Yay I love this thread:
ai
Eyes Wide Shut
Troy
The Last Samurai
The Resident Evil films
Jurassic Park II & III
Aliens vs Predator I & II and Predators
Terminator III
I’m curious about this one, Bill. I’m in the minority that thinks Eyes Wide Shut is a mostly successful movie, although I suspect had Kubrick lived he would have tweaked it more before releasing. What aspect makes you feel terrible for liking it?
I had a film student recently tell me that Kubrick is his favorite director and Eyes Wide Shut is his favorite Kubrick movie. I had to work really hard to stop myself from telling him to drop out of film school.
Isn’t that The Cutting Edge?
Here’s one of mine: Hudson Hawk
The movie is completely ridiculous but for some reason I think it’s funny as hell.
Admitting to any non-Kubrick-adoring-nerd that I loved it. Most people were bored stiff and/or just stopped watching it halfway through. I think it’s one of his best films but I feel like I have my hipster glasses on when I say that, even though I mean it. And I usually like inflicting the films I like on other people and there is just no shot I would bust this film on a friend/girl-type friend.
Also it mirrors my life pretty well. Boredom, vague but persistent unease and tension, orgies (just kidding).
Throw me in with Sin City. As I told a friend, “It’s a gorgeous movie. I recommend it to nobody.”
But my big “I feel bad about liking this” are the Saw movies. The entire motivation of the franchise is nihilism, the belief that most people are apathetically selfish and uncaring - it’s a revenge fantasy against complacency, but it’s one where no one wins.
Pretty sure it is.
Troy, Terminator III and AvP I for me as well. But, AvP II was a terrible movie in the same league as Starship Troopers II.
Ishtar
A movie where Dustin Hoffman is supposed to be the handsome one that always gets the girls, and Warren Beatty is jealous of him, and then a blind camel steps on Charles Grodin’s foot in what had to be one of the funniest scenes on film a the time…
But no one ever agrees with me, and everyone hates that movie.
I think on a similar level is my enjoyment of the entire Final Destination series. I watched the first three when I was working as a waiter and hated humanity accordingly. So I love the movies entirely because they involve stupid people dying in explicitly violent fashion. I never care about them, and indeed the films don’t expect me to. In fact I can laugh at their brutal deaths.
I suppose that’s something I shouldn’t be proud of.
I second this. Tarantino is easy to admire but hard to like.
‘Romper Stomper’. It’s an excellent film and both Russell Crowe and Daniel Pollock are great in it. It is critical of Neo-Naziism and racially motivated violence but not overtly. Which is to say that unlike, say ‘American History X’, it doesn’t feel compelled to beat the viewer about the head with its message.
Also, while I abhor their politics, the skinheads in this film - particularly Crowe - really look the part.
There’s no reason to feel bad over liking a good film such as Romper Stomper.
Throw me in on the Saw movies as well. I don’t think I even really like them as much as I’m fascinated by the concept.
Not the idea of some guy killing people in bizarre deathtraps to teach them a lesson. That whole thing is dumb.
What fascinates me is the mandate that all the Saw movies have to fit together like some crazy quilt of backstory, retcons, and “surprise” reveals. (Like a… I don’t know. Jigsaw, maybe?) It blows my mind that the people behind the films will go through the trouble of rehiring actors from bit parts in previous films to shoot scenes in whatever is the latest installment. Sometimes, these bit parts turn into full-blown characters!
And it’s so obviously unplanned. The whole thing just creaks along clumsily. I’m fascinated.
Kids.
Waterworld. Love it.
Warren, there are limits even to what is acceptable in a horrible-movies-you-like thread.
What, do you like double-bill it with The Postman, maybe kick back with some Sbarro pizza and diet Pepsi?
I love Troy but don’t feel horrible about loving it.
Even as a musical sucker, there is really no way to defend the film virtues of 1776 - poorly cast except for Daniels, only three decent songs, bad history, terrible pacing, worst dancing ever. But I always watch it if I stumble across it on TV.
Be warned.
Troy