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Film Review: Best Worst Movie & Troll 2

Mar 04, 2011 01:31PM ● By Wendy Sipple

Best Worst Movie is a documentary about the cult following of Troll 2 which is generally regarded as one of the worst films ever made.

The documentary is actually directed by the child star of Troll 2, Michael Stephenson, who is now in his late twenties. Stephenson chooses to focus much of his film on the adult lead actor George Hardy who has an interesting journey in this film.
George Hardy is a dentist in Alabama who took the part in Troll 2 on a whim following a childhood dream. George loves the limelight which is evident in the footage of him in his hometown which features George all dressed up as a rollerblading tooth fairy in his town’s Christmas parade. As special revival screenings of Troll 2 start selling out George eagerly attends the events as a special guest and basks in the attention. Hardy happily announces to anyone who listens, “Hey, I’m the star of the worst movie ever made!”
The strength of the Best Worst Movie ever is the character of George Hardy who is a very likable character. The movie seems to take on a wider view during the middle introducing the rest of the cast members and the crew. There are some very funny moments. One is the director who seems to think that audiences in America have finally realized the genius of his movie and only after the screening starts to realize that everyone in attendance likes it only because of how bad it is.
I think the documentary is mainly aimed at people who know the film making process. Best Worst Movie had the opportunity to make an interesting character study of George Hardy’s journey but they stray too often from him and don’t dig enough in his past to make his story complete. I can say it’s definitely an interesting documentary. Best Worst Movie is a must watch with its main subject, Troll 2.
Troll 2 earns its title as one of the worst movies ever made. However it’s so strange and everyone in the film commits so fully to the film it has a unique feel to it.
First off Troll 2 is not a sequel (they just named it Troll 2 because there was already a movie named Troll -- there’s no connection between the two films). In addition there are no trolls in Troll 2, only goblins. The goblin costumes are so ridiculously fake that the rubber hands wobble and the giant masks look almost as if they were made from silly putty and cardboard. In addition, Troll 2 is littered with horrendous acting.
What puts Troll 2 over the top are the crazy bits of dialog that make no sense, and are so in left field that it would be hard to make the bits up. The plot is actually a story that is “anti” vegetarianism as admitted by the writer herself in the documentary about the making of the film.  
Is Troll 2 worth watching? It’s good for a few laughs if you are in the mood for watching a train wreck of a movie with some friends. As a gentleman states in Best Worst Movie, “Troll 2 seems like a movie made by aliens trying to make a human horror movie but just don’t understand enough about humans to quite make it work.” Agreed.

Justin Buettner is Style's resident movie dude! How did he get this role? Well, he graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a Bachelor of Arts in film Production and a duel minor in Animation and Business with an emphasis in the entertainment field. He later went on to work on several independent films in various key roles including writer and later worked in the special effects field as a motion capture artist. He has since relocated to the Sacramento area with his family and continues writing for small independent films in addition to his movie reviews for Style Magazine.