The Great Movies Group at eNotes

I believe that guilty pleasures are gender-based, for sure. What’s...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:05:22 PST

I believe that guilty pleasures are gender-based, for sure. What’s sauce for the goose is not necessarily sauce for the gander when it comes to films. Guilty pleasure movies for me are things like Twilight and Titanic. "Chick flicks," as many call them. They are a bonding mechanism, the perfect centerpiece for a girls' night out, or girls' night in. Adult women can get together, enjoy a meal and drinks, and then squeal like teen-agers over...

Another angle might be that guilty pleasures act as a catharsis. We...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:29:01 PST

Another angle might be that guilty pleasures act as a catharsis. We watch and enjoy what our society tells us we should not do. In other words, we live vicariously through the movies and television programs. In short, it is an outlet. Another point, which is far more basic, is that we might just enjoy something mindless. For people who are always working, brainless activity is good and necessary.

Maybe it has a bit to do with the feeling of superiority you can get...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:21:32 PST

Maybe it has a bit to do with the feeling of superiority you can get watching one of those really bad movies. I know I sit there, laugh, groan, and think, "I could do SO much better than that actor/author/director".

The guilty pleasure we often feel from watching a really bad movie...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:30:53 PST

The guilty pleasure we often feel from watching a really bad movie results from the conflict between our intellectual, responsible selves and our emotional selves. Intellectually, we understand that this is an awful movie (!), and our responsible selves scold us that we shouldn't be wasting our time watching such drivel, but our emotional selves, in some way, are drawn into the story--and we just can't stop watching, despite our self-imposed...

What is the "guilty pleasure" type of draw to "awesomely bad" movies?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:03:58 PST

"Guilty pleasure" is the operative term here. There is an entire genre of movies considered fantastic because of how bad they are. They can have ridiculous story lines, awful effects, and laughable dialogue and we still love them.

I would recommend that Roadhouse, with Patrick Swayze, be a standard here, at least the action genre.

The guilty please in loving this movie is that its fans really want to be as...