Five Little Pleasures

It's doesn't take much to say you love a movie because it's so good. There's beautiful lighting, the characters are real, the acting is superb, etc. I spent four years in college and learned all about what makes a good film great. But what makes certain bad film entertaining AKA a guilty pleasure? I have chosen my five favorite not so great movies that I will always view as legendary and if I see it on TNT on Sunday at 2... that shit is staying on.

I will point out that all 5 of my top entertaining, non-award worthy films were all released in a 5 year period. Perhaps mid-late 90's to the beginning of the second millennium was just the best time for these films to prosper.

5. Anaconda (1997)
Let's start with the cast of this film: J. Lo, when her ass was still larger than her ego, Owen Wilson getting eaten by a snake, Ice Cube, and Robin Williams's dad from Jumaji (which was number 9 on this list). It's a good cast with not horrible acting ability. Wait, I forgot we also have Papa Jolie, Jon Voight, as one creepy ass dude who takes the team of documentary makers hostage and forces them to help him hunt down a giant snake just because he's crazy. Genius. The movie is full of amazingly cheap dialogs, stereotypical 1997 CGI, and pure entertainment.

4. Cable Guy (1996)
Ace Venture vs. Ferris Bueller at Medieval Times. That shit is classically stupid entertainment. I don't care if the rest of the movie is just Jim Carrey trying to one-up the kookiness of any past or future role. That's all I have to say about that.

3. Face Off (1997)
Can you pitch this movie without it sounding like the greatest plot for an action film? No, you can't. I tried. Impossible. A FBI agent switches faces with a bad guy in order to get the bad guy's brother to tell the agent where a bomb is, but things turn hairy when they bad guy gets the agent's face! There's also John Travolta making fun of his own chin, ambiguous incest tension, Nicolas Cage in one of his few awesome roles, and doves. As far as action movies go, I think this one is probably one of my favorite. Many of you have to agree, but you can also say Total Recall, which I will allow.

2. Shanghai Noon (2000)
Around the same time, Jackie Chan had started another franchise in which there was rushing and hours. However, I prefer this film since I find Chris Tuckers voice makes my ears bleed within 13 seconds. Also, Owen Wilson is a much better compliment to Jackie Chan as far as buddy comedy pairings go. The main reason I think this film is such a guilty pleasure is because it's a Martial Arts Western Comedy. The only other film that fits into that category is... nothing. Since this film is one of a kind, it deserves the second place spot in my list of guilty pleasure movies.

1. A Knight's Tale (2001)
This is not my number one because I'm dedicating it to Heath Ledger. It is number one because there are very few people, who will say 'No' to this film. In all the years of school, when I brought up that I love this movie to other film students, even though it's nothing special, everyone has always agreed that it is one of their favorite bad movies. I believe what makes this film great is that it crosses even more genres than Shanghai Noon. This film is an Historic Action Romantic Comedy Musical. I don't mean musical in the sense that there's singing and dancing, but because the soundtrack makes this film such a guilty pleasure. When else have you (or where else will you) hear Freddie Mercury belting out "We Will Rock You" during a Medieval jousting tournament? Not in The Cable Guy. This film crosses all of these genres and that is what makes it so great and more entertaining than any other guilty pleasure film. Also because it is the film that will always come to mind when you mention Heath Ledger... except very much possibly The Dark Knight (I hope).