I was very excited to see the American Reunion movie. I saw American Pie just after college and remembered it was quite funny.
Jim, Michelle, Oz, Heather, Stifler reunite for their high school...
You think with a financial statement like this you can have the duck?
For what it's worth, aside from Planes, Trains & Automobiles, this is Steve Martin's finest work. As a love letter to Los Angeles, it's one of the best cultural and geographical mosaics of the city (or any city, really). It's an honest, witty romantic comedy that's amplified by its surreal quirks and incredible ability to make the extraordinary out of the ordinary, and vice versa. Postmodernism is a fine line to walk, but this does it with a grace and restraint that never oversteps the film. Martin's screenplay and performance are masterful, and the cameos come fast and furious in great numbers (a hoot seeing guys like Chase and Moranis show up, but it's Woody Harrelson's hostile cameraman and Patrick Stewart as the snootiest maitre d' ever that stick out the most). The ending is infinitely heartwarming.
Try to forget that this film launched a thousand douchebags using the term "money" or that it crammed "Vegas, Baby, Vegas!" into the national lexicon. This film is still warm and hilarious. One of the all-time great "guys-hanging-out" movies and filled with great cringe humor and quotable lines other than the two mentioned above. The soundtrack is kind of great, also.
"I don't want you to be the guy in the PG-13 movie everyone's really hoping makes it happen. I want you to be like the guy in the rated R movie, you know. The guy you're not sure whether or not you like yet. You're not sure where he's coming from. Okay? You're a bad man. You're a bad man, Mikey. You're a bad man, bad man."
"I don't know why they named that boy that African name. Knowing he from Cleveland!"
My favorite movie of 1990! This Kid n' Play vehicle was a funny and positive throwback to the heyday of blaxploitation. Oh, how many times I tried to pull off the toe tap dance move!
Hey, remember when Tim Burton and Johnny Depp collaborating meant something brilliant?
There's zero doubt that this is Burton's finest achievement, a gothic tall tale of the strange true story of a delusional moron who thought he was a genius, and in his mistakes became a legend. Depp is exhilarating as the larger-than-life Edward D. Wood Jr. and it has a staggering supporting cast, from Sarah Jessica Parker's jilted lover to George "The Animal" Steele's appropriately meatheaded portrayal of Tor Johnson. What's inescapable in the film and really defines it, however, is Martin Landau, who more than deserved the Oscar for playing an elderly, tasteless, and foul-mouthed Bela Lugosi. Samuel L. Jackson might've been more iconic in Pulp Fiction but just about anything Landau does as Lugosi is nothing short of hilarious. (Just one example: his handling of trick-or-treaters.)
Also, if you don't think the baptism of Bill Murray is remotely amusing, you're a soulless jackass.
This movie is so damned good. In another reality, this would have been a big hit and earned nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (amongst others). We'll just have to be satisfied with Landau's victory (perfectly deserved) for Best Supporting Actor. LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie.
There's a reason why these films are so loved. In addition to the heart that we love Pixar for, they're also clever, witty, and hilarious films that manage to stay family friendly.
48. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) dir. Guy Ritchie
If you haven't seen this, do yourself the favor. Perhaps not as great as Ritchie's Snatch (now there's a sentence worth typing), but pretty damn close.
Vinnie Jones is great. The dialogue is sharp, quick and witty.
Mr. T? You bet on the fight in Rocky III and you bet against Rocky?
G...SEV-OHN!!!!! STREET...FIGHTIN'...MAN!!!!!! (punches jukebox; "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" plays instead)
Norm MacDonald should be a comedic juggernaut. I'll just put that out there. Case in point: this sorely underseen and undervalued comedy, a wild, loopy return to the "do it yourself" comedy subgenre of films like Night Shift and Easy Money, that were all the rage in the 80's. On the other hand, this one exploits the presence of the sort of bizarre sensibilities that Norm's Weekend Update persona would be proud of: toilet bombs, a trunk full of "dead" hookers, an allergic hallucination involving Adam Sandler as Satan and Gary Coleman, a gay porn version of Men in Black, Chevy Chase as a doctor and degenerate gambler that plays like a predecessor to Pierce Hawthorne...it's the sort of thing that should and could have been DTV dreck starring Richard Grieco, but the offbeat situations and Norm MacDonald's charming scoundrel make this a hidden neo-classic.
