Admission: I like some genuinely horrible movies

I have a confession to make.

I love some truly horrible movies, and some movies that everyone else hates.  The worst is when they are horrible and no one has heard of them.

I'll get the worst out of the way.

I may be the only person that enjoys 'Batman & Robin'.  Sure I fast-forward through a majority of the movie but I honestly just plain old like Alicia Silverstone.  I hated that she was mocked for being overweight...she wasn't.  But her line readings are horrible, as is every actor in this film.  But again....still like it through the sheer admiration for how bad it is.

Having watched the above video I am now ashamed of myself.  I must always watch with an eye to other things....

Global Heresy (2002)
I have no idea why or how I came across this little movie but I kinda adore it.  Imagine an old English couple with a vast estate are running out of cash....if a fit of desperation they hire out their house to an American band and play the part of the help.

Now watch this...

How the heck they were able to get Peter freaking O'Toole and Joan Plowright for this I'll never know but they are brilliant.  The rest....not so much.  I do love the songs, and the bad lip synching and the really badly played relationship between Silverstone (there's a theme) and a guy that doesn't look like he'd had the strength to kiss her, let alone lift a guitar.  I will say that Lochlyn Munro who plays the drummer (and bad, frat dudes in the 90s - you will recognise him) is enormously entertaining.

**Note: the scene in which O'Toole explains the rules of cricket is superb.

The Postman (1996)

I will openly admit to ADORING this film.  Years after the world has gone to heck a charlatan moving from fort town to fort town, comes across a satchel of letters from the US Postal Service.  He uses them as leverage to get inside one town's borders and them begins to regain some humanity after many years alone.  Basically it's Revolution (the TV show) without the annoying main character, less focus on technology and an actual scary villan (Will Patton whoa).  I like that it's the strength of the written world that starts giving people hope again.

Also hilarious, this dystopian future....2013.  Watch out, people!

Also, a few years back I guested on the film podcast, Flicks, to discuss why I adore this movie so much.  Luckily both Jason and Dan loved it too.  You can catch it here, or on iTunes.  Dan and I used to podcast together when I was a podcaster....have I shocked you?  He kindly invited me to join them for this discussion though the dance movie episode that he said we could do never materialised....Dan!

Speaking of which...

Centre Stage

Look, the acting is woeful, the script isn't much better but the dance routines are phenomenal.  It's because of this movie that I used to think that I knew what I was talking about when I watch So You Think You Can Dance.

Seriously though, Jody had a choice between hot but bland Charlie, and ugly, flexible and bland Cooper.  It shouldn't have been that hard of a choice.

In a horrific moment I just realised that this movie is 12 years old (2000).  I am old....

Lastly,

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1945)

I love musicals but even I can admit this is fairly atrocious if not only due to the fact it is based on 'The Rape of the Sabine Women'.  Let's kidnap some women up to our mountain dwelling and make them ours....except with song, watercolour backgrounds and some rousing dance numbers.

I love it.  Finding it on DVD made my week - as does watching this number

The kid in the blue is Russ Tamblyn who went on to star in 'West Side Story' and interestingly fathered Amber Tamblyn aka Joan of Arc and one of House's ducklings.  If you are wondering why all the Seven Brothers have such horrid hair, blame the director.  In dying all their hair red...they looked related.  It didn't work.  Another interesting fact, the tall brunette dancing dream is Julie Newmar and they found it near impossible to find an amazing male dancer to match her height.

And this is the information I retain.

What are your guilty pleasures?

"This book looks like shit, miss"

There's been a lot of discussion on Australian students' literacy levels, class texts and the absence of joy in school reading these past two weeks.  On Friday I posted my thoughts over at my work (The Centre for Youth Literature) blog.

As you may have noticed, I have been posting regularly again and will continue to do so.  However, my work blog Read Alert will begin to feature more opinion pieces from me on the topic of teens and reading.

Thanks
Adele