# Guilty Pleasures: Movies you like but are/were widely panned as a bad movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 11, 2021, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884 "2021-12-11T13:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/121 "2021-12-13T00:18:44Z")
Would the _Star Wars_ prequels count? Everyone seems to hate them, but I didn’t think they were that bad. Otherwise, I’d say _Regarding Henry_, _The Island_, _Stay_, _Before and After_. Some of it was more because of the cast, I’d say. I also liked _Ghost Ship_, as I tend to like ghost stories and horror movies. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/122 "2021-12-13T00:54:20Z")
Mystery Men was funny with good people in it. I liked it. I LOVED Tank Girl but i have a weak spot for action flicks and a G-spot for action flicks starring women. Salt, Resident Evil, Colombiana (was gonna put Long Kiss Goodnight but that has 70% on Rotten Tomatoes)-- man, I can forgive a lot of nonsense for girls who kick ass. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/123 "2021-12-13T00:56:00Z")
It’s been years since I last watched _13th Warrior._ Time to rectify that oversight. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/124 "2021-12-13T01:29:09Z")
My stock answer to this is Johnny Mnemonic. At this point in time I’ll also say the Lynch version of Dune. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/125 "2021-12-13T01:40:40Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer. Yes, just 34% on Rotten Tomatoes and _there may have been some historical inaccuracies_ but a good twist with lots of splatter. A good backstory, character development, and more splatter. I just started watching this for the first time and I’m getting a real kick out of it. Similarly, [**Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies**](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2246549/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3). Bill Oberst, Jr. is so good as Abe that I could overlook the stupidity of so many Secret Service agents becoming zombie brunch. The ending is a kinda shaggy dog joke, but _almost_ clever. Scores big points for at least trying something different. I wonder who had the “Lincoln vs supernatural” idea first? ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/126 "2021-12-13T02:26:45Z")
One film I forgot to mention the last time we did this thread: _Chain Reaction_, with Keanu Reeves (18/27 on Rotten Tomatoes). I’d be hard pressed to defend it; the “free energy” part of the plot is nonsensical doubletalk, and the plot is standard wrongly-accused-guy-on-the-run stuff. But I enjoy seeing the familiar locations in Chicago and Wisconsin, and I like that it was filmed in the dead of winter (the actors are visibly uncomfortable in the sub-freezing weather). It also has some impressive chase scenes and explosions. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/127 "2021-12-13T02:37:51Z")
_Willow_ is rated 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. I will fight anyone who trashes it. _Green Street Hooligans_ has 47%, not a wonderful film but I enjoyed it and it deserves better. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/128 "2021-12-13T02:44:43Z")
_Joe Versus the Volcano_ rated 54% on Rotten Tomatoes, both Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks agree it’s the worst movie either has ever done. They’re wrong, it’s awesome. Quotable, poignant, silly, powerful. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/129 "2021-12-13T02:45:15Z")
That I agree with. I really like that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/130 "2021-12-13T03:01:31Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > _Joe Versus the Volcano_ rated 54% on Rotten Tomatoes, both Meg Ryan and > Tom Hanks agree it’s the worst movie either has ever done. I like Volunteers (1985). Especially the part where Gedde Watanabe is reading the subtitles and Tom Hanks asks, ‘How do you do that?’ He said, "I’m Asian.’ ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/131 "2021-12-13T03:28:14Z")
I love _Joe Versus the Volcano_. Do you have a cite for Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan not liking it, I would find that disappointing. I also love 13th Warrior. No guilt necessary. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/132 "2021-12-13T03:34:27Z")
I liked the movie **Problem Child** with John Ritter (where he met his wife Amy Yasbeck). Rotten Tomatoes gave it _0%_, audience score 42%. The reviews are excoriating. I truly feel like everyone else in the world didn’t understand the movie properly the way I did. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/133 "2021-12-13T03:41:00Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > _Willow_ is rated 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. I will fight anyone who trashes it. I literally watched this again last night. There is no good reason for _Willow_ to have failed at the box office like it did. It had nothing to do with quality of the filmmaking or storytelling, it was all about the reputation of the genre. Fantasy was treated like Sci-Fi was before _Star Wars_, and _Willow_ (or _Labyrinth_, or _The Dark Crystal_) deserved to be the movie that turned that around. Instead it took another 12 years and _Lord Of The Rings_, and even then it still hasn’t been a huge shift. _Game Of Thrones_’s success is still the exception, not the rule. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/134 "2021-12-13T03:48:54Z")
I rather enjoyed _Cutthroat Island_ ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/135 "2021-12-13T10:21:28Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Were you conflating “The Shootist” with “True Grit”, or are you just giving two separate examples? Two examples, just forgot to name True Grit. Though sometimes I don’t think of The Shootist as a western, per se, but a film about beginnings and endings that happened to be set to the end of what we think of as the Wild West era. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/136 "2021-12-13T11:36:30Z")
