Time to answer my own damn question
Crappy Movies I Secretly Love...
Okay, so the first movie here is legitimately crap. Total crap. 100%. But I'm such a sucker for ballet movies, so I present to you... Center Stage.
Oh my god, this movie is so awful. The acting is like nails on a chalkboard and the plot has been done a billion times. But there's dancing! lots of it!! So I love it!
I've thought about buying it on DVD a number of times, but I don't think my husband would ever stop teasing me about it. (That's also the reason I still have the first season of America's Next Top Model hiding in my pajama drawer.)
It's so funny when I watch it... the crappy plot really gets on my nerves. Parts of it I like (and "like" as in "total guilty pleasure"). I like the bit with the bulimic ballerina. I like the bit with the "tough girl" ballerina. I hate the bit with Josie, the lead character, and the arrogant male soloist. It's just so stupid. And yet I continue to watch it because THERE'S DANCING IN IT!!!!!!!
Center Stage: 100% crap movie, and 100% guilty pleasure.
My other two films, I don't think they're all that bad. I think they were more... forgotten. Passed by. And they're not amazing works of cinema, but they're very charming and worthy of repeated viewings.
The Matchmaker starring Janeane Garofalo and Denis Leary. This movie is just ridiculously cute. It's not executed perfectly - there are some glaring plot holes - but if you like Ireland/Irish culture, this movie is a must. It's portrayal of Ireland is far different than the typical Hollywood white-washed, Land of the Little People picture that you see far too often. While still somewhat idealized, the film manages to capture Ireland very very well. (Bad weather and imperfections are not hidden!) The vast majority of the film takes place in a small town in Ireland, and the scenery and the town itself become one of the best characters in the movie.
I spent a week in Dublin my senior year of college, and I know this doesn't make me an expert on Ireland, but every time I see this film, I'm reminded of my time there in the best possible way.
As for Garofalo, she is very charming as an earnest American political aide sent to Ireland to find the family of a senator running for re-election in predominantly-Irish Boston. She instantly hates (and therefore grows to love) Sean Kelly (David O'Hara), a skeptical bartender who sees through the senator's political scheme. There are the standard obstacles to their union, but the ending is sweet nonetheless. Neither Garofalo nor O'Hara are "Movie Star Gorgeous," which makes their romance all that more believable.
I particularly enjoy the humor in this movie. Favorite line - by the senator, as he's inside his car as it's pulled up to a pack of journalists all hungrily trying to grab an interview from him after he steps out: (waving from inside the car) "Yes yes, I hate you all. When I'm president, I'll have you all killed."
Laws of Attraction, starring Julianne Moore and Pierce Brosnan. To me, Moore creates a very good, very rich character that I identify with more and more as I watch it over and over again.
The plot is somewhat convoluted and contrived. Moore and Brosnan play competing divorce lawyers who continually go up against each other in court. After sleeping together after one of their first meetings, she's horrified but he's intrigued. As a particular divorce case sends them to Ireland to determine which spouse truly has the rights to a shared castle, they drunkenly get married at a local festival. As their courtroom antics are tabloid fodder back in Manhattan, they cannot quietly divorce, especially when news of their Irish nuptials are leaked to the Post. Forced to pretend they're happily married, will they ever fall in love? (come on, it's a romantic comedy - you all know the answer.)
Moore's Audrey Woods is insanely cutthroat competitive, and incredibly insecure all at the same time. Brosnan's Daniel Rafferty sees through her tough facade in about a microsecond, and falls for her almost as quickly, but in such a quiet, steadily plodding way that it bewitches me every time. He doesn't pine for her - he simply goes about slowly breaking down her guard and prejudice towards him as best he can. When the couple wake up married in Ireland, Audrey is horrified and screams, "We have to find the guy who did this and get him to undo it! You don't want to be married to me!" and runs out of the room. Daniel says to himself, "How do you know?" My heart melts every time.
The portrayal of Ireland is DEFINITELY a weak point - it's stereotypical Hollywood Oirland. But it's relatively short, and not really the focus of the movie, thank goodness.
I love this movie for the two main characters. To me, they are very believable and lovable, and watching them figure out that they're right for each other is a lot of fun.
