Why watch?

Every so often a movie will come out to mostly bad reviews, and several people tell you they saw it, and it was awful.  Still, you have some ridiculous urge to watch it for yourself.  Why?  Maybe you love the cast, or maybe one preview caught your attention.  You argue with yourself:  it would be ridiculous to waste two hours of my life watching a film that multiple sources have called terrible!  Why even bother?  You know you're going to hate it.  Urge wins out over logic, though, and you find yourself sitting on your couch with a bowl of popcorn, prepared to hate the movie you're about to watch. 

But then, surprisingly......

YOU LOVE IT. 

You try to tell yourself you're not completely caught up in the storyline or with the characters.  Somewhere during the film, though, you finally cave and admit to yourself that hey, this movie's not so bad after all.  It doesn't matter if other people hate it.  Right? 

Afterwards you feel guilty.  You're supposed to be an intellectual.  You're one of those people who only cares for the best of the big screen.  (This is for you people who claim to love every film nominated for an Oscar.  Puh-leaze.  Most of them are ridiculous. Give me Dumb & Dumber any day.)    Eventually you decide to love the film in secret, but bash it in front of your more sophisticated friends.  This is where the problem lies.

We've got to stop being embarrassed for enjoying films -and music artists as well - considered cheese by others.  If you like something, like it! Don't be ashamed to say, "Hey, I like the Biebs!"  (I don't.  Just to clarify.)   or "As a matter of fact, I think the Twilight films are fabulous, and I'll be at the midnight premier of the next two!" (I do and I will.)   It's time to stand up and be proud of our cheesiness, people! 

What brought this on, you ask?  Well, the above dilemma happened to me just days ago with a little film called Burlesque.  I've heard how bad it is.  I've read the reviews.  I decided to watch it anyway.  Not for Christina, because I don't particularly like her.  Or Cher, for that matter.  I wanted to watch it because the previews had me interested, and I wanted to see it.  Simple enough, right?  Wrong.  Ten minutes into it, watching scantily clad gals gyrating around a singing Cher, I was hooked.  I loved this film.  Absolutely, completely adored it. 

I don't know why.  Yeah, it is extremely similar to Coyote Ugly (motherless small-town gal heads to the big city to make it big and ends up shaking it and singing in scraps of clothing under the tutelage of an older, hard-as-nails woman), but that's not why I like it.  Maybe the songs are catchy.  Maybe I love Alan Cummings as a mascara'd freak, or Stanley Tucci as a gay assistant to Cher.  Or maybe it was that Cam guy naked but for a box of cookies.  Who knows?  The point is, I loved it, but then didn't know if I should share my opinion with my pals.  What if they thought I had poor judgment in films?  What if - GASP - they stopped reading my blog because I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about? 

I debated for all of twenty minutes, then decided it didn't really matter.   I've openly admitted my love for other things of a cheesy nature.  N'Sync.  Spongebob Squarepants.  Cap'n Crunch.  Britney Spears.  Toe socks.  You guys still love me anyway, right?  So why not add one to the list?  Burlesque. 

So now that I've joined the Cheese and Proud gang, I hope you'll join me! Cheeseheads, unite!