As I mentioned when
Sullivan's Travels appeared, I've seen
The Lady Eve, but remember almost nothing about it. I don't know if that's more of an indictment of the film or my memory. I rated it 3.5 stars at least, so I clearly enjoyed it in the moment, but wasn't wowed.
I hated
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut when it was first released, having never seen more than an episode or two of the show, and only watching the movie to not feel left out at school. A few years ago I revisited it in the midst of watching and becoming a fan the show, but the movie was just okay for me. Definitely some funny parts, but I think the average 22-minute episode contains more laughs than the entirety of the film. And I think most of the songs are ear-splittingly cringe.
South Park was still finding its groove when the film was made. Terrence & Phillip are the show's unfunniest characters, in my opinion, and thank God their appearances became increasingly rare as the show progressed. Meanwhile, my boy Butters, the show's funniest character, in my opinion, was just a nameless background character at the time.
Very happy to see
Austin Powers make the countdown, even though I personally prefer
The Spy Who Shagged Me, which made the bottom half of my list. My preference for the sequel likely has to do with the fact that I watched it first, so all the recycled jokes were new to me. Even if that wasn't the case, however, I still think I'd prefer
The Spy Who Shagged Me just because it introduces two of the franchise's best and funniest characters: Mini-Me and Fat Bastard. Myers's ability to memorably play multiple characters within the same film and make each one wholly unique dwarfs any of Eddie Murphy's attempts to do the same. These movies were probably the most heavily quoted among my classmates at the time. My friends and I would regularly recite the
penis-rocket montages, interrupting each other for maximum effect. I've been meaning to revisit the trilogy since watching all the old Bond films. My sense of humor hasn't progressed a day since middle school, so I'm confident that I'll still find them hilarious.
Home Alone is another I'm happy to see, although I didn't personally consider it for my ballot. Easily my favorite Christmas movie and a movie I've watched countless times growing up. Revisited it a few years ago and thought it held up wonderfully. I was surprised by how much it still made me laugh. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern's back-and-forth exchanges and facial expressions remain hilarious, especially during their painful,
Three Stooges-inspired encounters with all the booby-traps --- a brilliantly executed and forever iconic sequence that films still ape to this day.
Home Alone has just enough of the warm-n-fuzzy Christmas sweater elements without becoming overly saccharine. It used to successfully make me long for the freedom to do whatever I wanted with no adult supervision, while also making me thankful for my family. John Candy's brief moments and the wisdom he imparts is like a giant hug. The scenes with the furnace in the basement used to genuinely unnerve me as a kid. The musical score is uncommonly good. When I first started watching noir, I kept hoping that I'd stumble across the classic that Culkin uses to scare off intruders, until sadly I learned that the film within the film doesn't actually exist. To this day I fight the urge to tell every pizza delivery guy, "Keep the change, ya filthy animal!"