Favorite films (1)

[soleiltropiques]

Quite a bit of time ago, I created a list of my favorite films. Summaries are (mostly) from IMDB.

This first post lists my favorite comedies, in alphabetical order.

NB: Please note that when no nationality(ies) is specified, the film is from the U.S.

Some comments/warnings regarding problematic content are in bold. (In other words, there may be additional such content which I have not marked, but I focused on warning about things the film and its description did not deal with well. An example of this would be 'Gone with the Wind', which is horribly racist as a film and which IMO requires a warning.)

Please note that some of these films are in my list because they were influential, not because I objectively think they were great. In some other cases, they are still in my lists (with warnings) to remind myself that I need to rethink some of my earlier opinions. :)


Comedies:

• Airplane! (1980): with Robert Hays, Leslie Neilsen, and Julie Hagerty. An airplane crew takes ill. Surely the only person capable of landing the plane is an ex-pilot afraid to fly. But don't call him Shirley. (NB: Rated PG)
• American Pie (1999), and American Pie 2 (2001): with Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Sean William Scott, Alyson Hannigan. Four teenage boys enter a pact to lose their virginity by prom night. (Please note that these films contain humor that is quite misogynistic.) (NB: Rated R.)
• Antz (1998): This is an animation film. A rather neurotic ant tries to break from his totalitarian society while trying to win the affection of the princess he loves. (NB: Rated G)
• As Good As It Gets (1997): with Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear. A single mother/waitress, a misanthropic author, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is in an accident. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Avanti! (1972, by famous director Billy Wilder): with Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. A successful businessman goes to Italy to arrange for the return of his tycoon-father's body only to discover dad died with his mistress of long standing. (NB: Rated R.)
• Babe (1995, Australia, USA): Farmer Hoggett wins a runt piglet at a local fair and young Babe, as the piglet decides to call himself, befriends and learns about all the other creatures on the farm. He becomes special friends with one of the sheepdogs, Fly. With Fly's help, and Farmer Hoggett's intuition, Babe embarks on a career in sheepherding with some surprising and spectacular results. (NB: Rated G)
• Bachelor Mother (1939): with Ginger Rogers. Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling. Outraged at Polly's unmotherly conduct, David Merlin becomes determined to keep the single woman and "her" baby together. (NB: I would rate this PG/G)
• Ball of Fire (1941, by famous director Howard Hawks): The ORIGINAL 1941 version stars Gary Cooper and Barbra Stanwyck. There is also a remake which I DO NOT recommend, with Ann Margret (avoid this one). A group of ivory-tower lexicographers realize they need to hear how real people talk, and end up helping a beautiful singer avoid police and escape from the Mob. (NB: I would rate this PG)
• Beverly Hills Cop (1984): with Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold. A freewheeling Detroit cop pursuing a murder investigation finds himself dealing with the very different culture of Beverly Hills. (Be warned: some of the humor in this is actually really offensive and I could personally have done without the homophobia in this film.) (NB: Rated R)
• Big (1988): with Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins. When a boy wishes to be big at a magic wish machine, he wakes up the next morning and finds himself in an adult body literally overnight. (Another film that is not the greatest ever made, but is still fun!) (NB: Rated PG-13) (Comment: It is surprising that I've seen so few comments on the fact that an adult woman essentially sleeps with a 13-year old boy in this film, though. She does think he is an adult at the time, since he is in an adult body, but it's still creepy.)
