The Bitwise Operator

There’s something so wonderful about reviews of bad movies. It brings out a particular type of sadistic glee from movie writers, using turns of phrase and exaggeration.

I’ll start off by saying that I have no idea if “The Love Guru” is good or bad. I don’t have any plans to see it, and frankly, I don’t really care one way or the other. But regardless of the quality of the movie, it has spawned some of the most wonderfully evil pieces of writing, written by truly talented people.

Here are some of my favorite lines:

From the A.O. Scott’s New York Times review:

To say that the movie is not funny is merely to affirm the obvious. The word “unfunny” surely applies to Mr. Myers’s obnoxious attempts to find mirth in physical and cultural differences but does not quite capture the strenuous unpleasantness of his performance. No, “The Love Guru” is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again.

How perfect. Here’s another from Slate’s Dana Stevens:

There are good movies. There are bad movies. There are movies so bad they’re good (though, strangely, not the reverse). And once in a while there is a movie so bad that it takes you to a place beyond good and evil and abandons you there, shivering and alone.

There’s a whole lot more like this at Rotten Tomatoes. Enjoy.