Did you enjoy the film-awards season? A triumph, of course, for the movie that collected in four of its seven categories — cue drum roll — Basic Instinct 2.

These were, of course, the Razzies, or Golden Raspberry Awards, which, since 1980, have been lobbed at the most execrable films of the year. Amazingly, a few “winners” even turn up — most famously, Halle Berry, who collected her 2005 worst-actress gong for Catwoman with a parody of her 2002 Oscar-winning weepfest, clutching the famous gold statuette alongside its new friend, a gold spray-painted raspberry above a mangled film reel.

The Razzies are a welcome antidote to the schmaltz and egotism of the Oscars. And now, for those unable to make it to LA, there’s a homage to Tinseltown turkeys here — the Bad Film Club. It is the brainchild of the Cardiff-based comedy duo Nicko (Nicola) Vaughan and Joe Timmins, and its premise is that, rather than making the audience suffer in silence, some films are better for having invective hurled at them, with the active encouragement of a commentary from professional stand-ups — or, in this case, sit-downs — in the front row.

Nicko and Joe honed their bad-film antennae inside the movie business before founding the club — Nicko as a script supervisor, Joe in postproduction sound. So, what makes a bad film? “It’s a film written in seriousness that turns into a comedy,” Nicko offers, before Joe adds: “We just interact with it in a way that makes it even funnier.”

As with any club, there are rules. No films before 1975, for example, because laughing at vintage sci-fi is as cheap as the effects they used. “No comedies” is a more curious rule. “They just don’t work in a Bad Film Club,” explains Nicko. “A bad comedy becomes something really boring, like those Czech animations of a dancing marionette.”

Money — or lack of it — isn’t everything, though. Joe says: “Truly bad films have no heart or soul. What’s really annoying is when one has loads of money, but just doesn’t try.”

While the duo have ultimate say over which movies are logged as bad films in the club’s pantheon, there are lively debates with fans on the BFC website. Carte blanche applies, though, for the screenings that feature guest stand-ups alongside Nicko and Joe. Amounting to personal vendettas — billed as So-and-so Comedian v Whatever — these can provide unexpected clashes. Stewart Lee insisted on March of the Penguins, on moral rather than aesthetic grounds. “He said it was a horrible prop to right-wing values,” explains Nicko. “It was weird, though, heckling baby penguins.”

While Joe admits the strong personal element in judging a film’s badness, he stresses the fine line between love and hate. One fan summed it up on the BFC website: “It’s rubbish, but you can’t stop watching.”

It is a feeling shared by the Razzies’ founder, John Wilson. “These awards don’t come from a place of hatred. I love a good film, but I also want to have a good time. My parents were raised during the depression, and movies meant a lot to them. I got a real sense of the value of movies.”

Even a talented star or director is no guarantee a film will go well. Worst-actor nominees for this year’s Razzies included Nicolas Cage, for The Wicker Man, and the worst-actress winner, Sharon Stone, showed more talent than flesh in Casino.

As I settle down to watch Basic Instinct 2 — rechristened Basically, It Stinks, Too for the Razzies — it soon reveals its mastery of the bad-film genre. AA (awful acting): check. PP (pathetic plot): check. DD (dreadful dialogue, rather than a reference to Stone’s breasts, nominated, unsuccessfully, for a Razzie as worst screen couple): check.

The comedian Phil Nichol leads the assault before an enthusiastic crowd at the Ritzy, in Brixton, offering front-row prompts that quickly have the audience joining in. It is cathartic not to have to sit in silence. “It’s payback,” one smiling viewer says afterwards, “for all those films that treat the audience like morons.”

I ask Joe about the best audience contribution they have had. “It was during Jaws 4 in Winchester,” he says. “There’s a bit at the end where the shark explodes and the camera cuts to Michael Caine, and someone yelled out, ‘You’re only supposed to blow the bloody jaws off.’”

If you don’t get that joke, you’re reading the wrong article. A book looms for Nicko and Joe: The Bad Film Club Bible. “Any titles you think deserve a place, let us know,” Nicko says. Can I nominate Titanic?

For more on the Bad Film Club, and future screenings: www.badfilmclub.com

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