Top 14 Guilty Pleasures

[J.R. Hudson]

This is the list of guilty pleasure. These movies fall under the category of 'everyone thinks they're crap, but I still like it'

These are films you watch over and over. They're cheezy, campy, usually panned and may be cult classics

My Top 14 and like most best list's, can change at any given mood'

The Return of the Living Dead
The Breakfast Club
About Last Night
Total Recall
The Frighteners
Footloose
The Fog
Porky's
Valley Girl
Clue
St Elmos Fire
Cliffhanger
The New Kids
The 13th Warrior

[Kirk Gillock]

Dead Calm
Joe vs the Volcano
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Reality Bites
Serenity
Cars
Always
True Lies
Shakespeare in Love
Jerry Maguire
Notting Hill
Zoolander
Lost Boys
Amelie

[DeSica]

These movies fall under the category of 'everyone thinks they're crap, but I still like it'

...films you watch over and over. They're cheezy, campy, usually panned and may be cult classics


...The Breakfast Club...

Porky's...

Woah, woah. The Breakfast Club was pure genius. I was a tad on the young side when it came out, but my whole generation looks upon this film as a cultural touchstone. That goes double for Ferris Bueller's Day Off. As a kid, I knew full blown adults who enjoyed that film. It's great.

Porky's is a Canadian classic. For the longest time it was our highest grossing film ever. The only bad thing about it was how it may have indirectly inspired American Pie.

My father sat me down at like 12 years old to watch Porky's with him on an old Canadian pay station called Superchannel. He had already seen it, and promised me that I would laugh my ass off. I did. The 'describing the pecker /sketch artist' scene actually made him laugh so hard it brought him to tears. His only admonition was that I not tell my mom that we saw it. I didn't.

My own guilty pleasures....

Secret Admirer (saw it three times one afternon, back to back to back)
While You Were Sleeping
Rounders
The Gambler (with James Caan)
Pretty much anything with "...The Planet of the Apes" in the title (Battle For...is on right now. Tim Burton's version sucks, but I can't look away.)
The Pope of Greenwich Village
Ghost Dog
Soylent Green
Rollerball (with James Caan)
Billy Jack (I don't like it, but I keep watching it when it's on)
Year of The Dragon
just about anything Cheech & Chong did (though I don't do drugs, and never have...go figure.)
Half Baked (I hated this film the first two times I saw it, but then something happened...others report similar experiences.)

[Luis Caffesse]

The Fog??
Come on, that's Carpenter in his prime!
(well, the beginning of his prime...after Halloween - right before Escape from New York).
Nothing 'guilty' about enjoying that movie, in my opinion.

You want guilty pleasures?

How about the Brady Bunch Movie?
Now THAT is a guilty pleasure.
:thumbsup:

[Kirk Gillock]

Luis - Nope. The Brady Bunch is also not a guilty pleasure because it too is a great film. ;D It's all relative, I guess.

[CallaghanFilms]

Great nominees so far, gents.

Here are another 14 to throw into the hat:

Krull
Cannonball Run 2
Bachelor Party
Dune
Police Academy 1-3
The Monster Squad (just introduced my little guy to this gem)
Young Sherlock Holmes
The Rocketeer
Willow
Flash Gordon
Tron
Howard the Duck
Waterworld
...does An American Werewolf in London count??

[J.R. Hudson]

Great List ! Bachelor Party; epic. Willow ! Yes !

Hey Cal !

American Werewolf in London, hmmmmm ... Man I love that film ? How could one not ?

[Steve Strickland]

Here's a few off the top of my head:

The Penetentiary trilogy (Part 3 is the most absurd prison movie ever!)
Something's Gotta Give
Skin Deep
Any pre-Curly Sue John Hughes film
The Hudsucker Proxy
Bubba Ho-Tep
Ghosts Of Mars (let the hatred begin, pure low budget JC fun)
The Kentucky Fried Movie
Suburbia (not the Linklater one)

and the origin of my namesake:

Over The Edge

the most underrated teen angst film, a perfect timecapsule of the late seventies.

[Steve Strickland]

Oh man, I forgot about Bachelor Party! Watching that movie late night on HBO as a kid was pure gold. I love Tom Hanks as a serious actor, but sometimes I miss that old Bachelor Party style.