• Billy Elliot (2000, UK): with Jamie Bell. A talented young boy becomes torn between his unexpected love of dance and the disintegration of his family. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006, Canada): with Colm Feore, Patrick Huard. When the body of the executive of hockey Benoit Brisset is found on the billboard of the border of Quebec and Ontario, the jurisdiction of the crime is shared between the two police forces and detectives David Bouchard from Montreal and Martin Ward from Toronto are assigned to work together. (NB: Rated R)
• Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001, UK): with Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant. A British woman is determined to improve herself while she looks for love in a year in which she keeps a personal diary. (NB: Rated R)
• Bringing Up Baby (1938, this one is by famous director Howard Hawks): with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard "Baby." (NB: I would rate this PG/G)
• Buddy Buddy (1981, by famous director Billy Wilder): with Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau. Walter Matthau plays a professional killer going by the name of Trabucco, who is on his way to rub out gangster Rudy "Disco" Gambola, set to testify against the mob. As Trabucco heads off to a hotel across the street from the courthouse where he plans to set his hit, he runs into the depressed Victor Clooney, who laments the fact that his wife has left him for the head of a weird Californian sex clinic. Things get zanier and zanier from there. (NB: Rated R) (NB: This film is actually an American remake of a French film, 'L'emmerdeur' (i.e. 'The pain in the ass').)
• Bug’s Life, A (1998): This is an animation film. A misfit ant, looking for "warriors" to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, recruits a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe. (NB: Rated G)
• Burn After Reading (2008): with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton. This is one of the (many) films by Ethan and Joel Cohen. If you haven’t seen any of their films, one characteristic of these films is that human nature is depicted as very very bad in all their films. This one is a comedy. (Online summary: A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it.) (NB: Rated R)
• Catch Me If You Can (2002): with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks. A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr., who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars' worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. (Again, fun but not the greatest ever made, and so on.) (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Compères, Les (1983, France): with Gérard Depardieu and Pierre Richard. Unable to find her runaway son, a woman deceives two of her ex-lovers from her youth, a mild-mannered teacher and a tough journalist, that each is the real father in order to obtain their help. (NB: Rated PG) (Comment: This one is truly hilarious.)
• Couperet, Le (2005, Belgium, by famous left-wing director Costa-Gavras): A chemist (Garcia) loses his job to outsourcing. Two years later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition. (NB: I would rate this PG-13)
• Crazy Rick Asians (2018): This contemporary romantic comedy, based on a global bestseller, follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's family. (Rated PG-13) (Please note that this film, while it is a HUGE step forward in terms of racial diversity in Hollywood, has nonetheless been criticized in how it treats certain Asian peoples.)
• Designing Woman (1957): Starring Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall. A sportswriter and a fashion-designer marry after a whirlwind romance, and discover they have little in common. (Rated PG-ish?)
• Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002): with Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, Ashley Judd, Maggie Smith, James Garner. After years of mother-daughter tension, Siddalee receives a scrapbook detailing the wild adventures of the "Ya-Yas", her mother's girlhood friends. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Emmerdeur, L' (1973, France): Ralf Milan, a hitman, arrives in Montpellier to kill an important witness. He checks in a hotel without knowing that his neighbour has become neurotic after his wife left him. (NB: Rated PG.) (NB: This film was remade by famous director Billy Wilder, the remake is known as 'Buddy, Buddy' and is also in this list.)
• Enchanted (2007): with Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden. A classic Disney fairytale collides with modern-day New York City in a story about a fairytale princess who is sent to our world by an evil queen. Soon after her arrival, Princess Giselle begins to change her views on life and love after meeting a handsome lawyer. Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world? (NB: Rated G)
• Finding Nemo (2003): This is an animation film. After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home. (NB: Rated G)
• Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994, UK): with Andie MacDowell, Hugh Grant. Over the course of five social occasions, a committed bachelor must consider the notion that he may have discovered love. (NB: Rated R)
• French Cancan (1954, France, by another amazing director, Jean Renoir): with Jean Gabin, Françoise Arnoul. This comedy drama from Jean Renoir chronicles the revival of Paris' most notorious dance as it tells the story of a theater producer who turns a humble washerwoman into a star at the Moulin Rouge. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Fried Green Tomatoes (1991): with Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy. A housewife who is unhappy with her life befriends an old lady in a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of people she used to know. (NB: Rated PG-13/Rish.)
