The Best of Spoof

Now that another spoof movie has come out, from the creators behind such masterpieces (joke) as Date Move, Epic Movie, and Meet the Spartans...it got me thinking. How the hell do these movies keep getting made??? Even more puzzling is the un-canny success the films have had. Date and Epic Movie combined made almost $40 million in their opening weekends. Following the success of the Scary Movie franchise, movie studios seem to have a sense of urgency to make more spoof movies. A few weeks after the legitamatly funny Hollywood satire "Tropic Thunder" came out, it became crystal clear that these spoofs from Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are giving the spoof genre a bad name. Without further adieu, here is my list of the greatest spoofs in cinema. (In no particular order)

Tropic Thunder- 

Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Danny McBride, Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaghey, Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Bill Hader, Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan

As I mentioned before, its real-life and hilarious situations being satirized that make this sooo much greater than crap like Meet the Spartans. The way actors and agents and studio executives (the whole shabang) act is quite sad in real life. The way this film spoofs everything about the ShowBiz is downright hilarious. Downey's Kirk Lazarus is a method actor (poking fun at method actors like Russell Crowe) who refuses to leave character at any point during the shooting of the film, even when the cast gets placed in real-life war situations, "Man, I don't drop character till I done DVD commentary." (minor spoilers ahead) Tom Cruises studio executive, Ben Stiller's action star trying to become a serious actor, Jack Black's drug addicted comedian, Steve Coogan's rookie-director, and Matthew McConaghey as Stiller's agent (although the original casting of Owen Wilson would have been better) were all spot on in their portrayals. This may be the career boost that Tom Cruise needed and confirms that Robert Downey Jr. is back and better than ever. 

Scary Movie Films

Starring: Anna Faris, Charlie Sheen, Wayans Brothers, Regina Hall, Anthony Anderson, Craig Bierko, Leslie Nielsen, Denise Richards, Pamela Anderson, Queen Latifah, Eddie Griffin

This spoof franchise is the primary reason for the overload of movie spoofs in the last couple of years. Really, only the first and the third were any good. Scary Movie 4 was just OK and 2 was just horrible. Scary Movie made a name for itself spoofing movies that quite frankly, deserved it. (especially the horror movies) The best spoofs over the course of the four films were dominated by M. Night Shyamalan creations (unfortunatly The Happening or Lady in the Water were not out in time for the films) such as Signs and The Village. Some other memorable movies spoofed included The Ring, Saw, Grudge, War of the Worlds, 8 Mile, Brokeback Mountain and The Matrix. Anna Faris played the dumb blonde role to perfection. 

Naked Gun Films

Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, O.J. Simpson, George Kennedy, Ed Williams, Weird Al Yankovic, James Earl Jones, Raye Birk

Starring the master of Spoof, Leslie Nielsen this franchise was a hilarious take of the short-lived TV series Police Squad. Nielsen plays Sergeant Frank Drebin. His signature is his clumsiness, tendency to cause all sorts of problems and causing danger to those around him. What makes the three films so great is how oblivious he is to his actions. The plot for the first film says it all. Drebin (Nielsen) tries to uncover a plan to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II who is visiting the USA. The main suspect is Vincent Ludwig who can turn anyone into an assassin at the press of remote control, and plans to use this mind-controling scheme to kill the Queen. The ridiculousnes of that plot is what makes it so damn funny. The main villains have a tendency of 'falling to their death' in each film. In the three movies the main villains did the following: fell from a stadium, ran over by a bus, a steam roller and the USC marching band, pushed out the window, mauled by a lion, fall from a catwalk, sent flying through a roof into an airplane (which exploded seconds later). Enough said.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Starring: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Jonah Hill, Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Kristen Wiig, Frankie Muniz, David Krumholtz, Justin Long, Jason Schwartzman

Unfortunately this Judd Apatow creation did not get the attention it deserved. With the music biopics of former legends getting all the Oscar noms and critical acclaim, Walk Hard satirized the cliches with these types of movies. Ray, Walk the Line and I'm Not There (about Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan) all seemed to have a recurring story line with a few minor differences. All of them seemed to have a period of drug and alcohol problems, problems with their marriage, a point in their career where they struggled for long period of time, and even traumatic events in their childhood. Walk Hard combined all of these elements and added humor to make it one of the funnier movies I've seen in a while. There were "cameos" from such musical legends as Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and The Beatles. John C. Reilly played the role brilliantly. As a child Dewey Cox lost his sense of smell, cut his brother in half with a machete, and was kicked out of house. As he got older he got addicted to basically every drug, slept with 411 women, tried marrying two different women, had 22 kids and 14 step-kids, went to rehab, starred in a TV show, had a pet chimp but still managed to become a national icon with his single, "Walk Hard". This movie was criminally ignored by most of the public, and was the most underrated comedy of 2007. 

Spaceballs

Starring: Mel Brooks, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman, John Hurt, Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten

One of many hilarious Mel Brooks creations, this Sci-Fi comedy spoofs primarily Star Wars, but also popular films Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, Aliens and basically all other science fiction movies. Just looking over the character's names and the plot is enough to garner some laughs. President Skroob/Yogurt- Mel Brooks; John Candy- Barf; Rick Moranis-Dark Helmet. As for the "plot" of Space Balls-- The planet Spaceball, home planet of evil spaceballs is running out of air and the planet's ruler President Skroob has devised an evil scheme, where he plans to steal the air from the atmosphere of the peaceful planet Druidia. But, Drudia is surrounded by a defense shield to prevent the Spaceballs from stealing the air.....You get the idea.

