The Movie Forums Top 100 Comedies Countdown

No idea if I've ever seen Planes, Trains & Automobiles or National Lampoon's Animal House - it's perfectly possible I've seen one or both, but if I have I have absolutely zero recollection of either so either I'm old or the jokes were

Seen: 36/70

Planes Trains and Automobiles is warm and lovely and funny.

“I want a ****ing car.”


Animal House is bonkers and inspired generations of college party movies.

“Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.”

Have seen so far: 38 - Planes, Trains and Automobiles - This movie was alright, not really a fan of Steve Martin or John Candy

Animal House - A funny 70's college movie, not a favorite of mines though

Have not seen so far: 32

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Trivia: According to John Landis, Universal Pictures president Ned Tanen objected so strongly to the Dexter Lake Club scene that he interrupted a screening of the film and ordered the scene be removed immediately, claiming it would cause race riots in the theaters,. In response, Landis screened the film for Richard Pryor, who then wrote a note to Tanen which read: "Ned, Animal House is F.....g funny, and white people are crazy" Richard.

Not a fan of Animal House. I found it unfunny and disappointing, a 4/10. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is wonderful, funny and enjoyable, an 8/10, although it didn't make my ballot.

Seen: 70/70

Seen both, voted for none. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is pretty funny. I even use a clip of it (the car rental scene with Edie McClurg) when I teach customer service and professionalism However, other than that, it's not a film I go to often and I haven't seen it whole in a while.

Animal House I haven't seen in 10-15 years and to be honest, I barely remember it. I think I enjoyed it, but that's it.


Seen: 53/70

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Planes, Trains & Automobiles is most people's fave Thanksgiving flick but it's really not all that funny to me, at least other than in the comedy of pain and hopelessness. It does tie everything up nicely at the end, even though that ending reveals even more levels of pain, but at least it does make what came before seem almost unimportant compared to the concept of male bonding.

Animal House is one of the best, lowest-common-denominator flicks ever made. Yes, the characters are scummy, but the scummiest ones are the ones who end up in the Nixon Administration! It's the truly crummy characters who end up kicking those other punks' asses! This film did sorta "introduce" some great actors to the flicks, including Tom Hulce, Peter Riegert, Karen Allen, John Belushi, Kevin Bacon, Bruce McGill, etc., but it really worked as an anarchistic take on American Graffiti ("Where were you in '62?"). Dean Wormer (John Vernon) actually ends up being my fave character though - referring to Belushi's GPA - "Zero Point Zero" while Blutarsky has two straws sticking out from his nostrils. Sing it... "Animal House... Animal House"

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If I’ve seen either of these, I don’t remember them.

I watched Planes…last holiday time for the first time in years. Two of my favorite comedic actors and I remembered the movie very fondly. Unfortunately it’s one I should have left alone. It’s still endearing but did not hold up in the laugh department at all.

Watched Animal House in preparation for this list. Expected it to be higher actually. Also expected not to like it, and I was correct.

No votes

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Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is one of those movies that for the longest time thought I had seen in my youth on tv. At some point, I realized that probably wasn't true, and had only seen clips of it either from channel surfing or watching At The Movies, and conflated it with various other, more kid friendly movies (looking at everyone involved, there were a lot of those. I just remember really loving The Great Outdoors as a wee child. Tastes recounted tastes from my childhood have no reflection on my current opinions of the movies involved).


I saw Animal House... in... I can't remember if it was high school (which would have meant, censored and edited on tv) or in college. I actually think it was the latter. I don't even have a memory of my opinion of it, let alone a memory of any scene in the movie. I just know that I've watched it. I have no desire to revisit it. Maybe if it had a werewolf and was set in the English countryside.

Animal House would have made my top-10 if I had remembered it but somehow I forgot.

"The movie is vulgar, raunchy, ribald, and occasionally scatological. It is also the funniest comedy since Mel Brooks made The Producers (1968). Animal House is funny... because it finds some kind of precarious balance between insanity and accuracy, between cheerfully wretched excess and an ability to reproduce the most revealing nuances of human behavior... It's like an end run around Hollywood's traditional notions of comedy. It's anarchic, messy, and filled with energy. It assaults us. Part of the movie's impact comes from its sheer level of manic energy... But the movie's better made (and better acted) than we might at first realize. It takes skill to create this sort of comic pitch, and the movie's filled with characters that are sketched a little more absorbingly than they had to be, and acted with perception."
- Roger Ebert, 1978

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is amusing in moments but just isn't for me.

