G-S-T Top 10 – Favorite Rain Day Flicks

“April showers bring May flowers” and a few hours on the couch can certainly help get you through it all. Below is a breezy list of 10 films that don’t usually provide anything more than a diversion when it’s too rainy to go outside and play. This list ain’t all guilty pleasures, these aren’t even bad films. No, most are quite enjoyable on some level or another it’s just that none of them have high replay value or are very memorable.

So here are some of my suggestions for something to throw in your DVD/Blu Ray player on rainy days as I find they’re just the ticket to beat the doldrums…and you’re not missing much if you start to doze off or leave the room.

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Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Now the premise alone, whereby young Arthur Dent begins a space bound quest after the untimely demise of his home planet (read: Earth), should automatically warrant a fun ride. The humor is the patented dry British humor and it is deliciously quirky. Add to it great creature/set designs and zany antics of Sam Rockwell and Bill Nighy are sure to please. But still that won’t appeal to all film fans as it can be a bit jumpy and nonsensical (not to mention the nearly always miscast Zooey Deschanel looking again out of place as a love interest) and even I get bored from time to time.

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Atlantis: The Lost Empire – One of Disney’s most recent forays back into traditional 2D animation this time sans the musical numbers. It’s a fun take on the legend of Atlantis and the A-List voice talent makes this nearly an ensemble cast. This is an ambitious film looking to distance the Disney brand from their regular cutesy sing-alongs while still retaining some kid friendly elements (though this can get a tad dark). The action was unexpectedly awesome, as were the humor and the colorful characters, plus it beautifully drawn and the music from James Newton Howard provides oddles of depth. But the result? A quasi-convoluted story that was over far too soon and wrapped up a little too nicely.

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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow – While it immediately looks like a stylized hybrid of The Iron Giant and The Rocketeer (two films I just LOVE) this “love letter” to the serials of the 40’s should have grabbed tons of fans. But while glitzy, nostalgic and romantic it was a bit too far-fetched to say nothing of the 100% CG environments pulling lifeless performances from everyone. While it may have been it just didn’t help sell the film as it should have turning a would be blockbuster into something easily looked over at Blockbuster Video. Pity.

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The Boondock Saints – This cult classic usually divides the audience into to two groups; those that love it and those who loathe the hype and attention showered upon it. Troy Duffy has a similar reputation and as he was the brainchild behind this film I do love, he’s criticized for (aside from his personal antics) creating a lackluster Tarantino rip-off. While this can be a little flat and forgettable at times, there’s still lots of small parts to love. Only those small parts just can’t keep it all together to create something cohesive and lasting; hence the divide. But fans do seem to think otherwise and ignore the amateur shortcomings. I should know, I’m one of them.

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Dogma – Kevin Smith is a brilliant man and no other film exemplifies it than his darkly satirical take on the Catholic faith. He sends a message that all Catholics will automatically get while other Christians may be left scratching their heads. But his films, which usually involve either all the same actors or the same characters, can get a bit tired and that’s probably why this just falls short of hitting wider audience. If you don’t just love Clerks, perhaps film fans may decide to passover “Clerks in Church” or “Jay and Silent Bob Save Religion” but it’s much better than you’d expect and it’s here you’ll find Smith at the top of his game.

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Sororoity Boys – If Animal House is A level collegiate comedy and Van Wilder is a solid B+, then Sorority Boys is an underrated film that gets a C- on a curve. Sure the premise sounds ridiculous (isn’t everything in college at one time or another?) but there are an abundance of insanely funny jokes that you can’t help but laugh at. Sure they try to inject a bit of heart, which surprisingly sort of works, amongst the slightly above average toilet and schlong humor but you’ll find yourself quoting it before you know it…whether you want to or not.

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The Wizard – Yes, it is nothing more than a 90 minute commercial for Super Mario Brothers 3 and a slew of Nintendo games as well as the once coveted Power Glove “It’s so bad“. Actually if you’re not fluent in your 80’s street vernacular, Lucas was very astute. The Power Glove was just that. The film, one of my guilty pleasures I’m not going to lie, wins cute points for being the story of a boy and his brother who bring their family together…with video games. What gets old are how impossible their journey would really be and the older you get, the more times you start to throw out the BS flag watching it. But still, nostalgia can smooth over all the rough edges and let you enjoy Christian Slater, a pre-Rilo Kiley Jenny Lewis and reminisce about the NES games you used to have…there’s also a 13 year old Tobey Maguire if you look carefully.

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Cellular – Chris Evans sure makes for some fun popcorn films even if, on the whole, they aren’t that good. Case in point. Sure this was able to snag Bill Macy, Jason Statham, and Kim Basinger, but a movie about keeping a cell phone call going to save a kidnapped woman is not only specific to the time (read: will be very dated) an obvious sales pitch in capitalizing on newly abundant technology. Again, sure it’s meant to be quick popcorn fun (and it was fun don’t get me wrong) but only a rental at best…even though I consider it a guilty pleasure too.

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Resident Evil – Fans of the game will probably be about as let down as I was with this lack luster adaptation. Still it’s better than some of the others out there *cough DOOM cough Wing Commander cough Mario Brothers cough* but it did serve as a moody experience with some surprising music from Marilyn Manson (of all people right?) that captured some of the spirit of the game with the eerie techy score…plus I got nothing against Milla Jovovich in that dress so it’s not all bad:P

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I Spy – Buddy flicks come in all shapes and sizes and if Eddie Murphy isn’t doing goofy kiddie films (of questionable quality) he’s usually at his best playing one half of an odd couple. Nothing wrong with Eddie or Owen in my book but the two of them just can’t get this film off the ground…for very long at least. There are a handful of solid jokes and scenes perfectly suited to their comic stylings but their characters (and the whole stinking plot) are so very unconvincing. High points to a post Office Space Gary Cole for having a laugh at himself but I Spy, in most countries is translated to I Snore.

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So grab a couple of these off Netflix (or if you’re like me you own or have burned copies of a few of ’em), hit the PLAY button and let the rain fall, fall, fall… and I won’t blame you if you fall asleep watching any of these:P