It's also respectable that the film manages to stay as rambunctious as it is despite a PG-13 rating (it originally aimed for an R). If you did this in the 80's or within the past few years, it would have been huge, but it's a film ahead of its time and better than a wide majority. And the comfort that Chris Farley went out on a high note on film.
All of this from DIRECTOR BOB SAGET. Think about that.
Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor. Mel Gibson & Danny Glover. Phil Collins & Philip Bailey. With White Men Can't Jump, Wildcats co-stars Wesley Snipes & Woody Harrelson earned a spot on the list of great black-and-white buddies. Shelton's script crackles with profane quotables, Wesley & Woody's chemistry does the rest.
I tell you one thing, though. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we're gonna take this luggage with us!
A true classic. Most people didn't get it upon release. Most don't get it now. But those who do know what a brilliantly deep & life-affirming comedy it is.
Nobody does "Holy-shit-I'm-so-screwed" reactions like Matthew Broderick, and he's on fire here. The pairing of him and a self-parodying Marlon Brando (in arguably his last decent role) is classic. Not to mention the insane plot involving the Komodo dragon and the "banquet". I feel this film is kind of undervalued, despite generally being well-received.
Eddie Murphy's best of the decade, it was very refreshing to get a romantic comedy with an all Black cast. Funny supporting work from David Allen Grier, Martin Lawrence, and Chris Rock. And Halle Berry has never been sexier. This remains a very underrated film.
Eddie Murphy's best of the decade, it was very refreshing to get a romantic comedy with an all Black cast. Funny supporting work from David Allen Grier, Martin Lawrence, and Chris Rock. And Halle Berry has never been sexier. This remains a very underrated film.
This. Jordan, Magic and co weren't the only Dream Team doing work in the summer of 92 - the cast here is stacked and the whole thing felt like a coming-out party for the new wave of African-American comedy. And yeah, following Strictly Business and The Last Boy Scout, Halle hit a career-high level of sexiness here.
A genuine, er, player in the drama and thriller categories too, Altman's return-to-form scored big laughs with its barbed, cameo packed peek at Hollywood's seedier side.
Good call on The Player. The cameos are hilarious (The Graduate 2!) & Whoopi Goldberg's police station interrogation scene earns the film a spot just by itself.
There's a special kind of magic to the good-bad movie. I've yet to show this to anyone who hasn't laughed uproariously, and it's even better when watched in crowds. What makes Troll 2 so memorable is it's so incredibly quotable, and also completely insane. It's the great lines:
"If my father discovers you here, he'd cut off your little nuts and eat them."
"you can't piss on hospitality! I WON'T ALLOW IT!"
"A double-decker bologna sandwich!"
"Don't do it! Think about the fat content. Think about the cholesterol. Think about the toxins!"
It's the bizarre visuals:
The bizarre food, which all seems to be covered in frosting (even the corn)
Holly's amazing dance (this is clearly how kids dance)
Grandpa Seth's surprisingly creepy smile
And just when you think it can't get any more bizarre, they throw this at you:
A hilarious trilogy capper that is more slapstick than Horror, playing as a fun homage to the Fantasy films Raimi grew up with. Bruce Campbell is awesome in a role that cemented his Geek icon status.
Exsqueeze me? Baking powder? I can't believe I forgot about this one! I actually find these characters a lot more endearing than Austin Powers and this movie is just a perfect Sunday afternoon good time movie.
Wayne's World is flawless for what it is & it was massively influential on the mainstream comedies that came after it. The 90s is a veritable wasteland of WW-wannabes & Spheeris never seems to get the credit she deserves for what she pulled off with that film. Anyway...
62.
1993, dir. Ted Demme
Starring the hosts of "Yo! MTV Raps" as two ne'er-do-well cops on the beat, this long-forgotten gem was a surprise critical & box-office hit upon it's release in the spring of '93. From a smarter-than-one-would-expect script, The Ref director Demme admirably keeps the pace of the action/comedy running like a stop watch & never lets the film dip into the mediocrity it's meager origins might suggest. Dennis Leary, the secret weapon of Who's The Man?, pretty much steals the show as the Police Sergeant who loves nothing more than to bust the balls of the two bumbling cops:
"Straight outta Locash, a crazy motherfucker named Gusto..."