[Luis Caffesse]

Hudsucker Proxy?
How can the Coens make a 'guilty pleasure' list?

Richie - I was going to add Over the Edge to my list...then stopped and thought, hey wait...that's actually a damn good movie!

I guess that's my problem...I have a hard time coming up with anything that I like that I don't think is actually a good movie.

hmmmm...going to have to think about this one.

[Steve Strickland]

Hudsucker Proxy?
How can the Coens make a 'guilty pleasure' list?

Richie - I was going to add Over the Edge to my list...then stopped and thought, hey wait...that's actually a damn good movie!

I guess that's my problem...I have a hard time coming up with anything that I like that I don't think is actually a good movie.

hmmmm...going to have to think about this one.


I put Hudsucker on there because it usually rests next to The LadyKillers on peoples Coen favs list. It never seems to get much respect. "Long live the HUD!"

I put films on my list that are great to me, no matter if anyone else gives a damn.

[Capt Quirk]

Electra- I love the visual style.
Evil Dead- Any one of them.
What Dreams May Come- Again, another visually stunning film
Any of the "Road movies"- I like Bing and Bob... what about it?
Heavy Metal- Great soundtrack and nice animation.
Big Fish- another one with some amazing scenes.
Knight's Tale- I love watching Chaucer get "Thonged"! Reading his stories was like walking barefoot over broken glass!

[Krummi]

Whoa..

Hackers
Clueless
Lost Boys
Weird Science
Love Actually
Mortal Kombat
Last Boyscout
Fist of the North Star

hmm...no more? can't remember...

[David Jimerson]

From lists above:

The Breakfast Club (not "pure genius," but solid)
The Frighteners
The Fog
St Elmos Fire
Rollerball
Dune
Young Sherlock Holmes
Willow
Tron

These are not "guilty pleasures"! These are all actually good movies.


Guilty pleasures:

Under Siege
Clash of the Titans
Hercules (with Lou Ferrigno)
Our Man Flint
Weekend at Bernie's
UHF
First Knight
Buckaroo Banzai
Starcrash
Battle Beyond the Stars
The Running Man
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Death Race 2000

. . . and . . .


(get ready)



Spice World.

[Capt Quirk]

First Knight is a guilty pleasure, if you watch it to enjoy Chaucer getting beat. Since the first time I had to read Canterbury Tales in Junior High British Lit, I've always wanted to be able to do that.

[scar this armada]

Here goes:
The Mummy movies (with Brendan Fraser)
Blast from the past (also with Fraser)
Corky Romano
Airheads ( I guess anything with Fraser in it eh)
Beverly hills ninja
Monsturd (if you havn't seen this, go out and find it)
Hoodwinked
desparate measures
How to loose a guy in 10 days (It's not that I like it, but I usually don't turn it if it comes on ha)
The Hot shots movies
There's more I just can't think right now.

[Drew Ott]

I don't think I'll get 14 but here are some that I always watch if they're on TV:

(in no order)
Along Came Polly
Dumb and Dumber
Space Jam
Mary Kate and Ashley movies
Mean Girls
Grease
Jurassic Park 3
The Fast and the Furious
Dr. Doolittle

...these are embarrassing.

[Drew Ott]

I have no what anybody else thinks of this movie, but I may put The Secret Garden on my list.

It's not that I think it's bad, it's that I wouldn't go around telling people I like it. That movie haunted my childhood. I saw it at a very young age and it was too dark for me or something. Anyway, I for some reason can't get enough of the weird feeling it makes you have.

[Staven]

Roadhouse
Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man
The Last Boy Scout
Robocop
Stone Cold with the Boz
Van Damme Flicks up to Double Team, then I stopped watching - Cyborg being my fav.
Seagal up to Exit Wounds.
Gymkata, though it's been a while.
MIA 2
Enter & Revenge of the Ninja - Revenge being the best, Sho Kosugi's the man.
Lundgren's Punisher.
Boondock Saints - only put it into this category cuz some people think it's shi*e.
13th Warrior - agree with John on this one...

and Mr. Jingles. Not really a guilty pleasure, but bought it after reading a thread on this site. Whenever I need a good laugh, or show people what gets distribution while my films can't, I show them this gem.

