Bad Comedies You Like
OK, so I’m reading off Digg this list of comedies that should have been great but weren’t. Not quite a list of bad comedies. But close. Many I agree with. Some I’d heard were bad and was thankfully spared having to watch them. But, shockers of shockers, some I thought were pretty dang good.
From the list above that I liked.
Bowfinger: There were people who didn’t like this? I thought this was one of the best films Steve Martin did. (Admittedly he’s not had a lot of great films, but still…) I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen this movie. I have to confess that I probably knew way too much Hollywood insider stuff at the time. Primarily due to having a bunch of roommates who always left the TV on either ESPN or E!. But still, some great performances. And making fun of Tom Cruise and Scientology to boot. (From before the Cruise meltdown)
Quick Change: One of my favorite Bill Murray movies. Come on. Nobody hates a clown! The scene with the jousting cyclists in the middle of the night was a classic. Plus it should have made it to last week’s heist thread. If you haven’t seen this one see it.
One I will admit to great disappointment with is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Man what a disappointment after The Royal Tennenbaums.
Other comedies I love that apparently have a bad rep are Buckaroo Banzai (“Laugh it up Monkey Boy”); 1941 (A gem by Spielberg that no one else seems to get); The Tick (the series which is why Batmanuel will always be Richard’s name in Lost) and LA Story.
Posted on May 15, 2007, in Film. Bookmark the permalink. 26 Comments.
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“Buckaroo Banzai” has a rabid cult following that includes me. “1941″ is a wonderful deconstruction of classic Americana that will grow on a viewer who gives it a chance. I also am inordinately fond of “The Blues Brothers” (“Illinois Nazis. I hate ‘em.”)
I am known for liking comedies that no one else does. Some of my all time favorites: LA Story, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Oscar, and Surviving Christmas. All are funnier each time I watch them.
I was sorely disappointed in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, as I love love love Albert Brooks’ stuff.
Bad comedies I like? Bowfinger was okay.
I liked Bewitched, but probably just because anything at all having to do with Samantha Stephens and a Bewitched theme song clinches the deal (I love the original stuff).
I guess I mainly hate comedies that everyone else thinks are funny. Something about Mary? Totally not funny.
Buckaroo Banzai was a comedy?
It had comedic elements, sure, but I always figured it was more of a 80s style pulp hero, with a bit of ironic self-awareness.
Anyway, I loved it. I have it on DVD.
I thought Nacho Libre was okay. It was a very, very silly movie. On that level, it does okay. As a comedy, not so much.
I know it’s off-topic because this is supposed to be a post about bad comedies you like, but “Nothing But Trouble” is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Just dreadful.
I also didn’t like “Bowfinger” much. I thought it just wasn’t that funny and tried to hard to make you think it was a clever spoof on Hollywood.
I thought the main problem with Bowfinger was Steve Martin, who’s been unfunny since The Man With Two Brains (or Little Shop of Horrors, but that was a cameo).
I liked Nacho Libre, especially compared to the Hess’s other movie venture which I hated. It was silly, but the one-liners were more funny to me, and the teenage-type angst was great.
I also liked Steve Zissou. It was refreshing and different, and the soundtrack rocked. Maybe I’m wierd. I’m okay with that.
I like Bowfinger. But I tend to like movies everyone hates, and dislike the ones everyone loves. I like Quick Change, too. Loved Nacho Libre.
UHF.
I liked Bowfinger (“Chubby Rain”? Come on!), I liked Quick Change (the scene with jousting in shopping carts was great), and I liked Zissou as well (I believe I reviewed it here, in a review you haters will no doubt dispute).
How come no one is mentioning Eddie Murphy?
His dual turn in Bowfinger was pretty inspired.
I don’t much care for Zissou except that brilliant little dance Murray does while demostrating the radio capabilities of his wet suit. That was fabulous.
I don’t get why everyone seems to like Meet the Parents. (meh)
Not a big fan of potty humor.
Did someone say silly ? Kung Pow – love that.
So I Married an Axe Murderer is one of my all-time favorite movies. This is somewhat difficult for me to admit.
Something about the beatnik poetry just gets to me!
So I Married an Axe Murderer is hilarious.
I think potty humor is also hilarious. I’m pretty juvenile that way.
So I Married an Axe Murderer is indeed genius and hilarious. If you liked it, try sometime — it is even more funny.
Flores para los muertos! Flooooooooorrrrrres para los muertos!
#9 -
UHF!!!!!!!!
But that’s not a bad comedy – it’s a work of genius. This is a “bad comedies you liked” thread. UHF didn’t do well at the box office, but it’s brillant.
I won’t hear any different. Weird Al is THE MAN!
I forgot about So I Married an Axe Murderer. A classic and I can’t figure out why it wasn’t more popular.
I haven’t seen Nacho Libre yet. I want to. It’s on my Netflix list – I just have to admit I had three movies I got to watch over Christmas and they sat on my TV until a couple of weeks ago when I returned them unviewed. Urgh. Perils of renting “thinking movies” off of Netflix.
I think UHF is a bad comedy critically speaking.
I’ve never heard anyone that didn’t really like Axe Murderer so I don’t how that’s a bad comedy.
“Head. Pants. Now!” “It’s like Sputnik!”
August of 1993 and my wife and I are very poor BYU students with no air conditioning; she also happens to be 9 months pregnant with our first. The only place we could sit down for a few hours and 1, be entertained, and more importantly 2, have free air conditioning was the dollar theatre. The only movie that appealed to our sensibilities was So I Married An Axe Murderer. We saw it about 12 times over the next two weeks and they finally induced our way overdue son (10+ pounds). Now five kids down the road, our axe murdering son is 13 and 6’2†already and we still love the film, maybe watching it about once a year. “We have a piper down!â€ÂÂ
I finally remembered the 5th movie that makes up my favorites, Hudson Hawk. Totally over the top and it has Bruce Willis at his ultra hip funniest. Love that movie, but again I seem to be alone in this.
I thought I was the only person on the planet who liked Quick Change. Thanks for freeing me!
My wife and I love the movie Mystery Men, which seems to have no love elsewhere.
Except among folk musicians, for some reason.
I kind of liked Mystery Men. It wasn’t as good as it could have been. But it was fun.
Hudson Hawk though I have to differ with. I’ve tried to watch it with a kind of Marx Brothers mentality. It just doesn’t work. Neither the The Last Action Hero.
I love Mystery Men, a love my wife has tried, but failed, to understand. Yeah, it’s not perfect, but the Shoveler, Blue Rajah, and Mr. Furious are pretty close to perfection.
Multiplicity:
“You know how, when you make a copy of a copy…”
Brilliant!
I had to look up Mystery Men to see if I had seen it. I have and I remember liking it a lot. And now I realize I have wasted too much time watching movies in my life.
I love Mystery Men!
My husband is ALWAYS quoting the Sphinx.
“When you care what is outside, what is inside cares for you.”
“When you can balance a tack hammer on your head, you will head off your foes with a balanced attack.”
“You must be like the wolf pack, not the six-pack.”