Awful Movies That You're Afraid to Admit You Enjoyed

Back in the olden days this would be known as a "show-off my bad taste" thread.

I admit to enjoying VAN HELSING and BATMAN FOREVER for their Saturday morning cartoon/comfort food like qualities. They are both awful films. But I will put them on for background noise on a regular basis.

I will defend 'Freddy Got Fingered' until the day I die.

"YOU HEAR THAT, DAD? YOU'RE GONNA PAY! HE'S A MOLESTER! HE'S A CCCCCHHHHHHHIIIIILLLDDD MOLESTER!"

I enjoyed and will continue to enjoy each and every movie that has Emma Stone, Amy Adams or Isla Fisher in a starring role. I will watch all of them and like them. And I mean that. I watched Leap Year. Twice. By myself. No weak "my girlfriend made me watch it" excuses.

I LOVE Mission Impossible WOO!!!

He-Man and She Ra Secret of the Sword.  

And I could give a rats ass about what that says about me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by roboTimKelly 

I got another one. Batman & Robin. Post-Begins era, it doesn't sting anymore. I fucking love this movie now. And not in a cool, kooky, ironic way. More in a "Schumacher and Clooney are burning this mother to the ground and everyone's invited" way. Every time it's on TNT I have it on in the background, and I'm glad it exists.

This is a frightening trend I am seeing lately. Surely a sign of the end.

I own it as part of the box set and will put it on from time to time.

I think this is pretty much exactly a guilty pleasure thread. 

That's a false distinction, as most people would describe a "guilty pleasure" as exactly that. A movie w/ little or no merit but holds some form of appeal despite itself. I haven't seen Thor, nor am I interested, but Thor clearly has fans that find it to be a genuinely good movie, and it was successful enough both critically and financially to lift it out of the realm of something that would be widely considered a "guilty pleasure".

I'm with Jacknife.  This is a guilty pleasure thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebastian OB 

Back in the olden days this would be known as a "show-off my bad taste" thread.

 

As I recall, the threads dedicated to loving bad movies never got that much shit. (Look at the B-movie thread, I think it takes up half the forums.)  The sin is making a general thread whose only purpose is to hate on movies.  That's not what a film lovers forum should be about, especially when it invariably devolves into people talking about good movies they just don't get.

Anyway, enough about that.  I'm not usually the kind of moviegoer who watches everything that looks bad to me in the hopes of finding a few diamonds in the rough, but I will say that years ago I was at a friend's house and she showed me Dead Man on Campus and Baseketball, and I found myself enjoying both.  Looking back, I can remember why I laughed at the latter, but I am still trying to piece together what it was about the former I actually found pleasing (without resorting to actually revisiting it.)

Oh god...

I BOW BEFORE YOU NATALIA...

and offer you a pair of exploding sunglasses in homage!

It did cost Dougray the Wolverine role, Tim.  It did... 

Quote:

Originally Posted by roboTimKelly 

Originally Posted by JacknifeJohnny 

That's a false distinction, as most people would describe a "guilty pleasure" as exactly that. A movie w/ little or no merit but holds some form of appeal despite itself. 

 

I'm writing all of this down and putting it into my journal labeled "Movie Laws."

"Guilty pleasure" has a definition. If you misunderstand said definition, or just ignored it for the sake of creating this thread, that is in no way my problem. Now, personally, if I genuinely enjoy something, I don't give a fuck who knows it, because I will always be able to express in specifics why I enjoyed it. Guilt never enters into it. The closest thing I've come to feeling guilt is like renting shit like Body of Evidence when I was fifteen, and certainly not b/c I wanted to see a "stirring legal thriller". You better believe that I didn't watch anymore than the collective five or six minutes required.

I mean, if you're afraid to admit you enjoyed an awful movie (title of the thread), isn't that by definition a 'guilty pleasure?'

On the topic of lives that MI2 might've ruined, Dougray lost Wolverine.  And Thandie Newton lost out on the token minority Charlie's Angel spot that Lucy Liu grabbed.

Ah. OutCold... Love that Movie

"The Spirit." It's a movie that seems like they were intentionally making the worst thing imaginable and succeeding at every turn, which incidentally makes it oddly satisfying. Usually, bad movies are the result of studio tinkering and/or some degree of incompetence on the part of the filmmakers themselves. "The Spirit" is a movie that's clearly trying to be abysmal and nailing it. I loved sitting in a theater full of baffled dude-bros that were quietly debating with one another whether or not they should leave.

"Batman & Robin" may have its defenders, but I think I'm probably the only person whose last name isn't Miller that thinks "The Spirit" is literally some sort of next-level shit.

