 Michael and Rebecca Wong |
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Michael and Rebecca Wong |
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The first time I saw "American Pie", I laughed so hard I was having trouble breathing. 'Nuff said.
Favourite line: "Suck me, beautiful."
A classic. There will never be another "Blues Brothers". Oh, all right, there was a second "Blues Brothers" film, but it didn't come anywhere near recapturing the spirit of the original.
Favourite line:
LANDLADY: "Are you the police?"
ELWOOD: "No ma'am. We're musicians."
The ironic thing about this movie is that the people who really need to see it would either shun it like the plague, or watch it only in an attempt to list the things which offend them. There's a subversive message beneath the gross-out laughs, and it's aimed directly at the MPAA (specifically, its loose restrictions on violence, compared to its tight restrictions on foul language and nudity). Many who did see it failed to get the point, which was simply that we worry too fuckin' much about fuckin' foul language and we don't worry enough about the goddamned violence in this society :)
Favourite line: "They have warped my fragile little mind!"
A masterpiece of comedy. Its crowning achievement is that it somehow makes you empathize with the ridiculously self-indulgent, arrested-adolescent neurotics who populate the band, so that by the end of the film, you genuinely feel sorry for them and you want them to have a taste of the rock and roll glory they've been trying to recapture during the long twilight of their careers.
Favourite line: "It's very special, because, as you can see, the numbers all go to 11."
A Thanksgiving classic: masterful comedy with heart. And let's face it: most of us are like Neil Page, not Dell Griffith. We're the uptight people who are checking our watches, monitoring our investments, getting agitated when we see someone breaking unspoken social rules, etc. Not that this is necessarily as bad as it's made out to be in the film (the movie goes a bit overboard on its "relax and be happy" theme, as happy Dell's behaviour is actually quite destructive and costly to both Neil and many others), but it still gives you food for thought and is a great feelgood holiday classic.
Favourite line: "Do you feel that this automobile is safe for highway travel?"
Ghostbusters is a musical time-capsule to the 1980s, a comedic time-capsule to the 1970s, and an all-around fun time. The movie was written and performed by some of the greats from Saturday Night Live's golden era: Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, and Harold Ramis. Its style of humour is markedly different from the shock and humiliation used in newer comedies such as "American Pie" (which I also loved by the way, so don't accuse me of being a period snob), but it works just fine.
If you're one of the four people in North America who never saw this movie, it's about a bunch of guys in New York who start up a business hunting and imprisoning ghosts, and who wind up saving the world from armageddon, all without ever losing that air of silliness that is produced by the film's initial premise.
Trivia: Dan Ackroyd is a bit of a crackpot, and seriously believes that the "science" behind "Ghostbusters" is legitimate. Try watching the DVD's special features sometime, and you will discover that the old line about genius and insanity is true. Ackroyd may be a comic genius, but he's also teetering on the edge of "crazy".
Favourite line: "Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown."
If you grew up in the 80s, you will laugh your ass off watching this film. I guarantee it. If you didn't, then I can't predict how you will react but it's still a damned funny movie, and Adam Sandler has good chemistry with Drew Barrymore. So good that they made another romantic comedy together ("50 First Dates") which was not as good as this one but still merits a viewing.
Favourite line: "Well I have the microphone, and
you don't.
So you will listen to every damned word I have to say!"
You know what they say: a true friend will help you get rid of a
body
John Cusack has a preference for quirky movies, and this film is no exception. The film's premise is that a hitman tries to reconcile with his former high school girlfriend without letting her know what he does for a living. That sounds funny even before you see the film, but you have to watch it to see how funny the movie really is.
Favourite line:
DEBI: "You're a psychopath."
MARTIN: "No no, psychopaths kill for no reason. I kill for
money."
One of the great all-time romantic comedies. I wish I could describe all of the ways in which this film impressed me, but you have to see it to understand. Lloyd Dobler's character is unrealistic but still compelling in a bizarre, quirky way. And Diane Court is a great model for the "everything seems fine from the outside" family that all too many people can relate to. There is comedy, and there is romance, but there is also real drama in this movie which takes an unexpected twist at the midway point.
Favourite line: "If you guys know so much about
women,
how come you're here at the Gas 'n Sip on a Saturday night,
completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?"
This is the romantic comedy that softcore porn directors would make if they actually knew how to make movies. It's sensual and sexual and graphic, but it is also honest. Its sex scenes genuinely resemble real sex rather than the hyper-stylized depictions in typical softcore movies or Hollywood mainstream movies, and they are used sparingly: we only see them when they make sense in the context of the plot, not just as a gratuitous excuse to show the audience some T&A.
The world that the characters inhabit is attractive, in a strange way. It seems to be a very small world where everyone knows everyone else, and where everybody seems to be a bit closer and more emotionally intimate than casual acquaintances would ever be in real life. Many of the characters in the movie are neurotic, but none of them seem, in the end analysis, to be truly bad people. There's an odd sort of appeal to that; I must confess that I wouldn't mind living in that sort of world.
The movie's central character (played by Marguerite Moreau) is neurotic but also genuinely likable and as a self-described "jerk magnet", she is (I think) easy for women to identify with. I often hear people expounding on what makes a healthy relationship and commenting that both people need to be free of neuroses at the outset or they're just asking for trouble. To be honest, I have never found this argument to be convincing; how many people can realistically be described as free of neuroses? And what is supposed to happen to everyone else? They stay single forever? How are they supposed to overcome these neuroses without help? People with neuroses need love too, and in "Easy", one of them finds it.
Favourite line: "I dreamt that I fucked Homer Simpson."
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