What's your Guilty Pleasure?

Rob at the Movies!

Oh, what a Guilty Pleasure!

Hey everyone! How’s life marching on for you all? It’s been what, two weeks since the last blog? Who knows, I should but I don’t.... but regardless of length of time, it sure was a big and epic blog last time, so you and I can be forgiven for taking a break or not minding how long it has been really, because most of us have just finished reading last month’s! Anyway, it’s time for the latest blog, it’s the most exciting moment of the week, the month, or the millennium... well it should be! New blog, people, new blog!!

Anyway, what’s been going on in life? It’s really been fairly similar in a lot of ways... still searching through the ground and dirt of life for that elusive job, like the bunny with the star in Mario 64 it’s there but it keeps bounding away till I leap at it and shake it! Though if I do that at an interview I won’t get far so careful now!

I had an interview last week but didn’t get that, so will just keep trying trying, because that’s all you can do I guess. So all that job jazz is the same, I’ve got Job steps being average and Remploy being well super helpful in doing everything under the sun to help me find that elusive employment. Just have to plod on and hope for the best!

In other worlds and news and giraffes that know all the words to We Didn’t Start the Fire (yep there are giraffes that cool out there!) there’s the double whammy of The Unit and Sparks Unleashed, both well cool youth events I’m involved in... One of them, The Unit, I’ve been involved with since May 2009 when it started... I’m on the planning team (just had an awesome meeting last week in fact, well ace!), and do what I can on the evenings too...

So that continues apace with the event that happened on March 4^th at St Marks which was, as always, pretty amazing... Craig and Chesky delivered some absolutely fantastic word, the sort that gets you to stand up and take notice, and the worship as always was just wow! They’re really great evenings so none of this was a shock, but it was still rather amazing nonetheless, always come away feeling oh so refreshed!

News update flash, a slick edit in the midst of production- April 1^st event has been and gone and wow it was epic! Dancing, some fantastic word from Frank and Emma, both absolutely immense though Frank never shocks me as much as he’s always brilliant though to be fair neither does Emma, she’s never spoken before like this but she’s always full of wisdomful words and such so it came as no surprise that she did it fantastically! The worship was just way too good, and we all ended up dancing and then off to McDonalds for one of the best nights in many a month, love it!

Then there’s Sparks Unleashed... this rather amazing brand new event similar to The Unit, which is exclusively at St Marks and organized by their youth, the Sparks of the title. I’m the visuals guy and also on the planning team, and in the drama parts too... so it’s a similar role to my Unit role, but even more fun because the group of planning is even tighter and looser so more scope to throw some crazy ideas in. We had our first event for that and it was fantastic, the worship and the casual word bits in between were great, and there’s way more humorous casual stuff than The Unit if no less potent. Really can’t wait for the next one now, gonna be brill! (Plus I’m getting involved with a youth evening that’s going to happen in place of CYFA too, so all hands on deck!)

Not only all this, but I got to deliver my testimony at cell group... which was not only daunting and intriguing (I mean, how to sum up my journey and walk in faith as well as my life so far) but also really exciting and liberating... rather than simply read the whole thing out, I did it in question and answer form, and it went fantastically well... everyone was really nice and gave great questions. It just further and further reinforces what an ace cell group I’ve got, full of mates and friends who are super supportive and just great mates... it’s my new weekly highlight (Cell) and it’s just fantastic!

There’s just all sorts cool happening, so whether or not I get a jobby job, I’ll be occupied and I haven’t even begun on the cool films that have been out, just now this week we have the really cool looking Hop out as well as the wicked looking Sucker Punch and the fantastically plotted Source Code, the new un from Moon director Zowie Bowie (aka Duncan Jones) (on films seen, Rango is particularly brilliant, an animated western that kids may enjoy but seems deliberately tailored for whip smart adults, funny and clever and brilliant to look at! Whereas Adjustment Bureau is a clever sci-fi that is secretly a lovely romance story... Limitless is utterly brilliant, whilst Unknown and Hall Pass plus Battle LA pass muster too) you just can’t fit everything in here can you?

