Entertainment For Lively Minds
Classic Comedies Under the Radar
Posted by Springer Bell on 25 September 2008 - 10:25am.
I got handed a Steve Martin/Eddie Murphy film called Bowfinger a couple of weeks back and got around to watching it last night. I needed plenty of persuading because I wouldn't consider myself a fan of either. Maybe 20 years ago but certainly not in the lately.
But this is just a classic. Its along time since something genuinely had me doubled over with laughter. Maybe I had no expectations but it really was a return to form. And although the form may have departed just as quickly, if you haven't seen it I'd suggest you check it out.
But if I missed this maybe I missed some more. Any ideas bloggers?
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Pink Panther
with Steve Martin on TV recently. Sacre bleu! Non on your nelly said I. But I loved it. So silly and stupid but still funny.
That's just my opinion, for what it's worth.
what's a rader?
don't they steal your kids and ransack homesteads....
Thanks for the red ink Chris G
That would be a raider. And they definitely do. Now where did you say you live?
Return to form?...
..Isn't it about 5 years old?
3 That I hadn't seen till recently were
Clerks, Clerks 2 and Galaxy Quest. Wouldn't have imagined Sigourney Weaver in a comedy but she was very funny and if you haven't seen the Clerks films get on-line immediately and correct this gap in your life.
Yes!
Galaxy Quest. I so wanted Tim Allen to say "to infinity and beyond..." A pisstake on Star Trek conventions too that is sooo real. I should know. Been there.
Aye - clerks is a good 'un
i think if you like one Kevin Smith movie, you'll like them all, even though some are quite patchy, there's some crackin' dialogue in there that i think tops Tarantino Q at times. Mind you, i've a mind like a sewer, so that kind of stuff is right up my alley anyway!
I watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back recently and couldn't help but laugh at the amount of times the actors broke the fourth wall and just looked into the camera with a knowing smile. Ordinarily that kind of schtick leaves me cold, but in this case, it's an honourable exception. Especially Ben Afflecks character stating that (and i paraphrase) 'They'll probably get some talentless motherf*cker like Ben Affleck to play that part'...
Jay and Silent Bob
Essential. It is the bomb. I love the bit when they pretend to be a gay couple but Jay says that he's not really gay unlike Bob "who loves the cock". Chock full of funny, daft but knowing gags.
Steve Martin, a funny guy
The Jerk is decent and so is The Man With Two Brains. All Of Me is good.
I watched Dirty Rotten Scoundrels again a few weeks ago. It's just plain out and out brilliant.
Roxanne is a very good film but not really a comedy.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles is very funny in places. It's a movie of great moments but maybe not that brilliant as a whole movie.
I also like Housesitter a lot
The Spanish Prisoner is a good David Mamet drama.
I would probably say that Bowfinger was his best movie.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
has to be one of the funniest films ever. What impressed me was how good Michael Caine is doing comedy. In terms of stupid one liners it is up there with Spinal Tap..but it is funnier.
I don't think it was an 'under the radar' movie
when it came out. All i can remember is the advertisements for it in the newspapers with a 'strapline' posted across it asking patrons 'not to divulge the surprise ending'. It ran for quite some time. Every Christmas, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a few beers and a large Toblerone was a ritual for me and The Dad. Similarly for anything with Clint Eastood, but 'Scoundrels' was always a Christmas telly favourite.
I still love it. Directed by Miss Piggy, but y'all knew that, right?
You learn something everyday
I didn't know Frank Oz was Miss Piggy but I've looked it up and you are right.
Now that's a good table quiz question.
I thought
it was Fozzie Bear?
He was
Fozzie too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Oz
Three decent comedies
Office Space, Super Troopers and Beerfest
Broken Lizard (Super Troopers and Beerfest makers)
are anti-comedy.
Are my brackets condescending?
Super Troopers
is hilarious. Forgot that one.
The Aristocrats
Not really a film as such, but a bit rude and very funny.
Was it funny, it seemed to be lot's
of comedians telling a not very funny joke over and over again I understand the premiss(?) for the film but the joke isn't that funny and gets less so through the film and this isn't a prude thing I just couldn't understand why everyone raved about it.
What?
Oh sorry, I'm thinking of AristoCATS...
I actually bought this one
When you see the list of comedians involved it seemed likely to be very funny. But I don't know I just found it less funny as the film "wore" on.
Yuck
I actually went to see it at the movies and found it horribly dispiriting. The only really challenging section was Sara Silverman who is much admired around this parish. Her section was genuinely shocking (which the rest were straining for but falling into cliches) but I don't know if it was funny. Isn't that the Silverman conundrum?
Spot on.
The others were pretty much a hack checklist of scatology and sexual deviancy.
Silverman was genuinely shocking, but I'd agree that it was difficult to know whether it was actually funny.
Anchorman
Is very funny, San Diego.
Stay classy.
Ron Burgundy
The jazz flute scene in the restaurant is brilliant!
A different time
But you should investigate Dr. Strangelove if you haven't seen it. Oh and The Big Lebowski which is a very funny movie.
The Big Lebowski
Phenomenally good and briliantly cast. Check out Phillip Seymour Hoffman in a creasingly funny supporting role
Napoleon Dynamite
I knew I forgot one. This is only tremendous. Couldn't recommend highly enough.
Really?
Hated it.
I bought it in a sale because I had seen so many reviews like this, watched it once and felt ill with loathing and eBayed it immediately, resisting the temptation to just open the window and fligh it with tremondous force in order to be rid of it quicker.
