It Makes Me Second Guess Her Choices

A friend of mine at work today admitted that “Hope Floats” is her favorite movie of all time. “Hope Floats.” I asked another co-worker if I had permission to make fun of our Hopey Floaty co-worker and she didn’t even hesitate to say “yes, please do!” Obviously this woman has missed out on a lot of really good movie-watching. I mean, of ALL the movies in the history of the world, she chooses “Hope Floats?” Sure, that can be a desert-island kind of choice, a guilty-pleasure, I-watch-this-when-I’m-home-and-sick-on-the-couch-and-too-lazy-to-find-the-remote-and-change-the-channel kind of movie. But favorite movie of all time?

Let it not be so!

After the discovery, I quickly considered some of my own favorite movies. Now, I freely admit to loving cheesy, crappy movies (hello “Xanadu” – I love you!), but I wouldn’t put them in my Top 6 of all time.

For the record – my Top 6:
1. West Side Story
2. My Fair Lady
3. Shaun of the Dead
4. Shawshank Redemption
5. Elizabeth
6. Auntie Mame

I could watch those six movies over and over and over and never get bored. I’d put A&E’s “Pride and Prejudice” in there too, but that was made-for-TV and that’s a whole other list. If we’re talking strictly about movies released in movie theaters, that’s my Top 6. Two Best Picture winners, three Best Picture nominees, and one of the funniest zombie movies ever made. No, I don’t have “The Godfather 2” on my list, or “Raging Bull,” or “Taxi Driver” (wow, that Bob DeNiro really DID make good movies once upon a time) – I’m not one of those pretentious movie-lovers who feels the need to put dark, twisted or ironic hipster movies in my Top 6 in order to feel superior to other moviewatchers.

But “Hope Floats?” Heck, I could put just about anything in my Top 6 and feel superior (Kidding! KIDDING! I’m only saying that so that when she reads this post she can call me pretentious and give me the finger again like she did when I first made fun of her top choice today). “Galaxy Quest!” There. Superior. “Mommie Dearest!” STILL. SUPERIOR.

“Hope Floats” should be listed on her Guilty Pleasures list – then it would be wholly acceptable for her to call it a favorite.

My Guilty Pleasures list is as follows:
1. Xanadu
2. Deep Blue Sea
3. The Matchmaker
4. Thank God It’s Friday
5. Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

See? Those are the crap movies I love, but I don’t put them in the same league as my Top 6 of all time. Because they are crap. “Mommie Dearest” is crap too, but it’s also one of my most belovedly-quotable movies, and quotable always beats guilty pleasure (therefore putting “MD” on the GOOD side of moviemaking, even though Faye Dunaway and Diana Scarwid chewed through enough scenery in that thing to warrant bariatric surgery when done filming).

I brag all the time about my guilty pleasure movies and how much I love them (seriously – I can NEVER turn off “Deep Blue Sea” when I see it pop up on TV and was thrilled when we snagged an uber-cheap copy last year from a Blockbuster going out of business). But you’d never see me engage in conversation about quality movies and say, “Xanadu is my favorite” without adding “guilty pleasure movie!” at the end.

And there’s the rub. Because Hopey Floaty’s second favorite movie is “Gladiator” – a BEST PICTURE NOMINEE. She said herself that she likes that movie a lot and “probably” should have put that down. But then she got mad when about 1/2 a dozen of us started teasing her, and stubbornly said she stands by “Hope Floats” as her top pick.

So what are your favorite Top 6 movies of all time? Your top guilty pleasure movies? And if either list overlaps in any way, you are no longer allowed to post comments here. *lol* Kidding. KIDDING! Maybe. Do you think the term “favorite” and “best” should be mutually exclusive so that if Hopey Floaty wants that movie as her top choice, then let her choose it without fear of raised eyebrows from wanna-be pretentious movie buffs like me?

Up next: movies that won Best Picture that shouldn’t have (I’m looking at you, “Crash”), and ones that deserved to win that lost (I’m still bitter about “Shawshank” losing out to “Forrest Gump”).