A Fine Cheese

Cheese is delicious. And a fine cheese should be savored. It’s all about quality, consistency and flavor, and some cheeses are just better than others. There’s quite an array of cheese to choose from, but while some cheeses never impressed me much with their bland flavor, others I love and just can’t seem to get enough of.

Just as actual cheese varies in quality, so do cheesy movies. I admit that I enjoy a good cheesy movie from time to time. Sometimes I’m not in the mood to watch something with depth. Sometimes I just want to watch something that’s light and amusing and utterly absurd. Yes, I like the occasional low budget made-for-TV sci-fi movie…if it’s a good one.

Usually I’ll see promising commercials for these low-budget sci-fi movies, but once I watch the first ten minutes I’ll often get bored and give up. However on rare occasions I stumble upon a fine cheesy movie. A movie that has an entertaining (and highly implausible) premise, with actors that have just the right dose of ham, dialogue that’s over the top in a good way and gory inventive deaths (and plenty of them). I tend to like the genetically mutated animals that are larger, smarter, faster and stronger than normal (and generally seem to be bullet proof for some reason). I like these types of movies because the enemy can be seen and killed, unlike natural disaster or epidemic plots that the characters tend to have a more cerebral and a less physical battle against.

I want my cheesy movies to be a good time—light-hearted gory fun with almost cartoon-like violence. A good cheesy movie isn’t going to win any prestigious awards, but it’ll make me laugh at its absurdity and I’d say that in itself is an accomplishment.