The other day a buddy of mine and I are talking about what some of our favorite movies are. Of course some of my pantheonic titles came up- "The Third Man", "Citizen Kane", "The Maltese Falcon"- you know, what you would expect any self respecting film school graduate to say. And, all of these titles are definitely in my top 10, but there is also another aspect to the question of what a favorite film is. Does it make you smile when you see it? Sure. Do you look forward to watching it? Of course. Do you seem to find new gems within it on each viewing? I would say so.
So, it came to me that some films that I love satisfy all of these requirements, yet they aren't in the forefront of my mind when deciding what to rattle off as my favorites. As much as I hate to admit it, this is due mainly to snobbery. Not so much on my part, but on the part of people who ask the question. If I admit, freely, that, say... "Dumb and Dumber" graces the tray of my dvd player much more often than my copy of "The Bicycle Thieves", will I be judged immediately as a dullard? Probably not. But it definitely may give a skewed idea of my cinematic sensibilities.
Well, in the interest of full disclosure, this film geek is gonna list some of his favorites that may not make that public listing of my favorites, for fear of being shunned by the film snobs that I encounter.
Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorites....
Christmas Vacation, Jingle all the way, The Santa Clause, Home Alone (I Love Christmas Movies), Saved by the bell(Seasons 1-5), Saved by the bell: The College Years, Saved by the bell: The new Class(Seasons 1-7, yeah, you heard right), Just about any horror movie you put me in front of, Dawson's Creek, Wayne's World 1 & 2, most disney movies (The only pixar i liked was "Monsters, Inc."), The 6th Day, Most John Carpenter films, Home Improvement, Full House... and many, many more.
As I look back at this list, I see I have a serious affinity for the tv shows of my childhood. What can I say, Screech, Uncle Jessie and Dawson are my boys.
Mainly, the idea of this blog was to point out that we all have guilty pleasures. Even the most snobby of the snobs has their hidden shame. I say, wear it on your sleeve! There's plenty of room for art films, horror films, dumb comedies, and everything else.
Well, that's that. Just wanted to put that out there. I'll probably add to it... or not.
And now I'm off to catch a festival of Fellini's films in some art house somewhere (Read: I'm going to see "Transformers". Shhhh.)
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