Winner July '01

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What are your guilty pleasure movies?

Posted by: Echo of Angels (ECHOOFANGELS)

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What movies are you ashamed to love? I don’t mean cult classics like Repo Man, Big Trouble In Little China or Buckaroo Banzai. I mean the movies that you love, regardless of what anyone else says. Here are my examples, which I catch at least every couple of months (another good indicator of a good guilty pleasure.):

Desperado: Loud, violent, funny, great dialog. I even liked Antonio. Great example of what Robert Rodreguiz can do with a small budget (along with El Mariachi.) Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin, Tito Larriva, Carlos Gallardo: all of the usual suspects. Fantastic sound track as well.

Band of the Hand: A lot of style here. (You can definitely see Mann’s influence on this one.) The logic in the story is weak ("Let's drop 5 hardened juvenile delinquents into the Everglades with one man to watch over/ teach them"; turns into The Dirty Half-Dozen, lol.) but it is still a fun (but cheesy, thus a guilty pleasure) film. Very very 1980’s. A lot of familiar faces as well (Laurence Fishburne, Leon, Laureen Holly, John Cameron Mitchell (from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which was great as well.))

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Bring it On: With the depth and emotional weight of a "Brady Bunch" episode, I could have hated this. I should have hated it. But the fact that they take the subject (Competition Cheerleading) seriously, but not too seriously, makes the movie. In addition, the actors all do strong performances, with some great smaller parts. (The best was "Upright Citizens Brigade" alum Ian Roberts as a failed cheerleader choreographer who wants to be Bob Fosse. Classic.) I wanted to hate this, but I ended up loving it. (And anything with Eliza Dushku is worth it to me, lol.)

Deathsport: Cheesy. Bad dialog. Horrible acting. No plot. Horrendous "special" effects. H.B Haggerty. But... I can’t stop watching….

Point Break: Again, silly, but way too much fun. Keanu. Swayze. Buesy. You root for everyone in this movie, the goody guys and the bad guys, cops and robbers. Surfing, skydiving (with and without a parachute) gunfights, surfing, fighting, surfing , football…it has it all. Well, not much brains, but a lot of adrenal gland, lol.

They say that confession is good for the soul. So spill it!

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