[Blaine]

Cliffhanger
Under Siege
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Just One of the Guys
January Man
The Rock
Mr. Destiny

I'm sure there are more but those are all I can think of right now.

[Drew Ott]

I was going to say Mr. Destiny too.

edit-also Down to Earth with Chris Rock.

[eignacio]

Hmm..guilty pleasures.

Sidekicks
Only the Strong
The Last Starfighter
Zapped
Rad
18 Again
Oh God
Remo Williams
Young Sherlock Holmes
Cloak and Dagger
Explorers
Mannequin
Toy Soldiers
Heavenly Kid

Might be more, but this is all I can think of...80's baby!!

[David Jimerson]

Why do so many people feel GUILTY about Young Sherlock Holmes?

[CallaghanFilms]

oh... Explorers, Toy Soldiers and Last Starfighter...good calls

[CallaghanFilms]

Why do so many people feel GUILTY about Young Sherlock Holmes?Methinks it is considered fairly crappy by the movie-going public at large, David...and I think I remember it being pounded by the critics.

I love the damned thing, myself.

[eignacio]

Why do so many people feel GUILTY about Young Sherlock Holmes?

[These movies fall under the category of 'everyone thinks they're crap, but I still like it']

Ha,ha - I put it down because I remember everyone leaving the living room or falling asleep halfway into the movie. I liked it though. :-)

[David Jimerson]

I would think a "guilty pleasure" should be, "yeah, I KNOW it's really bad, but I love watching it."

But there's nothing to feel guilty over for YSH. It's just a good movie.

[DeSica]

Yeah...what was so bad about Young Sherlock Holmes? Granted, I was 13 when I saw it, and haven't seen it since, but I recall enjoying it. Same with Cloak & Dagger.

Mr. Destiny...that takes me back (Michael Caine, is there any film you'll say no to?)

Weird Science...nice

Man, I detest Heavy Metal. The animation...the music....yet I keep watching it.

Would any of the following qualify?

King Ralph
Happy Gilmore
Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (got a craving all of a sudden)
Miami Blues
The Golden Child

[Capt Quirk]

If you hate Heavy Metal, you probably shouldn't watch Titan A.E.

[Luis Caffesse]

Heavenly Kid


I actually saw The Heavenly Kid in the theater.
I'll never forget that because I went to go see it with my sisters the week that it opened - and we were the only ones in the theater.

That's the only time that's ever happened to me.

[Kirk Gillock]

I'm shocked nobody has commented on David's "Spice World" confession yet. there's no Girl Power or Spice Up Your Life references. And no Spice Girls poster with David photoshopped into it. Seriously, are we going to let him off that easy?

:)

[Luis Caffesse]

I think because this is a "guilty pleasures" thread...its more like a support group.
They don't laugh at you at AA when you stand up and say "I'm an alcoholic"
:)

[Capt Quirk]

I had no desire to watch the Spice Girls. I used to live underneath a bunch of kids, who were up at dawn bouncing to Tell Me What You Want at full volume.

[Kirk Gillock]

You mean we can't make fun of people in here? Well screw this, I'm going back to the Cafe!


LOL :)

[DeSica]

They don't laugh at you at AA when you stand up and say "I'm an alcoholic"
:)

Yeah...those people can be so uptight. They should relax more...maybe have a drink.

Kidding.

As for Titan AE, I think I did see it. It wasn't that bad.

[J.R. Hudson]

The Spice Girls definatley are a guilty pleasure and no shame in it !

[David Jimerson]

Spice World is worth it for the random cameos alone. But as a whole, it's deliciously awful.

[Luis Caffesse]

If "deliciously awful" is our criteria...then my #1 guilty pleasure is most definitely...

The Star Wars Holiday Special.

Oh yeah!
http://www.pitchproductions.com/pics/wookiethumb.gif

[SPZ]

Enter the Dragon. "Don't look at the finger..."

Bloodsport "Ok, USA!" "Very good, but brick not hit back!"

Last Action Hero

And the guiltiest of all...

Catwoman! Its watchable! Serious!

