Your Top 10 Guilty Pleasure Flicks

I've seen the extended Dune movie, attributed to Alan Smithee . It's something else. I've also seen the Sci-Fi version, which I describe in that link as " a cross between a telenovela and a youth group staging of Godspell." And I've seen Jodorowsky's Dune, which is just nuts. It's clear that his version would have been a disaster, but what a fucking amazing disaster it would have been.

Other sort of cult hits I love. Brazil almost doesn't count, as it's a darling of these kinds of lists, but I adore it. I love Starship Troopers. The Royal Tenenbaums is my fave Wes Anderson and probably his best, but Rushmore is my go-to (and Bottle Rocket as well).

This is going to sound weird, and I don't intend to derail the thread, but I would also count Star Wars in there. Here's my reasoning: Star Wars is of course a multi-billion dollar worldwide property, but that applies to "Star Wars", which, these days, is largely everything EXCEPT the movie that came out in 1977. Conventional (and wrong) wisdom is that "Empire" is the best of the original movies, which is faff, but which has also reduced that first film to just a taste of the good stuff. In my old age, having con through the originals, the dry spell, the novels, the special editions, the prequels, and the cartoons, I find I really don't give a crap about any of that other stuff, I just love that first movie, on its own, as it is. And that seems to be a weird "just saying it for the attention" area to inhabit these days.

Oh yeah: Bull Durham (despite not giving a fuck about baseball), Raising Arizona, The Iron Giant, Blade Runner (again, with a hipsterish attitude of "I don't give a fuck what Ridley Scott says in interviews, Deckard being a replicant makes no fucking sense").

Are we doing cult favourites or guilty pleasure flicks?

Guilty pleasure for me are:

Jason X - there is a girl in that who I'm so insanely attracted to because of what she's wearing, it's nuts. I think it's Lexa Doig, I can't remember.

Deep Blue Sea - I'm getting better at turning this off but just the other day I channel flipped past, "The Deep Blue Sea" and I was disappointed it wasn't the shark movie.

but I think the all time winner has to be UNDER SIEGE. I simply cannot turn it off when it's on. I've seen it at least a dozen times. I feel so guilty watching it.

Oh, now that I realize guilt really needs to be front and center, I think CRUEL INTENTIONS will probably top the list as well. I'd be humiliated if someone walked in on me watching that.

The HOSTEL moves (all 3) of them too are sort of guilty pleasures for me.



If we're talking cult favourites, I for some reason seem to always hate movies that are deemed cult favourites. One that I like is KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE

oh wait, RUSHMORE for sure. I love that flick. I'm really sick of Big Lebowski tho. Office Space is getting tired too.

Black Barney wrote:

but I think the all time winner has to be UNDER SIEGE. I simply cannot turn it off when it's on. I've seen it at least a dozen times. I feel so guilty watching it.

Damn, I forgot about that. Under Siege 2 gets a vote from me as well.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is getting on the list. They don't come any dumber, but I'll watch it when it's on.

RobertB wrote: Black Barney wrote:

but I think the all time winner has to be UNDER SIEGE. I simply cannot turn it off when it's on. I've seen it at least a dozen times. I feel so guilty watching it.

Damn, I forgot about that. Under Siege 2 gets a vote from me as well.

.

The first one was pretty good, with both Gary Busey and Tommy Lee Johns chewing scenery throughout.

Black Barney wrote: If we're talking cult favourites, I for some reason seem to always hate movies that are deemed cult favourites. One that I like is KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE

I used to love that movie! I haven't seen it in many years, though.

The definition of cult is clearly variable. The only one I can think of is Re-Animator, although I'm sure there are many more. Maybe Iron Giant? But that seems to be popular lately.

My guilty pleasure is Joe vs. the Volcano. I adore that movie, and honestly, I'm not the least bit guilty about it.

Now Red Dawn (the original, obviously), that one I'm pretty guilty over.

Ugh this is a difficult question for me, mainly because I don't like movies that much. Even if I like a movie I never linger too long on it.

The first three are clear though, the Holy Verhoeven Triogy.

Not in any order.

Total Recall
Starship Trooper
Robocop
Dredd
Equilibrium
Bloodsport
Under Siege
Blade

...

I don't know. I can't remember more.

Guilty Pleasures
Movies I'm kind of embarrassed to admit I enjoy (most of which are dance movies)

Save the Last Dance
Honey
You Got Served
Bedazzled (the Brendan Fraiser remake)
Encino Man
Bell and Ted's Bogus Journey (everybody loves Excellent Adventure)

Cult Favorites
Repo Man
Dune
Gymkata
Showdown in Little Tokyo
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Predator
Beastmaster

um and more, I'm bad at making lists sometimes ...

