It feels like I’ve been running or planning my own blogathons quite a bit around here, I thought it was only fair to finally take part in some other blogathons. One I ran across just today was a fun little blogathon called Guilty Pleasure Movies over at Flick Chicks. And even though I did recently take part in a Guilty Pleasures Lambcast, I didn’t mention too many superhero movies and I knew I could easily come up with a whole top 10 list of Guilty Pleasure Superhero movies. These aren’t some of the best movies out there, and I’m sure I might catch some flak from true superhero fans for liking these, but there’s just something about them that I happen to like.

Howard the Duck

This is the much maligned first theatrical Marvel movie ever, produced by Lucasfilm, and yet when most people think about this film the term “duck boobs” is one of the first things that come to mind. And while there is a lot of odd choices in this movie, and special effects that aren’t quite up to snuff, there’s still a fun sense of humor here, and a very 80’s hot Lea Thompson. I imagine there will be a bit more interest in this movie now that there is a prominent reference to the property, and I will say that it’s hard to get that theme song out of your head.

The Meteor Man

There aren’t a whole lot of superhero movie parodies that I’ve taken to, but I think that this one comes the closest to my sense of humor. It stars Robert Townsend as an extremely mild mannered teacher who gains super powers from a meteor and has to defend his neighborhood from the Golden Lords including a young Don Cheadle. It’s goofy, but it has Bill Cosby, James Earl Jones, and Cyprus Hill in it.

Judge Dredd

While it’s all too easy to jump on the bandwagon of the more recent Dredd movie starring Karl Urban, it’s a much different prospect to root for this 90’s version of Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone as someone who is much more like sci-fi Sylvester Stallone instead of the actual comic book Judge Dredd. But at the same time, coming from someone who knows next to nothing about the actual comic, this is still a fun 90’s sci-fi cop movie starring Sylvester Stallone.

The Phantom

This is a recent find for me as I watched it for the first time just earlier this year. I must say that I’ve enjoyed most of Billy Zane’s work that I’ve seen from the 90’s, and many of them I have actually revisited this year such as Titanic, Tales From the Crypt, and this movie. It’s a costume that’s pulled almost directly from the comic aside from the striped pants, but it’s one of the worst looking costumes from the era. It has a very campy Indiana Jones vibe to it, but Zane is charming throughout and if it wasn’t for the over the top villain and the climactic ending that makes no sense it could have actually been a good movie.

The Fantastic Four

I’m not talking about either the 1994 version that was never released, or the 2015 version that just wrapped, but instead the 2005 version starring the girl from Sin City, the guy who became Captain America, the guy from the Shield, and a British guy whose name no one can pronounce (though I’ve heard it’s supposedly just pronounced “Ian Griffith”). I still enjoyed the dysfunctional family comedy beats, I thought Chiklis was fantastic (pun intended) as the Thing, I’m just worried that when I re-watch it all the internet hate will have soaked into me.

Daredevil

This is an interesting case because it gets a little bit of redemption from the haters due to the fact that there is a director’s cut of the movie which eases some of the biggest complaints towards the movie, but not all of them. I am a fan of the dc vs. the theatrical version, but even then I enjoyed this movie for what it was trying to do at the time, I think that Affleck is great in it, as well as Farrell, Duncan, and Favreau.

Ghost Rider

Out of all the movies on this list, I might catch the most flak for this one. It’s got Nicolas Cage as a stuntman who turns into a superhero with a flaming skull riding a motorcycle. Not only that, but it has Sam Elliott who brings with him a requisite amount of awesome, too bad some of that is taken up by the rather flat romantic subplot.

Return of Captain Invincible

This is one of those guilty pleasures that I don’t really feel all that guilty about, but I will use almost any excuse I have to put this movie on a list so I can talk about it again. It’s a relatively obscure movie from the 80’s that features Alan Arkin as Captain Invincible who was disgraced during the McCarthy era and fled the country where he ends up in Australia as an alcoholic. It also has Christopher Lee as Doctor Midnight who is trying to take over the world, and did I mention that it’s a musical?

Zoom: Academy for Superheroes

There were two movies that came out nearly the same time, this one and Sky High, and while I easily admit that Sky High is the better movie, I can’t deny that this one made me laugh quite a bit more. It’s got Tim Allen as a surly, old ex-superhero who is brought back into the fold to train a group of new meta-humans with the help of Courtney Cox as a clumsy, fangirl scientist, Rip Torn as the surly government agent, and Chevy Chase as… basically Chevy Chase.

Hentai Kamen

I also mentioned this one on the Lambcast I was on, and it’s yet another comedy that I found absolutely hysterical. But it’s hard to explain this movie as a comedy when the hero of the picture gains his powers by placing a pair of used women’s underwear over his face where the crotch ends up right in front of his nose and it also happens to somewhat resemble a superhero mask. On top of that, he wears only a pair of underwear which he stretches up over his shoulders and a pair of fishnet stockings. It’s bizarre, it’s hard to explain, and yet it’s freaking hysterical.

So there you have my list of guilty pleasure superhero movies, but I’d like to know what yours is. Be sure to share your shame down in the comments and I promise not to make fun of you. Much. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.