[iain.bason]

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Wizards. When I was a teenager, I went to midnight showings of that instead of Rocky Horror.

[Tlalconetl]

This is the list of guilty pleasure. These movies fall under the category of 'everyone thinks they're crap, but I still like it'

These are films you watch over and over. They're cheezy, campy, usually panned and may be cult classics

My Top 14 and like most best list's, can change at any given mood'

The Return of the Living Dead
The Breakfast Club
About Last Night
Total Recall
The Frighteners
Footloose
The Fog
Porky's
Valley Girl
Clue
St Elmos Fire
Cliffhanger
The New Kids
The 13th Warrior

Hey, hey! Don't bad mouth Breakfast Club. This is one of the greatest films of all time. Most folks on this forum WISH they could write a movie like that! My guilty pleasure recently has been Shane Carruth's Primer. Not a crappy movie in my book, but everyone I know seems to really hate it.

[DeSica]

Hey, hey! Don't bad mouth Breakfast Club. This is one of the greatest films of all time. Most folks on this forum WISH they could write a movie like that! My guilty pleasure recently has been Shane Carruth's Primer. Not a crappy movie in my book, but everyone I know seems to really hate it.

I liked Primer. It's not a bad film, it's just not well known. It needed a boost to get it across to a bigger audience. Didn't Ebert recommend it highly?

[HorseFilms]

The biggest one that I refuse to appologize for:

Elvira - Mistress of the Dark


I'm also a sucker for anything Halloween themed (even if it's made for kids, such as Goosebumps, etc.)

[Jared Meyer]

Good thread. I could -and have done- watch all of the following repeatedly. Definitely guilty pleasures.

Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers 2 (!)
The Postman
Soylent Green
Alien versus Predator
Revenge of the Sith
Hellboy

Also, I really loved November, which, while not a guilty pleasure, everyone else seems to hate...

[Jared Meyer]

I have no what anybody else thinks of this movie, but I may put The Secret Garden on my list.

It's not that I think it's bad, it's that I wouldn't go around telling people I like it. That movie haunted my childhood. I saw it at a very young age and it was too dark for me or something. Anyway, I for some reason can't get enough of the weird feeling it makes you have.

There should be a whole other thread about children's movies as "guilty pleasures."

I've got a whole slew of them - and bballplaya there's no shame in liking the Secret Garden. Great movie :)

I'd also add Alfonso Cuaron's A Little Princess. Really loved that as a kid and still do. (Yes, 12 years ago I was a kid.)

Also, from further back, Old Yeller, Milo and Otis, National Velvet, Napoleon and Samantha, Big Red. (We kids were suckers for animals, weren't we?) I've seen all of these at least a dozen times each.

[Batutta]

My guiltiest pleasure of late would be Transformers. I know it's a heaping pile of trash, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it. Same with Charlie's Angels 1.

[SPZ]

The latest one was Die Hard 4. Just shut my brain and enjoyed the ride (even the Fighter vs truck and "teleportation to final scene" bits!)

[Elton]

Rocky Horror Picture Show (This is the one true guilty pleasure to rule them all)
Legend
Dune
Cemetery Man
Showgirls
Waterworld
Howard the Duck
Neverending Story
Jekyll and Hyde Together Again
ReAnimator






...and John, seriously, how could you call "An American Werewolf in London" a guilty pleasure? It is in the pantheon of all-time great horror flicks, and probably the greatest horror comedy ever. It is pure pleasure.

[David Jimerson]

...and John, seriously, how could you call "An American Werewolf in London" a guilty pleasure?

Sorta the same question I'd ask about Dune. Certainly not to everyone's taste, but a stylistic masterpiece.

[Capt Quirk]

Rocky Horror Picture Show (This is the one true guilty pleasure to rule them all)
Legend
Dune
Cemetery Man
Showgirls
Waterworld
Howard the Duck
Neverending Story
Jekyll and Hyde Together Again
ReAnimator


Wouldn't Showgirls be the one to rule them all?

[Elton]

Sorta the same question I'd ask about Dune. Certainly not to everyone's taste, but a stylistic masterpiece.

