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Although he only made two fiction features, filmmaker Michael Roemer benefited greatly from an early rediscovery in the 1990s, thanks to the fortuitous unearthing of a film he made in 1969, The Plot Against Harry, a wry, dry comedy starring Martin Priest. His other film, 1964’s Nothing But a Man, is often compared by critics to the slicker, middle-America-friendly films that Sidney Poitier was making during the same era. Almost without exception, film about the minority experience in ’60s America were smoothed-over paeans to “the triumph of the human spirit,” starring or co-starring whites whose presence is required as witnesses, arbiters, and the final, thankful beneficiaries of growth and change. Bland but well-meaning, films like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? and A Patch of Blue, seeking to instruct the white moviegoer by giving them a diagrammatic path to sociopolitical enlightenment, had a funny habit of discounting, even nullifying, the Black experience.

Forgotten Films [1] is a semi-regular feature on Film Junk where we explore interesting movies that have fallen off the radar or slipped through the cracks over the years. I've been getting a bit behind on my Forgotten Films lately, but in a way, it's only fitting that I waited until now to write this column since there has been so much Cosby content on the Film Junk Podcast lately. While Jay has been busy going through every single season of The Cosby Show, a couple of months ago I rewatched one of Bill Cosby's less celebrated classics: the disastrous '80s spy spoof, Leonard Part 6. There once was a time when Bill Cosby could do no wrong. He made a name for himself doing stand-up comedy in the '60s, and his charisma and knack for storytelling and characterizations led to him being cast in I Spy alongside Robert Culp.

One of the great features over at the Internet Movie Database is the Bottom 100. Based on ratings viewers of the site give to various films, the worst of the worst films get put on this list. Some of them are on and off in a matter of days. Others stick around for the long haul, showing just how much suckage they truly emit.

It’s time to look at these movies and determine where they stand. Do they deserve to be on the Bottom 100 list? Are they not as bad as everyone says? Will they be off the list any time soon?

Here’s the breakdown for this week’s film:

Title: ‘Leonard Part 6′

Release Date: December 18, 1987

Ranking on Bottom 100 (as of 7/22/2009): #95 (based on 4515 votes)

Why it’s Here: Melted butter!

Starting in the 1960s, Bill Cosby was one of the premiere comedians on the scene. Releasing dozens...