I received Hollywood Movie Money tickets that apparently are accepted by "almost everyone." Not an independent movie theater. And, not the AMC chain. Still, another chain did take them, so I watched two somewhat iffy movies free of charge. Both were worthwhile in their own fashion.
The first was just simple fun, which these days is not as easy as it should be to find in the theaters. The photo provided as well as the title itself, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, suggests what has in store, as well as the fact it is from the Troma people ... known for low budget gems like The Toxic Avenger. The movie is about a poor schmuck who tries to impress his girl while dealing with some members of the chicken undead. Toss in lots of lesbians, bad taste and musical numbers, well, you get the idea. For a certain taste, but I loved it.
The value of the movie in part was that yeah it was trash, but it was well put together trash -- this is not always what trash offers. The actors were quite good actually and the musical numbers creative and sung with some talent. Talent also was shown in The Babysitters, including Katherine Waterston (the daughter of Sam), John Leguizamo and (a somewhat wasted) Cynthia Nixon (of Sex and the City, but good in many other roles too) and a fairly good supporting cast.
I wanted to see Noise, a Tim Robbins vehicle about a lawyer who goes a bit nuts dealing with sound pollution, but darn if AMC would not take my ticket. So, I saw this film, which I was a bit iffy about given the plot -- teen babysitter has an affair with married guy and starts a teen prostitution service for others who like the idea. The plot is definitely a bit scummy. Given there is nudity (and kissing), it is often good to realize these are twentysomethings (at the very least, over 18) in real life. Still, the Troma film had the usual exploitation stuff of the genre; films like this are exploitative with more claim of "serious" intentions.
The saving grace of an imperfect script is that you actually care about the characters, who overall (even underused Nixon as a once wild girl now concerned about her husband falling back to using drugs ... clearly she had a bad experience with it and wants to put it behind her) are not just caricatures. The quiet college bound teen with a crush on the father of the kid she is babysitting, the dad with a mid-life crisis and problems with his marriage/career who (against his better instincts) is drawn to her, the two friends with their own issues etc. Some reviews think the KW character transforms too fast ... but we find out this is not really true at all.
I think the first movie keeps its goofy fun up throughout the movie down to the credits (akin to Naked Gun movies, they are fun in themselves, including the explanatory cameo credits). The second has a bit more trouble though it does a decent job, including the predictable trouble that results from the whole thing -- it is no Risky Business fun ride. It also is not for all tastes, but an imperfect worth watching for what it does offer.
Surely if you can watch for free!