1. “Addicted to Love”
Mushy, melodramatic romantic, yet cruel comedy directed by Griffin Dunne. It’s got Matthew Broderick at his most milquetoast and Meg Ryan at her most button-cute, no matter how much black liner is smeared around her eyes. The greatest thing about the film is Tchéky Karyo, as the Frenchman in New York. The perfect film to watch when in the throes of a brutal hangover on a Sunday morning. Don’t puke on your slippers!
2. “Practical Magic”
Oddly enough, another Griffin Dunne directed film. Not quite as riveting or violent or sexy as “The Witches of Eastwick” but could be considered it’s dopey little niece. I still can’t stand Sandra Bullock, but as the mousey central character, she plays quite nicely off of Nicole Kidman’s firey bed-hopping tramp. Stockard Channing and Diane Wiest are very good as the wacky aunts that take care of the younger, wayward witches.
3. “Coach”
Okay, I hear the moans. I have no idea why I like this idiotic sitcom, but honestly, whenever Jerry Van Dyke is on screen I can’t help but burst into convulsions of laughter. The Van Dykes are masters of the art form, what can I say? They could excise Dobber, but he’s the perfect “straight man” to Van Dyke’s off the cuff insanity. And of course, Craig T. Nelson, who I’ve liked as an actor since his bit part in “Where the Buffalo Roam” as a paranoid police witness to a hippie bust. Fuck it – it’s a funny show.
4. “Just Shoot Me”
Okay, this sitcom I’m not even really that embarrassed to admit I like. I’ll watch anything with David Spade in it. Anything. Just like I used to watch anything with Dan Aykroyd in the eighties. (Found out the hard way that was a bad idea upon re-watching “Trading Places“.) Look, this is a show created by someone who’s written for “Frasier”, “The Larry Sanders Show” and er… “Greg the Bunny”. Er… uh.. yeah. Bah! I love Wendie Malick (from “Dream On” – one of the few decent 80′s sitcoms), Enrico Colantoni as Spade’s foil and George Segal’s classic rendition of the tryanical, yet good-hearted CEO at a New York fashion magazine. I’ll watch 20 of these in a row if they’re on.
5. “Star 80″
Sleazy, exploitive, distasteful, poorly acted Bob Fosse nightmare. (And those are it’s good points!) I don’t know why, but every time this is on television, I’m sucked in. Sucked in by Eric Roberts absolutely skin-crawling performance as Paul Snider, boyfriend/manager/murderer of Dorothy Stratten, sucked in by Mariel Hemmingway breaking out of her “dyke-ish” status by showing us she could be a bimbo and sucked in by Cliff Robertson, as the worst Hefner ever. Hey, it’s better than liking “Showgirls”.
6. “Mythbusters”
Put a Snopes list of myths, a workshop full of tools and tons of explosives in the hands of a couple of special effects nerds and you’ll get what Mythbusters is pretty much about. A lot of stuff get blowed up real good! Jamie Hyneman is the cynical, practical one of the duo and Adam Savage is the poor bastard that usually ends up getting beaten, bruised and his eyebrows burnt off. Great fun, I think. For the 8 year old in all of us.
7. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”
My pals are always bustin’ my balls over my love for these shows, but they’re undeniable cultish, well-written and fun to watch. The reason Joss Whedon’s work keeps getting yanked off the air is, more than likely, because the network chowder-heads are of the same close-minded disposition as the rest of the people that refuse to give these rich, multilayered series’ their due. In fact, even by putting them on this list I may be adding to the stigma surrounding them. Too bad. Damn the uninitiated!
8. Bad 80′s Horror Films
“From Beyond”, “Re-Animator”, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, the first “Friday the 13th” and many others are great fun to watch, but maaan, they don’t hold up over time. Still, I really enjoy them for what they are.
9. Big Budget Disaster Films
“A Perfect Storm”, “Titanic” and the like, are both romantic in nature, and yet, major characters die by drowning. I think this fascination started with me after, as a wee child, I was subjected to “Wake of the Red Witch”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040946/ where the lead character, played by John Wayne, drowns in his own deep-sea diving suit. (Haven’t seen it? Sorry.) That, and I almost drowned once. This film could also explain why I like cheesy horror films since (according to imdb) the rubber octopus used in this movie was later stolen by Edward D. Wood Jr.’s crew and used in Bride of the Monster (1955).
10. Playing Video Games
I always used to say that life was frustrating enough without the simulated competition of video games. Somehow though, it’s a valid form of entertainment that takes you places when you just need to pretend you’re someone else. A pleasant diversion, it should never be taken obsessively. “Case in point”:http://paranoidcomix.com/joeblog/?p=91 , these online “Massively Multiplayer” online worlds that replace one’s life rather than create harmless entertainment.
