The guilty pleasure of 'Hot Tub Time Machine'

"Hot Tub Time Machine" is probably the most aptly-named movie since "Snakes on a Plane." You know immediately exactly what you're going to get: a hot tub that's a time machine.

You know it's going to be ridiculous. You know it's not going to be "Citizen Kane." But you know it's probably going to make you laugh. It puts a likable cast (John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry and Clark Duke) in absurd situations as they travel back to the 1980s, cause mayhem and use an overabundance of gross-out humor.

There are certain movies like "Hot Tub Time Machine" that you know objectively you can't argue are good movies, but they're wildly entertaining nonetheless. They're guilty pleasures, a classification some movies just wouldn't exist without. Would the likes of "Eurotrip" and "Beerfest" ever see the light of day if producers didn't count on them being someone's guilty pleasure flick?

As a critic, I can look objectively at the "Twilight" films and say they're overly melodramatic, feature beyond unrealistic portrayals of teenage love, have shoddy screenwriting, semi-descent acting and mediocre directing at best. But I've been in the crowd at both midnight showings.

Sometimes I need to step away from all the "Hurt Lockers," "Preciouses" and "Up in the Airs," and just watch some absurdly angsty vampire romance. Everyone needs that movie they pop in their DVD player when they want a little pick-me-up. Mine is a vampire boy and a human girl staring longingly at each other in a meadow. I can't totally explain why I love it. I just do.

It's the same with the "American Pie" movies (the original three, not the lame direct-to-DVD sequels that have sprouted up in recent years). Excellent filmmaking? Not so much. But a fun, raunchy ride with Jim, Stifler and the gang is enough to completely cheer me up when I'm stressed or feeling down.

So what are your guilty pleasures, those movies you know aren't great movies but you can't live without? Sound off in the comments section.