• Full Monty, The (1997, UK): Six unemployed steel workers form a male striptease act. The women cheer them on to go for "the full monty" - total nudity. (NB: Rated R)
• Garden State (2004): with Natalie Portman, Zach Braff. A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade. (Very odd and hilarious.) (NB: Rated R)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953, this one is also by famous director Howard Hawks): with Marilyn Monroe and Rosalynd Russell. Two singers, best friends Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris pursued by a private detective hired by Lorelei's fiancé's disapproving father to keep an eye on her, a rich, enamoured old man and many other doting admirers. (NB: I would rate this PG)
• Gold Rush, The (1925, by another great director, Charlie Chaplin): The Tramp goes the Klondike in search of gold and finds it and more. (NB: This is a silent film.) (NB: I would rate this PG/G)
• Good Morning Vietnam (1987): with Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker. An unorthodox and irreverent DJ begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the US Armed Services Radio station in Vietnam. (NB: Rated R)
• Great Dictator, The (1940, by great director, Charlie Chaplin): with Charlie Chaplin. Dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a doppelganger, a poor but kind Jewish barber living in the slums, who one day is mistaken for Hynkel. (This is obviously a parody of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.) (NB: I would rate this PG)
• Hatari! (1962, this one is also by famous director Howard Hawks): with John Wayne. A group of men trap wild animals in Africa and sell them to zoos. Will the arrival of a female wildlife photographer change their ways? (NB: I would rate this PG) (Note that this film is really, really racist and misogynistic. But then, the fact that John Wayne is in a film should be a warning in and of itself!!)
• Heartbreakers (2001): with Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Gene Hackman. A mother and daughter con team seduce and scam wealthy men. (This is another one that is not the greatest film ever made, but it is funny.) (NB: Rated PG-13)
• I Was A Male War Bride (1949, another by famous director Howard Hawks): with Ann Sheridan and Cary Grant. Captain Henri Rochard is a French officer assigned to work with Lieut. Catherine Gates. Through a wacky series of misadventures, they fall in love and marry. When the war ends, Capt. Rochard tries to return to America with the other female war brides. Zany gender-confusing antics follow. (NB: I would rate this PG)
• Juno (2007): with Ellen Page. Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Killers (2010): with Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Selleck. A vacationing woman meets her ideal man, leading to a swift marriage. Back at home, however, their idyllic life is upset when they discover their neighbors could be assassins who have been contracted to kill the couple. (Another that is not the greatest film ever made, but is still hilarious.) (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Legally Blonde (2001): with Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair. When a blonde sorority queen is dumped by her boyfriend, she decides to follow him to law school to get him back and, once there, learns she has more legal savvy than she ever imagined. (Not the greatest film ever made, but very much fun.) (NB: Rated PG-13)
• License to Drive (1988): with Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Heather Graham. A teen decides to go for a night on the town with his friends despite flunking his driver's test. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Little Miss Sunshine (2006): with Greg Kinnear, Abigail Breslin, Toni Collette. A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus. (NB: Rated R)
• Love, Actually (2003, UK): Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England. (NB: Rated R)
• Major and The Minor, The (1942, by famous director Billy Wilder): with Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland. A woman disguises herself as a child to save on a train fare and is taken in charge by an army man who doesn't notice the truth. (NB: I would rate this PG/G)
• Mambo Italiano (2003, Canada): with Ginette Reno, Luke Kirby, Paul Sorvino. The son of Italian immigrants to Canada (i.e. to Montreal) struggles to find the best way to reveal to his parents that he's gay. (NB: Rated R)
• Margie (1946): A woman reminisces about her teenage years in the 1920s, when she fell in love with her teacher. (Rated PG-ish?) (Comment: Note the rather problematic subject matter, although this film is anything but explicit.)
