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Guilty Pleasures - Superhero films and tv.
monkey010101
Posts: 77
Everyone knows and likes the more recent superhero films and tv shows but they weren't always successful or any good. So 'fess up, what slightly rubbish superhero films or tv shows do you secretly like?
I nearly bought a bootleg copy of the Corman Fantastic Four the other day and a friend of mine got me the pilot of Generation X for my birthday. I do have a soft spot for the Dr Strange tv movie from the late 70s that had John Mills in it. And I sort of enjoyed (for all the wrong reasons) that Justice League pilot they did.
I nearly bought a bootleg copy of the Corman Fantastic Four the other day and a friend of mine got me the pilot of Generation X for my birthday. I do have a soft spot for the Dr Strange tv movie from the late 70s that had John Mills in it. And I sort of enjoyed (for all the wrong reasons) that Justice League pilot they did.
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My biggest guilty pleasure though (other than Flash Gordon movie) would be the Dolph Lundgren Punisher movie. I still enjoy much of it despite being dated now. I think it mainly suffered from budget and some editing issues. I think much of it was actually ahead of its time and took some risks. At least conceptually its the best Punisher movie IMO.
I'd forgotten about the Hoff as Nick Fury. Should really try to see that one.
The Nicholas Hammond Spider-man tv series I have a real soft spot for as well.
At my last convention I scored a bootleg of the old Electrawoman & Dynagirl show - imagine 60s Batman but with women in spandex - but same if not worse level of campiness.
Speaking of 60s Batman, that's a pretty obvious one. As is the Wonder Woman series with Lynda Carter. I don't know that either of those counts as a "guilty pleasure" as pretty much everyone likes them for what they were.
Generation X. I thought it was kind of cool.
Daredevil. I don't know why more people knock it. It was a decent movie.
Supergirl. I thought it was just fun.
Damn, I love me some wicked clowns.
Also, I liked X3 and Wolverine....I still don't get why people bashed those.
Others include:
The Phantom(with Treat Williams and Billy Zane)
Constantine
...on the other hand, I have a soft spot for the Howard The Duck movie...
And I will insist until my dying day that Speed Racer is a good movie. It's big and bright and toyetic in the best ways possible.
And Speed Racer is indeed a good movie.
I have fewer kind things to say about Superman IV, but that's still weirdly watchable, too. And go back and watch Margot Kidder closely... it's never explicitly stated, but the way she's playing it, Lois totally knows Clark is Superman and is just keeping up the pretense. It takes a away little of the creepy vibe of the roofie kiss from Part 2.
But as bad as III and IV may be overall, I'll take 'em any day of the week over Superman Returns.
I think that it's funny that these are "guilty pleasures" for everyone. They're that way because the majority of the population didn't like them. I also think it's funny that most-if not all--of us will admit to the films/shows having some missteps, but for some reason we're willing to look past them and look at the bigger picture. There's some good picks in here that I now want to check out.
However, I like Gamara more the Godzilla.
One I forgot to mention was the Adventures of Superboy series that ran from 1988-92. The first season wasn’t very good, but once Sherman Howard came on board as Lex Luthor it really picked up. It had a terrible time slot—Saturday at noon or 12:30—and was often pre-empted in my area for sports events, so it didn’t really have much of a chance to catch on, but there were some really interesting stories, particularly in the last two seasons. Some of the writing credits included: Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel (probably a plot was lifted from one of their stories), Mike Carlin, J.M. DeMatteis, Cary Bates, Ilya Salkind, Andy Helfer, and Denny O’Neil.