Chick Flicks: The Sensual Action film
Tanya Fooks
Issue date: 11/7/05 Section: Life & Leisure
Picture this...you're having an animated conversation with a friend concerning the best movies of all time and personal favorites come up. Films like "Goodfellas" (1990), "Pulp Fiction" (1994), and "Scarface" (1983) are obvious contributions to the list.
But what about once you start counting movies off your fingers like "Pretty Woman" (1990), "Titanic" (1997), and "Runaway Bride" (1999)? Does your opinion suddenly diminish in value the moment you start mentioning the dreaded "chick flick"?
Should we be embarrassed by these so-called chick flicks or is it okay to watch a movie ten times, maybe even twice in one day, simply because you think it's cute when Patrick Swayze's character declares that "nobody puts Baby in the corner" in "Dirty Dancing"?
Are chick flicks a justifiable film genre - or a discreditable guilty pleasure?
What makes a movie a chick flick in the first place, you ask? It might be the mostly female cast or perhaps the fact that it's a film aimed predominantly at women.
Or maybe it's a bit of both; it's really not certain. But what is certain is that chick flicks have often been associated with negative connotations, some of which include exaggerated, clichéd, and inconsequential soap-opera type movies that have little significance or meaningful value.
Rather than watching a movie where the main relationship is between a man and his sub-machine gun or shiny sports car, why not watch a light-hearted movie in which the relationship between a man and woman is exaggerated tenfold, but surely resolves in a passionate explosion of emotion?
Typical examples include those in which there is a formulated romantic comedy having to do with relationship calamities or emotional upheavals where boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, love between boy and girl is blocked by some outside force, force is overcome, and boy and girl live happily ever after.
In addition to forbidden love, there is in most cases a troubled mother-daughter relationship, a predictable make-over scene, or some sort of typical conflict overcome with the combined forces of close-knit female friendship.
But what about once you start counting movies off your fingers like "Pretty Woman" (1990), "Titanic" (1997), and "Runaway Bride" (1999)? Does your opinion suddenly diminish in value the moment you start mentioning the dreaded "chick flick"?
Should we be embarrassed by these so-called chick flicks or is it okay to watch a movie ten times, maybe even twice in one day, simply because you think it's cute when Patrick Swayze's character declares that "nobody puts Baby in the corner" in "Dirty Dancing"?
Are chick flicks a justifiable film genre - or a discreditable guilty pleasure?
What makes a movie a chick flick in the first place, you ask? It might be the mostly female cast or perhaps the fact that it's a film aimed predominantly at women.
Or maybe it's a bit of both; it's really not certain. But what is certain is that chick flicks have often been associated with negative connotations, some of which include exaggerated, clichéd, and inconsequential soap-opera type movies that have little significance or meaningful value.
Rather than watching a movie where the main relationship is between a man and his sub-machine gun or shiny sports car, why not watch a light-hearted movie in which the relationship between a man and woman is exaggerated tenfold, but surely resolves in a passionate explosion of emotion?
Typical examples include those in which there is a formulated romantic comedy having to do with relationship calamities or emotional upheavals where boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, love between boy and girl is blocked by some outside force, force is overcome, and boy and girl live happily ever after.
In addition to forbidden love, there is in most cases a troubled mother-daughter relationship, a predictable make-over scene, or some sort of typical conflict overcome with the combined forces of close-knit female friendship.