Guilty Pleasure Movies

Doesn't everybody have a few? Movies that you know aren't really that good but you love them anyway?

Here are a few of mine:

INDEPENDENCE DAY - I know, I know--all flash, no flesh. But you've gotta admit, the special effects are pretty amazing, and I'm a sucker for a story that pits a few scrappy survivors against a seemingly unbeatable foe and lets them use their native ingenuity to come up with an answer. And being a slightly jingoist sort myself, I never fail to be moved by the president's stirring speech as they go into the final battle. Plus, Will Smith is adorable and I've always loved Bill Pullman.

CROSSING DELANCEY - This is a quirky little romance starring Amy Irving and Peter Riegart. Isabel is young Jewish woman in New York, a book store employee who loves literature and sees writers as romantic figures, especially the one man whose books she loves. Meanwhile, her grandmother has given her photo to a matchmaker, who sets her up with Sam, a picklemaker from the neighborhood. Torn between her desire for a more sophisticated life and the pull of her culture and history, Isabel overcomes some of her own preconceptions and finds love where she least expects it.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING - While this sweet romantic comedy doesn't have the brilliance of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman (finally playing the romantic lead rather than the other man who gets dumped) and a fun cast of supporting characters are delightful to watch, and the Chicago setting is lovely. I'll watch it any time it comes on TV.

DON'T TELL HER IT'S ME (aka THE BOYFRIEND SCHOOL) - You know when a movie has two titles, it's probably not Oscar material. Nevertheless, this little fluff of a movie charmed me when I first watched it, and its held up pretty well in subsequent viewings. It's about Emily, a journalist who's assigned to cover a romance writers' convention, meets Lizzie, a popular and very intelligent romance writer, who decides Emily is just the right woman for her brother Gus, a recovering cancer patient. But first, Gus needs a makeover to turn him into the perfect romantic hero. All very fun, with gentle pokes at romance writers written with love, not disdain.

APARTMENT ZERO - This dark, twisted psychological study about a lonely, repressed cinephile (Colin Firth in one of his most gripping roles) who befriends an American charmer (Hart Bochner) who isn't what he seems. The exotic Buenos Aires setting, the haunting score and Firth's tour de force performance as a man unraveling inch by inch was hard to watch, but the experience lingered with me for days afterwards. I bought the DVD and rewatch it whenever I'm in the mood for something dark and disturbing.

Do you have any guilty pleasure movies?