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AUTHOR-Kathryn Bernheimer
FORMAT-Trade Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-Yes
COST-$1,45
I have enjoyed movie reference books and books of best of lists from as far back as my memory goes. And over the decades of my life have built up a decent collection of both types of books. I own who knows how many books that are collections of reviews of horror films. Because the horror genre is my favorite film genre. After getting to know me most people just assume that the science fiction genre is my second favorite genre of film. But it isn't.My second favorite genre is comedy. As I mentioned a few posts back I was in Dirt Cheap looking at the various things for sale. Found this book that ended up being 90% off cover.
These movie review books are hard for me to review. I prefer the ones written by one author. So that way over the course of reading the various reviews you get a nice idea of what parts of the genre the author likes,loves and hates.So when I saw this book had one author I was happy. I actually finished reading this book 4 days ago.But have been trying to figure out how to review it here at my humble blog. Finally deciding on listing the 50 films mentioned in the book. On the ones I have never seen I will say nothing since I haven't seen the movie. If it is a film I have seen I will say if I agree on the film being one of the 50 funniest movies of all time.
The films seem to be listed in the book in no kind of order. So I will go with the order the films are listed in the book.
1.Some Like it Hot-Seen this two times. And it is one of the only films I liked Marilyn Monroe in. I can see why people would consider it a comedy classic.But I don't.
2.City Lights
3.Duck Soup
4.Dr Strangelove-I am a huge Kubrick fan. So of course I have seen this dark dark comedy from Mr Kubrick. And it would find a slot on my top 50 comedies.
5.Bringing Up Baby
6.M*A*S*H*-Being a huge fan of the TV show based on this mid 1970 classic I begged and begged my parents to let me rent it. It being R rated they rented it and watched it first.After seeing that there wasn't anything in it they objected to me seeing I got to watch it. As a kid I just got MASH on the comedy level. After serving in the Army and becoming an adult I see the many many levels the film and show have. And this is another that would make my top 50 list.
7.Annie Hall
8.Tootsie-Saw this in a theater back in 82. Remember it being funny. Haven't seen it since then.Once I read the review I went and put the dvd near the top of my netflix list.
9.The Ladykillers
10.The Lady Eve
11.A Fish Called Wanda-I prefer Fierce Creatures,which has pretty much the same cast as this film. But Fish Called Wanda is a damn funny film.
12.The General
13.Born Yesterday
14.The Producers-Once again this is the original. I enjoy the film,but think Mel Brooks has other films that are much funnier.
15.All of Me-I can remember renting this mid 80s comedy with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin. But I don't think I have seen it since then. I am interested in watching it again soon.
16.After Hours
17.It Happened one Night
18.To Be or Not to be-This is the original. I have only seen the Mel Brooks remake.Which was funny.I plan on giving the original a try one day.
19.This is Spinal Tap-It might be that before I saw this movie I had already had all the funniest moments quoted to me numerous times. But I don't get why so many people call this a comedy classic. I laughed maybe 3 times when I saw it.
20.The Pink Panther Strikes Back-The only one of the classic Pink Panther films I haven't seen.
21.The Sunshine Boys
22.Tom Jones
23.Moonstruck
24.Safety Last
25.Harvey
26.Raising Arizona-First saw this when it hit VHS and I didn't care for it. Was forced to rewatch it years later and found it to be a great comedy.And it is one of the few films with Nic Cage as the lead that I enjoy.
27.My Little Chickadee
28.The Full Monty-One of the funniest movies of the 90s. When this came out I was gonna take my paternal grandmother out to see a movie then grab us a pizza as her birthday present. I told her to look in the paper and choose any film. She chose this one. I knew going in what it was about. I thought my elderly grandmother was gonna have a stroke or something from laughing so much.I laughed a bunch but I never heard her laugh as much as she did while watching this film.
29.National Lampoon's Animal House-Credited with starting the 80s trend for raunchy comedies,I have always enjoyed this film. Too bad that the National Lampoon name before a movie titled doesn't mean shit nowadays.
30.The Court Jester
31.King of Hearts
32.Prizzi's Honor
33.The Gods Must be Crazy-My older cousin Charles was always recording movies off HBO for me. We went to visit one weekend and he kept talking about how funny The Gods Must be Crazy was. So I begged him to record it for me. I held onto that tape until it finally got lost in one of my moves in the 2000s. This story about a small African tribe that discovers a glass Coca-Cola bottle and the strife it causes is one of the best physical comedy films I have ever seen.
34.Monty Python and the Holy Grail-Like with Spinal Tap I had had most of this film quoted to me many many years before seeing it. I do enjoy the Monty Python tv show.But have never been much of a fan of this film. I can see why people would place it on a top comedy list.But it would never be on mine.
35.The In-Laws-I didn't get to see this late 70s comedy classic with Peter Falk until the early 2000s.And it would easily get a spot on my top 50 comedies.
36.When Harry met Sally-I have never been big into romantic comedies. So I skipped watching this film when it was the talk of the late 80s/early 90s. Finally watching it in the late 90s I did find it funny. But I doubt it would make my top 50 list.
37.Soapdish
38.Sons of the Desert
39.What's up,Doc?
40.It's a mad mad mad mad world-I can't think of another film as top heavy with comedians.While it does run a bit long,it is still a great and very funny film.It has a slot in my top 50.
41.Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein-The first of the Abbott and Costello films I saw. And a very funny film. But not what I think is the funniest Abbot and Costello films. I prefer the one with Jekyl and Hyde.
42.Cat Ballou
43.Playtime
44.The Bellboy-I do like physically based humor.Unless it is Jerry Lewis doing it.
45.Harold and Maude-One of my favorite dark comedies. About how no matter what there is someone other there for everyone.Thinking about it after reading the well written review this film would make my top 50.
46.Local Hero
47.Airplane-My second favorite of the parody films.I have seen it dozens of times and each viewing I catch something I never noticed before.
48.Beverly Hill Cop-Remember when Eddie Murphy was funny?While not his funniest film,it is one of the best comedies of the 80s.
49.Bull Durham-One of the few sports I have any interest in is baseball. And Bull Durham is the funniest baseball movie I have seen. Normally I don't care for films with Kevin Costner. This is the exception.
50.Smiles of a Summer Night
So lets add it up.Out of the 50 films I have seen 22. Out of those 22,twelve would make my top 50 comedies list. Out of the 28 I haven't seen there is 5 I want to see. With most of those being silent films. Silent era films are one of the huge blindspots in my film viewing experience.
The lady that wrote the book did a good job on the reviews and picking out pictures to go with them. I doubt I would have paid the cover price for this book. But getting it 90% off it was worth it.
The 50 Funniest Movies of All Time A Critics Ranking gets a 2.25 outta 5.
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