Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House - an oldie (1948) with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, two of my all-time favorite ever actors. This is about the building of the dream house in the 'burbs, which has been done to death, but this post-war rendering is so charming because of the lead actors. I love hearing Myrna Loy’s descriptions of the paint colors she wants the workmen to buy. ‘Not just yellow, mind you, but a bright, clear yellow, the color of the best butter!’
Ace Ventura - When Nature Calls. Really stupid, but I can’t help laughing the stupider it gets. That scene in the tent still cracks me up!
Anything with Vincent Price. I just love Vincent Price. For an example, I’ll pick Masque of the Red Death - the whole movie is just a gaudy, uneasy trip, Vinnie is luridly evil, and it also has in it Paul McCartney’s beautiful ex-girlfriend, Jane Asher. Watching MotRD brings me back to younger, happier times (though the movie IS a downer).
Sitting Pretty - another post-war oldie starring the snippy, waspish, middle aged Clifton Webb, hired as a nanny. It’s perfectly logical as Mr. Belvedere is an absolute Expert on EVERYTHING. And he cures the food flinging baby in the high chair with a little taste of his own medicine, which is cruel and would not work IRL - but it IS hilarious!
Roll, Bounce - a really cute after-school-specialish tale of dancing roller-skating teams facing off in The Big Competition. With astonishing stunts, great 80’s music, a nice family background drama, and glimpsing Paris Hilton as a preening extra.
I love many of these. **Overboard **was what I thought of when I read the OP. So bad, especially when you consider the real-life implications of deceiving someone like that. And yet, " . . . eat your checkers!" is part of our family lexicon.
I love L.A. Story and in no way concede that it’s a not-the-greatest movie.
It’s not that they don’t like it, it’s just not brought up very often as a popular movie, and is often considered “Meh.” Also 6.8 is well within “average” parameters.
Agree totally, and with the remainder of your post, that I didn’t quote.
I’ll add for me, it’s the reminder of the early internet. As an aside, when I first got AOL, possibly the first night I was on, I received a very suggestive IM out of the blue. I thought Wow! So this is how it is! It was a lot of fun for a few weeks, couple of months but I did not follow through on it for reasons I won’t go into here.
I only mention it for the irony of it being the ONLY time I ever received a (real) IM like that in the twenty years or so I’ve been online.
Mine is How to Steal a Million. It’s not one of Audrey Hepburn’s best films, but I adore it. Her completely over the top, chewing the scenery father, the crazy not anywhere close to actually possible plan for stealing the statue she actually owns, her fabulous 1960’s wardrobe, that convertible! Such wonderful campy fun.
I Was a Male War Bride is another favorite. Of course it’s Cary Grant, so how can it be bad? but it’s so silly and he’s so adorable. Love that movie.
Meh. While they’re not typically wearing bikinis, teen girls in tight t-shirts and short-shorts doing a car wash to raise money for some school activity is super common in real life. Also, there are several shirtless guys in the background of that clip.
Be proud of liking Vertical Limit! It’s way better than it has any right to be! Of course, I liked Cliffhanger, so take that into consideration.
Movies are not life. Movies are a few minutes excerpted from a lifetime lasting decades. So the minutes you choose to show indicate intent.
Everyone has farted loudly at some point in their life. But if you see a character fart loudly in a movie, you know the movie is a low-brow comedy. Why? Because the filmmaker wouldn’t have chosen to show a character farting loudly in a serious drama.
Similarly, if the filmmaker showed his female characters having a bikini carwash, it wasn’t because he wanted to realistically depict a random activity that young women engage in. His intent was to show off their bodies.
Shirtless male characters just show that you can also objectify men.
Besides, I’ll just put out the obvious challenge. If the Iron Law of Filmmaking I mentioned isn’t true, show me the proof. Give me an example of a movie that has a bikini car wash scene that doesn’t either objectify women or parody the objectification of women.