Saturday, November 17, 2007

A LITTLE COMIC RELIEF

Trying to get to sleep last night, I thought, okay, enough emotional heaviness for a minute, and decided to make an alphabet list of movies that always make me laugh, or at least smile very broadly.

So here ‘tis:

ANNIE HALL and AIRPLANE!
BRUCE ALMIGHTY (the scene where Carrey’s character gets Steve Carrel’s newsman character to talk infantile gibberish on camera) and BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (Dianne Wiest’s performance)
CLERKS and CLERKS II (hey, I love Silent Bob and Jay)
DUCK SOUP and DUMB AND DUMBER
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK) (not Woody’s best, but a few choice scenes)
FLIRTING WITH DISASTER (Tea Leoni at her best, but everyone in this shines) and A FISH CALLED WANDA
GET SHORTY (a couple of very funny bits, and a great underrated movie)
HARD DAY’S NIGHT, A (too many great bits to name) and THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT (underrated Jack Benny flick)
IN & OUT (when is Kevin Kline not great?) THE INSPECTOR GENERAL (I love Danny Kaye, what can I say)
JERK, THE
KICKING AND SCREAMING (Will Ferrell flick with a few funny bits, mostly involving Mike Ditka!)
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, THE LADY EVE, and LIAR, LIAR (the scene where Carrey’s unscrupulous lawyer fights with himself in the men’s room)
MY COUSIN VINNY (she deserved that Oscar, far as I’m concerned) and THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE (underrated Bill Murray comedy/action flick)
NAKED GUN and NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE (Belushi at his best)
O?
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM and THE PINK PANTHER
Q?
RADIO DAYS and THE ROAD TO MOROCCO (I don’t like Hope but love Crosby’s easy banter)
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (Donald O’Conner’s “Make’em Laugh” number), a SHOT IN THE DARK (Sellars at his best, for me), STIR CRAZY (Pryor and Wilder), SILENT MOVIE (Mel Brooks and Sid Caesar!), and STRIPES (a few great Bill Murray scenes)
THIS IS SPINAL TAP, THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and SOAPDISH
U?
V?
WAYNE’S WORLD
X?
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
ZOOLANDER

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

how could you leave out KINGPIN!

Anonymous said...

Fargo
Take the Money and Run

The one about the teenagers following the Beatles around NYC (or the hotel) in 1964. Can't remember the name.

Anonymous said...

the big lewbowski

Lally said...

I have to say that KINGPIN was a little too much for me, and though I dug FARGO, not sure it's comic relief, at least not right now. The Beatles fan movie was I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND and is another underrated movie, at least as I remember it. I still have to see THE BIG LEBOWSKI from start to finish.

Anonymous said...

Wow, really glad you mentioned Danny Kaye. I think the songs he did for Inspector General rank among some of the best he ever did.

"Give them the wrist
Give them the fist
Give them the finger"

Anonymous said...

cowboy-"somtimes u eat the bear + sometimes the bear eats u dude- is that some eastern thing ? cowboy-"far from it" watch it all let us know

Lally said...

I can't believe I left off O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? George Clooney especially had me laughing long and loud many times in this ngreat flick.