Guilty Pleasure Series #1: Mean Girls and Rat Race

Everyone has their own favorite guilty pleasure movies. A guilty pleasure movie is something that you shouldn't like but do, it's something that's generally defined as being a "bad movie" but you watch it anyway and it's a movie that you don't care how much other people may dislike it- it's something you can't help but love. In starting this post, which I hope to continue as a series, I didn't want to start with just my own guilty pleasures (don't worry we'll get to those too) but rather what other people's guilty pleasure movies were. So naturally, I posted a Facebook status about it. Here's some of the results I got:

I decided to start with two of the popular answers: Mean Girls and Rat Race. Let me clarify something first before beginning. Mean Girls DOES NOT actually qualify as a guilty pleasure but you could see how it could be seen as one don't worry I'll explain...



Mean Girls (2004)- Happy 10th Anniversary Mean Girls!

Is there anyone who HASN'T seen this movie a million times?

Funny, witty, relatable and well-written, this movie is overall not considered a bad movie! So why is that my friends along with other people feel like this is a guilty pleasure movie? Well, it's a teen comedy and it's about a bunch of girls. Most guys would be embarrassed to admit that they like this movie a lot but actually almost every guy I know has seen and liked this film. Teen comedies have a bad rep, and for a valid reason- there's a lot of stinkers out there, but this movie actually stands out as one of the better, smarter films in that category. So you feel guilty for liking a clever, funny movie about backstabbing girls in high school? So what. I say, don't feel guilty about this one.

It's written by Tina Fey. She's a master at work here.

Mean Girls is about Caty Heron who has been home schooled her whole life finally making her way to high school because her parents want to make sure she is socialized. She likes math and falls into the "un-popular" crowd who accept her for who she is. However, when she's noticed by the popular crowd, referred to as "The Plastics" she joins them to be a spy on the inside, telling her unpopular friends about all the ridiculous things they do and say. Caty ends up getting sucked into the popular world and finds that she vies for their acceptance and she becomes one of them. The whole film is a wonderful commentary about high school life and it portrays different cliques and how far teenagers will go to fit in and just be accepted by their peers. Except this movie uses comedy instead of drama and guilty to teach teens that being who you are is what's important.

Oh, Lindsay

It's filled with comedy greats and more memorable, quotable lines than you'll be able to keep straight. It's likable because haven't most of us been in Caty's situation? Whether it's the new kid in school or wanting to sit with the popular crowd and be in their world? I bet a lot of us at 16 and 17 years old would change our hair and clothes (and perhaps attitude?) if it meant sitting with the popular crowd. Now I'm not saying EVERYONE felt that way. By the time I was 17 I was more than ready to leave high school not stay in and try to hang with the popular girls. But I can still relate to this story. Guys like this film too. It's a well-written comedy and those are hard to come by and should be embraced like this movie has been.

Wednesdays.

So, now you know that while this movie is a teen comedy it's a stand-out among the pack for it's creativity and originality. The story is logical and progressive and the acting is easy to watch. Most of these people are big stars now, sorry Gretchen Wieners :(. If you're ever in the mood for a good movie and a good laugh, watch Mean Girls... and don't feel guilty about it! This non-guilty pleasure, but still somewhat of a guilty pleasure movie is at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.



Rat Race (2001)- Wait? It's been 13 years?

I actually had a hard time figuring out what to say about Rat Race. The movie is about a group of strangers picked at random from a Las Vegas casino for a high stakes wager from casino owner Donald Sinclair. They each get a key and race to Silver City, New Mexico to get $2,000,000 from a locker. Of course they all end up getting there at the same time and they chase the money to a giant charity concert featuring Smash Mouth (if that doesn't date this movie I don't know what else will. Maybe the ancient cell phones?) who they end up giving all the money to. It's based off the 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Is it a little bit creepy that their heads are abnormally big? I'm looking at you, Cuba.

The funny parts are some of the gags that they do but most of them are actually not that funny and even hard to watch. I get that it's a race for money but the greediness of the characters is somewhat disheartening. A dad for a family of four won't pull over so his daughter can actually use the bathroom? He makes her go number 2 out of the window of the moving van. I guess that's supposed to be funny but I just found it obnoxious. Nearly everyone in the movie steals are car at some point and even the casino owner played by John Cleese wages on cruel things like how long a maid can from the curtains and who will end up throwing up first in an airplane. If more of the jokes came off as actually being funny it wouldn't be so hard to watch Seth Green knocking into about a dozen cows. Honestly, during that bit I was more worried about the cows than I was laughing at any of these ridiculous things.

Seth Green, before he steals cars, delays the airport, and hangs from a cow off a hot air balloon.

So lots of people like this movie, I think it's because the cast is somewhat impressive for a film that's just one gag after the next without much more substance to it. It actually comes off like someone wrote down a bunch of "funny"things that could happen under these circumstances (I use "could happen" very loosely here) and they just lined them up in the movie one after the other. Rowan Atkinson's character is actually amusing, he's the only one who just goes to the locker without trying to sabotage everyone else. Plus his narcolepsy is one of the funnier gags in the movie, being that he just all of a sudden falls asleep standing up and random times. Also, Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character stealing a bus full of I Love Lucy impersonators is funny too.

Why do all these characters talk about the money so much? Lots of other people try to steal it too.

One critic wrote, "Take a couple of laughs here, a couple of smirks there, and the conclusion is obvious: If ever there was a movie designed with the fast- forward button in mind, Rat Race is the one"(Liam Lacey). So why is it such a popular guilty pleasure movie? Well because it's a bad movie that people can't help but watch. It's a great example of a guilty pleasure. There's enough funny parts to stick in your mind and after some time make you want to watch it again and the cycle continues. While I am not a huge fan of this movie, guilty pleasure or not, there are many people who are. It's a basic comedy with enough entertaining gags to push along the rest of the film to a sappy ending.

Cleese is one of the funniest actors around and doesn't get much humor here for someone of his caliber.

Rat Race has a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes making it a good example of a guilty pleasure film. There's a lot of elements here that just don't work, mostly unfunny jokes, but there are enough funny moments to make the film somewhat likable. It's worth seeing at least once if you never have and if you are a fan of transportation-related humor this is definitely the movie for you. Fun fact I actually met Breckin Meyer once while working at Sony, he was very nice and very funny although I think of him in reference to Clueless before this movie.



If you have your own favorite guilty pleasure movies comment below, I might feature them on my next guilty pleasure series!