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OK, new topic: films you really shouldn't like but do.  I have just started watching National Treasure on DVD (watched the first half last night, got tired and went to bed, hope to complete it tonight) and find it so jaw-droppingly, mind-bogglingly stupid that I can't help but enjoy it.  Any other films that people enjoy in spite of their better judgement?

Did I mention my theory that Showgirls is actually a highly nuanced work of genius?

National Treasure - the old 'the world rotates around the states' scenario, watchable tosh though I'd agree, but puleeease...

Vin Desiel movies.

Yes, even the second Riddick one.
But not the car one, that would be stupid.

Miss Nude America.

Saying that, i've not actually watched it, it's my dad's video, but i'm guessing it'd be good.

I don't know whether any of the US networks' made-for-TV movies starring Kellie Martin as a young girl in some kind of unbelievable trouble have made their way to the UK, but they're unmissably awful.  "The Girl on the Milk Carton" is just wild-beyond your-nightmares bad!  Channel-surf onto that and your're stuck.

"A Friend to Die For," "Hidden in Silence," "Her Last Chance," "If Someone Had Known"... she made about ten of these things in the mid-90s between the TV series Life Goes On and ER and I wouldn't miss a one.

--Grant

Oh, I dunno - can a film really be said to bang the drum for America when it expects us to believe that the creme de la creme of America's academic establishment is best represented by a German supermodel?

Well, if we're talking Television... American TV is generally pretty toxic and loathsesome, to a degree which is pretty hard to appreciate unless you've experienced it directly. Wathcing teh good shows on Channel 4 doesn't count - you don't get the intensely stupid local news, the frequent blaring advertisements - they make British ads look like shakespeare - the general air of condescention and low expecations of the viewer. The role of the TV in American society is basically the Loud Shouty Box for retards.

However, I do take a guilty pleasure in watching really dumb reality TV shows. For a while I was addicted to the American version of The Apprentice, partly because it was so ridiculously over dramatic and self serious, partly because it pretended to be based on serious "business" principles (and clearly wasn't) and partly because of Donald Trump - who is some kind of freak. I can't really explain Donald for those of you who aren't familiar for him, but basically he's some kind of egotistal monotone bore who is inexplicably hugely wealthy despite not appearing to be all that smart. Also, rather hilariously, you occasionally get to see things he considers "classy" - they aren't. Theres gangsta rappers with more taste and a better grasp of subtlety.

Sadly that's over for this year, but our new source of Reality TV joy is "Hells Kitchen" - the Tv show where a bunch of generic american Reality TV Show contestants work in a kitchen for Gordon Ramsey. It's great - they're a bunch of babyish, whining losers who get hurt feelings at the drop of a hat (so they can whine about things in "confessionals") and he's a Glaswegian maniac who's a total cunt to them. I love it. I hope he totally destroys them before the show is over.

I know I shouldn't of liked it, but I watched Sky Captain last night and was thoroughly entertained.
but this should be forgiven as it does have stonking big robots in it, what I'd like to know is how they could make a 2 hour flick with big robots that sucked that much!!(note..I still liked it even though I know it sucks balls)

CU Krestel

I thought Sky Captain was OK - certainly not bad/stupid enough to be a guilty pleasure imho.

My guilty pleasures include:

The eighties output of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The films of Shannon Tweed.

Smallville (such nice teeth, such lovely hair, such wholesome "teens" and little bits of iconic Superman imagery)

Rogue Squadron games on the Gamecube - I'm not normally a graphics whore but there's few gaming thrills to match taking down a Star Destroyer.

Oh, a confessions thread.

OK, I've got a lulu.  "Love, Actually" made me cry like a baby.

Mine would have to be the Internet. Very useful for work, but it's a toy at the same time, isn't it? Because they didn't have the Internet in the '80s, people who worked in offices had to made do with balancing stick men made of wire and ball bearings, and the Newton's Cradle.

In terms of television, I'd have to say soppy drama like 'Doctors' and 'Born and Bred', lifestyle shows once in a while, and the odd glimpse of rubbish like Big Brother. The latter, maybe an hour in a whole week.

I don't have any guilty pleasures that are worth going to the cinema for. I go so rarely nowadays I have to have a strong motivation to turn out for the pictures, so it's always with serious intent.

Maybe it counts as a guilty to pleasure to enjoy watching trailers for films I'd never want to actually see. And occasionally hoot with derision or curse in a loud stage whisper at the dreadfulness of what's on offer.

"a guilty to pleasure to enjoy watching trailers for films I'd never want to actually see."

Sometimes, I get the feeling people are looking right into my head.

THE DUKES OF HAZZARD and MR AND MRS SMITH trailers are prime examples of such guilty pleasures I have recently had.

not film but im currently enjoying, to a worrying degree ; Glen Campbell- The capitol years



but i wouldnt want that to get spread around, in a public domain. like the internet or something

Clive James summed up American TV in the late seventies, paraphrasing, like this: The problem with American TV is that, as bad as what we get it is, it's the best of what happens on American TV at night.  What happens on American TV at night is nothing like what happens during the day.  What happens on American TV during the day is like the end of the world.

The man knew what he was talking about...

--Grant

Clive James supercedes Terry Wogan as the best not brit brit

whats he at these days anyway?- we need him back in our lives

Honestly, we don't. He's lost his edge.

Tomb Raider films.

As for Arnie's 80's classics, Commando has to be a classic, especially the bit when he's got 20 cops on top of him and he throws them all off in one move. Sweet! Also, smashing head on into a telegrapgh pole in an open top car with no seatbelts, *ahem* and of course, no passenger seat at 60 mph, then instantly turning round to say, "Are yooo okaaay?".

And lets not forget jumping out of a jumbo jets wheel well into a shallow swamp. Maybe that's what this guy was trying...

Link: Particularly gruesome tale

a friend of mine e-mailed me that story with the title "It's raining men"

submitted without comment

yeah, sigh

Goonis top funny. Gadget boy pdf!

and its got samwise gamgee in it too

I really do love The Goonies.The dvd of its great because you can see what the cast looks like now.
I also enjoy The Burbs.

Another guilty pleasure: I occasionaly like to watch really dumb and formulaic High-School Teen dramas. Though the last one I watched, Mean Girls, might actually in itself qualify as a half decent movie.

I recently had a conversation with some Actual Real American Teenagers where, weirdly, it seemed that their school like was exactly like one of those movies, complete with cliques, jocks, "popular girls" etc...  I thought they were to a certain extent made-up fictional conventions, like stuff in SF movies or Shakespearean drama. that they might have some kind of basis in reality is rather shocking and horrifying.

cake

i knew you'd say cake.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm cakey

The little gadget boy in the Goonies is also in the Indieana jones film the second one i think

Cake !!! That's one of mine too.

Mmmmm..... cake...

/OK, new topic: films you really shouldn't like but do./

That one with Helen Slater and Judge Reinhold kidnapping Bette Midler. 'Outrageous Fortune'.

Watched it twice in a row when I rented the vid.

I will watch anything with Warren Oates or Harry Dean Stanton. This is not always a good idea.

Mike

..duh, it's late- i mean 'Ruthless People!'

Ace Ventura