Eric’s Bad Movies: ‘Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend’ (1985)
Dinosaurs, or at least their cheap-looking equivalents, are at the heart of this week’s edition of “Eric’s Bad Movies” at Film.com. It’s “Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend,” a throwaway offering from Disney in 1985 that stars William Katt, best known for playing the lead in TV’s “The Greatest American Hero.” He appears in the film shorn of his trademark curly blond afro, however.
Do other people approximately my age (33) remember this film? I never saw it, but I vividly remember the commercials for it, and the title and premise have always been at the back of my mind. Maybe it made a big impression on me because it involved dinosaurs, which are very cool to 10-year-olds. What I never realized at the time was that the movie is really, really bad.
Next week’s film will be timely and appropriate. That’s your only clue.
July 10th, 2008 at 10:35 am
It has to be one of the Schumacher Batmans.
I know you already reviewed “Batman and Robin”, but it was in a different format, so you could argue that it qualifies for a traditional review.
July 10th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I remember seeing Baby. I don’t remember much about it, except that I thought it was mostly boring.
Chris - You’re probably right, but it could be the 1966 Batman movie starring Adam West. A review of that would be awesome.
July 10th, 2008 at 10:56 am
For what it’s worth, I posted my comment about Baby being boring before I read Eric’s review.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:07 am
As I recall, “Baby” was the last film my elementary school showed us when I was in 3rd grade, before VCRs started to become commonplace. Anyone else remember that sort of thing in their school? I think “Return to Witch Mountain” was the first one I saw in Kindergarten, and we even got to see “Song of the South” in there somewhere, before Eisner banned it.
And “Batman and Robin” (or possibly the 1966 “Batman”) seemed logical to me, too. Unless it has something to do with Constitution Day in South Korea (thanks, Wikipedia).
July 10th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I remember seeing “Baby” in the movie theater. I don’t remember much about it, but I did see it.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:29 am
You’d better not review the old Adam West “Batman” movie, or there may be some virtual skull-busting in store. . .
July 10th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I remember renting it when I was about 10 years old because it had dinosaurs and I thought it would be really cool. Well, the dinosaur part sucked, and the unexpected part was all of the naked indigenous people.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:44 am
The original Adam West movie was a bad movie, but an entertaining one. Batman and Robin is just plain bad, it rightly deserves to be mocked on this website.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I am a few years younger than Eric, but I remember seeing this movie on a Saturday morning TV showing a few years after it came out in theaters. I was bored with it then, even at approximately age 11 or whatever.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
My sister like this movie.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I’m not sure I want to read your review. I have very fond memories of Baby.
We moved to Utah when I was 7 and my mom got a job for a a few months working at the Scera theater (that was back when they paid you instead of just giving free tickets to their “volunteers”). That was the movie playing when she started and since she couldn’t afford day care, we would just go to work with her and sit in the theater watching Baby over and over and over again.
It’s probably bad, but in my 7-year-old brain it was the best movie ever. Plus, it’s one of the first movies I remember seeing in a theater. (The other being Tootsie!)
Poor Baby!
July 10th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
another equally bad dinosaur movie to look at is “Theadore Rex”, starring Whoopi Goldberg. Then again, besides Jurassic Park, dinosaur movies have a fairly bad track record.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Eric already reviewed Batman & Robin. Maybe it’s another Batman. Is there a really bad Abba movie? As far as I can tell, most movies centering around monkeys, apes, or chimpanzees are really bad, so there’s probably a collection of those from which to choose.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
clumpy, any movie that has Bat-Shark Repellent in an aerosol can deserves all the ridicule that one can muster.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I saw Baby at the drive in. I thought it was boring.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Is it too late to suggest bad movies? Cause George of the Jungle would be a great addition. Although Eric’s already done a Tarzan movie, so it would be kind of redundant.
July 10th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I agree that it must be a batman movie for next weeks.
I looked at Baby on IMDB and found this jewel of a quote:
“In other words, some days you eat the bone; other days the bone eats you.”
All I have to say is… what?
July 10th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
card, Eric indicated in his call for movie suggestions that he might revisit “Batman and Robin.” I’m really hoping he does. I can’t wait to see what he does with that one.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Ampersand - If he does, I’m sure it’ll be good.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I vaguely remember seeing this on the video shelf when I was a kid. I never rented it, probably because I was too busy checking out “The Last Unicorn” for the six thousandth time. Glad to know I didn’t miss much.
As for next week, I’m going to take a dark horse bet and say “Can’t Stop the Music” in honor of that other disco-related movie opening.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Gotta be “Batman Forever”. It may have been better than “Batman and Robin” but not by a hell of alot, plus “Batman and Robin” never would have happened if “Forever” hadn’t been successful. It wasn’t the worst of the franchise but it paved the way for the worst.
July 11th, 2008 at 5:31 am
Also 33, and I don’t remember Baby at all.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Looks like Laremy spilled out. It’s B&R:
http://www.film.com/movies/story/summer-filmcom-weekly-wrap-up/21774836
July 11th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Oh, he is so busted. He must not have known the little guessing game we play here. Looks like I have to kill another editor….
July 11th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Patrick McGoohan’s in “Baby”? Patty McG?
Crap.
I’ll watch it.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I also remember the TV commercials for Baby, and I really wanted to see it based on the fact that they called the baby dino “Baby,” which was apparently the cutest thing my young mind had ever heard. What a sucker. I don’t trust that bone as far as I can throw it, or whatever.