Gymkata, starring Olympic gold medalist Kurt Thomas? YES!

What an amazing piece of shit that film is.

Anyway, my #1 guilty pleasure is Urban Cowboy. I FUCKING LOVE THIS MOVIE.

There is so much drama in it. Like when Bud gets injured at his lineman job...the tension when Bud won't let Sissy ride the mechanical bull at Gilley's...Scott Campbell's fishnet shirt-wearing cowboy leading her into temptation because she wants to ride that mechanical bull against Bud's wishes...Bud hooking up with a high class uptown Dallas girl to make Sissy jealous...the Dolly Parton look a like contest.

This film is truly an American masterpiece, it was made right at the cusp of the pop-country thing and it has a bunch of music in it that I heard a lot in my dad's truck when I was little. I really do sincerely love this movie, but of course I can see that it's definitely "guilty pleasure" material.

I parted ways with the Catholic Church shortly after the Santa Claus fiasco, around the time I was in 2nd grade. So I don't do guilt. I don't generally do things that would make me ashamed later, and I don't get ashamed about the things that I enjoy, including movies that are lacking in critical acclaim. If I have any favorite guilty pleasure movies, they would all be porn.

I haven't seen it mentioned yet so I guess I will have to be alone on it:

Krull.

Despite being a badly acted mish mash of fantasy and sci-fi that is filled with fantasy trope after trope, I love that movie. Every time I watch it, I immediately revert back to my inner 12 year old. I've had the death cry from a slayer as the Windows system sound for a critical program stop since Windows 98.

But I know it is a terrible movie. I just don't care.

Guilty pleasures...

Buckaroo Bonzai. Besides the Wizard of Speed and Time, its the most enjoyable nonsensical movie I know of. Plot line? What's that?

French Kiss. I dig Kevin Kline and Meg Ryan. Likely the best RomCom made.

Equilibrium. Gun kata? So stupid! ...And epic! Dystopian potato chips.

Flash Gordon. I must have seen this movie a hundred times on HBO when I was a kid. Made my mom so mad. Easily my most watched movie ever, and can still quote all dialogue by rote to this day. Its probably in my top ten fave movies of all time. The movie "Ted" is good, just by association. Nevermind it recognizing Flash Gordon for the masterpice that it is.

Ultra Man (serial). All of it. Its the go-bots of Kaiju, and I love it.

Much ado about nothing (Branagh). Don't judge me. The new version by Joss Whedon is a very poor showing and is so badly delivered by the actors, I think less of them.

The city of lost children. Inspired, and yet somehow unknown. Do not watch this under the influence of heavy psychedelic drugs… more than once.

Nightbreed. David Cronenberg was a creepy bad guy, and the ending begged for a sequel.

Bride of the reanimator. I think Jefferey Combs is the best Lovecraftian actor ever. And while Brian Yuzna made a plethora of Lovecraft flicks, I enjoyed them all.

The sword and the sorcerer. Its not horribad. In fact, what other movie has a sword with 3 blades that shots those very same blades? No other movie, that's what. Sucks to be them.


I won't list Lynch's Dune, because it is a legitamately brilliant movie. Nothing to feel guilty about there. Sorry haters.

Have any of you guys watched the Genma Wars animated series? I think the pilot is one of the most succinct and quintessential origin story ever. I love it!

My favorite cult movie is:
Kickboxer (1989) - Tong Po is the villain of my childhood.

Edit: Ok, Genma Wars is really divisive! On Amazon it has two reviews: one 5 and one 1-star. Here is the last paragraph of the 1-star review:

"Ok so here's the plot in a nutshell. In the far future, an evil wizard king(baboon looking) guy gets pure innocent peasant girl pregnant. Girl gives birth to twin boys(who are wizards), boys seperated at birth, grow up, are reunited, meet about a hundred side characters that have little or nada to do with the plot, fight some demons, ape men and lizard guys to find their destiny and save mankind."

How can you not love it???

Oh hell yes Flash Gordon!

I legit love TRON, but found the sequel dumb and pointless. I'd like to see a sequel set in the late 80s where Flynn is called in to go inside a malfunctioning Department of Defense machine called...wait for it...WOPR Jr. Which is run by Matthew Broderick's character from WarGames. YES, DOUBLE SEQUEL.

Oh, and Strictly Ballroom is hilarious and fun.

Another set of movie titles in no particular order:

The Negotiator
Flash Gordon
Training Day
Dredd
The Replacements
Strange Days
The Omega Man
The Ghost and the Darkness
Dune
The Postman

I seem to watch these every time that they're playing.

Teen Wolf
Three O'Clock High
Strange Brew
Three Amigos
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (the 4th one)
Degrassi: School's Out
pretty much any movie directed by Paul Verhoeven