The opposite number of “Slaughtering Sacred Cows of Entertainment” – What movie, book, author, or television series that is usually held up as a model of worthless drek do you admire or love?
My first example would be The Last Action Hero, which I see as a clever parody and tribute (managing to be both at once is a good trick) to the action-movie genre.
Well it’s written by the great Shane Black (writer of Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight), who really formed action-comedies and action-buddy movies into the formula we know and love today. I liked Last Action Hero much more than most Arnold movies (much more than the overrated True Lies), and I keep meaning to pick it up from the $5.99 DVD selection at Best Buy.
Hey, I liked The Last Action Hero, too.
I’ll mention a few:
Ishtar – a pretty funny (though flawed) comedy. (There seems to be a critical reevaluation of the film, but for most people, “Ishtar” is the epitome of a lousy movie).
Love’s Labour’s Lost – A tolerable adaptation of a weak Shakespeare play; the use of music was great.
I really like the movie Starship Troopers.
A couple of John Boorman’s films:
Exorcist II: The Heretic–A visionary supernatural thriller unfortunately marketed as a horror movie.
Zardoz–A SF satire so subtle, most viewers laughed at the wrong parts.
The Man With the Golden Gun is my favorite Bond film, though most of Bond fandom consider it the worst or close to it.
By the same token, Roger Moore is my favorite Bond, though most of Bond fandom consider him the worst or close to it.
Rat Race doesn’t appear to have scored too well with the viewing and reviewing public, but I can’t stop laughing whenever I see it.
Hudson Hawk - the canonical example of this phenomenon for me. Critically reviled box-office bomb? Sure. But one of the most entertaining movies of all time.
I think The Hudsucker Proxy is possibly the Coen brothers’ best work.
I also thought Dude, Where’s My Car? was pretty funny.
I don’t think Gremlins 2 is often held up as worthless dreck, but when I tell people it’s my favorite film of all time, they give me the “you’re absolutely nuts, get away from me” look. Hrmph. I think it’s great - smart, clever, funny, and plenty there to read metaphor into if you’ve recently smoked something wacky.
The Great Race starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon didn’t get very good critical reviews. Most people I’ve talked to about it don’t like it very much, either. Compared to more modern comedies they find it slowly paced and corny. It’s still a favorite movie of mine, though. It was one of the first things I looked for on DVD.
I wouldn’t agree with that but I do think people who hate it just missed the point. I even thought Jennifer Jason Leigh was very funny - I just took it as a piss-take.
I thought Sylvester Stallone’s “Oscar” was very funny.
TV:
*- Three’s Company
(Do you see a trend here?)
Movies:
*- Oscar
*- Paul McCartney solo
I love The Stupids starring Tom Arnold. No one that I have convinced to watch it with me has ever wanted to watch another movie I suggest.
Joe Vs the Volcano. What can I say? I know it beat you over the head with its point, but I LIKED the point.
Clean Slate. Dana Carvey at his finest, I laugh my ass off every time I watch it.
Star Trek: Voyager. Sure, it’s heavy on the soap opera elements, but there ain’t nothing wrong with that. It’s fun, it’s funny, and I really like a lot of the characters - the Doctor, particularly. And it had as many good episodes as it had true clunkers - and relative to TNG, its average really isn’t near as bad as some people want to believe.
Various Final Fantasy animations (The Spirits Within and The Legend of the Crystal) - the latter is pure silliness - which is a good thing. And some of the complaints (Linali’s glowing butt, for instance) aren’t as far removed from the games as the complainers seem to think. On the former, I think a lot of the people who complain are looking too much at the superficial aspects, like the SF trappings, and lack of Summons, and not enough at the deeper story and character elements - the mystical hoo-hah, the oddly named military unit, the multiple big-bads (Phantoms/Hein), etc. Much like the people who complain about the latter games.
[ul]
[li]Titanic. I know it was loved by many, but not in the circles where I talk about film, including here.[/li][li]Cable Guy. Many people hate Jim Carrey, though it seems as if he’s getting more and more respect as the years go by. But I haven’t talked to anyone who liked Cable Guy.[/li][li]Shakespeare in Love. I think the movie was truer to Willie than many other adaptions. This leads to[/li][li]Gwyneth. Who’s not a very good actress, but simply endearing. And she really nails the English accents.[/li][li]Which in turn leads to Tomb Raider, which wasn’t a great movie, but certainly above what’s being produced in the genre. And I think Angelina Jolie nailed the part.[/li][li]The American Pie trilogy. I know I shouldn’t like these very juvenile movies, but there’s something to them, a second layer, which warms me to them. The father is absolutely hilarious and Ally Hanigan starts as funny and quirky and ends the series as a total babe. I want her to have my baby. [/li][/ul]
It seems that Forrest Gump and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial get panned quite a bit here. I like them both very much.
Maybe it was because of extremely lowered expectations, but I didn’t think Gigli was a bad flick. A few ridiculous scenes, but no more so than in other Hollywood films.
Beavis and Butthead!
I think every guy can relate to these two morons…
Butthead: "Hey Bevis, want some meat?"
Bevis: "No Butthead, meat is supposed to be bad for you"
Butthead "if it's bad for you, then why is it Food?"