Sunday, 18 November 2007
Live, from London, it's Sunday night... and 10 Funny 'Saturday Night Live' movies
posted @10:11 p.m. by Richard Kelly
Behold, this week's winner of the popular vote. This is a vast and scholarly subject but I can cut it down to a manageable size for several simple reasons: I’m only allowing two movies per comic (except Chevy Chase, who has some seniority here); I’m not considering the more bittersweet comic-dramatic entries of Bill Murray and Adam Sandler; I’m not a Mike Myers fan; and I’ve seen hardly any of Will Ferrell’s prodigious output (though I do wish that I had space for Old School, even though I only saw the first half-hour – Ferrell’s thirtysomething-falling-off-the-wagon-and-streaking-at-the-keg-party routine was amazing.)
Here we go then.
# 10. Neighbours (1981, dir, John Avildsen)
A box-office failure, and one of the less-loved Belushi/Akyroyd teamings, since the former plays it all very straight. But I remember it as a quite inspired black comedy about the suburbs, one that’s aged better than Animal House, and it has the glorious Cathy Moriarty, who really ought to be in more of these lists...
9. Caddyshack (1980, dir. Harold Ramis)
Can’t be ignored for sheer Cinderella Story quotability, no matter how plain dumb are most of Rodney Dangerfield’s lines. ‘Hey, everybody, we’re all gonna get laid…’ – what were they smoking when they decided THAT was that killer last line the movie needed?
8. Happy Gilmore (1996, dir. Dennis Dugan)
Amazing how central is golf to the SNL movie oeuvre. This would be higher if I’d watched it again this afternoon, drunk. Sandler-phobes be assured, it has some stupid bits but not as many as Reign Over Me.
7. The Man With Two Brains (1982, dir. Carl Reiner)
Not merely a sop to John G – this does still feel like the silliest film Steve Martin ever made, and therefore by definition the best.
6. The Wedding Singer (1998, dir. Frank Coraci)
Dah… I’m really not sure what the second Sandler should be, and this feels a bit of a soft choice. Sandler and Drew Barrymore are a very sweet couple, here as in 50 First Dates. But if I have a drink later tonight I’ll swap this for Big Daddy instead.
5. Fletch (1985, dir. Michael Ritchie) and Fletch Lives (1989, dir. Ritchie)
Where do you stand on Chevy Chase? One does hear some awfully bad stories about certain bits of obnoxious behaviour and lapses of good taste back in the day. But then, I never met the guy, or had to work with him. These are clearly the best examples of the whole ‘I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not’ shtick, and since I love them both equally, let them stand together.
4. Rushmore (1998, dir. Wes Anderson)
More funny than wistful, despite liberal doses of both, and therefore into this list by a head in front of the increasingly dolorous indie pictures that the brilliant Murray seems to have decided to focus on in the last decade.
3. Groundhog Day (1993, dir. Harold Ramis)
Genius, really. And it would be #1 except that every time I see it now I feel more and more sorry for Chris Elliot’s camera guy, who seems perfectly affable and fair-minded but ends up the sorry-ass butt of every Murray joke going in the last reel.
2. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983, dir. Harold Ramis)
This Ramis guy is something, isn’t he? He should direct everything. When I first saw Vacation as a kid I thought it was a heavily exaggerated hoot. Twenty-plus years later, as a parent, I’m starting to suspect it’s actually a work of documentary realism. One thing that never changes is that the funniest bit is when Clark Griswold (Chevy) blows a gasket on finding that Wallyworld, to which he has dragged his family cross country on an excruciating ill-planned and mishap-leaden road trip, is closed for renovation.
1. Trading Places (1983, dir. John Landis)
Maybe I’m Getting Soft (Part XXI...), but the last time I looked this felt like a straight-up classic American comedy to me, despite a few moments of token Landis crudeness. Murphy, never better surely? Denholm Elliot and Jamie Lee Curtis, top-notch foils. Dan Aykroyd’s acting, excellent. Think about that last one awhile.
Comments
Good list but not sure how any SNL list is complete without Blues Brothers being in there - a work of pure genius that also works just as well on the iPod!
Jake, you spotted the Controversial Omission... in fact, since Animal House isn't there either one could say that Belushi has been doubly hard done by. I haven't seen Blues Brothers in years and I expect it still stands up, at least when the Brothers get knocked down a staircase by a nun. But what I can't ever forgive - just my personal tic, like - are the hordes of Blues Brothers tribute bands: large sweaty white blokes who imagine that by donning a black suit, shades and porkpie hat, they magically acquire the ability to sing like Wilson Pickett and dance like James Brown.
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