When I went through a long and depressing bout of unemployment I watched Boat Trip 3 or 4 times. I will never watch it again but I didn't hate it at the time, plus the hot girl wore some see through shirts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike's Pants 

I will defend 'Freddy Got Fingered' until the day I die.

 

"YOU HEAR THAT, DAD? YOU'RE GONNA PAY! HE'S A MOLESTER! HE'S A CCCCCHHHHHHHIIIIILLLDDD MOLESTER!"

Yes.  It's stupid, but SO funny! You can't watch it and not laugh!

My worst guilty pleasure is Sleeping with the Enemy.  It's so bad.  Every moment is completely false and embarrassingly stupid.  Yet for some reason I think I've seen it four or five times!

The Pirate Movie

Awful and eminently watchable.  Kristy McNichol's cleavage was awesome.  As were the songs sourced from Penzance.

This is the thread where I can safely admit to being scared (and thus enjoying) The Third Kind right?

I'm embarrassed to say that I could easily watch this twice in a row & enjoy every stupid second of it.

I'll also admit to occasionally enjoying the wincingly bad Batman Forever. It's like Arby's - yeah it's bad, but sometimes it fuckin' hits the spot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

I mean, if you're afraid to admit you enjoyed an awful movie (title of the thread), isn't that by definition a 'guilty pleasure?'

 

On the topic of lives that MI2 might've ruined, Dougray lost Wolverine.  And Thandie Newton lost out on the token minority Charlie's Angel spot that Lucy Liu grabbed.

You've got to follow the Dougray rabbit hole all the way, though.  Sure, he lost out on an iconic role, but would the role have been as iconic with him in it?  X-Men was uneven and cheap-looking for an action blockbuster, but it's carried by the strength of the cast, particularly Stewart/McKellan, who make the pulp feel classy, and Jackman, who makes the geeky feel cool.  I don't think Scott could've done the same.  As opposed to something like Stuart Townsend losing out on LOTR, where even though he's no Viggo, the movies have so much else going for them they that they could carry a merely passable performance without crashing and burning.

But without Jackman in the breakout role, I don't think X-Men finds the same legs, and studios don't necessarily find the impetus to dive into superheroes the way they have.  Which means no X2, no Spiderman, no Batman Begins, no Avengers.  Also no Green Lantern or Ghost Rider 2.  So it could be that in ruining Dougray Scott's career, it boosted Sam Raimi's, Christopher Nolan's, Joss Whedon's, Jon Favreau's, Chris Evan's and Robert Downey Junior's.  And bought Nicholas Cage another swimming pool full of albino timberwolf hair or whatever the fuck it is he's into now. 

This is just a roundabout way of getting back to the point I've been making for years: MI2 is, indirectly, responsible for killing Heath Ledger. 

Oh, I've been of the mind that Scott would've actually been awful as Wolverine.  Hindsight and all, I just CANNOT see him as Wolverine in light of what Jackman did with the role.  And nothing Scott has done since tells me otherwise.

Also...

MI2 is some kind of NEXUS POINT OF THE UNIVERSE!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

I'm embarrassed to say that I could easily watch this twice in a row & enjoy every stupid second of it.

 

I'll also admit to occasionally enjoying the wincingly bad Batman Forever. It's like Arby's - yeah it's bad, but sometimes it fuckin' hits the spot.

I'll get on board with that. Delroy Lindo and Stanley Tucci sell the shit out of it!

I've grown to genuinely love Highlander 2.

There, I've said it.

You really can't find a finer example of a bunch of talented people coming back to proven material, and proceeding to all lose their fucking minds at the same time. The film isn't just a mere bad sequel, it's gleefully deranged, like they went through a checklist of all the things that worked about the first movie and said "Okay, how can we take each of these things in the most bizarre direction imaginable?" Zeist, confused-looking Connery, the fully-clothed back-alley sex scene literally amongst the severed heads of two freshly-murdered aliens, Michael Ironside trying to play the Kurgan's wackier brother, Old Connor (Why did Lambert feel like he had to talk like a french Lemmy?), Virginia Madsen trying to pass herself off as the leader of the most unconvincing band of eco-terrorists known to man... Oh God, it's... Beautiful.

What's more, I've come to the belief that Highlander 2 is a genuinely valuable part of film history because it's practically an A-Z of effective franchise-killing. Seriously, everything you can possibly do to fuck up a great first film, Mulcahy and co. pull off here with style. Young filmmakers need to see this so they know where the pitfalls are. Film school won't teach them this shit. I wrote a gleefully detailed blog post about this idea (Cheesy plug: http://plasticinemegaphone.com/2011/06/30/the-glory-of-highlander-2/ ) but the general summary is that this movie isn't just terrible; it's gloriously terrible.

