Thursday, July 12, 2007

So bad they're good: my favorite guilty pleasure movies

Maybe this is just me, but there are these movies that I KNOW are bad but that I will always watch whenever they're on cable. I would probably never name any of them as a favorite movie if someone asked me, but truthfully I've watched them all way more times than is healthy. And really, I will always watch them again...

  1. Center Stage: Oy. It's horridly acted, because they hired actual dancers instead of actors, and the story itself is pretty laughably bad too. But dammit if I love this movie! It also features a pre-OC Peter Gallagher (okay, Sandy Cohen the surfer I can buy, but a ballet dancer??), figure skater Ilia Kulik in his one and only acting attempt, and the best so-bad-it's-awesome breakdown since Jessie on Saved by the Bell by Susan May Pratt. But really, the dancing is pretty awesome. Which it should be since all the dancing and choreography was by professional ballet dancers. Geez, who knows why I love dance movies even though I can't dance at all myself.
  2. Drive Me Crazy: I actually contend that this really isn't that bad of a movie. The story is actually kind of cute, and was based on a book by Todd Strasser, who writes really great teen novels. But two things move this into bad movie territory: the first is the association with the Britney Spears song (which appropriately is one of those bad songs that I secretly kind of like) and the second is Melissa Joan Hart. I mean, don't get me wrong, I watched Sabrina for years, but I doubt she'll ever be taken seriously as an actress. Ironically she was the star vehicle of the movie, while her co-star, a pre-Entourage Adrian Grenier was basically an unknown. Also interestingly Susan May Pratt is in this movie too, hm. She's also in 10 Things I Hate About You which I was almost going to put on this list, but I don't really feel the compulsion to watch that one as much as the others on this list.
  3. Coyote Ugly: Um, yeah. Really terrifically bad in every sense, but uh, in my defense, the guy in it was hot?
  4. The Princess Diaries 2: The first movie is a geniune favorite of mine because that was an actually great movie. It perfectly captured a lot of the awkwardness of being a teenager in a genuinely funny and sweet and honest way. The sequel is really hugely inferior but really I love it too. It strays completely from the books and skips forward to Mia as a college graduate and full-fledged princess. Due to some bizarre law she has to get married within thirty days. I know, I know. And of course there is the ridiculous sleepover she throws instead of a bachelorette party inviting all these teen and pre-teen princesses from all the over the world where they, and the queen, mattress surf. Yeah.
  5. The Cutting Edge:Again, I don't know, I don't think this movie is really that bad either. Maybe I just have a weakness for the figure skating part of it but it's really a ton of fun. I mean, if anything, the "toe pick" scene is classic. Plus Terry O'Quinn is in it, and DB Sweeney and Moira Kelly have great chemistry. I probably saw this movie for the first time in elementary school sometime and to this day I still love it.

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