Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 5,559,184
  • Total Topics: 106,348
  • Online Today: 719
  • Online Ever: 3,311
  • (July 08, 2021, 03:14:41 AM)
Users Online
Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 05:27:22 AM

Login with username, password and session length

CaB's 100 Greatest Comedy Films Of All Time - The Big Vote 2017

Started by Serge, August 25, 2017, 11:02:11 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Serge

One last bump for this. Will start counting the votes today and post the results tomorrow night.

EDIT: New Page Count.


Dumb and Dumber
Take the Money and Run
Sherlock Jr.
Safety Last!
Home Alone
Good Morning
Le père Noël est une ordure
Le velo de Ghislain Lambert
So I Married an Axe Murderer
Gregory's Girl


Dumb and Dumber (1994, Peter Farelly)

One of my favourite scenes is the one when Lloyd takes the wrong turn and they drive a long way in the wrong direction which has four very funny moments: 1. Harry: 'I expected the rocky mountains to be a little rockier than this.' Lloyd: 'I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man.' 2. Lloyd's extremely emotional face drop and his use of the word 'ever' when he says 'I guess I forgot that you never ever make a mistake!' 3. the bike backfiring and wobbling around then being called a hog. 4. Harry: 'You know Lloyd, just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this, and totally redeem yourself.'

I also love the Big Gulps scene:

Here's something about it from Reddit:
Quote
[–]Mrfairinheight 214 points 3 years ago

Were any of the classic lines from Dumb and Dumber ad-libbed? soooo many good lines; if they all came from one brain, well that just wouldn't be fair sir.

[–]realpeterfarrelly 954 points 3 years ago

First of all, they didn't all come from one brain, they came from three. Me, my brother Bobby and the great Jewish writer Bennett Yellin. Jeez, I don't know why I mentioned the Jewish thing but it's out there so what can I do.

One line that was definitely ad libbed is the Big Gulp line. In fact, the two guys he was talking to weren't even extras, they were just hanging out, watching us shoot and I decided to pull them in. They happened to have Big Gulps and Jim just ran with it. True story.

The film makes me laugh all the way through.

No particular order for the others.

Take the Money and Run (1969, Woody Allen)

Hard to single out a favourite Woody Allen film, but this was one of the first that I saw and enjoyed. My favourite moments are both at the beginning, the cello in the marching band and the adult who stamps on young Virgil's glasses when you think he's coming to his aid after scaring off the bullies. I also like Woody Allen's earlyish slapstick movements (getting ready to go out playing with his glasses in the mirror and forgetting his trousers/ playing pool) and his hesitant way of speaking and throwing away funny lines during this period.

Sherlock Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton)

A lot of Buster Keaton films start slowly and build to something exciting at the end, with the more dramatic physical comedy in Seven Chances and The General or something very silly that pays off in The Cameraman. This one has a more even distribution of comedy throughout and some interesting depth. The dream scenario adds a new level of desire following the hero's thwarted attempts to be a sleuth based on an instruction manual while allowing Keaton to do some impossible or surreal jokes like this one. The walking into the cinema screen scene is beautifully done (later inspiring The Purple Rose of Cairo). The distance travelled on the front of the motorbike after its driver has disappeared is one of my favourite chase type scenes and I like the last part where, after waking up, he learns about romantic behaviour by imitation from the movie star, but this time it's helping him to live normally rather than fantasise.

Safety Last! (1923, Newmeyer, Taylor)

I've scene it criticised and get no votes in this thread but it's still my favourite Harold Lloyd film. I enjoy the hectic atmosphere at the De Vore department store among the clothes and darting around the counters then the dramatic finale.

Home Alone (1990, Chris Columbus)

Everyone knows what's good about this film. I watch it every Christmas.

Ohayo/Good Morning (1959, Yasujirō Ozu)

I watched this after the vote it recieved in this thread. I like the colour and music and the way that it handles both modern Japanese life and timeless human folly; the lives of children and their parents and also the intergenerational problems (through running fart jokes); and silence as well as the incommunicative or empty language that it rebels against.

