Guilty Pleasures

PicJacked from Last.fm

In a world filled to the brim with both pretentious critics and psychotic fans, almost every opinion under the sun is at least somewhat valid when discussing pop culture. However, sometimes there are albums or movies or books that are so terrible, even the most dedicated fans or the least critical tastes still find them irredeemable. This is the territory where the guilty pleasure lives. A guilty pleasure is not liking a Britney Spears song when you only listen to metal. No, a guilty pleasure has to be something so terrible, you have to acknowledge its probably awfulness but still enjoy it for some reason.

What follows are two of my favorite guilty pleasure songs, and a guilty pleasure movie. Everyone has there own, so this is just a jumping off point as always. Be afraid, be very afraid.

1. Artist: Moby
Album: Animal Rights
Song: "That's When I Reach For My Revolver"

Really, this should sum everything up right here: It's an alternative rock song, a cover even, about the harshness of life, sung and played by a bald techno artist best known for being a wimpy vegan and selling ripped-off gospel songs for commercials.

In more detail, Animal Rights was Moby's attempt to try a new direction, the aforementioned alternative-rock. It was at best boring and pedestrian, and at worst completely laughable. So why do I like this song? Even though it was trashed for being a poor cover of a great song, I've never heard the original song. As such, the cover is actually pretty interesting, sounding like a milder version of one of the recent Nine Inch Nails tracks. Nothing amazing, but still kinda fun.

2. Artist: Insane Clown Posse
Album: Bizaar
Song: "Tilt-a-Whirl"

I should be shot for this one. Insane Clown Posse are in the running for possibly the worst popular musical group ever. They're a pair of white "rappers" from Detroit that dress up like clowns and record songs about killing people, carnivals, sex, and illicit substances, usually in some combination together. The rapping itself is awful, usually more like sing-song rhymes rather than actual performance. Pretty much their entire career is built on ridiculous live shows and a sick sense of humor.

Which is probably why I find "Tilt-a-Whirl" entertaining. Unlike many of their songs, it's not extremely vile or misogynistic. It's still about killing people, just in a very silly way. There's a demonic Tilt-a-Whirl, and it violently kills anyone who rides it, and ICP play the two ride operators making sure the bad people in line make it on the ride first. Really, really stupid, but somehow it's catchy and entertaining, in a train wreck sort of way.

3. Movie: Hudson Hawk

Speaking of train wrecks, here's one of the great examples in cinema. There was a time when Bruce Willis was not one of the great action heroes, a man so tough an entire family of German mercenaries couldn't take him down. No, at one time Bruce Willis was mainly a comedic actor. That's part of the reason he's such a successful actor; he has far more range than most action stars.

However, this experience in comedy and action made him believe he could create a great movie that could combine both elements equally. The movie was Hudson Hawk, and it failed to create anything great. It's the story of the world's greatest cat burglar, Hudson Hawk, who sings, loudly at that, while pulling of intricate heists. He's recruited by the villains to steal artifacts of Da Vinci, which contain a crystal that will...

It's not even worth completing, really. The plot is as bad as the jokes, which are as pathetic as the action sequences. Even Richard Grant can't save the movie. Even worse, some of the violence gets pretty gruesome, making the whole affair seem more mean spirited than necessary. So why do I like it? Because it's so awful, I can't help but be fascinated by the disaster in motion. It's like a guide on how not to make a movie, and thus is both a valuable tool and a good laugh at it's expense.