Finally we get a John Candy comedy, my favorite male comedian. I've seen most all of his films. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles isn't my favorite comedy of his, but it's a good one and I'm glad it made it.


Animal House...I haven't seen this in 20 years, I remember watching it when when I was younger and thought it pretty great back then. Don't know if now it would still land with me. But I'm also glad to see this comedy classic make the countdown.

Maybe if Maria Chytilova has directed Animal House, I would remember more from it.

There's something about the personality that John Landis shows through the screen that agrees with me. That's two days in a row, will there be more?

Planes and Trains is a perfectly nice movie.

My list-

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

Hey now hey now! Home alone!.......cameo

Not to mention Spaceballs

When I think of John Candy, I think of Stripes first

Ha, I KNEW when I said we hadn't seen a John Candy film that we probably had I'm just too damn lazy to go and look at the 1st page of this tread.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is why Neal plays with his balls a lot. In fact he does more ball handling in an hour than Larry Bird does in a night. Or so I've heard...

If there's one thing all my favorite comedies have in common it's that I saw most of them on first release in the theater. That may influence how awesome I think they are as every one of my top three had the audience in hysterics. The second John Hughes film to show up on my ballot, Planes, Trains and Automobiles was my number three and this movie had us falling out of our seats at least three times, probably more. Every scene that was supposed to have a laugh, did. I always say my top 3 comedies are fluid between 3 movies but I did just watch this again last Thanksgiving and I'm comfortable with this remaining in the third spot from here on out.

This is a PG movie with an R rated scene (it's a family film, really) but leaving that scene clean would have ****ing sucked. I've seen it edited for tv and it does not have the same impact. It's one of the best/funniest scenes ever mainly because the build up is so good. By the time that scene rolls around you're hoping something finally works out for Neal. Just once, please. We've already had our feel bad for Del moment, which needed to be early because he is a ****ing load. If Hughes had prolonged the obnoxiousness of Del people would start to turn on him so getting that out of the way early was a nice move.

The assortment of supporting characters is top notch. Owen is one of my fav characters of all time. Dooby may be my fav cab driver ever and the rental lady can read the room and come up with exactly the right words for the situation. The cab dispatch and a couple of hot and horny bus passengers also provide brief but memorable performances.

I said it earlier when discussing Sandler that Martin is better when he isn't going all zany. The Jerk and The Man With Two Brains are great but I like Martin better when he's more subtle like he is here or in Roxanne.

As for the others:

Anchorman seems like it would be a pretty heavy dose of Will Ferrell and like I always say....**** Will Ferrell! Haven't seen it, probably won't see it unless I'm convicted of a few heinous crimes and forced to undergo some type of experimental torture therapy involving horrific images on film to make me more socially acceptable. However, I'm sure it's deserving of it's unusually high ranking so no argument from me. It's just not my thing.

It Happened One Night, saw this for the first time about a year ago and it really surprised me. This is really a good, fun movie. Didn't vote for it but it's up where it should be. I'd be fine with it being a little higher.

Back to the Future an absolute classic that received no help from me. Zero, but it's fantastic. One of those movies I don't watch very often then when I do I wonder why I don't watch it more often. Another one that is up where it should be.

Trading Places not a fan and I know we need some Eddie on this list but not this one. Beverly Hills Cop, The Golden Child or Norbit, please!

And Animal House is alright. Belushi saves it. When he isn't on screen and he isn't on screen enough, it's rather ordinary. Was going to say a bunch of stuff about Landis and what an insufferable prick he is but I won't. It doesn't affect how I view his movies anyway so why bother with the douchebag. The only movie of his I really like is Three Amigos! which probably isn't going to show at this point.

My ballot so far:

 

1.
2. A Fish Called Wanda
3. Planes Trains and Automobiles
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. Dumb and Dumber
10.
11. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) #55
12.
13.
14. The Hangover (2009) #70
15.
16. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) #97
17.
18.
19. Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) #91
20. When Harry Met Sally... (1989) #84
21.
22. Napoleon Dynamite (2004) #71
23.
24.
25. Night of Something Strange (2016) (Shockingly, a one pointer! Unreal...)

Both of these are excellent entrees to the countdown. Not showing a lot of confidence in my ballot, as you can see.




My ballot: *5/69 (1-ptr hit)
My 2nd ballot: 6/69
Seen: 58/69
1-ptrs seen: 16
Put on watch list: 5
Meh, Huh, WTF: 6

Seen both, remember neither.

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