Good/Bad Chick Flicks | The Boneyard

Good/Bad Chick Flicks

nelsonmuntz

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Bad - Beaches. This is a sappy, emotionally manipulative, 2 hours of Chinese water torture. Bette Midler is over the top annoying, and Barbara Hershey is a lousy actress. The overacting is topped only by the endless parade of melodrama. Awful, awful, movie that a lot of women over 35 love.

As an aside, the only movie I have ever liked Bette Midler in was Ruthless People, where she plays someone so annoying that her husband doesn't want to pay ransom to get her back when she is kidnapped. That seems realistic to me.

Good - Delores Claibourne - 2.5 hours of Maine going gangsta. David Straitharn is one of my favorite character actors, and Kathy Bates, John Reilly and Christopher Plummer are always awesome. Judy Parfit steals the show as Vera Donovan. Jennifer Jason Leigh has gone downhill since Fast Times, but the rest of the cast carries her.

Any others?
 

RS9999X

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The American President. Good formula stuff.
+1 on Delores. I think Leigh's stench of big city failure works.
Thumbelina with Uma Thurman (Even cowgirls get the blues). Nice oddball flick.I may be the only person who likes it.
Like her in Kill Bill I too. Not a chick flick in the RomCom sense.
 
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Liked Delores Claiborne but never thought of it as a chick flick.

Good...

Fever Pitch
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Help
Ghost
The Notebook
The Devil Wears Prada
Good Will Hunting
Legally Blonde
Forgetting Sara Marshall
Pretty Woman

Bad....

Legends of the Fall
 
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As an aside, the only movie I have ever liked Bette Midler in was Ruthless People, where she plays someone so annoying that her husband doesn't want to pay ransom to get her back when she is kidnapped. That seems realistic to me.

I was OK with Midler in For the Boys.
 

nelsonmuntz

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I never thought of Good Will Hunting as a chick flick. Only one major character is even a woman. It is pretty much a buddy movie.

There is some serious man-hating in Delores Claiborne, which qualifies it as a chick flick.

DWP is excellent and definitely chick/flick. It is a movie about clothes with Stanley Tucci playing the gay friend that most women wish they had.

Pretty Woman is a romcom, but a lot of women think it is a little offensive. It is about a prostitute and George Costanza attempts a sexual assault. Not sure of its chick flick credentials.
 

Waquoit

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Pretty Woman is a romcom, but a lot of women think it is a little offensive. It is about a prostitute and George Costanza attempts a sexual assault. Not sure of its chick flick credentials.

It didn't become a big hit because of all the big groups of males going to see it.
 

storrsroars

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I'll nominate "For Love of the Game" which is half chick-flick, half pretty decent baseball movie.
 
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Good chick flicks:

Shakespeare in Love
Casablanca
When Harry Met Sally
Message In A Bottle
An Affair to Remember
Sleepless in Seattle
An Officer and a Gentleman

God awful chick flicks:

From Here to Eternity
You've Got Mail
Sixteen Candles
Titanic
Wedding Planner
Working Girl
 

nelsonmuntz

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Wedding Planner and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days were two of the worst big budget movies I have ever seen.
 

nelsonmuntz

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Good chick flicks:

Shakespeare in Love
Casablanca
When Harry Met Sally
Message In A Bottle
An Affair to Remember
Sleepless in Seattle
An Officer and a Gentleman

God awful chick flicks:

From Here to Eternity
You've Got Mail
Sixteen Candles
Titanic
Wedding Planner
Working Girl

Casablanca and O&G are not chick flicks. Just because there is a romance plotline in a movie doesn't make it a chick flick.

I agree with your choices on the bad side with the exception of Sixteen Candles, which was really a teen movie more than chick flick. Anthony Michael Hall is as much of a star of that movie as Molly Ringwald. I thought it was pretty good too.

Kate Winslet shows her knockers in Titanic, which automatically gets a movie to B+ in my book.

Working Girl was painfully stupid. I can't believe it was so successful.
 

nelsonmuntz

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I noticed Just Friends in the surprisingly good movies thread, and added it here.