Robin Hood Men in Tights

Starring: Cary Elwes, Dave Chappelle, Richard Lewis, Roger Rees, Isaac Hayes, Patrick Stewart

Yet another Mel Brooks offering in the land of parody. In this spoof, Brooks is poking fun at Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, possibly the worst performance in Kevin Costner's career. Elwes and his Brittish accent made the character of Robin Hood the highlight of the movie. The whole idea of men walking around the woods in tights is already a funny thing in itself, so the whole idea of the film wasn't a very hard sell. When you add on Mel Brooks' comedic genius, Elwes accent, with a little Dave Chappelle sprinkled in you get a final product on par with any laugher in recent years. Brooks even made a memorable cameo in the film as a traveling rabbi that sells circumcisions.

Austin Powers Films

Starring: Mike Myers, Mike Myers, Mike Myers, Verne Troyer, Seth Green, Robert Wagner, Mindy Sterling, Michael York, Elizabeth Hurley, Heather Graham, Beyonce Knowles, Michael Caine, Will Ferrell, Rob Lowe

Before Mike Myers began starring in crap like "Love Guru" and "Shrek the Third", he was at the top of the comedic movie world. His multiple character creations in Austin Powers made him a huge star and made audiences around america laugh until they cried. Austin Powers movies, at the time of their greatest popularity, produced some of the most quotable phrases and sayings. An extreme take-off of all James Bond films, Mike Myers took an extremely popular genre (secret agent/spy) made popular by Sean Connery and completely turned it upside down into some of the most ridiculous comedy we have ever seen. Nearly every character and plot line was a direct parody from a Bond film. 

Airplane!

Starring Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

This David Zucker creation has set the standard for all spoof movies. An actual spoof of the disaster film genre (as opposed the disaster that is Disaster Movie), this is without question the greatest spoof of all-time. Surely, the film launched the comedic career of one actor....but don't call him Shirley (you probably saw that coming). Leslie Nielsen became the acting master of parody, highlighted by his run in the Naked Gun franchise (the otherwise crappy Superhero Movie was worth watching due to his presence). Anyway, this film was a comedic classic and is still just as funny now as it was 28 years ago.  

Oh Oscar, Where Have You Gone?

The Academy Awards used to be on par with the Super Bowl, in terms of anticipation and excitement for the annual event. Enthusiasm for the ceremony is on the verge of disappearing. Once considered to be a fair judge of cinematic excellence, the Academy Awards have digressed to the point where the nominees are almost un-recognizable to the general public. Back in the day, movies were nominated for awards solely based on the quality of the film. The decision making process behind choosing the best movies has become corrupted, thanks to the boneheaded film executives angling for more publicity for their respective films. As long as jack-asses such as Harvey Weinstein keep their jobs, the Academy Awards will continue to be corrupted by the excessive marketing directed at the Academy's voters. After last year's minimally watched ceremony, I hope the Academy realizes that something needs to change. Quite honestly, I did not find any of the five Best Picture nominations from last year to be worthy of such a title. 

There Will Be Blood had some phenomenal performances (Paul Dano should have got a supporting nom), and Daniel Day-Lewis gave a memorable performance. But the movie itself, in my mind, was forgettable and not Best Picture worthy.

Atonement was the worst of the group. I felt the film was over-hyped, and ridiculously overrated. Quite frankly, I thought it was just garbage all together. Maybe it was just me, the movie was just way too confusing to recieve the sort of recognition it did. (I am still appalled by its Golden Globe victory)

Michael Clayton was a solid film, and the nominated performances from Clooney, Swinton and Wilkinson were well deserved. But, as with TWBB, good acting does not make a film worthy of a Best Picture nomination. The fact that this was helmed by a first-time director is even more impressive. But this movie deserves recognition more for its individual acting performances then the overall quality of the film.

Juno may have been the outcast in a year of 'dark' films, but an argument could be made that the quirky comedy was the most deserving nomination. The film was well received by critics, and performed extraordinarily well at the box office, outpacing the other four films and by a wide margin. As for the performances, I think the film was cast perfectly and nearly every actor and actress held their own. Each pairing and relationship was a believable one and everybody seemed to have great chemistry. There were no supporting nominations, in large part because each supprting character was worthy of such an award (J.K. Simmons, Bateman, Garner, Cera, Thirlby to name a few). The combination of critical reception, commercial success, and acting performance is what makes Juno worthy of its nomination.

And finally No Country For Old Men. This was flawed film, and in any other year it would not have won best picture.But thanks to a lack of competition, that was not the case. The Coen Brothers did a masterful job directing the film, probably their best work to this point in their career. The ending was kind of strange but i wasn't as pissed about it as many others were. The long moments sans dialogue really helped the mood of the film and Javier Bardem's character will go down as one of the best human villains in any movie. But, even with some great performances, it still ranks as closer to the bottom in terms of Best Picture winners, and it trails all but 2005's Crash in the 2000s. 

After maybe the worst batch of best picture nominations in recent memory (even in Crash's year there was still Munich and Brokeback Mountain) I hope this year is not much of the same, but we won't be able to determine that until after the nominations are announced.

In my future blogs on the subject of the Academy Awards I'll discuss a few ways that I think could help fix the declining ceremony.