First up is possibly my favorite Bruce Willis movie of all time: Hudson Hawk. Hawk is a highly skilled cat-burglar who finds himself in the middle of a scheme to steal several famous DaVinci pieces in an attempt to turn iron into gold. Over-the-top performances and cartoon antics abound. And singing!

Next, we’ve got three out of four of the Die Hard series: Die Hard, Die Hard With A Vengeance and Live Free Or Die Hard. In my not entirely humble opinion, the Die Hard series is the finest action franchise ever created (and I hear rumors of a fifth installment!).

Speaking of fifth, Bruce takes his wise-cracking tough-guy cop act to the future in The Fifth Element, where he becomes embroiled in a frantic race to save humanity. “Leeloo Dallas mul-ti-pass.”

In The Last Man Standing, Bruce is John Smith, gun-for-hire on the run from whatever the last thing he was into, when he comes across a town ravaged by two warring gangs, one Irish, one Italian. He takes the opportunity to work them against each other for profit and shoots the town to bits in the process in this remake of A Fistful Of Dollars, which was a remake of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Good times.

In The Whole Nine Yards, Bruce is Jimmy “The Tulip” Teduski, mob hitman-turned-informant trying to lay low in a suburban neighborhood, until his next-door neighbor (Matthew Perry in a not-too annoying role, really) is convinced to turn Jimmy in to his former boss. Double- and triple-crosses ensue (and a sequel that was pretty fun, too). Plus Kevin Pollak and Amanda Peet!

Bruce returns as a hitman–this time called Mr. Goodkat–in the darkly hilarious and severely under-appreciated Lucky # Slevin. Also starring Josh Hartnett, Stanley Tucci, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and the ever adorable Lucy Liu.

So that’s our Bruce Willis shrine. As an added bonus, I notice that Bandits is also on another shelf on the new trades wall. Co-starring Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchet, this loosely-fact-based crime spree movie is also a joy to watch.

Like Geoff, I doubt that I might feel “guilty” over these choices, but I do recognize that they may not be movies many people would admit to liking. My tastes are my own, and I’m okay with that. My primary expectation from any movie is that I’ll be entertained and I have to admit I’m easily amused. But hey, enough of my yakkin’. Whaddaya say? Let’s boogie!

1. Spice World. In the mid-90s I wouldn’t have given the Spice Girls a passing glance, let alone let that movie come into my house (I actually tried–and failed–to forbid my then-wife from bringing home, but I wouldn’t watch it).  Just a few short years later, while working in one of our rental stores, one of my coworkers picked it out to play in the store. It was her turn and I declined to overrule her choice. Quite by surprise I discovered that the songs were catchy, danceable pop numbers, the girls were actually pretty engaging, the humor self-deprecating, and the cast contained at least two actors I really enjoy: Alan Cumming as a filmmaker doing a documentary about the Spice Girls and Richard E. Grant as their increasingly agitated manager, not to mention Meatloaf (with a hilarious self-referential piece of dialog) as their driver, George Wendt and Mark McKinney (Kids In The Hall) as a hack movie producer/writer team who are apparently pitching the movie we are watching, Richard O’Brien (Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Roger Moore (spoofing the Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld) and a host of cameos from the likes of Elvis Costello, Elton John, Jools Holland, Bob Geldof, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Bob Hoskins and Jennifer Saunders.  The story, such as it is, follows the Girls through a series of comical mishaps in the days leading up to their big performance at the Royal Albert Hall. At its heart, it’s really just A Hard Day’s Night but with a different hugely popular British band (sorry about that, Beatles fans).

2. Joise And The Pussycats. Is there a trend here? Maybe. I like movies with lots of music and I like girls. Movies about girl bands pretty much seems like a given. This one (also one of my rental store favorites) gets kind of a bum rap, either because people remember the cartoon, or because people see that Tara Reid is in it. Or maybe it’s something else. In any event, I really think this one deserves a better reputation. One of the things I hear a lot when people complain about Josie… is “there’s product placement all over the place. It’s like overkill!” My response tot he that is “Well, yeah. Were you not paying attention?”  The entire premise of the movie is that the record company has a secret plot (in league with the government no less) to control the minds of our youth with subliminal advertising in the music. Like that could moviecycle.com really happen, right? I find it interesting that the complaint is so often about how much product placement there is in the movie, when people seemingly miss the commentary on our consumerist society. But enough of that. Not only are the songs real, actual songs written and performed by real, actual musicians: Kay Hanley of Letters To Cleo is the voice of Josie, with songwriters including Jane Weidlin (The Go-Gos), Adam Duritz (Counting Crows), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne), Babyface (who also produced the songs) and Matthew Sweet. The soundtrack actually sold more than half a million copies, so there. And if that’s not enough, there’s Parker Posey and Alan Cumming (again). See it. You really want to see it.

3. Hudson Hawk. This is actually one of my all time favorite movies, and I’m bummed that it wasn’t on my tropical island list. Good thing I’m smuggling in a whole bunch of extra stuff. I’ve never understood what people don’t like about Hudson Hawk. What’s not to like? Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Richard E. Grant (there’s a pattern here with the actors I like…), Sandra Bernhard, James freakin’ Coburn! and David Caruso in a completely non-speaking role (he uses cards to “speak” and he always seems to have just the right one at hand). Hawk (Willis), fresh out of prison, is a master cat-burglar. Tommy (Aiello), his best pal, convinces him to pull off “just one more job” for some very powerful people. Of course it’s not that simple. The plot thickens with rich wackjobs who want to be richer, the CIA and the Vatican all getting into the act. Heists, cartoonish characters and situations (and sound effects!), action, song-and-dance… what more could you want?

4. Gigli. Yep. I went there. I never really understood why this one got such a bad reception. Yeah, some of the performances are weak, but come on: Christopher Walken. Justin Bartha (who really, for me, just made this movie completely awesome).  Actually, I can’t think of anyone else that made this stand out.  I agree that Ben and J-Lo could have been better, but there is a lot of (admittedly weird) chemistry on screen there. Mainly I think the huge critical and public backlash against this movie has less to do with how “bad” it is and far more to do with how the Bennifer saga was completely overblown. I personally don’t pay a lot of attention to the gossip rags, so I really couldn’t have cared less if they were or weren’t a couple. Gigli did the thing I wanted it to do: it entertained me.

5. Charlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. I chose both of these (I’d choose the third one, too, if someone would hurry up and make one) because I couldn’t pick between them. Over-over-the-top action abounds as ridiculous situations exist for no other reason than to set up the next fight, explosion or chase. All featuring the beautiful, talented and funny Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore and, well, I can tolerate Cameron Diaz in these movies (not a big fan, generally), plus Bill Murray (in the first) and, inexplicably, Bernie Mac (in the second) as Bosley–not the same character, and yes they do explain the relationship, but it’s a pretty clear indication of the tongue-in-cheekness of these movies. Other notable actors include Crispin Glover, Sam Rockwell, Tim Curry, Kelly Lynch, LL Cool J, Tom Green, Shia LaBeouf, Robert Patrick, Demi Moore, Luke Wilson Matt LeBlanc, John Cleese and, of course, John Forsythe as Charlie. Not to mention kick-ass soundtracks featuring a crazy mix of  Mötley Crüe, Wham!, The Flying Lizards, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Apollo 440, Deee-Lite, The Prodigy, Aerosmith, Heart, Spandau Ballet, Pink, Nickelback, The Breeders, The Chemical Brothers and a whoooole lot more.

That’s gonna just about wrap it up then. I’m sure that I’ve startled some of you, but rest assured that I really do like “good” movies, too.