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| Directed by Louis Morneau; Starring Dina Meyer, Lou Diamond Phillips, León, Carlos Jacott, Bob Gunton, and James Sie |
Just last week I wrote about a film entitled The Omega Code, telling of how it might be fun to just see it to make fun of. I even gave The Omega Code a D- as opposed to a F simply because I had so much fun (especially with Michael York’s performance), but the campy fun is not even present in Bats. Both are bad films, poorly written, poorly acted, altogether poorly made, but what makes the difference is that The Omega Code is made as if it is really trying to be a real action film, while Bats is self mocking. I went through this same thing with Phantoms and Desperate Measures early in 1998, where I found Phantoms more watchable since it was really trying to be good, while Desperate Measures was trying to be bad and see how people would enjoy some self-mockery. This is the whole reason that Ed Wood film are so great to watch, or Manos: The Hands of Fate, it is funny just how inept they are. Let’s face it, few people beyond Roger Corman can make self-mocking bad films so well.
Bats is just as bad as its trailers made it look. I’ve seen some bad films, so I think I’m near an expert on bad films and this was pretty bad. Every minute detail about the film was poor. Plus it was a comedy trying to show how bad the genre is, but not working as a comedy or an action film. Bats is just all-out bad.
The film is about some mutated bats that are spreading across the southwest, killing people and cars in their way. The government sends for a bat expert (Meyer) who they think might help to find the root of the problems and stop it from spreading across the North American continent. The bats are mainly attacking one small town in Texas, where the local sheriff (Phillips) takes it upon himself to help her try to stop the animals from killing everyone.
So far this year I’m at a division on the worst film of the year, trying to decide between Existo and Detroit Rock City, so this film is not the worst so far this year. The direction is about as novice looking as Glen or Glenda and the writing is almost as bad (pretty sad since screenwriter John Logan is getting pretty good word of mouth with his RKO 281 and Any Given Sunday scripts). Even though the film is free from worst film honors, that cannot be said for its lead actor. Lou Diamond Phillips gives a performance that even Edward Furlong would look down upon. Most of the cast walks through the screenplay, but it takes an awful actor like Phillips to try and look so bad. Bats is easily the worst action film of the year so far, and that means I’m saying it is worse than Universal Soldier: The Return.
