The Movie Forums Top 100 Comedies Countdown

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I've seen The Blues Brothers years ago and didn't really care for it. Life of Brian is good, but didn't make my ballot.



Blues Brothers is not my unnamed ballot entry number 2. Which means my strategy guessing one guaranteed movie until it shows up means I'll get at least one correct has finally paid off.
And now I have to think of another movie to stick to (I think Grail is going to be in the top 10).


Blues Brothers - I saw as a teenager... I didn't really love it. Admittedly, there's a limit to how much I should trust my teenage impression of a comedy, but my guts tells me this isn't one that would rise in my estimation on rewatch.


An observation: I typically find a lot of car chases boring. When crumbsroom often says, action is where comedy goes to die, my mind goes to all of the comedy movies that end in a car chase.
Maybe on rewatch The Blues Brothers' legendary car chase was so over the top that as an adult I'll gain more appreciation for it, but my gut isn't leaning that way.



I forgot the opening line.
I sat down and watched The Blues Brothers properly one afternoon - but I'd kind of felt indifferent about it all of my life, and it didn't immediately become a film I loved. I don't know what it was, but Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in those suits and glasses, singing the blues etc - it never struck me as funny. It never struck me as cool or awesome either. So I was left to never really get the joke, or anything else about The Blues Brothers. It's yet another film my friends loved that I could never figure.

I'm pretty surprised by my #12, Life of Brian, not cracking the top 10. I guess it's not as all out zany as Holy Grail, and as such comes second to that film of Monty Python's, but I consider Life of Brian just as good. It's also a pretty brave film, because all members must known that it might shake up a little controversy. The thing is about Brian, it doesn't put down religion itself or Jesus as much as people who just blindly run around following gurus and joining crusades. Brian just wants peace - and the girl - but he ends up tangled up in both pseudo-religious antics along with screwy politics, because he wants the girl. Woven into the story is all of the usual Pythonesque humour, which is some of the funniest comedic stuff ever. Monty Python were the Beatles of comedy.

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Films I've seen : 65½
Films that have been on my radar : 14½
Films I've never even heard of : 2

Films from my list : 8

#19 - My #12 - Life of Brian - (1979)
#24 - My #18 - The Jerk - (1979)
#30 - My #10 - What We Do in the Shadows - (2014)
#34 - My #9 - Back to the Future - (1985)
#62 - My #13 - The In-Laws - (1979)
#65 - My #21 - Black Dynamite - (2009)
#82 - My #8 - The Producers - (1967)
One pointer - Brewster McCloud (1970)
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Can't really find a whole lot to complain about with this countdown. One problem that is 100% my fault is not having any movies before 1963 on my ballot. Just not really a fan of old comedies I guess.

My ballot:  



My ballot: *6/81 (1-ptr hit)
My 2nd ballot: 6/81
Seen: 69/81
1-ptrs seen: 16
Put on watch list: 5
Meh, Huh, WTF: 6[/quote]



I'm pretty surprised by my #12, Life of Brian, not cracking the top 10. I guess it's not as all out zany as Holy Grail, and as such comes second to that film of Monty Python's, but I consider Life of Brian just as good. It's also a pretty brave film, because all members must known that it might shake up a little controversy. The thing is about Brian, it doesn't put down religion itself or Jesus as much as people who just blindly run around following gurus and joining crusades. Brian just wants peace - and the girl - but he ends up tangled up in both pseudo-religious antics along with screwy politics, because he wants the girl. Woven into the story is all of the usual Pythonesque humour, which is some of the funniest comedic stuff ever. Monty Python were the Beatles of comedy.

I think I predicted this. There would be people who probably wanted to choose both, but were going to find they didn't have room and needed to cut one. So there'd be a break in one direction or the other.


Brian for the religious satire or Grail, which I think people below a certain age, myself included, get exposed to it at a younger age, and has a lot more lines that get quoted. So it occupies a more nostalgic and cultural headspace. And I had a feeling it was going to break towards the latter.


As a side note, I don't instinctively feel as much of a difference in that headspace between Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, so I think those will end up placing closer. This is all wildly guessing how things sit in people's heads.


This might all be projecting too much because while I haven't seen either Python in forever, it feels like I've seen Grail so many friggin' times growing up.


On some level I suspect Brian may be the better movie.



At this point, unnamed ballot entry number 2 might be more likely to show up in the 101-120 list, so I might need to come up with two new guesses for tomorrow.



The Blues Brothers is one of my biggest, most enduring, and personal favorites, and easily my favorite movie on my ballot. Yet, the comedy aspect is only a small part of my love for it. I know it's a comedy so I had to vote for it though. It will score big on my ballot when we eventually do a musicals countdown. That's the 3rd John Landis film in the last week. At this point it looks like An American Werewolf in London won't make it, which is just fine by me as I consider it to be a horror film.

Loved Monty Python's Flying Circus as a kid but I've never been a fan of their movies. Maybe some day.

My list-

1. Animal House (#31)
3. Trading Places (#33)
4. Caddyshack (#25)
5. Stripes (#90)
6. The Hangover (#70)
8. Vacation (#54)
9. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (#60)
24. The Blues Brothers (#20)



The Blues Brothers certainly has its moments and is pretty enjoyable but probably wouldn't have made my personal ballot. On the other hand, Monty Python's Tale Of A Very Naughty Boy Monty Python's Life Of Brian most certainly would have as parts of it are forever embedded in my consciousness - to the point where (to the eternal dismay of herself) I simply couldn't watch news of the war in Syria without uttering "Arms for Aleppo" at least once.

