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Guilty Not Guilty Pleasures

High on my list of guilty-not-guilty pleasures: The Chronicles of Riddick.

I love that movie and have lost track of how many times I've watched it.

I suppose the guilt only comes into view when I consider the somewhat low ratings, critical and general audience, for the movie. Rotten Tomatoes: 29% Critics, 65% Audience. I simply don't understand these numbers. I think the movie is brilliant. I'm not being objective with that assessment, but something within me responds to the movie. It has that old style dark pulp kind of feel (Conan the Barbarian comes to mind.)

But who cares what critics say, right?
 

Chasejxyz

Inkling
I love terrible media, to the point where I feel like I can't recommend media to normal people because I don't know what normal people even like anymore. One of my favorite games is Ultra Despair Girls, where they took one of the worst (personality-wise) characters from a previous game and gave her her own game, where she is even more terrible, but openly so, but you can tell they had a lot of fun writing it and letting her be as insane as possible ("If you're going to be a slut, own it!" and "Girl power is mostly from virginity. This is why so many girls try so hard to be seen as virgins." are some peak examples of what I'm talking about). It feels like they made this game for me and me only, because no sane person would actually want to play this.

Another one is those dumb horse girl movies. You know the ones, where a troubled teen girl gets sent to live on grandmas farm out in the country to keep her out of trouble and there's this handsome stable boy and this wild, untamed horse that no one can reach except for the girl, and she learns to love and trust again, also grandma's house is gonna be foreclosed on and the evil bank wants to turn the farm into a strip mall so girl and horse have to win a riding contest which somehow has enough money to save the farm and also she gets the boy and at the end of the movie she decides to stay there instead of going back to the city. I read a lot of Horse Girl book of the month books growing up so that's probably part of it, and they're all super formulaic, but when they do deviate from the formula it's always in some crazy, unpredictable way. Also no one can act, except for the horse.

Terrible media is good because the people who made it put their entire heart and soul into it, or none at all, there's no in between. When people try to execute their grand artistic vision and don't have the skills (and/or budget) to do so, it comes out very goofy but you can still FEEL that passion, and that's always amazing. But when people are phoning it in (like horse movies or any live-action Christmas movie), it's a really good opportunity to study the art of crafting a narrative and using the medium in question, as its the same building blocks other stories have used but arranged slightly differently (like any item at Taco Bell). You can really see where the writers are making you do the heavy lifting by being aware of pre-existing tropes. What, truly, is the bare minimum a story needs to be a "story"? What is the minimum for a character arc? What is the quickest way one can resolve a conflict? Is it still a taco if there's no tortilla, but bread? And no ground beef but a chicken strip? The taco bell chicken sandwich taco is clearly a taco, but it doesn't really have anything you would say a taco needs to be a taco. So what is the essence of taco-ness? What is the essence of character motivation and conflict? You need to consume crap to be able to truly appreciate good stuff.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
Xmas films.
Not Hollywood but the made for TV ones. There are some real stinkers but there are a few above the rest.
I never read the plot [they are all sugary-sweet tales about someone finding the true meaning of the season/ love/ a lost relative/ a way to save the town or Christmas itself].
I look at the actors.
If I recognise them, then it might be worth a watch. If not, then I'm a little wary.
So then I listen to the opening credits. If they are using a named song or something classical I recognise, then things might be okay. If they are using a version of a classic seasonal song [but not the original], then things might be okay. If they are using something that sounds like it is trying to be an seasonal tune... then I am on warning.
And yes I think about this FAR TOO much.
 

Slartibartfast

Minstrel
Guilty (not guilty) pleasures are a long list of 80s and 90s action hits (and misses): Conan, Starship Troopers, Predator, Terminator, Rambo, The Crow etc. ad nauseum.

Guitly (ok, maybe a bit guilty) pleasures are some of the weirder, or at least horribly dated, fantasy films from the same era like Kull, Excalibur, and Clash of the Titans.

Guilty (fine, you got me) pleasures include that odd phase of family entertainment where Arnold Schwarzenegger and (unfortunately) Stallone both started doing comedies.

I think what I'm saying is I don't have any taste.
 

