10 Greatest Guilty Pleasure Movies Of The 90s

10. Drop Dead Fred

Whatever happened to Phoebe Cates? It sounds like a Lifetime movie, but it's actually a valid question. OK, sure, we know that she decided to quit acting to devote herself to being a mother to her and Kevin Kline's children (yeah, they're married, Google it), but because of that choice it's very easy to forget that she was one of the great unsung stars of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Just think of her performance in Drop Dead Fred as the sweet but severely repressed Lizzie, a role that contrasts exquisitely with her anarchic, id-like imaginary friend Fred (played by the sadly departed Rik Mayall).

But what's especially interesting about this film is that underneath all of the juvenile sight gags and potty humor, there's a tender strain of melancholy about the nature of childhood and innocence and, let's be real, there are some serious undertones of abuse in both Lizzie's relationship with her mother and her boyfriend.

People overlook Drop Dead Fred because it's childish, but the fact that it is willing to be supremely silly in telling a surprisingly mature story is part of its charm.