Bad Movies and Guilty Pleasures

posted by Anne Stuart on Saturday, August 26, 2006 . Post a comment for a chance to win free books!
Since there are only six Story Broads and seven days of the week we decided that each Sunday we'd talk about piffle (not that we wouldn't talk about piffle on the other six days -- I certainly intend to). The question for this Sunday is what is your favorite movie and/ or favorite guilty pleasure movie.
Well, I could talk forever about my favorite movies, so I'll just stick to bad Nicolas Cage movies. I love them. Gone in 60 Seconds and Con Air got the most abysmal reviews, and I couldn't even pretend to defend them. And yet every time they're on tv I'm riveted. I love the silly cars with their names, and Angelina Jolie in blonde dreadlocks, and Christopher Eccleston being slimy, and most of all I love Nicolas Cage. Even when he uses a dreadful accent in Con Air and talks about his "hummingbird," there's a sort of divine cheesiness to him that's irresistible.
That doesn't mean he can't make fabulous movies. "Moonstruck" is one of my all-time favorites, and his lovelorn baker has one of the best movie speeches of all time. I imagine he's brilliant in Leaving Las Vegas, even though I have no intention of ever seeing it, and Adaptation is a fabulous writer's in-joke.
There are all sorts of wonderful movies, lauded and honored, that make you think, make you feel, change you, and you watch them once, nod sagely, and forget all about them.
And then there's bad Nicolas Cage movies. To be savored, insulted, enjoyed with popcorn and Tab and your teenage son. And sometimes that's the best thing in the world.

1 Comments :

Blogger Lynda said...

I couldn't stand Nicolas Cage when he was younger. I recall watching PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED and wanting to draw a big X across him every time he appeared onscreen. But as he matured, he kinda grew on me, starting, I think, with the opening monologue of RAISING ARIZONA, so wonderfully dry and hilarious. I agree that GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS is a hoot, but I think my favorite cheesy Nic Cage movie is NATIONAL TREASURE. (Doesn't it ever occur to anyone that where a shadow falls on a wall depends on which day of the year it is?)

On the other hand, some cheesy bad movies really are just bad. The other night I tried to watch THE WRATH OF GOD in order to feast on the sight of a very young, very beautiful Frank Langella--and even for him I couldn't force myself to stick with it, the movie was so awful.

Lynda

1:46 PM  

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