Perfect example: I just happened to watch _Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps_ last night, which I’d never seen before. Everybody and his dog is in it, in terms of A-list actors: Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Carrey Mulligan, Eli Wallach, Susan Sarandon, Shia LaBeouf. Directed by Oliver Stone, who despite his conspiracy orientation in movie-making shows himself to be a skilled director. I really enjoyed it, in the genuine sense of being really entertained. Yet Rotten Tomatoes gives it a crappy 55% critics’ rating, and an even worse 44% audience rating. Maybe the difference is that I was sitting at home with no particular expectations, rather than driving out to a theater expecting a big-budget spectacle. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/137 "2021-12-13T11:46:38Z")
Oh look - someone chiming in on what half the people in this thread have said. By which I mean me. I’m chiming in. > [@Grrr](#): > > AI (Artificial Intelligence) with that creepy kid, was a great movie. Agreed. But quite a depressing one. > [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > “UHF” with Al Yankovic - didn’t do well during the initial release. I understand the studio planned to use Al Yankovic in a series of films but dropped the idea due to the poor boxoffice of UHF. The saddest words of tongue or pen… The trailers for it were terrible - the studios clearly had no idea how to pitch it - and IIRC it was released at the same time _Jurassic Park_ came out, so it’s no surprise it didn’t do well. It’s still a brilliant film, although I’ve struggled to explain to my daughter what “UHF” was (not the film - the actual UHF/VHF thing). > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I’ve always enjoyed the Super Mario movie. Yes! > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I never understood the hate _Hudson Hawk_ got. I like it. Yes! > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Speaking of Kurt Russell I’ll add _Big Trouble in Little China_ . Waaay underrated movie. Yes! > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Which made me think of _The Golden Child_ , Numsie. It’s high time for a re-watch. No. It’s genuinely awful. I mean, even for the genre it’s just bad, even by the usual “mystic Tibetan magic” standard it’s ridiculous and offensive, and even compared to early Eddie Murphy films it’s Murphy at his muggingest. > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > And Oscar… > > In general, I think that general audiences just don’t like friendly comedies. They want a comedy where something gross happens, someone is picked on, and/or someone is hurt. _Oscar_ was Stallone trying to do a bedroom farce, but farce for some reason doesn’t work nearly as well onscreen as it does in the theatre (even _Noises Off_, one of the best farces of recent decades, pales in comparison to its live performances) and Stallone really doesn’t have the right kind of comedy chops for it. > [@GuanoLad](#): > > **Krull** , which is objectively awful, but has a faithful following, and I love it despite desperately wanting to reach in and fix its flaws. _Krull_ is a lot of fun - the design alone is worth watching it for. Yes, “flamethrower hands” are dumb but as “swords and sorcery” films go it has a lot to offer. Also, you can play “spot Liam Neeson” (and, if you’re an _EastEnders_ fan, a young Todd Carty). > [@teelabrown](#): > > I dearly love _Tank Girl_ and will watch it whenever I come across it. Sadly let down by a clumsy plot about water (see also: _Solarbabies_) but I thought Lori Petty and the kangaroos absolutely nailed it and I wish the rest of the film had been good enough for (also good) sequels to happen. > [@Galactus](#): > > I also love 13th Warrior. No guilt necessary. I don’t understand why people _don’t_ like this movie. It’s a clever take on the Beowulf story, it’s well-made, well-acted and holds together well. _Joe vs the Volcano_, however - I totally get why people don’t like it, because I certainly don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Skunkdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Skunkdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skunkdog)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/138 "2021-12-13T11:54:54Z")
Two other films that I enjoyed that were panned and bombed at the box office were _Corky Romano_ and _R.I.P.D._ Chris Kattan is a wonderfully gifted physical comedian and played Corky with tremendous energy and quirkiness reminiscent of Jim Carrey in _Ace Ventura_. The latter film had Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Mary Louise Parker, and Kevin Bacon in the cast. The special effects were pretty terrible, but the story was fun (though Jeff Bridges phoned in a weak-tea copy of his Rooster Cogburn character from _True Grit_) ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/139 "2021-12-13T13:13:32Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Would the _Star Wars_ prequels count? Everyone seems to hate them, but I didn’t think they were that bad. I like the prequels as well and I would single out Ian McDiarmid’s performance as Palpatine/Darth Sidious as one of the best things about it. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884/140 "2021-12-13T13:28:38Z")
> [@TimfromNapa](#): > > Oops. I got a title wrong. Should have said “Mystery Men”, In a way, “Mystery Men” was too far ahead of it’s time. Deconstructing the myths of superheores by looking at the lives of other, somewhat less superhero-like, people in their society has become all the rage lately. “Mystery Men” probably suffered by trying to make the idea into a comedy, rather than a straight up action film with comedic undertones. But on balance, I still like it. The Big Hero getting killed because in the stress of the moment, everyone forgot how many times they flipped a toggle switch is pretty funny. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ojQ5P64o8g0/hqdefault.jpg "Mystery Men - Death of Captain Amazing") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojQ5P64o8g0) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guilty-pleasures-movies-you-like-but-are-were-widely-panned-as-a-bad-movie/955884.md?page=8)