Seen: 43/82



Have seen so far: 43 - Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Life of Brian - Saw this for the Comedy countdown and thought this was a funny movie from the 70's.
Have not seen so far: 38

I have not seen The Blues Brothers
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Life Of Brian is a really hilarious premise. As with all the Monty Python I have watched it has some bits that make me think they are the funniest guys I have ever watched. Some bits fall very flat. Good movie, and if I would have included a Python, this would have been it.

Blues Brothers is not great for me but had a moment here or there. Not on my list.
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Victim of The Night
I can't speak on Lethal Weapon (or Beverly Hills Cop. We can also throw 48 Hours into that mix as well), since I was guessing off of vague impressions. There's a general category of movies from the 80s that I was too young for at the time of their release, and for some reason never felt the need to go back and revisit, so I'm going off of 30 year old memories of trailers and posters there.


Wrt Network, what would you categorize it as then?


It's whole purpose of existence was to satirize through an extreme exaggeration of caricatures.
Look up the ending of the movie on YouTube, tell me their news line-up wasn't a complete mockery of what one would consider the news to be heading towards. Which, I'm just wondering, for comparison in comedic tone, how did you feel about Being There? (Which I guess could be a remainder as well).


Like, I get the sense that a certain kind of comedy just isn't registering with people because... Unclear. I'd say the jokes aren't telegraphed enough, but then people challenged Brazil and Being John Malkovich. So, I'm left guessing, maybe because there are parts that cut off the sugar high of laughing?


This thread has feeling a lot like the few times I've been told in the past year (IRL), "well John Carpenter's The Thing isn't really horror."
Maybe so, but I think where we run into a difference of opinion is that I do not feel that Satire is inherently Comedy, in fact I think it is often not.

And The Thing isn't Horror. Obviously.



Victim of The Night
Raising Arizona is great, and has one of my favorite lines ever:


"Hey, do these blow up into funny shapes?"


"Well, no, unless round is funny".
Now that is comedy.

Funniest line in a very funny movie as far as I'm concerned.



I don’t really like The Blue Brothers. I don’t get it. Not my generation I guess.

I’ve only seen pieces of Life of Brian.



Victim of The Night
Yeah Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn are way good in that. I'm trying to think who else might have been able to handle the dialogue like they did? The film definitely benefits from their A-list star power.
Powell and Loy.
The Thin Man is such a departure from the book it's not even funny. Except that it is and that's the whole point of the movie. And it's just like BUB in that it is just super-snappy dialogue delivered by two masters at just that with great chemistry for 91 minutes.
Apparently there is also a story.
Also Irene Dunne spars fabulously with Grant in another of my favorite comedies that will apparently not make this list, The Awful Truth.



I think I rank The Blues Brothers as being close to zero percent funny, but at least consider it a pretty top notch movie. Its music pieces and its action are all great. Not so sure about the laughs though.


The Life of Brian being ranked below Holy Grail was an inevitable and objectively wrong fate. Life of Brian is the substantially better movie. Life of Brian is the substantially funnier movie. Holy Grail is a legend and there is a reason it is remembered more fondly (as mentioned, its quotes and gags have entered the public consciousness where Brian's really have not). But **** popularity. This is nearly as tragically wrong as any Adam Sandler making this list.



Yeah for today's reveals
I first watched Life of Brian when it came out in the theater. Tt was the first R rated film that I was old enough to buy a ticket for, me and a school friend went and I thought it was damn funny and very clever. Of course I was a big Monty Python fan having discovered that show on PBS some years earlier. While all the kids in school were talking about SNL me and a friend were doing comedy bits from Monty Python. Not on my list but so glad it made it!

Excerpt from my old review:

Life of Brian (1979)
If you love ancient history...and who doesn't?...Life of Brian nails it! The Monty Python comedy troupe travels back in time to intelligently spoof the life of a mistaken messiah, Brian.

One of the highlights of the film is the amazing on location sets. Most of the exteriors were shot in Tunisia. The gladiator fight scene was shot in the ancient ruins of the Amphitheater in Carthage...How cool is that! It looks great in the movie, but this photo doesn't do the scene justice.



And the 'fortress' in the movie is the ancient Ribat Monastir in Tunisia built around the Byzantine era. Other desert scenes were filmed out in the sun drenched lands of Tunisia.

The film looks great with all these historical sites. But it's the cutting edge satire that takes a critical look at Brian, a contemporary of Jesus. Brian's not to bright and has a knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought it was clever how they combined actual history from occupied Judea, along with Biblical narrative to tell the tale of Brian.

The film is funny-witty, not funny slap stick, though the Monty Python troupe can be quite silly in a fun way.

Some people have the mistaken idea that this film mocks Jesus, it doesn't. It's respectful of the subject matter while being darn funny. This is my favorite of all the Monty Python movies.




Society ennobler, last seen in Medici's Florence
Monty Python's Life of Brian - I've seen it only once more than ten years ago. I remember it was very entertaining humour.
I have other Python's in my list, different than the two most discussed here.
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The Blues Brothers - I feel as if all my life I constantly hear discussions about this movie and still nothing push me enough to find and watch it.
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Looking forward to 101-120 with desperate hope.
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