For best results, follow up a viewing with the half-finished alternate ending. Nothing says 'Movie Magic' than Awkward Bluescreen Christopher Lambert on a Wire.

Masters of the Universe. Love it love it love it love it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Workyticket 

I've grown to genuinely love Highlander 2.

 

There, I've said it.

 

You really can't find a finer example of a bunch of talented people coming back to proven material, and proceeding to all lose their fucking minds at the same time. The film isn't just a mere bad sequel, it's gleefully deranged, like they went through a checklist of all the things that worked about the first movie and said "Okay, how can we take each of these things in the most bizarre direction imaginable?" Zeist, confused-looking Connery, the fully-clothed back-alley sex scene literally amongst the severed heads of two freshly-murdered aliens, Michael Ironside trying to play the Kurgan's wackier brother, Old Connor (Why did Lambert feel like he had to talk like a french Lemmy?), Virginia Madsen trying to pass herself off as the leader of the most unconvincing band of eco-terrorists known to man... Oh God, it's... Beautiful.

 

What's more, I've come to the belief that Highlander 2 is a genuinely valuable part of film history because it's practically an A-Z of effective franchise-killing. Seriously, everything you can possibly do to fuck up a great first film, Mulcahy and co. pull off here with style. Young filmmakers need to see this so they know where the pitfalls are. Film school won't teach them this shit. I wrote a gleefully detailed blog post about this idea (Cheesy plug: http://plasticinemegaphone.com/2011/06/30/the-glory-of-highlander-2/ ) but the general summary is that this movie isn't just terrible; it's gloriously terrible.

 

For best results, follow up a viewing with the half-finished alternate ending. Nothing says 'Movie Magic' than Awkward Bluescreen Christopher Lambert on a Wire.
 

Perfect post.  Another much maligned but completely enjoyable sequel (probably only to me and maybe a few other weirdos) is The Gate II!

I've always been one of those Chewers who's more in tune with Ken Savage and Jacknife Johnny in that I pay a good amount of attention to what Chewers think about films but I'm not bothered by what anybody thinks of me for liking Nacho Libre and Pluto Nash and Dumb and Dumber and Armageddon.

Fuck movie guilt right in the ass. Hard. With no lube.

Because I know you guys are smart enough to understand that having the ability to enjoy juvenile and/or formulaic films doesn't mean you can't recognise and appreciate the quality in genuinely inspired works.

Nacho Libre is a genuinely good film. For the life of me, I don't understand why it gets so much hate. It's a live action Chuck Jones cartoon, for Pete's sake!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bradito 

"The Spirit." It's a movie that seems like they were intentionally making the worst thing imaginable and succeeding at every turn, which incidentally makes it oddly satisfying. Usually, bad movies are the result of studio tinkering and/or some degree of incompetence on the part of the filmmakers themselves. "The Spirit" is a movie that's clearly trying to be abysmal and nailing it. I loved sitting in a theater full of baffled dude-bros that were quietly debating with one another whether or not they should leave.

 

"Batman & Robin" may have its defenders, but I think I'm probably the only person whose last name isn't Miller that thinks "The Spirit" is literally some sort of next-level shit.

I know what you mean. I watched that movie, and the whole time I was thinking "this is clearly awful, but damned if I'm not enjoying it." It's fascinatingly terrible.

Dumb and Dumber does not belong on the list with those others, Bucho.  The title is basically a mission statement and it hits its marks as well as any comedy you could name. 

And before it even comes up, I swear on Christ's balls that if anyone mentions Dirty Work in this thread, I will track their IP address and beat them with a fire poker.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stelios 

I enjoyed and will continue to enjoy each and every movie that has Emma Stone, Amy Adams or Isla Fisher in a starring role. I will watch all of them and like them. And I mean that. I watched Leap Year. Twice. By myself. No weak "my girlfriend made me watch it" excuses.

How bad was Confessions Of A Shopaholic?

For mine, I still happily and shamelessly watch these two from time to time...

Can I come clean - I enjoy DAREDEVIL. I like Ben Affleck in it, I like Joey Pants all rumpled, I like the stuff they do early on with how Murdock deals with being blind (folding the bills differently in his wallet etc), I like the heightened sound design, I like the obvious Catholic imagery. I don't think Michael Clarke Duncan has been as intimidating in anything he's been in since.

The soppy crap-rock soundtrack works, and I like how charming some of the crappy CGI is.

Although of course, Colin Farrell deserves to be in a totally different, much better film.

I'm not even embarrassed to say that I love the hell out of Stuart Saves His Family.  "Is there any way you can get to a pound cake?"