• Marley and Me (2008): with Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson. A family learns important life lessons from their adorable, but naughty and neurotic dog. (NB: Rated PG)
• Matchmaker, The (1997): with Janeane Garofalo. Marcy, a worker in the reelection campaign of bumbling Senator John McGlory, is sent to Ireland on a quest to find the Irish ancestry of Sen. McGlory, to help him win the Irish vote. But when Marcy arrives in the small village of Ballinagra, she finds herself in the middle of a matchmaking festival, and the local matchmaker is determined to pair her off with one of the local bachelors. (NB: Rated R)
• Monsters Inc. (2001): (This one is animation.) Monsters generate their city's power by scaring children, but they are terribly afraid themselves of being contaminated by children, so when one enters Monstropolis, top scarer Sulley finds his world disrupted. (Rated G)
• My Cousin Vinny (1992): with Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, Ralph Maccio. Two New Yorkers are accused of murder in rural Alabama while on their way back to college, and one of their cousins--an inexperienced, loudmouth lawyer not accustomed to Southern rules and manners--comes in to defend them. (NB: Rated R)
• Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, The (1988): with Leslie Neilsen, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban. Incompetent cop Frank Drebin has to foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. (I also recommend the sequel: The Naked Gun: 2 ½ .) (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Nine to Five (1980): with Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin. Three female employees of a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot find a way to turn the tables on him. (NB: Rated PG)
• Notting Hill (1999): with Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant. The life of a simple bookshop owner changes when he meets the most famous film star in the world. (Not the greatest film ever made but still quite enjoyable.) (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Office Space (1999): directed by Mike Judge, with Jennifer Aniston. Comedic tale of company workers who hate their jobs and decide to rebel against their greedy boss. (NB: I would rate this PG-13)
• Pacifier, The (2005): with Vin Diesel. Disgraced Navy SEAL Shane Wolfe is handed a new assignment: Protect the five Plummer kids from enemies of their recently deceased father -- a government scientist whose top-secret experiment remains in the kids' house. (Not the greatest film ever made, but has some really funny moments.) (NB: Rated PG)
• Patch Adams (1998): with Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman. A medical student in the 70's treats patients, illegally, using humor. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Playing by Heart (1998): with Gena Rowlands, Sean Connery, Angelina Jolie. Eleven articulate people work through affairs of the heart in L.A. (NB: Rated R)
• Popeye (1980): with Robin Williams. The sailor-man travels to a town called Sweet Haven, falls in love with Olive Oyl, adopts Swee' Pea, and makes an enemy with Bluto. (NB: This is live-action, but is based on a children’s comic book series.) (Rated PG)
• Private Benjamin (1980): with Goldie Hawn. A sheltered young high society woman joins the army on a whim and finds herself in a more difficult situation than she ever expected. (NB: Rated R)
• Proposal, The (2009): with Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, and Betty White. A pushy boss forces her young assistant to marry her in order to keep her Visa status in the U.S. and avoid deportation to Canada. (NB: Rated PG-13) (I found the whole plotline of Betty White's character's supposed Native Alaskan heritage to be problematic/racist.)
• Red (2010): with Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman. When his peaceful life is threatened by a high-tech assassin, former black-ops agent Frank Moses reassembles his old team in a last ditch effort to survive and uncover his assailants. (NB: Rated PG-13) (I also really enjoyed the sequel, Red 2.)
