MST3K the Movie
A Christmas Story
Grosse Pointe Blank

Guilty Pleasures:

Flash Gordon
Superman 3

Guilty pleasures:
* the Mighty Ducks films
* 10 Things I Hate About You
* Save the Last Dance (Why am I so ashamed of Julia Stiles?)
* Center Stage
* Dodgeball

Comfort movies: (some aren’t movies)
Gilmore Girls (any season, on DVD)- I put this on if there’s nothing on TV. It makes me temporarily wittier but slightly ruder.
Happy Feet
Gone with the Wind
Phantom of the Opera – I used to put this on when I went to sleep and it looped over and over throughout the night. Weirdly, it made me feel safer if I was home alone.
Bend it Like Beckham
Hairspray
Rent

Guilty pleasures:
Project Runway
Footloose
Any of the original 5 Nicktoons series (except Ren & Stimpy – yuck!) or Nickelodeon shows from the late 80s/ early 90s
What Women Want – love the scene where Mel Gibson is trying to put on pantyhose!
Sleeping Beauty (Disney version)
Alice in Wonderland (Disney version)

Princess Bride FTW!

As far as guilty pleasures, it’s not necessarily a movie, per se, but more of a style of music, and a band. Funk, and “Love Hurts” by Nazareth. It doesn’t matter if either of them are on, I feel like Cartman from South Park when he hears “Come Sail Away” by Styx. I have to listen to all of the song.

Of those, Joe is definitely the most comforting of the three. It’s silly, but it has a very life-affirming message that never fails to lift me out of a blue mood.

Fun Galaxy Quest/Comic-Con trivia: My husband may have been the person to start the “Rock!” chant tradition. It all started with the masquerade back in the early 90s. I’m telling the story badly (I wasn’t there), but it basically had to do with a guy who used a rock as a prop in his masquerade presentation. At some point, the rock was left on stage for an extended period, and the crowd was getting restless, so my husband started chanting “Rock! Rock! Rock!” and soon the entire audience of several thousand joined in. He fully admits it’s possible that several people may have initiated the chant simultaneously. Still a good story.

–The Princess Bride. I found out the other day that one of my coworkers had never seen this film, and that was when it occurred to me I had a distinct memory in my distant past of quoting it to a fellow first-grader. This movie is in my soul.

–Singing in the Rain: This is the one I absolutely stop everything to watch when it comes on TV. I know most of the songs. It depresses me for weeks after that I can’t tapdance. I love this movie.

–The Shawshank Redemption–STICK WITH ME ON THIS. I know it’s not a comfortable movie, ok? I KNOW. But I’ve seen it a fair million times, could quote it at any given Shawshank-emergency, find something else entirely amazing about it any time I see it, and have to see it every 16 months or so.

–Labyrinth. The thing that makes this a guilty pleasure is that it’s not a childhood memory–I didn’t see this until a few months ago. I don’t understand why not. Totally the missing link of my whole childhood. Brian Froud, Jim Henson, Terry Jones, and David Bowie? AT THE SAME TIME? Clearly the perfect film.

–Newsies. Definitely a guilty pleasure, again because I didn’t see it until I was advanced beyond childhood, but also because you can’t watch Christian Bale and Bill Pullman singing and dancing without feeling this isn’t something you should tell people about.

–Spirited Away. If you haven’t seen this movie, I forgive you. If you’ve seen it and didn’t find it all that special, I will hunt you down and make your life a misery.

–When Harry Met Sally. Best. Quotes. Ever.

–The Muppet Christmas Carol. Up until Patrick Stewart’s version, it was the most literarily accurate adaptation of the story. Also, I’ve been accused of humming it in June. I choose not to comment.

–Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and Death Proof: I refuse to watch them on TV. I don’t want to start in the middle, and I don’t want to miss any of the violence. No one is allowed in the house when I watch any of these. It is a sacred experience. And I particularly think that Quentin Tarantino’s one great failing was to not have Randy Newman Theme Songs.

–And I agree about anything with Tom Hanks. Topping the list would be Forrest Gump, You’ve Got Mail, and The Green Mile.

Ok. I think I’m done.

Meet The Robinsons
The Emporer’s New Groove
The Incredibles
O Brother Where Art Thou
Musicals – The Producers, Chicago, Shock Treatment, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Transformers: The Movie (the 1986 animated film, not Michael Bay’s steaming pile of crap)
Clerks: The Animated Series: Uncensored DVDs
Anything starring the Muppets
Liar Liar
Clue
Brain Donors (a Zucker brothers movie starring John Turturro that only I remember)

And every movie referenced in the following song:
http://www.thefump.com/lyrics.php?id=1099

And as far as the 25 Days of Newman is concerned, if you really want to get Joss Whedon’s attention, then you must do one for “SERENITY”! That would be shiny as hell.

