One of my favorites is Groundhog Day. Of course, it has a problem in common with several movies mentioned in this thread that a lot of people think it is a very good movie. I might as well mention The Princess Bride as well.
Some of the other movies are improved a lot if you skip ahead. The Matrix Reloaded is a lot better if you skip ahead to where they go to meet The Merovingian and watch it through the Freeway sequence. For True Lies, watch the scene in the Mansion and then skip to the restroom scene and the chase sequence and then skip again until they get to the island.
I’ll nominate Twister, which it so happens was on last night just as I was first reading this thread. Can’t. Shut. It. Off.
Also, Drumline for its sheer eccentricity and general over-the-topness, particularly the drumming duels, and when Orlando Jones gets all Yoda-like over the holy calling of playing percussion instruments in a college marching band.
Otherwise, I’ll endorse Bring It On (Drumline with cheerleaders, or maybe vice-versa), Reign of Fire, Always (I love vintage aircraft and Richard Dreyfuss as much as Speilberg obviously does), The Mummy, and the most awesomest movie of all time, Red Dawn (“Wolverines!!!”)
This thread is not complete unless someone mentions: Tremors. (One summer it was on TV, once a week, for what seemed months.) Rita McIntyre is in it, and Kevin Bacon was at the height of cuteness - plus hideous giant sandworms!
Demolition Man is far from Stallone’s greatest. But if I happen to catch it while flipping through the channels, I become physically incapable of turning away.
**Rock Star, **in which Mark Wahlberg plays an '80s metal icon, is pretty schlocky, but I’m a sucker for this “Behind the Music”-type tales. Also I get a kick out of seeing Dominic “Detective McNulty” West in a long curly mane and full hair metal regalia.
And On Deadly Ground, which features Steven Seagal as a spook turned asskicking environmentalist. It’s pretty bad, but it’s worth a viewing if for no other reason than to see Michael Caine chewing the scenery as a sinister bolo tie-wearing oil man in one of his “I’m just here for the paycheck” roles.
It also has some really unintentionally hilarious dialogue in it, including this musing from R. Lee Ermey about what a bad ass Seagal is.
Quite a few of these are true for me as well (Drumline in particular), but I’ll put Tombstone on the list as the one movie I’ll watch just about whenever I see it on the guide.
Jack Burton: Won’t solve anything, Dave. People around here been droppin’ like flies, and where’s that gettin’ us, huh? Nowhere. Fast. Yeah, it’s times like these, I always remember what ol’ Jack Burton used to say. Thunder: Who? Jack Burton: Jack Burton! Me! Yeah, ol’ Jack, he always says ‘What the hell!’"
My wife and I occasionally joke about particularly unpleasant experiences as being “the Hell of Boiling Oil” (Keep Out!) or “the Hell of the Upside-Down Sinners.”
This was based on a book called The Walmart Baby. The name of the movie is Where the Heart Is.
Oooh, that reminds me of my secret shame: for my 24th birthday, I opted to go see Dumb and Dumber on its opening night after enjoying Jim Carrey’s earlier two films, The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Several of my friends wanted to go see Pulp Fiction, which most of us hadn’t seen yet (including myself), but I swayed the day by saying (a) we should go to a movie we ALL hadn’t seen yet, and (b) it was my birthday, so c’monnnnn.
I did eventually see Pulp Fiction, on tape. No doubt a better film. And in fact, any time I channel surf and see it on, I often watch it for at least a little while, as the OP specifies. But the same is also true with me of Dumb and Dumber. (must… wash… hands…)
I like Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. It sounds like just another creature feature flick, but it’s actually a serviceable little B-movie that zips right along. Sort of an actual successor to the old Republic serials in movie form. Excellent film to have on in the background while you are doing other stuff.
That’s the line my wife and I often quote. “If I’m not back in (x) minutes…call the President.” is another. Kurt Russell’s swaggering-but-inept John Wayne performance is pure gold. “Son of a bitch must pay.”
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The Man From Snowy River - A nice little romance/coming of age, great scenery, awesome horse scenes, and Kirk Douglas also plays his estranged brother. It’s sweet and funny without being too stupid.
Hot Shots - I practically fall over giggling every time.
For a long time Top Hat was my go-to movie if I was depressed or wanted to escape the world. I think it was my first purchased movie, pretty close anyway.
Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion - I love this one. It’s just…I don’t know, appealingly goofy.
Weekend at Bernie’s always makes me laugh.
And Big Trouble in Little China. I don’t even know why I like it; it’s not my kind of movie at all.
The book has always been published as Where the Heart Is.
