Making a bad movie on purpose doesn’t make it actually a good movie. And Michael Bay virtually always makes action movies of that degree of stupidity.

Below, we’ve singled out the 20 best movies that opened in American theaters in 1998

Thanks for including A Bug’s Life; it’s still one of my favorites.

I’m just glad that both Rushmore and the Big Lebowski exist, so I’m not going to quibble about which one is better.

Awwwwe, dude... They neglected Ronin? That was in ‘98, wasn’t it? Not cool. Some of the best car chases, some of the best Sean Bean-ery.

It should definitely place first on the list of the most-quoted movies of 1998. 

I believe you are giving waaaaaaay too much credit to Armageddon here. I think Michael Bay legitimately loves schlock in a completely earnest way. He’s not making fun of anything. He’s celebrating it.  

I don’t think Michael Bay really makes jokes, to be honest. At very least, his sense of humor is not “sly, subtle self-awareness.” It’s “sticking that dork’s head in the toilet is funny.”

A.A. Dowd, Katie Rife, Mike D’Angelo, Jesse Hassenger, and Noel Murray

Shakespeare in Love?…

It really isn’t, though. Lebowski’s reputation has improved by a huge degree since it came out. Rushmore was critically beloved when it first came out, and its rep hasn’t really diminished. Lebowski is probably more popular now, but they’re both pretty beloved sorta-cult objects. It’s not as if this defies years of…

It is a horrible take, but only because the words ‘guns n roses, metallica, and system of a down’ all get used in the span of one comment. The only way to make it worse would be to throw the words ‘goo goo dolls’ in there.

Counterpoint: Guns ‘N Roses sucks. They’re entire act was “Let’s do what Motley Crue is doing but edgier, man!” They’re every bit as hair metal as Poison or Skid Row, which is why they didn’t do much between Nirvana releasing Nevermind and becoming dad rock 15 years later. Their most iconic song is Jim Rome’s bumper…

Not only that, but restaurants and businesses are putting the wall-mounted diaper changing station in the handicapped stall as well.  Brilliant thinking there.

GnR was hair metal but they were so good at it that nobody could be better and they killed the genre. It’s like how nobody did serialized novels after Dickens, or Cubism after Picasso, or Westerns after John Ford.

Counterpoint. Guns n Roses is hair metal. Touring with Metallica doesn’t make you “not hair metal” because Metallica is hair metal. Guns n Roses, Metallica, and System of a Down are all awful.

What the hell, man? If I’ve got to take a shit and that’s the only open stall I’m going for it. It’s not a parking spot. I can occupy it while I take care of my business. Sorry you have to wait just like every other goddamned person, buddy. At least you have your own chair to sit in, ya prick.

They’re also pejorative terms that were obviously made up by people who dislike the genre. It’s always been weird to me that the very name of those genres insults the genre itself.

My wife is so afraid of someone noticing her when she goes to poop, she actually keeps a 2nd pair of shoes in her desk so nobody recognizes her in the stall. She calls them her Shittin’ Shoes.

The argument against calling GnR a Hair Metal band is the same argument for not calling System of a Down a nu-Metal band: those two genres suck, while those two bands don’t. Otherwise, they fit right in.