• Return to Me (2000): with David Duchovny, Minnie Driver. A man who falls in love with the woman who received his wife's heart must decide which woman it is who holds his heart. (Again, not the greatest ever made, but quite fun) (NB: Rated PG)
• Robin Hood, Men in Tights (1993): directed by Mel Brooks. A spoof of Robin Hood in general, and 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' in particular. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Roman Holiday (1953): with Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn. A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome. (NB: I would rated this PG/G)
• Royal Tenenbaums, The (2001): with Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Danny Glover. An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites when one of their member announces he has a terminal illness. (NB: Rated R)
• Rundown, The (2003): with Dwayne Johnson (aka the Rock), Sean William Scott, Christopher Walken, Rosario Dawson. A tough aspiring chef is hired to bring home a mobster's son from the Amazon but becomes involved in the fight against an oppressive town operator and the search for a legendary treasure. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Saved! (2004): with Jena Malone and Mandy Moore. When a girl attending a Christian high school becomes pregnant, she finds herself ostracized and demonized, as all of her former friends turn on her. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Scary Movie (2000): with Ana Faris, Marlon Wayans. A year after disposing the body of a man they accidently killed, a group of dumb teenagers are stalked by a bumbling serial killer. (This spoofs the godawful ‘Scream’ series and many others, so while it is VERY vulgar, it is also quite funny.) (NB: Rated R)
• Seducing Dr. Lewis (Original French title: La Grande Séduction, Quebec, Canada): It is about a village that need to get a doctor in town, so they set out to ‘seduce’ a doctor from Montreal into wanting to stay. Very funny. (Online summary: A much-needed boost, in the form of a new factory, is promised to the residents of the tiny fishing village St. Marie-La-Mauderne, provided they can lure a doctor to take up full-time residency on the island. Inspired, the villagers devise a scheme to make Dr. Christopher Lewis a local.) (NB: I would rate this PG-13)
• Singin’ In The Rain (1952): with Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor. A silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound. (NB: Rated G) (Comment: Some scenes from this film, for instance when the studio first tries to make talking films, are ROTFLMAO funny. Highly recommended!) (Comment 2: The only thing I didn't like is a brief moment where Donald O'Connor's character apparently tries to use the 'casting couch' on a young actress. Because rape and sexual assault aren't funny.)
• Some Like It Hot (1959, by famous director Billy Wilder): with Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, and Tony Curtis. When two musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all female band disguised as women, but further complications set in. (NB: I would rate this PG-13)
• Spaceballs (1987): directed by Mel Brooks. Planet Spaceball's President Skroob sends Lord Dark Helmet to steal Planet Druidia's abundant supply of air to replenish their own, and only Lone Starr can stop them. (Again, not the greatest ever made but quite fun.) (NB: Rated PG)
• State Fair (1945): The Frake family attends the annual Iowa State Fair; each member of the clan has their own reason for doing so. (Rated PG-ish?) (NB: This was put in this section because IMDB has it listed as being partly comedic, but it's not entirely a comedy, to my mind.)
• Strictly Ballroom (Australia, 1992): A maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.
• 13 Going On 30 (2004): with Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. A 13 year old girl plays a game on her 13th birthday and wakes up the next day as a 30 year old woman. (Again, another that is not the greatest film ever made but is still fun!!) (NB: Rated PG-13)
• To Be Or Not To Be (1942, by another amazing director, Ernst Lubitsch): with Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy. (Even today, this is hands down one of the funniest films ever made. The beginning scene with ‘Hitler’ walking through the streets of Warsaw had me ROTFLMAO.) (NB: I would rate this PG)
• Top Secret! (1984): with Val Kilmer. Parody of WWII spy movies in which an American rock and roll singer becomes involved in a Resistance plot to rescue a scientist imprisoned in East Germany. (NB: Rated PG)
• Vampires Suck (2010): (NB: This is a parody, of the Twilight films in particular.) A spoof of vampire-themed movies, where teenager Becca finds herself torn between two boys. As she and her friends wrestle with a number of different dramas, everything comes to a head at their prom. (NB: Rated PG-13)
• Wedding Banquet, The (1993, Taiwan, USA): To satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord and a female tenant agree to a marriage of convenience, but his parents arrive to visit and things get out of hand. (Some bits of this film such as the civil marriage ceremony had me ROTFLMAO.) (NB: Rated R)
• What Women Want (2000): with Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt. After an accident, a chauvinistic executive gains the ability to hear what women are really thinking. (Again, just fun fluff.) (NB: Rated PG-13)
• When Harry Met Sally (1989): with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship. (NB: Rated R)
• Yours, Mine, Ours (2005): with Dennis Quaid, Rene Russo. A widowed Coast Guard Admiral and a widow handbag designer fall in love and marry, much to the dismay of her 10 and his 8 children. (Rated G)