Okay, so the first movie here is legitimately crap. Total crap. 100%. But I'm such a sucker for ballet movies, so I present to you... Center Stage.
Oh my god, this movie is so awful. The acting is like nails on a chalkboard and the plot has been done a billion times. But there's dancing! lots of it!! So I love it!
I've thought about buying it on DVD a number of times, but I don't think my husband would ever stop teasing me about it. (That's also the reason I still have the first season of America's Next Top Model hiding in my pajama drawer.)
It's so funny when I watch it... the crappy plot really gets on my nerves. Parts of it I like (and "like" as in "total guilty pleasure"). I like the bit with the bulimic ballerina. I like the bit with the "tough girl" ballerina. I hate the bit with Josie, the lead character, and the arrogant male soloist. It's just so stupid. And yet I continue to watch it because THERE'S DANCING IN IT!!!!!!!
Center Stage: 100% crap movie, and 100% guilty pleasure.
My other two films, I don't think they're all that bad. I think they were more... forgotten. Passed by. And they're not amazing works of cinema, but they're very charming and worthy of repeated viewings.
The Matchmaker starring Janeane Garofalo and Denis Leary. This movie is just ridiculously cute. It's not executed perfectly - there are some glaring plot holes - but if you like Ireland/Irish culture, this movie is a must. It's portrayal of Ireland is far different than the typical Hollywood white-washed, Land of the Little People picture that you see far too often. While still somewhat idealized, the film manages to capture Ireland very very well. (Bad weather and imperfections are not hidden!) The vast majority of the film takes place in a small town in Ireland, and the scenery and the town itself become one of the best characters in the movie.
I spent a week in Dublin my senior year of college, and I know this doesn't make me an expert on Ireland, but every time I see this film, I'm reminded of my time there in the best possible way.
As for Garofalo, she is very charming as an earnest American political aide sent to Ireland to find the family of a senator running for re-election in predominantly-Irish Boston. She instantly hates (and therefore grows to love) Sean Kelly (David O'Hara), a skeptical bartender who sees through the senator's political scheme. There are the standard obstacles to their union, but the ending is sweet nonetheless. Neither Garofalo nor O'Hara are "Movie Star Gorgeous," which makes their romance all that more believable.
I particularly enjoy the humor in this movie. Favorite line - by the senator, as he's inside his car as it's pulled up to a pack of journalists all hungrily trying to grab an interview from him after he steps out: (waving from inside the car) "Yes yes, I hate you all. When I'm president, I'll have you all killed."
Laws of Attraction, starring Julianne Moore and Pierce Brosnan. To me, Moore creates a very good, very rich character that I identify with more and more as I watch it over and over again.
The plot is somewhat convoluted and contrived. Moore and Brosnan play competing divorce lawyers who continually go up against each other in court. After sleeping together after one of their first meetings, she's horrified but he's intrigued. As a particular divorce case sends them to Ireland to determine which spouse truly has the rights to a shared castle, they drunkenly get married at a local festival. As their courtroom antics are tabloid fodder back in Manhattan, they cannot quietly divorce, especially when news of their Irish nuptials are leaked to the Post. Forced to pretend they're happily married, will they ever fall in love? (come on, it's a romantic comedy - you all know the answer.)
Moore's Audrey Woods is insanely cutthroat competitive, and incredibly insecure all at the same time. Brosnan's Daniel Rafferty sees through her tough facade in about a microsecond, and falls for her almost as quickly, but in such a quiet, steadily plodding way that it bewitches me every time. He doesn't pine for her - he simply goes about slowly breaking down her guard and prejudice towards him as best he can. When the couple wake up married in Ireland, Audrey is horrified and screams, "We have to find the guy who did this and get him to undo it! You don't want to be married to me!" and runs out of the room. Daniel says to himself, "How do you know?" My heart melts every time.
The portrayal of Ireland is DEFINITELY a weak point - it's stereotypical Hollywood Oirland. But it's relatively short, and not really the focus of the movie, thank goodness.
I love this movie for the two main characters. To me, they are very believable and lovable, and watching them figure out that they're right for each other is a lot of fun.