Anyway, enough about me, how about, well, erm me? What’s this week’s topic of choice, Mr Blog topic introduction voiceover man?

The Guilty Pleasure!!

One of the best excuses ever given for watching a movie has to be the guilty pleasure; I would spin out a spiel about how it was invented back in 1974 by Guil T Pleazur but that would be far too ace a story, and besides who am I... Wikipedia? Basically the definition of Guilty Pleasure is ‘Something that you shouldn't like, but like anyway’ (Thank you Urban Dictionary, I could have told you that!!) and everyone has them (to name a few of my friends favourites... Masters of the Universe, A.I, Hairspray, amongst others) so what better thing than to name four of my very own... now this has been extremely hard, because as some may know I have absolutely no quarrels with claiming I like something, so with these four it’s not that I’m 100% ashamed, but they are four films that would get a hearty chuckle the second you try and defend them, and a good few of them are incredibly stupid! Oh and all of them are based on TV shows, comic books, or video games... go figure!

Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties (U) (2006)

Why should I be ashamed?

The genre of animated movies about talking animals or even ‘live-action ones with CGI animals pasted in’ aren’t exactly a popular breed with critics and more sneery moviegoers... and to be fair, a lot of them such as Open Season or Alvin and the Chipmunks aren’t exactly amazing (having said that, The Squeakquel could soon end up a guilty pleasure!) and Garfield and its sequel are no exception... the first one is pretty great fun if nothing remarkable with the exception of two things: Ned? Ned Ryerson! As the movie’s villain and Bill Murray doing his thang as the voice of the fat cat... the sequel, in which Garfield in mistaken for another fat ginger cat (voice Tim Curry), who is incidentally royalty, and the two switch lives and further chaos ensues as the Lord Dargis (Billy Connolly) wants to claim the posh cat’s inheritance for himself... and all the crazy animal based shenanigans ensue. It’s fairly standard stuff with plenty of silly gags, famous British voices, British stereotypes and comical pratfalls.

Why do I love it so?

Precisely for that reason, it’s just pure enjoyment throughout... yes it’s very very silly but on top of already having Bill Murray once again doing a cracking voiceover job as always on the main character, you have this cool little plot that’s fairly formulaic but very enjoyable... and you have Billy Connolly on full lunatic mode, as well as bunch of silly voices from Richard E Grant, Bob Hoskins, Rhys Ifans, Joe Pasquale, and even Vinnie Jones, turning in his best performances by simply repeating the word ‘Trousers!’ There are lots and lots of pratfalls, plenty of British stereotype gags and how can you not love a film in which Billy Connolly exclaims ‘That dog just bit me on the bottom!’? It’s just pure family fun, leave your reservations at the door, settle down the kids and just have a laugh....

Charlie’s Angels (15) (2000)

+ Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (12) (2003)

Why should I be ashamed?

Pure unadulterated mindlessness is what this film can best be summed up as... three cool chicks dress up in various outfits and save the world from daft bad guys, with some mental action sequences and a hard rock and pop soundtrack. It’s fluffy, it’s daft, it’s just mindless pure and simple. Sure they populate the cast with plenty of fun names but that doesn’t always work out for maximum fun (doesn’t it Brad and George and Ocean’s 12 crew?)... the more I type about this film the more I realise that this is a bit harsh, but that’s more what most people think than what I generally think... I guess it’s mostly true though!

Why do I love them so?

All the above HA! So much fun from start to finish and featuring a smattering of stars who I do oh so love (Sam Rockwell, Luke Wilson, Bill Murray, John Cleese, and Matt Le Blanc even!) and some great action sequences, like Drew Barrymore’s escape from being tied to a chair in the first movie or the Motorbiking scene in the sequel (true story, for the stunt doubles in the sequel there had to be guys doubling for the ladies since there were no stunt ladies in the biking industry apparently! Fun Fact!) Plus a good few more of those. With a great soundtrack (Nickelback doing Elton John, Electric Six and Pink in the sequel) and some brilliant characters popping up (step forward both Justin Theroux and Crispin Glover)... it’s just pure fun all the way through both movies, switch off and throw your indifferences aside... these Angels rock!