I think it comes down to the 'weirdo factor'; do friends/family/acquaintances/pets look askance at you for actually taking pleasure in watching the movie? You know, that "you're a weirdo" vibe you'll soak up from others while gratifying that peculiar cinematic predilection.

Dune is sublime weirdness, and it's also just plain bad at times, so to me it definitely crosses over into the "guilty pleasure" zone. 'An American Werewolf in London" is simply hilarious, and truly awesome horror too, so it's nothing to feel guilty about liking at all...at least in my book.

Rocky Horror? Showgirls? Gloriously icky feeling watching both but they do entertain.

[Capt Quirk]

I agree, Werewolf In London was a great movie, it just had the stigma of being the first to really combine horror and comedy... at least that is what I think. But it gathered quite a buzz, because the Dr Pepper guy ran naked in it.

Dune is just too long.

Rocky horror was also a funny movie, the way they spoofed the old SciFi movies. But, they were the first to really try to showcase MeatLoaf and transvestites, and that may have been too much at the time.

Showgirls... a movie you watch, just to see what all those years of school did for that girl from Saved By The Bell. Incidentally, after Showgirls came out, Dustin Diamond try to regain the spotlight by being in a movie... but nobody wanted to see a naked Screech.




J/K about Screech ;)

[thartley]

Overboard
Conan the Destroyer
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
High Fidelity
9 1/2 Weeks
Okie Noodling
Rock Star
Goodbye Girl
PeeWee's Big Adventure
Hot Shots (also Part Deux)

[Sad Max]

Knight Riders - George Romero. It's about honor and commitment and friendship and courage. And Renaissance-Pleasure-Faire motorcycle jousting. Ed Harris and Tom Savini and Pat Tallman and Ken Foree.

Ultraviolet - Really, who cares who "directed" it? It's a complete mess, something about future vampires who are clones or whatever. But it's got some neat concepts and a couple of laughs and most importantly Milla Jovovich in a series of midriff-baring costumes perpetrating loads of cartoony fully-automatic ultraviolence.

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone - Lamont Johnson. Peter Strauss and Molly Ringwald and Ernie Hudson and Michael Ironside on planet Road Warrior, fighting for possession of some blonde castaways. At the level of science-fiction Mad Maxfulness, it's fun! And it's got a surprisingly cool low-budget look, too. Plus, it served as the subject of my Senior Thesis paper, in undergrad school - A Deconstruction of Freudian/Feminist Archetypes in 'Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone.'

Big Trouble in Little China - Maybe being Carpenter should exonerate it from the list...but it's just so terribly silly. Still, even with the passage of years it's got some wonderfully magical and creepy stuff that has never been bettered...

The Abominable Dr. Phibes - Robert Fuest. Surreal and horrifying and creatively murderous and weirdly psychedelic. Vincent Price stars as a mutilated psychopath out for revenge against the surgical team that failed to save his wife. Make it a double feature with Dr. Phibes Rises Again. If you dare.

Death Race 2000 - Paul Bartell. It's cross-country funny car racing, with points awarded for pedestrians struck! David Carradine, Mary Woronov, Fred Grandy, John Landis, and Sylvester Stallone in the performance of his career.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls - Russ Meyer. The moving tale of the girl-band The Carrie Nations: their lives, their loves, their hideous music. But who cares? It's a whacked-out drug-saturated breast-rich romp through some weird tripped-out vision of the 1970s Los Angeles music scene. "This is my happening, and it's freaking me out!"

Night on Earth - Jim Jarmusch. I actually like Jarmusch's body of work, a lot. But while Night on Earth has its moments, in large patches (I'm looking at you, Winona Ryder) it's just embarrassing. Still, Roberto Benigni turning his taxi into a rolling confessional-prison, makes up for an awful lot.

Screamers - Christian Duguay. Low-budget high-concept science fiction, made intriguing by Peter Weller and some reasonably creative application of limited resources. Little stop-motion cuisinarts on legs chase the cast around. It's fun, placing bets on who will get diced, next.

Moon 44 - Roland Emmerich. Michael Pare flies attack helicopters against robot fighter planes on a dark planet with 300 mph winds, with a guy sitting at a console somewhere else backseat-driving. What's remarkable is the look-and-feel they were able to manage, for very little (German) money. Plus, how many sci-fi movies give you helicopters, impalements, druggings, and gay shower-rape scenes? Dean Devlin acts as well as producing. Malcolm McDowell, Leon Rippy and Roscoe Lee Browne, who deserved better.

