Loved it.
So whatever happened to the idea that entertainment could be like this? I'm not sure. I know that we reached a point some time ago where movies just cost so much to make that many ideas are thrown away before they are even contemplated simply because the fear of a small box office return is overwhelming. But hey, I still love some of the older, campier, some might even say, stupider, movies, just for the simplicity of the laughs they bring. So just for grins, here are some of my favorites:
I can always watch Young Frankenstein. Mel Brooks is at his best with this clever pastiche of the original featuring a script by Gene Wilder. Get the DVD with the extra scenes - yes, Virginia, they DO exist - and they are awesome. Every time I see this classic, I look for something new.
"The stairs, they can be treacherous. Stay close to the candelabra!"
Remember THAT scene? I watched the movie a hundred times before I realized the candelabra is NOT LIT.
Princess Bride. Another classic with possibly the best sword fights ever filmed and of course, the most famous line in film history:
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Foul Play. Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn riffing off one another like two finely tuned instruments.
Raising Arizona. The Coen Brothers raise the roof with early appearances of Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, and John Goodman. May be the wittiest screenplay ever written. Certainly has some of the best lines of all time and the cop/car/dog chase scene is the funniest 5 minutes on celluloid.
Office Space. If there had never been a King of the Hill, this still would have solidified Mike Judge's place in film history. From its beginning visual pun, it is an outrageous festival of hilarious frustration venting stabs at the sheer stupidity we have inherited from our cubicle filled lives in the offices we work in. No spoilers here. Just see it. Truly, one of the greatest, laugh out loud comedies EVER.
Three Amigos! Excellent tongue in cheek parody of old west movies paired with the silliness of Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short. Short gives everything he has here, and everyone seemed to just be having so much damned FUN making this movie. Everything works. The sets, the story, the fake animals in the serenade scene, EVERYTHING. Just wonderful, campy fun.
Airplane! and Airplane 2! Just one joke after another, these movies defy description if you haven't seen them. Visual and verbal puns are so prevalent, it's amazing. Watching them, I almost always see something I had missed before. Captain Oveur's reading choices at the magazine counter are, for example, FICTION, NON-FICTION and WHACKING MATERIAL. In one scene, he is shown perusing a National Semen Magazine. And even though the second movie isn't up to par with the first, I still love the William Shatner scenes where all the Star Trek puns are used. Great stuff.
Groundhog Day probably would have been higher on my list, but I think they have played it nearly to death. This movie, a classic by almost any measurement, is clearly an OUTSTANDING achievement on the part of Bill Murray and the story still gets me to this day, but oh my God, did they play the living crap out of this movie or what? Man, I felt like it WAS Groundhog Day and this movie was NEVER gonna stop playing.
So there are some of my favorite comedies. Not all of them, to be sure, but some of the notables. These are all films that I would watch to help me through a bad day, for sure. Not thought provoking, most of them, but good fun anyway.