Saturday, November 1, 2008

Best Unintentional Comedies

I know I'll need help on this one as I'll no doubt miss a few. But recently I thought of the need to recognize all movies we couldn't possibly take seriously. So here goes, and feel free to assist.

P.S. I'm not including any Ed Wood movies. Too easy.

10. The Village. Sorry, M. Night fans out there. I'm one too, up to Signs. But the dialogue from this one is so unbelievable, I couldn't help but laugh through the whole movie. The original settlers themselves would probably chuckle a bit. "William Hurt sounds so wooden. I didn't talk like that, did I?" I'm sure they didn't.
9.Jurassic Park 2. I'm only including this one because of the second half of the movie. It shows the direction the movie should have committed to in the first place, that of parody, or even better, satire. We could always use another Gremlins.
8.Dragonheart. I really want to use Eragorn, as I saw scenes from it and it looks hilarious. But let us not forget the first non-animated talking dragon movie. Even Sean Connery couldn't give that concept an ounce of dignity. And he definitely tried.
7.The Blair Witch Project. What? You found out this isn't real and it's just a movie? That gives you no choice but to laugh at these silly kids shoving cameras up their noses. Let that teach you that lies make no good substitute for good suspenseful storytelling.
6. The World is Not Enough. Some overdone one-liners and the casting of Denise Richards sunk this one and made it, along with Jurassic Park 2, extremely stinking of self-parody.
5.Star Wars, Episode III. Go ahead, yell at the screen. But you can't beat the lines of dialogue between Luke and Leah's parents for pure cheese. They fell just short of saying "I love you more," and "No, you hang up." Someone please get Mr. Lucas away from his typewriter.
4.The Incredible Hulk (Ang Lee version). Movies like The Dark Knight challenge us to take comic book characters a little more seriously. Movies like the Incredible Hulk remind us this isn't always a good idea. But what can I say? The comic book panels are well-done enough for plenty of laughs. If you need more, imagining Shrek as the Hulk could fill in the lulls.
3.Planet of the Apes. Charlton Heston could act. He made a decent Moses, and Ben Hur wasn't so bad either. But the most over quoted lines from Planet of the Apes are so over-the-top that I get the giggles just thinking about them.
2.Star Trek 2, The Wrath of Khan. You're already laughing, because you know the quote by heart. William Shatner yells at Ricardo Montelbaum at full, way-beyond- overacting volume. Much quoted and mocked, Shatner earned every bit of his accidental comic fame.
1. The Screaming Skull. It's the only movie I've ever seen that threatens to kill you from fright, and with (da da dum!) an old prop from Hamlet. Not a well known film, but well worth the laughs.

1 comment:

Britt Mooney said...

that's funny ...
and ironic, seeing as how I put two of your movies on my top ten sci fi list! :)

peace.