Le père Noël est une ordure (1982, Jean-Marie Poiré)

A farcical black comedy based in a French Samaritans type charity at Christmas time. There's a terrible American remake of this called Mixed Nuts which changes the ending seemingly because it wants to add some humanity to the film, but the original film thankfully has no redeeming features and (spoiler) disposes of the dead body by feeding it to the animals at the zoo. I like Le Splendid comedy troupe in general and this is one of their best films. It also has a nice Daft Punkalike soundtrack by Vladimir Cosma: Monsieur Prescovic

Le velo de Ghislain Lambert (2001, Philippe Harel)

Anyone who has seen Man Bites Dog knows what a great comic actor Benoît Poelvoorde is. This film relies heavily on that and the comedy of cycling and its drug cheats. My favourite moment is when he bursts away from the group at the beginning of a stage having doped to get the edge. It's a very tender film and the two hour length gives the story of this guy's life a strangely epic aspect.

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993, Thomas Schlamme)

I don't know why I like this film so much. It comes from a period of comedy that is hard to define or understand.

Gregory's Girl (1981, Bill Forsythe)

Not laugh out loud funny really but it's a great coming of age film and I think most people would recognise it as one comedy.

Serge

I've done a preliminary count.....

I don't think the top five is going to surprise most people, but there is at least one in the top ten that surprised me! Unless there's a mass vote for 'Mrs Browns Boys: D'Movie' at the last minute, obviously. Apologies to the two people who changed their top tens in later posts - I've had to stick with the original posts, as it would have become too much of a headache to go back and alter stuff. And, as I've said before, I've only counted the first ten that anyone nominated, so any outside of that didn't make the vote.

Even then, there have been 236 movies voted for so far! Which means that, although my original intention was to have a list of everything that had got one vote after the proper list, I'm fucked if I'm typing all of those out. As it is, including every film that's got two or more votes means the list is 80 strong.

All will be revealed tomorrow......


Dr Rock


Serge

Well, I want an afro, so we may both be disappointed.....

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Serge on November 29, 2017, 04:06:49 PM
Well, I want an afro, so we may both be disappointed.....

I know I'm already disappointed due to Little Shop Of Horrors only getting one vote. I mean I can understand it not making everyone's top 10, but for it to not even make the overall top 80? Lordy, I'm not sure this is a world I want to live in.

Serge

You might be even more disappointed when I tell you that I've never seen it.....

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Serge on November 29, 2017, 04:48:10 PM
You might be even more disappointed when I tell you that I've never seen it.....

You have one month to rectify this or our friendship is over.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on November 29, 2017, 04:46:23 PM
I know I'm already disappointed due to Little Shop Of Horrors only getting one vote. I mean I can understand it not making everyone's top 10, but for it to not even make the overall top 80? Lordy, I'm not sure this is a world I want to live in.

I love Little Shop of Horrors, but for some reason my brain doesn't file it under comedy even though it is undeniably very funny.

Serge

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on November 29, 2017, 04:59:16 PM
You have one month to rectify this or our friendship is over.

Isn't it a musical? Doesn't it have comic songs in? And Rick Moranis? Any one of these things would put me off it, but all three.....

Sin Agog

Take away all three of those things and you have the Jack Nicholson version, which makes you really appreciate the craft of Rick Moranis.

I'm a long time lurker, but I thought I'd chip ten films in. If the votes have already been totted up, then, hey, just peruse the list for your own entertainment.

I've went for a desert island collection; films that would stand repeated viewings.

Chronologically, then:

It's A Gift (1934)
I usually find room every year to give this another watch. The kumquats and Carl LaFong ("Capital L, small a, Capital F, small o, small n, small g. La Fong. Carl LaFong") gets me every time.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Who doesn't love Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn? Breakneck fun from beginning to end.

Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)
I like Roger Ebert's take on this: "It is not a comedy of hilarity but a comedy of memory, nostalgia, fondness and good cheer. There are some real laughs in it, but Mr. Hulot's Holiday gives us something rarer, an amused affection for human nature – so odd, so valuable, so particular."

