Guilty Pleasure Films
These are the movies people don’t tell their friends they like. These are the movies that fill up a slow Saturday afternoon. Unintentional comedies, accidentally entertaining, preposterous and absurd in the way only movies can be. You’d never buy the DVD, or at least never tell anyone you did, but if it’s on TV, it’ll keep you watching. Art is subjective, right? In these cases, the filmmakers have made bad filmmaking into its own art form.
5- Street Kings
Keanu Reeves tries and fails to intimidate. A range of odd casting choices, including Cedric the Entertainer, House’s Hugh Laurie, Common, and Terry Crews (the McDonalds guy from The Longest Yard) make it more fun spotting the cast (“Is that Cedric?” rang out during one packed screening) than watching the movie.
4- You Don’t Mess With the Zohan
It’s basically silly garbage. But Adam Sandler and company throw so much at the screen (hummus jokes, Israeli jokes, Arab Jokes, McDonald’s jokes) that something is bound to stick. Everything is over-the-top, from Sandler’s caricatured Israeli accent to the giant vat of hummus he uses to put out a fire. But somehow the manic effort, likely created by an earned lack of confidence in the material by the filmmakers, has resulted in a film that at least keeps attention despite being a train wreck of a film.
3- Speed Racer
The movie comes to a complete stop every time it pauses to advance its typical story. But it comes alive during every one of the Wachowski brothers’ insanely creative racing sequences, colors flashing and the camera moving in ways never before seen on film.
2- Step Up 2 the Streets
The attempts at “hip” dialogue draws laughs, and the story is recycled corny fare. But the dance sequences (including one in the middle of a rainstorm and another on a crowded metro car) are sometimes so sharp it’s worth the waiting between them.
1- Never Back Down
Never Back Down tries so hard it ends up succeeding just on sheer effort. Director Jeff Wadlow aggressively throws the camera around, as if he knew he needed to make up for Chris Huaty’s Karate Kid-ripoff script. The film is tremendously hypocritical, espousing non-violence while shooting every fight scene with a near-sexual relish. And Cam Gigandet digs into his role as the jerk opposing fighter Ryan with delightfully over-played menace. Never Back Down is as ridiculous as the female love interest’s name (which is Baja Miller, by the way) but it’s also ridiculously entertaining.
