Rubbish Films That Are Great

Admit it. If anyone asks what your top three films of all time are going to be, it's quite likely that you'll want to try and look 'clever' and chuck Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai or Rebecca in there, even though you secretly want to say how much you want to put Teenwolf or something in there. Oh, and extra bonus twat points if you'd say 'Shichinin No Samurai' instead of Seven Samurai. Well, at BrokenTV, we're prepared to put our TV-only remit behind for a minute (and not just because we forgot to watch Little Britain earlier, and therefore have nothing to put the boot into for this update), and begin a series saluting the films that you keep well away from eye-level of your VHS shelf*, but which you will always, always try to catch when they crop up at 9pm on Sky Cinema 2.

(*Many such films not being available on DVD, natch. Oh, shiny disc - when will you play host to Elvira: Mistress of the Dark?)

Number one. National Lampoon's European Vacation.

Mel Smith as the landlord of a grubby B&B! Beverly D'Angelo in the shower! The bit where they turn up at the wrong house in Switzerland and stay for a week! What's not to like?

Even though everyone now prefers to say how they always hated Chevy Chase, come on! C'maaan, he was great in the first few Lampoon flicks, and excellent in the Fletch movies. A pity the Kevin Smith Fletch-remakes with Jason "Stole A Car From A One-Legged Woman" Lee never happened, really. Even Eric Idle, in full do-anything-to-appear-in-an-American-production mode, wasn't too annoying, but I might just be comparing his appearance in this with Nuns On The Run.

The way things are, everyone files it into the same category as Police Academies five through seven, so they can pretend they preferred the well-meaning tedium of Cocoon or Colin'n'Edith endorsed okay-to-like fodder like The Goonies instead. People like you sicken us.

And, just for the hell of it, that picture of Beverly D'Angelo in the shower.



Yay!

Oh, and for the record, depending on our mood when you ask, BrokenTV's top three films are:

The Big Lebowski
The Jerk
Mallrats
(Although admittedly, The Great Dictator and Horse Feathers may well be promoted from positions four and five to two and three, if we're trying to impress the person asking the question. Hey, we ain't proud. We're as shallow as the next blog.)

Next time: Tank Girl, we shouldn't wonder.