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As
I look at my list of the twelve movies I've seen this
year (yes, I do keep a log of all the movies I've seen;
OCD can be a terrible cross to bear), I notice only
one good comedy film on that list: Shrek 2,
and that's an animated film, fer Crissakes! In
fact, when I think of the decent film comedies the new
millenium has produced, fully one third of them have
been animated: Chicken Run, The Emperor's
New Groove, Shrek and Monsters, Inc.
It
seems that all the sharp, hip writing has drifted over
to the animated field for some unfathomable reason.
However, there were some good live action comedies in
the new century: Wonder Boys, High Fidelity,
Best in Show, O Brother, Where Art Thou?,
Bridget Jones's Diary, About a Boy,
Punch Drunk Love, A Mighty Wind, School
of Rock and Bad Santa. A good, if largely
uninspiring group of comedies. Why
uninspiring? Because, with the exceptions of O Brother,
Where Art Thou?, Wonder Boys and Punch
Drunk Love, none of them were excellent. The other
films seemed more intent on producing smiles and the
occasional snicker than a series of sustained belly laughs.
Let's
take the examples of Best in Show and A
Mighty Wind. Many of my contemporaries professed
great admiration for these films, and not without good
reason. They are good, witty and smart comedies,
which in today's banal film climate is no mean feat.
However, they tend to be a little dry for my taste.
I found myself smiling in admiration of their intelligent
satire, but rarely did I bust a gut from laughing. (I
will say, however, that I found a few sequences in A
Mighty Wind to be very funny. Those were the scenes
that included the OCD concert promoter, played by Bob
Balaban. Quite a coincidence, I know.)
While
the category of comedy films may not be in quite as
miserable shape as horror presently is, it does seem
to be somewhat rudderless. It desperately needs some
brilliant writer-directors to bring some life back to
the genre. For awhile, it seemed that the Coen Brothers
(O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Fargo)
were going to fit that bill; however, the boys have
fallen on hard times since then. Intolerable Cruelty
was precisely that (at least for the viewers), and The
Ladykillers was another failed attempt at screwball
comedy. Hopefully, this stretch of films is nothing
more than a slump.
The
movie comedies of this decade can't compare to those
of the 70's. At that time, you had comic geniuses such
as Woody Allen and Mel Brooks producing their best work:
Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein,
Silent Movie, Annie Hall, Manhattan
and Play It Again, Sam. Talk about consistently
brilliant comedy material!
But
maybe my standards are just too damn high. After
all, I'm a film buff, a student and lover of great comedies,
going all the way back to the Silent Era. I've
seen many wonderful films. Here are the 12 that
I consider to be the Greatest Comedy Films of All-Time,
listed in chronological order:
The
General (1927)
Duck Soup (1933 )
Sons of the Desert (1933 )
It Happened One Night (1934)
Modern Times (1936)
The Bank Dick (1940)
Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
M*A*S*H (1970)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Hopefully,
many of you are familiar with at least a few of these
titles. For those that are a bit unfamiliar, take
a few minutes and look them up at www.imdb.com.
There you'll get not only cast listings and plot synopses,
but reviews as well. Better yet, take a chance
and pick one up the next time you're renting movies.
I assure you, you won't be disappointed. Whether
you end up with the acting of Laurel and Hardy or W.C.
Fields, the direction of Billy Wilder, or the writing
of Preston Sturges, you will end up experiencing some
of the original luminaries of the genre.
See
ya soon.
Steve
can be reached at steve@babblog.com.
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