Insolent Lad

Maester
Pro Wrestling. I have a long relationship with it, knowing a lot of minor league performers when I was younger, both from working out at the same gyms and from some of them moonlighting as bouncers in clubs where I played music. I even tried my hand at 'stooging' for one. I still appreciate it for the theater it is and can be decidedly critical of story lines and performances. But I watch anyway, the little bit of it available via antenna television out in the boonies where I live now.
 

Chasejxyz

Inkling
Xmas films.
Not Hollywood but the made for TV ones. There are some real stinkers but there are a few above the rest.
I never read the plot [they are all sugary-sweet tales about someone finding the true meaning of the season/ love/ a lost relative/ a way to save the town or Christmas itself].
I look at the actors.
If I recognise them, then it might be worth a watch. If not, then I'm a little wary.
So then I listen to the opening credits. If they are using a named song or something classical I recognise, then things might be okay. If they are using a version of a classic seasonal song [but not the original], then things might be okay. If they are using something that sounds like it is trying to be an seasonal tune... then I am on warning.
And yes I think about this FAR TOO much.

Have you seen the Food Network original scripted movie with The Pioneer Woman? It's on Discovery plus and BOY it is bad, but in ways you'd never expect a Christmas movie to do so (the basic idea of pretty lady moves to the middle of nowhere and saves the [thing] and finds true love along the way is still there, don't worry lol)
 
Pro Wrestling. I have a long relationship with it,

When I was in high school, there were really only three questions that had the power to separate my friends and I into warring camps.

Zeppelin or Stones
Magic or Bird
Flair or Hogan

I was decidedly Stones, Magic, Flair

As for guilty pleasures today? They always seem to revolve around childhood nostalgia. Since it's the season. . . All the old Christmas shorts, Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Frosty, Santa Claus is Coming To Town, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Nightmare Before Christmas, Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas etc

And baking as many of my grandmothers old Christmas recipes as I can squeeze in: Apricot Kolaches, Russian Tea Cookies, Potitza, Streudel, Poppyseed roll, Spekulaas, Cattern cakes, Gingerbread, Stollen.

Non holiday entertainment wise? Old 80's Michael Keaton Movies, Original Scooby Doo, Redwall, and Mystery Science Theater 3000.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
Have you seen the Food Network original scripted movie with The Pioneer Woman? It's on Discovery plus and BOY it is bad, but in ways you'd never expect a Christmas movie to do so (the basic idea of pretty lady moves to the middle of nowhere and saves the [thing] and finds true love along the way is still there, don't worry lol)
It sounds exactly right. I'll keep an eye out for it.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
High on my list of guilty-not-guilty pleasures: The Chronicles of Riddick.

I love that movie and have lost track of how many times I've watched it.

I suppose the guilt only comes into view when I consider the somewhat low ratings, critical and general audience, for the movie. Rotten Tomatoes: 29% Critics, 65% Audience. I simply don't understand these numbers. I think the movie is brilliant. I'm not being objective with that assessment, but something within me responds to the movie. It has that old style dark pulp kind of feel (Conan the Barbarian comes to mind.)

But who cares what critics say, right?


I find i rarely agree with the public in these matters. I like what i like. The Riddick movies were good. I see now Red Notice got terrible reviews and venom scored higher. Red notice was fun and venom is dumb. Who can figure?
 

Stevie

Minstrel
Lost in Space. The re-boot, not the original. Like the mighty George Thorogood said about his own music, it's cheeseburger, but sometimes, what you want a cheeseburger.

And The Chronicles of Riddick is a great movie.
 
I enjoyed the first two seasons of Lost in Space, but I haven't been able to stick with the third for some reason.

Another guilty-not-guilty pleasure is...all the supernatural teen dramas. Vampires, werewolves, witches, and assorted other types. Lately, I've been watching Legacies. I'd rate some other similar shows over it, but it's not too bad. Very campy, so I need to be in the mood for that. (Much campier than its predecessors, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals.)

Nearly anything involving special schools for the gifted (or cursed) will draw my attention, whether schools for supernaturals (like the school in Legacies) or superheroes (the movie Sky High.)
 
The TV show Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. I know it's aimed at little kids, and I used to think that too, but I watched one episode and it was so good that ever since it has been my favourite TV show :).
 
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