Still Chris Rock's funniest big screen outing, and another sparky, scattershot 90s comedy on Tamra Davis' CV. See also Rusty Cundieff's near-identical Fear of a Black Hat.
Okay, Art, you've got my interest in Who's the Man? from that clip alone.
66. There's Something About Mary (Farrelly, 1998)
How'd you get the beans above the frank?
I still remember seeing this in the theater when I was 10, the second day it was out, with my half-brother, before the film had submerged into the pop-culture lexicon and all the jokes had become so well-known, and before I fully understood half of them. All said, it's exactly how a gross-out comedy should be and it had a lasting impact on me. Cameron Diaz, outside of The Mask, has never been sexier. Matt Dillon is hilariously devoid of morality. Ben Stiller is a joyful naivete. Chris Elliott and his awful case of hives are as masterful as when he propositions Randy Quaid in Kingpin. Harland Williams' weirdo hitchhiker and his 7 Minute Abs creation. Fucking Magda. Keith David's awesome cameo. And before he was Dan Dority on Deadwood, W. Earl Brown manifested himself into the role of the mentally challenged Warren in a way that was so authentic it was offensive, and so transcendent of offensive that it was ungodly hilarious.
"Have you seen my baseball?" and the image of him and Stiller in those embarrassing superhero costumes still make me chuckle thinking about them.
A wonderful literate comedy of manners about a befuddled outsider who gets involved with a group of young, wealthy upper crust in New York at Christmastime. Talkier than 10 Woody Allen films combined, but often hilarious and scathing.
It starts off as a tense drama & ends as a tragedy but, for much of it's running time, Thelma & Louise is a witty, hilarious, & action-filled comic romp. Always worth revisiting.
"It's a Zen thing, like 'how many babies fit in a tire?'."
"What the city council did was really give me a challenge, and it's a challenge that I am going to accept. It's like in the olden days, in the days of France, when men would slap each other with their gloves say, y'know, 'D'Artagnan!' Y'know, 'How dare you talk to me like that, you!,' and smack 'em!"
A triple threat as a teen comedy/satire, A good coming of age story and a really great sports movie. Kirsten Dunst has never been more appealing and this movie is smart and funny as hell with some really impressive stunts at the end.
A victim of too many sequels and direct to DVD movies. Still, that's no reason to dismiss the still very funny original. It's a perfect mix of gross out humor and surprising heart. Also, it introduced the word MILF (along with a handy reference picture) to the American Lexicon and that has to count for something.
Two girls (Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams) wander off on a tour of the White House and begin to play a very strange and un-expected role in one of the Nation's biggest political scandals. And they have pot cookies. You'll learn why Nixon's recordings had that gap in it, among other things that actually happened. It gets surprisingly serious towards the end as the girls realize what a bad guy Nixon is. It has one hell of a cast, Dan Heydeya might not look like Nixon, but he does a hell of an impersonation. Bruce McCulloch and Will Farrell are great as Woodward and Bernstein ("YOU SMELL LIKE CABBAGE!"), it has loads of great casting like that, and it makes me sad that this movie isn't better known. One of the best political satires ever.
Continuing the love of "lost" Michael Keaton movies, The Paper is a whip-smart, Aaron Sorkin-ish comedy about the day in the life of a big city newspaper. Opie Cunningham directs the living shit out of the film, keeping the pace lightning fast & giving a proper home for Keaton's uniquely hilarious brand of manic energy. The Paper is further evidence of the vacuum that's existed over this past "Keaton-less" decade. The man's been due to assume a heavy presence again for a while now. What I wouldn't give to go back in time & see Michael Keaton be cast as Nucky Thompson.
Hilarious and much more subversive than you would think a movie about a beauty pageant in a small Minnesota town would be. If you think jokes about anorexia are in bad taste, this movie may not be for you.
Hilarious and much more subversive than you would think a movie about a beauty pageant in a small Minnesota town would be. If you think jokes about anorexia are in bad taste, this movie may not be for you.
It's hit or miss towards the end, but the whole movie is worth it for the continuing gag of Ellen Barkin walking around with a beer can fused to her hand.