Just Friends is a chick fantasy movie. The premise is that the friend-zone dork that she hung out with in high school because he was like a best girlfriend but better (he wasn't trying to bang her boyfriend and would do pretty much anything she wanted no matter how lame) becomes hot, rich and cool, and yet is still in love with her despite the fact that she is a 30 year old substitute teacher when not working at a bar, has no boyfriend, and lives with her parents. All because he loves the inner her, or something. This is a similar vibe to The Notebook, because Just Friends is also based on a love triangle with two attractive, successful men tolerating a high maintenance manipulator. The difference being that Just Friends mocks the Notebook mercilessly throughout the movie. It is like the anti-Notebook, but still targeted at women.

Faris and the little brother are awesome throughout the movie, as are most of the secondary characters like the mom, Jamie's dad, Fred and Darla, and the ex-jock alcoholic.
 

intlzncster

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Good chick flicks:

Shakespeare in Love
Casablanca
When Harry Met Sally
Message In A Bottle
An Affair to Remember
Sleepless in Seattle
An Officer and a Gentleman

God awful chick flicks:

From Here to Eternity
You've Got Mail
Sixteen Candles
Titanic
Wedding Planner
Working Girl

What???????????????

Sixteen Candles is a pantheon movie. No movie with a character like Long Duck Dong can be bad. Just can't. And Anthony Michael Hall delivers an absolute Tour de Force as Ted the Geek.

Say Anything was phenomenal.

Gotta say it, The Notebook was pretty good.
 

intlzncster

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Liked Delores Claiborne but never thought of it as a chick flick.

Good...

Fever Pitch
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Help
Ghost
The Notebook
The Devil Wears Prada
Good Will Hunting
Legally Blonde
Forgetting Sara Marshall
Pretty Woman

Bad....

Legends of the Fall

Good Will Hunting is not a chick flick. It's a coming of age guy story. With a bit of romance as a foil.

And I loved Legends of the Fall.
 

intlzncster

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Pretty Woman is a romcom, but a lot of women think it is a little offensive. It is about a prostitute and George Costanza attempts a sexual assault. Not sure of its chick flick credentials.

A lot of women think everything is offensive. Not a reason to disqualify anything. It was a decent movie.
 

intlzncster

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I liked Amelie. About a young woman who decided she going to be nice to everyone. So of course they think she's nuts.

+1 Fantastic.
 

intlzncster

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Love Actually. I thought it was pretty funny, and I have an inherent soft spot for British humor.

It is pretty funny, for anyone I'd think. Nobody could dislike the Colin character.

And Bill Nighy is good in everything that he does.
 
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Good chick flicks:

Shakespeare in Love
Casablanca
When Harry Met Sally
Message In A Bottle
An Affair to Remember
Sleepless in Seattle
An Officer and a Gentleman

God awful chick flicks:

From Here to Eternity
You've Got Mail
Sixteen Candles
Titanic
Wedding Planner
Working Girl
also has horrible taste in movies.
 
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I liked Amelie. About a young woman who decided she going to be nice to everyone. So of course they think she's nuts.

Amelie is a very unusual movie, but it is also a great movie. You just have to buy into the premise, which may be difficult for some in these jaded times. If you do, it's very entertaining.
 

CL82

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Good chick flicks:

Shakespeare in Love
Casablanca
When Harry Met Sally
Message In A Bottle
An Affair to Remember
Sleepless in Seattle
An Officer and a Gentleman

God awful chick flicks:

From Here to Eternity
You've Got Mail
Sixteen Candles
Titanic
Wedding Planner
Working Girl
Casablanca a chick flick? I.. think... not.

I'll add The Fault in Our Stars to the good chick flick list.
 
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There's no way Good Will Hunting is even in the discussion of a chick flick. And that's coming from a guy that spent an afternoon sitting on the bench in Boston Common looking back on life and would have named his daughter Skyler if the neighbor didn't do it first.
 

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