Alt Focus: Recently saw "American Hustle" and "Silver Linings Playbook." Don't get either. Bored the hell out of me, and didn't think they were engaging in the least, much less Best Picture material. As mentioned, 'Lost in Translation' was completely lost on me. 'The Descendants' was also a complete miss with me. Can't figure out how anyone like any of those four movies.
Alt-Focus: The Blindside That is one big pile of steaming sentimental shit. I lost it when the fictional Michael Oher turned into James Bond in the crackhouse. It was either that or the quarterback is your family speech.
Focus: When Harry Met Sally. Christ, I love that movie. That, and Bad Boys. Oh, and Lethal Weapons 1, 2 and 4. Not #3, though. That one upset me. Alt Focus: There are so many movies I've not seen that people keep telling me to go back and watch things they loved in their youth which don't hold up to all the hype thrust upon them. To that end, I loathed Princess Bride. I also didn't see all the hoopla about Goonies or Good Morning Vietnam. Also, Avatar sucked.
Focus: Grandma's Boy and Idiocracy. If you don't like those movies, I really have no argument to convince you that you're wrong. I just like watching them. Anti-Focus: I'm not actually sure what the general consensus on this movie is, but Police Academy. I thought it was sort of considered a classic, but looking at the mediocre Rotten Tomatoes score maybe it's more of a cult classic. Anyway, I watched it a couple weeks ago thinking it would at least be entertaining, but nope. I thought it was fucking awful. Just terrible. I actually hate that movie.
My main one is Roadhouse. BUT, I will still watch Point Break all the way through, wherever I happen to start watching it. Any Gary Busey movie ever should qualify.
Focus: Starship Troopers. I will always stop the channel when it's on, and sometimes even consciously pick it when I see it on the guide. And no other ones, nope not one. Certainly not one I'm too embarrassed to admit.
Road House is the guilty pleasure par excellence. Smut, fights, mullets, and Swayze doing Tai Chi in sweatpants. You cannot turn this movie off. It's brain-dead yahoo fare from the word go with no surprises whatsoever but somehow the sleaze and epic cheese one-liners work in a way that can be nothing short of divine intervention. I USED TO FUCK GUYS LIKE YOU IN PRISON! Commando Watch Arnie single-handedly kill 96 people in the noisiest action movie to ever exist. There has never been a more hilariously corny one-man-army movie. Arnie jumps out of a passenger plane into a one-foot deep marsh, breaks a steel chain with his bare hands, throws an entire phone booth with a person inside it, and kills seven dozen dudes in the last ten minutes. This is mayhem, violence, stupidity and noise. And nothing but. Firewalker Chuck Norris teams with Louis Gosset Jr. as intrepid soldiers of fortune in Chuck's first foray into comedy. Really the movie is REALLY lousy and poorly-written B-movie crap but it seriously has its moments, especially when Chuck takes out an entire crowded bar of Mexicans single handed. The money at 3:07-- ...virtually every single guy hits a table, shelf, door or window somehow. Viva Mexico.
There will be no arguing that there is a worse Bond movie than Moonraker. That, my friends, is just science.
Here's one of contention: Eric Bana/Ang Lee's Hulk. Everyone LOATHES this flick. Personally, I found it brilliant and everyone else is obviously wrong. But there is no middle ground. You either like it or hate it with the fire of a thousand scorched anuses. Bonus points for Sam Elliot quite literally chewing every scene he's in. The prop department must have had him wear a sandpaper thong. When Elliot is done, in comes Nick Nolte to eat the rest up. Fucking outstanding watching his crazy hobo ass. Let me parrot Point Break and Commando. My god, fucking Oscar worthy. My buddy and I could kill 2 hours quoting Commando and the movie is only 90 minutes. "Let off some steam, Bennet." For FUCK'S SAKE, the opening montage has him hand feeding a wild deer. Fuck off! Alt. Focus: Pretty much every popular movie of the last 10 years. I stopped giving a shit about spectacle flicks. All these Marvel adaptations don't interest me at all. They're good and competent enough, but I don't care. I tried watching Thor and Captain America and there's all this noise and action and I couldn't give a damn. I got a bunch of chuckles out of Iron Man 3, but once shit started blowing up I lost interest. Same with Game of Thrones. I realize it's good and ambitious and smart, I just don't care. At least 10 of my friends has told me to watch it. One so much as to force the DVDs and books on me to consume. Read the first book, liked it enough, but I hate the idea of carrying on with it. However I still love Batman and Bond, so. Whatever. I think it's the fantasy element that alienates me.
Harley Davidson and The Marlboro Man This is a time capsule for me and if I watched it now I would probably hate it, but I must have watched it with friends two dozen times as a tween. "It's better to be dead and cool....than alive and uncool."
Twins: This movie is objectively terrible, but I always watch it when it's on TV. Arnold playing the naive island boy walking around LA in a suit jacket and shorts cracks me up every time. Plus anything with Danny DeVito playing a sleaze/conman type is going to be awesome. Spoiler Con Air Again, truly an awful movie, but it's got the perfect recipe of a terrible script combined with really great character actors hamming up the villains. John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi make this movie for me. They're matched only by Nicolas Cage's hilarious shoulder length hair and terrible Southern accent. "I said put the bunny back in the box!" Spoiler Alt-Focus Never understood why people liked the Matrix. An interesting premise ruined by terrible dialogue and, with the exceptions of Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving, awful acting.
Beastmaster. I remember that movie being on either TBS or TNT on what seemed to be a continuous loop every summer during high school, and I'd watch it once a day if I was home. The Neverending Story does NOT hold up well, but that's another one that if I come across it I'll watch it all the way through.
How could I forget Big Trouble in Little China Jack Burton battling Lo Pan for the love of a green eyed girl.
When I tried to sleep that night, I could still see those eyes. I think its an incredible movie. The too-perfect saturation of CGI makes it look ancient but for imagination and the work put into it, it's tops.
Pretty much any action movie. A comedy or drama, I can easily skip though (unless it is an American Pie movie. Fucking nostalgia). If I catch it in the middle of a fight or I know a series of explosions are coming up, I'm done. Starship Troopers is probably the one I need the jaws of life to escape. The more I watch it, the more I realize the political satire and commentary behind it. Terminator Salvation was last weekend and I know everyone hates it, but fuck, can't stop watching it when it comes on.
Hmmm. Two movies that came to mind that most people would say is awful but I don't give a shit: Con Air and Grease 2. The first has already been mentioned. The second... well, how can you not love a musical with multiple songs about sex? It will be a long time before I let my kid see that one. Alt focus - I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER see the movie Avatar.