Some Like It Hot (1959)
This is in my top ten films of all time, comedy or otherwise. Every scene feels like a classic the best of which is the impromptu party in Jack Lemmon's sleeper bunk on the train ("Watch that corkscrew!").

The Odd Couple (1968)
Jack Lemmon again finding an even greater foil to his talents in Walter Matthau.

Play It Again Sam (1972)
I could have chosen any number of Woody Allen's, but I'm a big fan of Humphrey Bogart so that clinches it.

The Likely Lads (1976)
The Likely Lads is probably my favourite sitcom, and the spin off film – despite its episodic nature – is full of laughs. There's a bit on a caravan site where Bob and Terry disappear off to the pub. On return they can't find their caravan and during their fruitless search, Bob remarks, "I remember there was a barking dog next to our caravan," to which Terry replies in exasperation, "Well it's still not going to be there, man! Rooted to the spot!"

Withnail & I (1987)
I find new things to laugh at even in the most famous scenes. In the tea-shop bit ("I want the finest wines..." etc) I love it when they first come into the shop and Withnail points out a table to one of the waiting staff and half-slurs in a genteel register: "Alright here?"

Toy Story 2 (1999)
Very funny, a real romp, and with plenty of heart.

Ghost World (2001)
Another film that would probably scrape into my personal top ten films. It captures teen angst in the manner of Catcher in the Rye, and, like Catcher in the Rye, is very funny.

If I cobbled together the list again next month I'd probably completely change it and stick some Laurel & Hardy in, some Monty Python, a different Woody Allen, maybe The Graduate and something else which I can't believe that I've forgotten this time.






dr beat

Hope I'm not too late:

South park movie
Big Lebowski
Spinal Tap
Withnail and I
Anchor man
Man with 2 Brains
Dr Strangelove
The Big Short
24 Hour Party People
In the Loop

greenman

If its not too late...

Big Lebowski
Ghostbusters
Spinal Tap
Withnail and I
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Grosse Point Blank
This Is Spinal Tap
In Bruges
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Groundhog Day

Serge

Not too late! I'll add them on later. I'm working until 7 o'clock tonight, so make that the cut-off point, and then I'll do the final totals and start a new thread with the result a bit later.

purlieu

It's either a Python or Withnail that's going to win, I'm sure.

Steven

Quote from: purlieu on November 30, 2017, 05:39:12 PM
It's either a Python or Withnail that's going to win, I'm sure.

That's a difficult final face-off, isn't it? Python, who have arguably 4 very different comedies, written by a team of experieced comedy writers and acted by themselves who have had years of experience in comic acting versus just Withnail, written by one bloke who'd never so much as got a sketch on air and starring two complete unknowns with no comedy experience? Both produced by HandMade Films as it happens.

As funny and well scripted the Python's films are, I could watch them repeatedly as a child, but much less so as I've grown older and Withnail is a film I've constantly returned to, because I imagine it just has more depth and the comedy is a happenstace of the situation, not the catalyst of it.

Dr Rock

Quote from: purlieu on November 30, 2017, 05:39:12 PM
It's either a Python or Withnail that's going to win, I'm sure.

Life Of Brian or Spinal Tap.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Best in Show (This would crop up a lot more in these kind of lists if it wasn't overshadowed by Spinal Tap I reckon
Tampopo
Black Cat, White Cat
Dr Strangelove
Airplane!
Bullets over Broadway (This would crop up a lot more in these kind of lists if it wasn't overshadowed by etc. etc
Green for Danger (Technically not a comedy but Alistair Sim's performance as the detective cracks me up
Withnail and I
La Ronde

Hard as it is to choose, I spent more time going through films I like and thinking Is that a comedy?

Serge

**************VOTING IS NOW CLOSED****************

Right, I've added them up, now I just have to make them into a coherent list.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Serge on November 30, 2017, 08:23:23 PM
**************VOTING IS NOW CLOSED****************

Right, I've added them up, now I just have to make them into a coherent list.



Hang on... The Boys In Blue
                Sex Lives And The...

Oh.