Guilty Pleasure: Midnight Madness

What do Winnie the Pooh, Grease, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, The Simpsons, An American Werewolf in London, Anna and the King, Animal House, and Family Ties all have in common? They all involve people who star in one of the silliest movies of all time. Midnight Madness is a perfect example of a guilty pleasure; it cannot by any measure be called a successful movie, but I love it just the same. It has no weight to it at all. The story in a nutshell: an eccentric weirdo plans out a city-wide scavenger hunt in Los Angeles, then eggs various college rivals into forming teams to compete. Hijinks ensue. In fact, this movie may be nothing but hijinks. It has absolutely no nuance to it, but you could probably guess that after seeing this:

In a way, this movie perfectly represents all of the wacky '80s competition movies, from The Wizard to Girls Just Want to Have Fun, but manages to be far zanier than all of the rest put together. All the tropes are present and accounted for, from the dumb jocks to the noble protagonists to the evil cheaters. This was Michael J. Fox's movie debut, and though I doubt he shouts that fact from the hills, he doesn't fare any worse than the rest of the cast.

The acting is hammy. The jokes are broader than the Pacific Ocean. The plot is wafer-thin. And yet, I snapped up the DVD, and will happily watch it whenever I have the chance.