just that movies started getting really bad in the 1980s?
Answer: I'll answer the second part of your question first: It's not that movies have gotten worse but that smarty-pants treasuring of "worst movies of all time" lists is a relatively recent phenomenon, one that I blame on Harry and Michael Medved and their condescending Golden Turkey Awards. I'm not saying that there aren't terrible movies out there, only that squandering energy that could be better used in any of a hundred ways on hunting down and cata
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Question: I'm just curious about why Paul Thomas Anderson's production company is named Ghoulardi Films. Was he a big fan of Channel 8's Shock Theater when he was a kid?
Answer: Here's a hint: Hipster Cleveland-area TV horror host Ghoulardi's real name was Ernie Anderson. Yes, Paul Thomas Anderson is his son. The director actually grew up in California; his father moved from Cleveland in 1966 to pursue work as a voice actor and became an extremely successful TV announcer. For younger readers who think the history of horror hosts begins with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Ghoulardi was only one in a long line of oddball characters who introduced TV showings of old horror movies. They're all descended from "Vampira," a wasp-wai
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