Don’t Hate Me, But…

Guess today is the first day of the rest of my life–I’ve been tagged to do a blog poll. Move around in the blogosphere long enough, and these things will pop up eventually. A big thank you to Catherine at Thoughts All Sorts for tagging me! This should be fun.

This poll is one of those infamous Unpopular Opinion ones, and in this case the question is, “Which three popular movies do you not like?” Nah, that’s not potentially divisive. Not at all. Which is precisely the point of an Unpopular Opinion Poll. 🙂

Let’s continue, shall we?

National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985)

I first saw European Vacation on cable at my grandma’s house and thought it was sorta funny. Enough so that I picked it out at the video store later for a movie night with a friend from down the street. Long story short, the movie was so awful my mom called my friend’s mom the next day to apologize. Derp. The moral of this story: Beware of liking films that have been edited for TV. In my opinion, European Vacation is obnoxious, tasteless, and, well, stupid from start to finish. I don’t even want to give specifics–that’s how much I don’t want to revisit this movie.

A Christmas Story (1983)

I used to like A Christmas Story. When I was a tween, I thought it was the greatest thing, and I had to watch it every time it came on TV.  For some reason though, when I was around fifteen, I didn’t want to see it ever again. It just got annoying and old, I guess, not to mention uncomfortable. The last time I watched it, I remember thinking things like, “Ew, that kid’s gonna get mashed potatoes up his nose,” or “Why is everyone in this movie so whiney?” Don’t get me started on the part where Flick sticks his tongue to the pole. Not fun. Familiarity breeds contempt, and it bred like rabbits in this case.

Airplane! (1980)

Ugh. In my junior AP English class, we did a unit on rhetoric, and one of the sections was about black humor. To illustrate it, the teacher had us read National Lampoon (ick), which his wife had made him quit taking, so he was being all rebellious and stuff. We also watched this movie.

Anyone who’s seen Arsenic and Old Lace or The Princess Bride knows there’s plenty of good black humor out there. Airplane! doesn’t make the cut. Not even close. Technically, it’s not black humor anyway–in literary terms, it’s what’s known as “obscene humor.” Emphasis on the word “obscene.” I have a hard time finding things like seizures and food poisoning funny when they’re presented as nauseatingly as they are in this movie. The only part of Airplane! I sort of liked was the asylum scene, where that one inmate thought she was Ethel Merman and belted out “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” Other than that, I couldn’t stomach the thing, and spent the other days it was being shown in the library.

Et voilá. For the record, my husband likes all three of these movies, and we get along fine.

And now…who’s next? *insert wicked cackle here* 😉

• Life’s Daily Lessons
• Christina Wehner
• Silver Screenings
• Charlene’s (Mostly) Classic Movie Reviews
• Critica Retro

Here are the rules:

1. Pick three popular films you don’t like.
2. Tag five or more people to join in.
3. Thank whoever tagged you in. 🙂

Okeydokey, friends–see you on Friday!