The Guilty Pleasures

19 Mar
2010
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We need to be clear from the beginning here. We’re not talking about bad movies you can admit you like. These are the movies you know you’re going to be teased for admitting you like it, and you don’t care. In fact, sometimes you mention you like the movie just so you can have a chance to see how people react to your confession. One of mine is Grandma’s Boy. I love the party scene, and the competitive guy obsessed with The Matrix cracks me up every time.

But then there are the guilty pleasures. We all have them. They come up in conversation, and no matter what you say, you feel bad about it. Did you praise it? You shouldn’t have; you know it’s a bad movie. Did you put it down? You shouldn’t have; you know you love it. I like Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. I wish I didn’t. The movie really doesn’t have a lot of redeeming qualities, and yet I enjoy it immensely.

The difference between these two examples is that when I talk about Grandma’s Boy, I know I’m talking about a movie you probably haven’t seen. As of right now, only 29.37% of Flickchart users have admitted to seeing it, whereas 65.59% of us own up to having seen Talladega Nights. Grandma’s Boy has a higher winning percentage, though (33.44% of the time vs. 29.39%). Only half as many people have seen it, but those who have are more likely to pick it in a match. That means that those of us who are fans can justifiably feel like we’re in on something the rest of you know nothing about, which is fine with me.

It’s that high “seen” to low “won” ratio of Talladega Nights that reinforces its status as a Guilty Pleasure. Unlike Grandma’s Boy, too many of you have seen it for me to pass it off as a little movie you’ve never heard of that I’ve seen and liked. No, you’ve seen this one. And you know it’s bad, because you’re not picking it. All I can do here is choose between saying something good about it, knowing it’s bad, or saying something bad about it, knowing I like it. And that, my friends, is a guilty pleasure.

This post is part of our User Showcase series. You can find Travis as minlshaw on Flickchart. If you’re interested to submit your own story or article describing your thoughts about movies and Flickchart, read our original post for how to become a guest writer here on the Flickchart Blog.

  • http://www.theaudient.blogspot.com Derek Armstrong

    I like your idea that high seen + low winning percentage = guilty pleasure — in fact, I wish I’d come up with that theory! But Ricky Bobby seems like an unusual example. Isn’t there a vocal minority of people who love everything Will Ferrell does? And didn’t most people sorta like that movie? You know, all the hilarious Baby Jesus stuff?

    I think what this analysis may be missing — and that’s not me picking on your thesis, because what I’m suggesting would require going outside of what FC can measure for us — is the movies that you speak highly of, but other people haven’t seen precisely because they KNEW it would be terrible. It’s like when I tell people I like Inspector Gadget — you know, the one with Matthew Broderick. They don’t have to have seen it to know I am probably crazy for liking it.

    Better example: Wild Hogs. Sucks, right? Actually, it’s quite funny in spots, especially the end credits. But no one will believe me because never in a million years would they see it.

  • Travis McClain

    Derek, would it not stand to reason that the only reason “Talladega Nights” has as high a win rating as it does, is because of that vocal pro-Ferrell crowd? Without them, I suspect it would win even less than it does…which is already less than 50% of its “Seen It” figure.

    Also, I have seen both “Inspector Gadget” and “Wild Hogs.” “Gadget” was disappointing, but I honestly couldn’t say why. “Wild Hogs” was better than I thought it would be, and my wife and I found ourselves rather enjoying it.

  • http://themoviewhore.com The Movie Whore

    I have the ultimate guilty pleasure for any straight man.

    I own Xanadu and watch it on occasion. It’s all about the rock, big band music scene.

  • johnmason

    It’s a neat theory, at the very least.

  • http://www.theaudient.blogspot.com Derek Armstrong

    That may be true about Ricky Bobby. I guess maybe in my mind I’m grading it on a Ferrell Curve, where movies like Kicking and Screaming, Land of the Lost and (I haven’t seen but have to assume) Bewitched rank much, much lower.

  • Travis McClain

    Johnmason, to which theory are you referring? That there might be an empirical measurement of a guilty pleasure, or that the win rating of “Talladega Nights” has benefited from the supportive pro-Ferrell crowd?

    If the former, then I don’t presume to have the answers, but merely an observation of relationships between “seen” and “win” figures. I leave it to more dedicated people possessed of a much keener interest in statistics than I to work on such things.

    If the latter, then I stand by my theory; I think some people love certain actors and will happily choose nearly anything from their filmography. Will Ferrell is like this. For my generation, I think the most beloved actor is Tom Hanks; I feel a small pang of guilt each time I don’t pick one of his movies.

  • Clemontine

    Should I admit that I enjoy Wild Wild West? Probably not. Thats definitely a guilty pleasure.

  • Travis McClain

    Clemontine: 65.16% of users have seen it, and it only wins 11.89% of the time. I think you’ve got a Guilty Pleasure on your hands with “Wild Wild West!”

  • Derek Bowman

    I love the Scooby Doo movie with a passion. I know I’m the only one in the world, but it’s amazing and I don’t care what anyone else says.

  • johnmason

    Travis McClain: I was referring to the empirical evidence of guilty pleasures, but I do believe you’re right on both counts.

    Clemontine: I actually like Wild Wild West, too. Don’t love it, or anything, but I’m far from hating it. (Still, I agree with Will Smith: Passing up The Matrix to do WWW was the biggest mistake of his career.)

  • http://www.flickchart.com Nathan Chase

    Well, I guess Will Smith got his shot at flying around and dodging bullets in HANCOCK.

    What a weird movie The Matrix would have been though with him in it…

  • Nigel Druitt

    Weird? I dunno. Might actually have been interesting.
    If nothing else, he is a better actor than Keanu Reeves. (Though I’m not knocking Reeves, necessarily; he is just fine in The Matrix.)

  • Travis McClain

    Now that we’ve actually got a “Guilty Pleasures” sub-series I thought I’d look back on this piece. Having re-read it, I’m not really sure its new title (“The Guilty Pleasures: Grandma’s Boy”) is accurate. I originally wrote this merely as an introduction to the idea of guilty pleasures; a sort of starting point for further discussion. If I had to pin it down to championing one film, though, I think it’s actually Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby that emerges as the subject. Perhaps, now that we have an actual “Guilty Pleasures” sub-series, I should write a proper piece on one of these two films?

  • http://www.flickchart.com Nathan Chase

    Travis, I edited it back to the original title. My intent was to tie it in to the category better, but I see your meaning that it’s not about one film over the other necessarily.

    I’d say you might choose another film for a full guilty pleasure breakdown, since the above two were already covered partially here.

  • Travis McClain

    The idea of composing a brand new “Guilty Pleasures” piece has a lot of appeal to me. To be honest, Nathan, I think now that this series has a life of its own and a clear direction you could probably consider this post expendable entirely (though that’s of course your call entirely).