Give it up – Name Your Guilty Pleasure
Feeling pretty good on my birthday, I turned 36 today. I figured I should take myself down a few notches by exposing some guilty pleasure films. I’ll go first.
Everyone knows the type of films I mean – these are that films that right after you have said you like them – you can see everyone else in the conversation looking at you with a grimace conveying concern for your mental sanity.
Top of my guilty pleasure list is Sleepaway Camp. This film came out in 1983 and actually spawned 2 sequels. Even more interesting, Return to Sleepaway Camp just finished shooting. The film was made on a shoestring budget and has all the standard low budget compromises. But the film has heart – as much heart as a children’s camp slasher flick can have anyway. The filmmakers pushed the boundaries, stretching to the limits with the money and equipment available to them. They used an inventive plot line with an ending that will sear itself into your memory. No one who has seen this film can ever forget the ending! You might forget what film it was in, but you remember the ending. Fun little flick when the mood hits you. There is even a fan website devoted to the film. Pack your body bags you’re off to Sleepaway Camp.
Now its your turn – let’s hear your guilty pleasure films. Post them here as a comment. I’m hoping we’ll find some “reel” diamonds in the rough.
AHHH! I turned 19 today! Same birthday… creepy.
Anyhoo, guilty pleasure movies… Mine is a fairly recent one. House of the Dead, recipient of an appalling 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, is my guilty pleasure. This movie is so bad it’s not even good, but the deadly serious and painfully cliched dialogue makes me laugh every time… add to that some of the most misguided and gratuitously nifty camerawork ever committed to film and you’ve got a crap classic for the ages that is never hard to laugh at, not with.
I’m not sure if this would be considered a guilty pleasure movie or not, but I hesitate whenever I mention it to friends and the like, so it has the mark of a guilty pleasure. Anyway, that movie is Regarding Henry. I’m not sure why I like it, maybe I just caught it at the right time, but it’s one of the few movies I still have on VHS.
I remember Sleepaway Camp as a staple at parties when I was in high school. Mostly because of the “shocking” ending.
I think my top guilty pleasure is Can’t Buy Me Love. I once stayed up until 5am watching it, and still had to go to work at 8am the next day, and I was 30 YEARS OLD at the Time!!!!
Right on ihatethebeatles! When I sat down to write this today I was having this internal debate on which film to name as my top guilty pleasure. Sleepaway Camp came out on top – but Can’t Buy Me Love was a close second. I went through a period in college for about 6 months were it seems like we watched that film every weekend night after returning from whatever party we gone to. Got to love the African Ant Eater Ritual.
Seth Green as the little brother, Chuckie: “Oh…Cards with the tards! What could beat a night of Chips, Dips, and Dorks!” Classic! One of the best teen films of the 80′s – thanks for tossing that one on the list.
Great topic and (belated) Happy Birthday! My guilty pleasures are from my formative years in the
My guilty pleasure is Necessary Roughness, starring Scott Bakula. I really don’t know why I like this movie but whenever I stumble across it I end up watching it. It’s got some decent actors Hector Elizondo, Robert Loggia, Harley Jane Kozak and some really bad ones in Sinbad, Larry Miller, Rob Schneider and one piece of eye candy in Kathy Ireland (who does the worst impersonation of on NFL kicker ever seen).
It’s not particularly well written, it’s riddled with cliches including “the evil dean”, “the hot teacher”, “the genius coach” and his assistant. The football action scenes are truly mediocre, yet I watch it time and time again….somebody stop me…..
Ok one of my favorite camp films that I can’t keep from watching over and over is “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension!” Its got a great cast and a crazy plot. Its completly offbeat and very original, not to mention filled with great one liners, it’s just too bad most people think I’m crazy insead of laughing along when I say them =)
This one is easy for me. One of my favorite movies is Top Secret with Val Kilmer. I watched it at least 10 times and every time I find a detail I haven’t seen before.
I thought both Buckaroo and Top Secret were good movies. Top Secret came out 4 full years before The Naked Gun (although it was 4 years after airplane which started the genre, IMO) which truly popularized the spoof films.
Buckaroo was just a classic B movie with a whacky script and a cast that went on to do much better things (Peter Weller, Jeff goldblum, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Christopher Lloyd). If you “get” Buckaroo, you love it.
Happy Birthday
just want to drop by and say just that..lol 
I like the campiness of Hudson Hawk. Danny Aiello and Bruce Willis play great buddy scenes, singing old show-tunes for timing while they cat-burgler. Richard Grant and Sandra Bernhard are way, WAY over the top as the Mayflowers. The plot twists a bit, and features James Coburn as the head of an independent crime syndicate (“We blow up space shuttles for breakfast…”). Lots of fantastic campy laughs.
Lots of great picks here. Thanks and keep them coming.
The Thin Red Line. I’m so used to ridicule over actually enjoying this movie I just don’t bring it up anymore. I liked the photography, the cameos, and the non-standard approach to a war flick. As far as campy goes, I just have to go with Final Destination.
The Thin Red Line as a guilty pleasure? Come on, I really like that film. The shots of the swaying grass on the hillside, the score – it is all good. Yeah I know, not everyone agrees, but I think it is a good pick. I’ve never seen Final Destination, I’ll have to check that out. Thanks for contributing.