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Chick Flick vs Dick Flick

Yesterday morning (Sunday) when I came down for breakfast I announced to my husband that aside from doing the dishes, doing the laundry, helping him clean the bird and lizard cages, tidying up, vacuuming and cooking a roast dinner, I was planning to have a day of sloth, and I would probably be spending the afternoon in front of the television watching DVD’s. “Just so you know,” I said.

I had planned to watch a DVD I bought the day before,  “The Libertine”, with Johnny Depp. A Johnny Depp movie is something to be savoured but a Johnny Depp movie with Johnny Depp looking pretty in Restoration costumes and having lots of sex (plus a bonus appearance by John Malkovich) is something not only to be savoured but definitely calls for chocolate. I made sure I had an offering from Mr. Cadbury laid in for the occasion. (And a new knitting project.)

It was a very good movie and I enjoyed it, in spite of the fact that Mr. Depp wasn’t too pretty by the end of it (poor chap was dying of the Clap, you know.) Too bad I didn’t get to see the thing sans interruption. Not possible when you are trying to get the wash done, start dinner and have to live in a house with other people in it. I will try to watch it again sometime, possibly without the knitting. I might even talk Redman into watching it with me, having convinced him it is NOT a Chick Flick.

Chick flicks are usually defined as movies about relationships and feelings which will appeal more to women than to men. In my opinion a chick flick is a movie with a marginal plot (ostensibly about relationships and feelings) which is cynically marketed to women, who are considered to be suckers for this sort of thing. Films which fall into my definition of the Chick Flick genre are movies like “Almost Heaven”, “Sweet Home Alabama”, “Failure to Launch”, the recently released “Catch and Release” – well, you get the picture.  These are the kind of inoffensive, mindless movies that end up being shown on airplanes.  And they deserve to be summarily dismissed.

There are good movies out there that might appeal to more to women than men “guys” which may also be thoughtful intelligent films – or at least highly entertaining. These in my opinion are NOT Chick Flicks. These include (but are not limited to) movies like “Sophie’s Choice”, “As Good as it Gets”, “About Schmidt”,  “A Beautiful Mind”, “Nurse Betty”.  Well, these are just my subjective choices – your opinion may vary. How can ANYTHING with Nazis, Jack Nicholson and/or a violent murder be considered a Chick Flick? But I’m sure each one of those films has been classified by someone at some time or another as a Chick Flick, and that term is generally considered to be derogatory.

So, why do we not commonly use the term Dick Flicks in a derogatory way? You know the kind: anything with tons of senseless violence, car crashes, big boobs and macho loading men shooting everything in sight. Movies like “The Fast and the Furious” or any film that features street racing, “XXX”, the Jackass movies, almost any James Bond film. The movie we watched on Saturday Night, “Crank” was a prime example of that genre. In fact it was SO over the top it might even have been considered a parody of the Dick Flick. You do not see these kinds of movies on airplanes (especially that one.)

Anyway, my Sunday relaxation campaign was in aid of trying to get myself into vacation mode (in spite of having to work today) because we leave for our annual Week in Cuba tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to the dreaded Day of Wait Travel and we won’t arrive at our hotel until nearly midnight tomorrow night. There’s the drive to Toronto, checking in and going through security, the loooong wait at the airport, the going through  Cuban customs on the other end, the two-hour bus ride (in the dark so you can’t even see the scenery) to the hotel. The flight will be the least boring part of the whole effort. At least they show you a movie. Hey, I might even finally get to see “Failure to Launch”.  

Filed under Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2007
 

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