"My Year of Flops"

Nathan Rabin's A.V. Club feature, in which he reviews and reassesses legendary (and/or forgotten) Hollywood disasters, is essential reading. I thought every possible joke about Battlefield Earth had already been made, until I read Rabin's take on John Travolta's Scientology recruiting film:

...[Critics of Scientology] resent the idea that an undistinguished novelist could be a religious leader on par with Jesus or Buddha.

Of course if a preeminent figure in my faith had a lucrative sideline writing ridiculous pulp fiction I’d probably downplay that aspect of his life and teachings. If, for example, Moses used his downtime writing the Torah to hastily compose a series of fantasy novels exploring the lives, loves and adventures of Thoretta, She-Ogre of The Barbarian Realm, I’d probably steer clear of publicizing his side-gig too aggressively. I certainly wouldn’t try to lure Bridgette Nielsen into starring in a feature-film adaptation of Thoretta, She Ogre Of The Barbarian Realm as a way of bringing converts to Judaism.

The comment sections are great as well, especially for The Island of Dr. Moreau. Go back to the beginning, set aside an hour or ten, and read them all.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at September 12, 2007 08:14 PM