- The Princess Bride

Comfort Movies:

- What About Bob?
I first saw this movie on television while my dad was in the hospital. It’s a funny and underrated, plus it’s set on (despite not being filmed at) New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee, which was near where my family used to go on vacation.

- A Christmas Story
I’m young enough for Christmas to still have meant something to me when they first started showing it 24 hours straight. Watching it brings back all sorts of warm memories of Christmas Eve anticipation. I have to catch it at least once every December.

- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
When I was five, this was the only Star Trek movie I was allowed to watch. By no coincidence, this was also the only Star Trek related thing we had, so I watched it until the VHS tape wore out.

Guilty pleasure movies:
Aw man, these are going to be pretty bad so be forewarned:
-any really really really bad disaster movies. Especially if they were produced on a $25 budget or end up on the SciFi Channel on a sunday afternoon. ‘Volcano’ has been my recent one. Can’t rule out The Towering Inferno or even The Poseidon Adventure. The worse, the better.
-Really bad marital arts films. I have seen Bloodsport and Best of the Best more times than I would really care to admit. I think it’s a hold over from my own martial arts days. Please don’t judge me.

Kill Bill Vol.1 is steadily becoming a “gotta watch it if its on” movie. Mostly for the crazy 88s/ O-Ren Ishii fights: Pure awesome.

Galaxy Quest is one of my big comfort movies, too. My husband and I quote this movie far more often than you’d probably think is possible. (“Miners not minors” and “Look around – see if you can construct some sort of rudimentary lathe” are favorites.)

Other comfort movies:
-The Lord of the Rings trilogy
-O Brother, Where Art Thou?
-Tommy Boy
-National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Guilty Pleasure movies:
-All romantic comedies (Love Actually, You’ve Got Mail, Never Been Kissed, etc)
-Mean Girls and other movies like it (But I can excuse this as doing research on the angst my students experience every day )
-Despite the face that I know I shouldn’t, if I’m flipping the channels, I can’t seem to help watching anything with Nicolas Cage (particularly his really bad movies like Zandalee and The Wicker Man)

First – have to concur with Storm on Galaxy Quest — that’s definitely one of my comfort movies. (Funny trivia aside: I just discovered recently that the geeky kid, Brandon — the one who helps the crew — was played by the actor who is now best known as the “Mac guy” from the John Hodgman Mac/PC ads. Wow, what a difference 9 years makes!)

Others:
- The Princess Bride
- Bend It Like Beckham (don’t know why, as I hate sports in general, but I love this movie)
- Romantic comedies (While You Were Sleeping, When Harry Met Sally, Music and Lyrics, etc…some of which also fall under “guilty pleasures”)
- Anything from Pixar (and I don’t count them as guilty pleasures; they may be “kids’ movies”, but part of the reason they’re so popular is they’re written to appeal to adults as well as kids)

Guilty pleasures (the ones I only watch when I’m alone in the house):
- Cheesy ’80s flicks that I watched over and over in high school (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, etc.)
- Disney (non-Pixar) kid flicks (Freaky Friday, The Parent Trap, Pollyanna)
- Fifty First Dates (guilty pleasure because I hate Adam Sandler in general, but I do like this one movie of his…possibly because I like Drew Barrymore)

I don’t think there are any movies that I will always watch to the end if I happen to catch them on TV. I’ll watch a few minutes, but in general if it’s something I will watch over and over, I have it on DVD, so I figure I can just pop it in whenever.

Also – Persephone, they’re not talking about Wil Wheaton (who actually does know about Paul and Storm — I believe there are even pictures of them together) but Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and the upcoming midseason replacement Dollhouse.

Oh, and your RSS feed is *still* not working.

Comfort movies would have to be favorites from teenhood, like The Princess Bride, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Little Shop of Horrors.

That Thing You Do! is one of my very favorite movies! The reason you love it: that moment when their song comes on the radio, and they all hear it and run to the appliance store and jump around for joy! That was some contagious happiness. Also, the whole Beatlesque feel was very charming for this Beatle fan. And Steve Zahn was awesome in that movie. The music rocks too! The whole thing is just awesome. Make sure you watch the whole thing one day, Storm.