Never have I had so visceral a reaction to a film. I had managed to suppress thoughts of it until now but expect my therapist's bill in the post.
Gatz you are a Gas
I think that's a movie that gets a regular showing a Springer Mansions and my 3 and 7 year olds love it. So do I.
Why not try it again, making sure you stand far away from cliff edges or the 2nd floor windows of your home.
Won't risk it
I was glad to be rid of it. I'm not kidding when I say how much I loathed it. And I live in a second floor flat, so you can see how it's just not worth the risk.
Marmite time
I thought The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was funny.
The Royal Tenenbaums
I thought this one was better. But just an opinion though.
Heathers
Christian Slater and Winona Ryder couldn't sell ice to eskimos nowadays, but back in the late 80s? early 90s? they made this fabulously black comedy about a highschool clique that has been shamelessly ripped off for all the slew of Mean Girls movies...they are both great with a sharp script and direction
Highlights too numerous to mention but the funeral and draino scenes are both classics
and other people making cack nowadays:
Emilio Estevez is actually fine in possibly the only really good alex cox movie, Repo Man likeways is very funny and bears repeated viewings and has one of cinema's finest speeches in Harry Dean Stanton's code of the Repo Man. Again, I can't believe Tarantino didn't see it...
Blades of Glory
Laugh out loud all the way through. Didn't expect to like it. Instead loved it immensely.
I read that as Blade Runner
For a moment there I thought you had a particulary refined and subtle sense of humour. I was frankly feeling very inferior. Fortunately it turned out you liked the ice skating men film.
Holiday On The Buses
Nothing makes me laugh more. Except perhaps Mutiny On The Buses. Anything On The Buses related is a winner with me.
Shame
My contact-lens-wearing daughter has recently refrained from poking plastic into her eyes and has taken to wearing modern chunky specs. Hence her nickname at the school where she teaches is Olive. Poor lamb, I had to explain why!
Oh, Arfur.
The Party
a Peter Sellers, Blake Edwards movie from 1968 was required cult viewing for me and some chums in the mid nineties, mind you we had a lot of time for 'So... I Married an Axe Murderer'
here's a few
trevelyan wright- You have good taste my Friend.
Eagle vs Shark- Features the Conchords people. Very funny indeed.
You Kill Me- Ben Kingsley as a hitman,No not Don from Sexy Beast.
Swingers- C'mon you must of at least heard of it."You are So Money"
Go- Involves a Rave.Don't let that put you off.
Caddyshack- Bill Murray,say no more
Without a Clue- Michael Caine as a Moronic Sherlock Holmes
Top Secret- From the Airplane People
So I Married an Axe Murderer- Mike Myers in Funny Film Shock ! very quoteable "The Piper Is Doon " Where his Shrek voice comes from.
Look at the size of that boys heed....
It's like an orange on a toothpick
or
It's got it's own gravitational pull
Heed! Doon!
"Hey Charlie
Light a match" The "Heed" thing throught the film is just brilliant
"The Castle". Aussie film starring Michael Caton about
an everyday man battling to save his house from being compulsively aquired by a huge corporation.
Very funny.
Peter Sellars...
......always maintained that "The Producers " was the funniest film of all time and he´s not that wrong. ( The original Mel Brooks , not the lame musical remake )
my picks
Some comedy efforts that I really like that aren't widely liked...
Comfort and Joy
The Brady Bunch Movie
Clueless
Three Amigos
The Ladykillers (remake)
Happy Go Lucky
A Tugman 601, I flew one of those in "Little Neddy Goes To War"
Three Amigos, fantastic.
"You just shot the invisible swordsman!"
Evil Roy Slade
Evil Roy Slade is a 1972 western spoof featuring John Astin and Mickey Rooney. Unfortunately it is only available on region one at the moment, but is well worth investigating.
Evil Roy Slade is a notorious outlaw who attempts to go straight and gets a job working in a shoe shop.
My favourite scene is when he is going through his induction, he asks what a shoe horn is used for. His trainer explains that it is a tool for getting shoes on easily.
Once let loose in the store Roy spies an old lady struggling to get on a pair of boots. He immediately jabs the shoe horn against her neck in a threatening manner and shouts " GET THEM BOOTS ON " to which she slips them on straight away.
"Works just fine" Roy says as his worried boss looks on.
Class film
Mike Judge
For those that enjoyed Office Space, Judge's other live feature 'Idiocracy' is well worth checking out. 'The other Wilson brother' stars as a military penpusher' who, due to a military experiment gone wrong (always the way) wakes up in a distant future where people use their lazy-boys as lavatories and Wilson is 'the smartest man on earth'.
As for the Kevin Smith comments, he works best 'under the radar' as it were. His attempts at the mainstream, such as Jersey Girl are less than pleasing.
Malcolm
I don't know how easy this one is to find but it really is hilarious. Its an Aussie film from 1986 and it will crack you up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_(film).
And add to that list "Kenny" another Australian one about a sanitation engineer. Very funny and done in "mockumentary" style.
Expensive on Amazon but you can rent it
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Malcolm-David-Bradshaw/dp/B000TJ6PII/ref=sr_1_1?...
Alvin Purple
Another Aussie comedy. Thought I dreamt this up but it does exist
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069698/
Zoolander
zoomed under the radar...
Quite brilliant though
It's a TV series, not a film
but Earlydoors is so criminally underrated it is obscene.
"To the regiment. I wish I was there"