Streets of Fire - Walter Hill. Michael Pare is a veteran of a future war, who's come home, apparently to the past. Willem Dafoe doesn't like that. It's basically 99-44/100-percent style, by volume. There's some effort toward a plot involving a kidnapped singer, but I don't recommend that anyone spend their time following it.

Event Horizon - Paul W.S. Anderson. A big ol' spaceship goes missing, and mysteriously reappears years later sans crew, prompting a salvage team (Sam Neill, Lawrence Fishburne, Joely Richardson) to venture inside. Did I mention that the ship looks like a depraved glistening black Giger cathedral? Of course it's haunted, by a malevolent intelligence from "a dimension of pure chaos, pure evil." Mostly what it has going for it, is some serviceable creepiness and really nice art direction.

Mitchell - Andrew V. McLaglen. This is a minor cheat: it's really the 'Mystery Science Theater' cover of this movie, that I dig: Joel's last episode, subjected to Joe Don Baker as the hard-drinkingest, slow-drivingest, prostitute-nailingest detective going after corruption and drug dealing in his formerly quiet southern town. See Mitchell lose an argument with a ten-year-old! Thrill to the 15-mph Detroit-Land-Yacht car chase, wherein both drivers carefully signal their turns! Look away quick, if you want to spare yourself the prolonged beer-drenched "love scene" between big fat hairy ol' Joe Don, and Linda Evans! With John Saxon and Martin Balsam.

The Blood of Heroes - David Webb Peoples. Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Delroy Lindo and Vincent DiOnofrio are post-apocalyptic touring rugby players who stage deathmatch ball games for the radioactive dirt farmers, until they decide to get off the hick circuit and go back to the big city. It's lots of Joan Chen rolling sexily around in the dust, kicking the shinola out of her opponents. What more can I ask?

[Blaine]

Knight Riders - George Romero. It's about honor and commitment and friendship and courage. And Renaissance-Pleasure-Faire motorcycle jousting. Ed Harris and Tom Savini and Pat Tallman and Ken Foree.OMG, it's been a LONG time since I saw that...definitely a guilty pleasure


Beyond the Valley of the Dolls - Russ Meyer. The moving tale of the girl-band The Carrie Nations: their lives, their loves, their hideous music. But who cares? It's a whacked-out drug-saturated breast-rich romp through some weird tripped-out vision of the 1970s Los Angeles music scene. "This is my happening, and it's freaking me out!"And Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay...

Another movie that could be added to the guilty pleasure list is:
Cherry 2000 (http://yoursay.imdb.com/title/tt0092746/).

[J.R. Hudson]

Hahah

Great list Sad.

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone

Man I love this film

[egyptianboxer104]

Legally blonde (the first one)

and no i'm not gay :p

[Batutta]

I'm embarrassed to have liked Dodgeball. Humor doesn't get any more base than people getting hit in the nuts, but damnit if it didn't make me laugh.

[sean90291]

C'mon. A guilty pleasure has to be a film you KNOW is bad, but you get some juvenile pleasure from it anyhow. It has to be somehow EMBARRASSING to admit you like it! You can't list Pee Wee's Big Adventure or Primer, which are brilliant ground-breaking films.

How 'bout one of mine: Steel Magnolias...while it has great performances, it's still saccharine, manipulative and EMBARRASSING...for a guy at least. And yes, I am gay.

[Capt Quirk]

I also enjoyed Idiocracy and Baseketball. I should feel guilty... but I don't. heheh.

[mroctoberfest]

Doomsday was pure crap, did horrible at the box office, but I can't stop watching it for some reason. I know it's not meant to be serious at most parts, it's just supposed to be fun and action-packed. Usually I hate movies like that but this one is different.

Did anyone else see Doomsday?

[Sad Max]

I'm embarrassed to have liked Dodgeball. Humor doesn't get any more base than people getting hit in the nuts, but damnit if it didn't make me laugh.

I actually don't feel guilty, about loving Dodgeball. It's just so damned funny!