Guilty Movie Pleasures

[Jay Birch]

Gremlins 1 and 2.... I have to watch them every time I see them on the listings.

[Michael Dalton]

Soul Plane. Need to be in the right mood for this type of film, but I nearly pissed myself. Back in the film school days I turned my nose up at anything that was not Kubrick or Kurosawa, but I must say that I missed out on some good crappy films.

Hot Fuzz is another classic.

[Scott Crawley]

You feel guilty watching all of those? I am so sorry for you. There are good films on that list. You shouldn't feel bad about liking them. (EDIT: OK some of them...)

I don't think Titanic is a guilty pleasure at all. It's a very well made movie. Cliché story, I'll grant you that, and some dialogue that's not all what it should be, and it's not a masterpiece, but with the re-release I took some people to the theatre that hadn't seen it before (yes, they exist, in low numbers) and the movie still gets people.

My list?
Note: these are not by far my favorite movies (that would be a completely different list) but I enjoy these movies, whatever their reputation may be!
Some of them are maybe too good, to be considered Guilty Pleasure, but I'll go with a lot of the ones where I think they have mixed reputations)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1+2 (live action movies)
Tremors
The Warriors
Anaconda
Walt Disney's Basil The Great Mouse Detective
Young Sherlock Holmes
Hook
Christine
Pet Sematary 1
Village of the Damned (Carpenter)
In the Mouth of Madness
Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story
Down with Love
The Faculty
The Fifth Element
Forever Young
Free Willy 1+2 (by now you can probably guess my age)
The Good Son
The Grinch (with Jim Carrey)
Home Alone 1+2
House on Haunted Hill (Vincent Price)
Little Monsters (did anyone see that?)
Journey of Natty Gann
White Fang 1 (huge fan of that movie and it's score!)
Fluke
The Jungle Book (from Stephen Sommers)
Kindergarten Cop
The Karate Kid 2
The Land Before Time (is that a Guilty pleasure? The original one is a classic!)
Last Action Hero
The Mummy 1 (Stephen Sommers)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 1, 3, 7
Mystery Men
Powder
Reign Over Me
The Resquers Down Under
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
The Shadow
Starman (I just really love Jeff Bridges acting in general)
White Squall (see above ;-))
Total Recall
Toys (with Robin Williams)
Untamed Heart
The War (Elijah Wood & Kevin Costner)
The Postman (with Kevin Costner)
Willow

Mine is a sentimental choice. I saw it in it's original release while on a skiing trip with my best friend. It was our first solo road trip... many memories there including Youngblood http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092272/ . It's a great coming of age story and I still enjoy it. Boy reaches for a dream, avenges his family, gets laid AND takes on a big villain... not too shabby if you ask me. The only stigma comes from the reputation Rob Lowe once had but that silliness is easy to ignore, particularly since Cynthia Gibb is so hot. What a crush I had! Zowie!!

Speaking of crushes I have to also claim Gremlins, not because the film makes me feel guilty, but for the crush I had on Pheobe Cates and that undoubtedly leads to Fast Times At Ridgemont High (2x guilty). The scene where pirate Reinhold gets caught with his pants down still makes me blush.

I guess for me, the things that make me feel guilty about my "guilty pleasures" has little to do with the quality of the film, but other emotions surrounding it.

[Jason Beckwith]

My biggest guilty pleasure, that I watch EVERY time I'm channel surfing and see it:

Shoot 'em Up!

[Jon Jones]

I saw Prometheus the other day and it was ok, the acting was good, but I guess I'm just not that big of a Ridley fan. Personally I like to watch the Bourne series, and Star Trek movies!

[Mark K.]

The Punisher with Thomas Jane is one of my guiltiest. I know it's woeful, but Jane's fantastic in it, I must have seen it a good hallf-dozen times by now.

[Michael McLaughlin]

Idiocracy.

But I think is was meant from the start to be that way.


Honorable mention: The Big Lebowski

Since moving back to Ohio, found a lot of people don't get/appreciate that one.

[Tim Whitcomb]

Savage Steve Holland's "Better Off Dead" was reviled by critics...

Still the greatest Snow Skiing movie EVER made and my all time favorite comedy.

[Scott Crawley]

I want my $2!

And the classic "Now why would anyone throw out a perfectly good white boy?" imagine that one getting through today.

[Matthew Love]

For me. Some great underwater cinematography by PZ.