My Guilty Pleasure Movies

Anyone who has ever been around me or read my books knows I love movies (and music).  They are both perhaps as equally represented in my writing as they are in my daily life.  A friend of mine has been asking me for a few months now to do a post about some of my favorite guilty pleasure movies.  After them inquiring about them again, I found myself thinking of what movies I would put on my list.  I’ve decided that I am not going to go look at the movies I own, but instead putting together a list from what I could think of in my head.

The ‘Burbs

This was the first movie that came to mind when I thought about creating this list.  Although this is one of my most favorite movies, it is a movie I’ve seen the beginning of much more often than I’ve seen the end, being when I cannot fall asleep I will play the movie and end up eventually crashing out to the comfort of the plot unfolding.

Go

Told from three different points of view, the events after a drug deal are played out.  I ordered this movie by mistake and arrived home late one evening unable to unwind.  I liked the stars that were in it and decided that I would check it out.  Whenever I am trying to get into working on a project and cannot free my mind to get focused, this movie always seems to put my head into a better place.  The Adam and Zack scenes are my favorite, with the others a very close second.

Foul Play

In this 1978 movie, a shy San Francisco librarian and a bumbling cop fall in love as they solve a crime involving albinos, dwarves, and the Catholic Church.  From the beginning with Goldie Hawn driving down the coast back into San Francisco to the old ladies playing scrabble this movie hooks me every time.  If I could live anywhere in the world, I would live in her apartment and know exactly how I would decorate it.  The story is great and the movie does a great job of capturing the time.  It also has a few songs that stick in my head for days later!

Jurassic Park

The premise of the movie makes the idea of dinosaurs roaming the earth a reality.  A theme park suffers a major power breakdown during a preview tour, which allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok.  This is also one of my all-time favorite books and although the movie only includes about a third of the book, it is a wonderful movie. 

Fargo

The top of my list for a movie to stay home on a cold day and watch list.  Another movie where I imagine myself being in the position of the various characters and think about what I would do.  A pregnant police chief is investigating a series of homicides across the frozen tundra. Against a sprawling Minnesota landscape, a car sales man hires two criminals to kidnap his wife. But when the scheme goes sour, and wood chippers get involved, the haphazard kidnapping plot turns deadly serious.

Gran Torino

A racist Korean War veteran living in a crime-ridden Detroit neighborhood is forced to confront his own lingering prejudice when a troubled Hmong teen from his neighborhood attempts to steal his prized Gran Torino.  I love how the message of overcoming diversity is presented in this movie.  Walt is a flawed, but well likeable character.

The Covenant

These four young guys who belong to a supernatural legacy are forced to battle a fifth power that was long thought to have died out. Another great force they must contend with is the jealousy and suspicion that threatens to tear them apart.  Witches have never been something to interest me.  Put together some hot looking guys who are witches with a great storyline and I’m hooked.

Fight Club

Although the book was great, I think the movie is way better!   I don’t even know how to describe this movie.  Something for those of you have watched the movie may have noticed there is a Starbucks cup visible in almost every scene of the movie.  This was not something I noticed on my own, but ever since it was pointed out to me, I have been looking for the Starbucks cups anytime I’m tired and watching the movie.

White Frog

High-school freshman, Nick is a neglected teen with mild Asperger's syndrome whose life is challenged and ultimately changed forever when tragedy hits his family.  A friend suggested this movie to me by back when it came out, but when I checked it out I had no interest in watching it.  Then they brought up again.  One evening I was working on some stuff and needed something to occupy my mind so I went to look for something on Netflix and there it was.  I turned the movie on and thought I would watch it and have it out of the way for checking out.  Immediately I was sucked into the storyline and adored the characters.  When the movie ended I had gotten so into it that I completely stopped what I was working on.  Then I put the movie on again, intending to have it play in the background, instead I watched the whole movie. 

The Goonies

No matter how many times I’ve seen this movie, which is too numerous to count, when it comes on I am immediately sucked into it.  About a group of teens who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon.  They are attempting to save their homes from demolition, and in doing so, discover an old Spanish map that leads them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willie, a legendary 17th-century pirate.  This is perhaps the one movie I will stop and watch each and every time I come across it and always makes me feel like a kid again.  Every time I visit Astoria I feel like I am coming to a familiar place, being most of the settings in the movie still can be visited.

Easy A

This one definitely tops my list.  so much so that I have a copy in my DVD player in my car (the only movie I have in it) as well as a copy at home.  Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is re-imagined as a contemporary high school comedy in this tale of a scheming student who plots to give her popularity a boost by painting herself the easiest lay in school.

Now that I’ve finished writing my list I know I will see several movies that I will have wished I would have included.  I am sure of this because I’ve spent about as much time as I had writing this post debating on whether to take a quick peak at my movies.  With that in mind, keep an eye out for a follow up post.

What are some of your guilty pleasure movies?  Are some of mine, some of yours?  Please leave a comment below!