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie (PG) (1995)

Why should I be ashamed?

Hmm, let me see... the name might give it away somewhat. Born of the 90’s... the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (very silly title to begin with!) was a daft show that saw some typical 90’s teens (bad clothes, silly attitudes) battling various baddies made out of play dough and presided over by a cackling witch in a giant pointy horned hat and a blue monkey in a gold armour suit (seriously, what?) and then later joined by a fleshy dude with silver armour and a funny visor. Of course, they inevitably graduated to the big screen and the Power Rangers movie was born... and yes, it’s utterly ridiculous! This time, a purple dude made of goo played by the baddie from Indiana Jones threatens the sanctity of the... dum dum dum... world or universe! Then the Power Rangers must stop him, on the way travelling to the jungle to further rip off Indy and other tropes. It’s daft, it’s stupid, it’s predictable, and it’s very 90’s... but it’s...

Why do I love it so?

Extremely enjoyable. A film this ridiculous, this insane, this predictable, this stupid always inevitably ends up being a huge guilty pleasure, and yep I can say I absolutely love the Power Rangers movie! From its utterly OTT villain, though I guess if they just got Charlie from Casualty to play him he wouldn’t be as fun, so kudos to Paul Freeman, who thankfully made a great cameo in Hot Fuzz to redeem some kudos. A lot of the movie, especially the jungle segments are ridiculously corny and incredibly contrived.... but then again if it had the panache of a Moon or a Hurt Locker they wouldn’t be as fun would it? This is all out guilty fun from its bad dialogue to its bad effects to its campy villains... and who can’t resist something like this every now and then? GO GO POWER RANGERS!

Super Mario Brothers (PG) (1993)

Why should I be ashamed?

Back in 1993, when the movie world announced it would be adapting the computer game Super Mario Brothers into a fully fledged movie. It’s hard to imagine what people thought, on the one hand you have an extremely great game and a really cool one being adapted and you can only imagine what it will look like... on the other hand, you can only imagine what it will look like! This is a game where a plumber in red overalls jumps on triangular blobs and shoots fire at plants whilst eating mushrooms and growing and sliding down green pipes! Thankfully Hollywood didn’t quite go that route, but the end result wasn’t a popular one... with its hashed attempts to transport Mario’s plotting into a real world, and with the evil dinosaur King Koopa transformed into slick Dennis Hopper with awful blond gelled hair. Suffice to say it bo-bombed and no sequel was ever attempted...

Why do I love it so?

Despite all its failings, it’s a really enjoyable little movie. Always helps as it does with most of these, that I first saw it quite young. But watching it again recently, it still stood on its own two feet for me. Yes, the attempts to re configure the game plotting into a movie are a bit shambolic but everyone acquits themselves ok, and Dennis Hopper is fun in OTT form, especially his delivery of the line ‘Monkey!’... The effects are endearingly naff and there’s loads of joy to be had when the original theme tune pipes in right at the start over the company logos. Yes it’s got its faults, but that’s why it’s a good guilty pleasure... it’s just a film that I really really have a soft spot for, and I always enjoy it and it’s always good cheesy fun! I mean, what did people expect from a Mario movie? Silly billies!

And that’s it for this week’s blog... I must try and get more cracking with these, it’s been too long! Stay tuned for the next one in which I’ll pour over Source Code, Sucker Punch and some of the other big movies heading this way soon, whether it’s a preview of their shiny goodness or a review decoding exactly what makes them good or absolutely horrendous. Looking forward to upcoming events like Sparks Unleashed and Easter, so life is looking pretty good... hope the same can be said for you my humble readers, that’s if there are any... Hello? Are you there? What was that? I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish... anyway, whatever you’re doing and wherever you are...

You stay classy.... Planet Earth! X