What was the last Hollywood comedy movie that was actually funny and worth seeing? Ever since the Something About Mary/Jim Carrey/Austin Powers era changed the formula, Hollywood comedy has been in the shitter. They just keep making trash that's funny for 13 year olds and no one else. Some of that Adam Sandler level shit was funny when I was younger, but not now. The fact that Ghostbusters even partially holds up is worthy of high praise.
What was the last Hollywood comedy movie that was actually funny and worth seeing? Ever since the Something About Mary/Jim Carrey/Austin Powers era changed the formula, Hollywood comedy has been in the shitter. They just keep making trash that's funny for 13 year olds and no one else. Some of that Adam Sandler level shit was funny when I was younger, but not now. The fact that Ghostbusters even partially holds up is worthy of high praise.
Okay old man Rubin.
Name one then ya punk kid.
I have severe generation dysphoria and am hard pressed to think of a big name comedy I've liked since John Beluschi died, but the modern stuff is no worse than that 80s/90s stuff you like.
What was the last Hollywood comedy movie that was actually funny and worth seeing? Ever since the Something About Mary/Jim Carrey/Austin Powers era changed the formula, Hollywood comedy has been in the shitter. They just keep making trash that's funny for 13 year olds and no one else. Some of that Adam Sandler level shit was funny when I was younger, but not now. The fact that Ghostbusters even partially holds up is worthy of high praise.
Okay old man Rubin.
Name one then ya punk kid.
I have severe generation dysphoria and am hard pressed to think of a big name comedy I've liked since John Beluschi died, but the modern stuff is no worse than that 80s/90s stuff you like.
Are you trying to say that Hot Tub Time Machine is no worse than Airplane! ??
What was the last Hollywood comedy movie that was actually funny and worth seeing? Ever since the Something About Mary/Jim Carrey/Austin Powers era changed the formula, Hollywood comedy has been in the shitter. They just keep making trash that's funny for 13 year olds and no one else. Some of that Adam Sandler level shit was funny when I was younger, but not now. The fact that Ghostbusters even partially holds up is worthy of high praise.
Okay old man Rubin.
Name one then ya punk kid.
I have severe generation dysphoria and am hard pressed to think of a big name comedy I've liked since John Beluschi died, but the modern stuff is no worse than that 80s/90s stuff you like.
Are you trying to say that Hot Tub Time Machine is no worse than Airplane! ??
Isn't this fundamentally a question of taste, more than anything else? Can't Scott just call a movie shit if someone does pick a title, or vice versa? Why has nobody bought up that Carrot top's Chairman Of The Board, It's Pat, and Ford Fairlane Rock and Roll Detective were all made before 2000? Do we include foreign comedies, or are we stuck with just US movies? Tune in for these mysteries, and more.
Isn't this fundamentally a question of taste, more than anything else? Can't Scott just call a movie shit if someone does pick a title, or vice versa? Why has nobody bought up that Carrot top's Chairman Of The Board and It's Pat were both made before 2000? Do we include foreign comedies, or are we stuck with just US movies? Tune in for these mysteries, and more.
I called out Hollywood on purpose. There are plenty of newer foreign comedies that are great. There have also been a few indie comedies from the US that are decent.
But if you look back there haven't been any quality comedies from Hollywood for a very long time. Just look at these:
a) Not Hollywood b) Not comedies first and foremost. (e.g: a kids movie that happens to have comedy) c) Bad
And when I say bad I'm not talking about my personal taste. I'm saying that I don't think anyone here thinks highly of these movies. Any fans of Entourage here? How about The Interview? Beuller?
See, you can't even avoid making references to the old comedies they're so strong.
But if you look back in the day, Hollywood used to produce magnificent comedies. From the Marx Brothers to Mel Brooks to Richard Pryor. The comedy was strong. That's not to say that all old comedies are good. They've always made the Porky's or Revenge of the Nerds. The low brow bro has always been there. It just completely took over and jumped the shark in the mid-late '90s.
The last couple comedies that really stuck with me are the 21 Jump Street movie and Superbad. 22 Jump Street was also not that bad and handled being a sequel decently. Beyond that it's mostly just stuff where it was kinda funny but forgettable.
What was the last Hollywood comedy movie that was actually funny and worth seeing? Ever since the Something About Mary/Jim Carrey/Austin Powers era changed the formula, Hollywood comedy has been in the shitter. They just keep making trash that's funny for 13 year olds and no one else. Some of that Adam Sandler level shit was funny when I was younger, but not now. The fact that Ghostbusters even partially holds up is worthy of high praise.
Okay old man Rubin.
Name one then ya punk kid.
I have severe generation dysphoria and am hard pressed to think of a big name comedy I've liked since John Beluschi died, but the modern stuff is no worse than that 80s/90s stuff you like.
Are you trying to say that Hot Tub Time Machine is no worse than Airplane! ??
The last couple comedies that really stuck with me are the 21 Jump Street movie and Superbad. 22 Jump Street was also not that bad and handled being a sequel decently. Beyond that it's mostly just stuff where it was kinda funny but forgettable.
Superbad was one of the few movies I had to stop watching because it was too painful to continue.
There seems to be a subgenere of comedy that some people are into. When there are just awful people doing awful things. Jonah Hill in Superbad and John Goodman in Big Lebowski are the two prime examples, but I'm sure there are others. Just awful people being awful. It's not funny. It's like OMG get me the fuck away from this person, kill them with fire!
Oh, a lot of those Adult Swim/Archer cartoons Rym likes have characters like that as well.
So, no answer, yes or just arbitrarily disqualify it, nobody wants to remember those movies on purpose, and no.
Dude, get over it. Comedy is fundamentally a matter of taste. Even just on those two lists you picked, I can see films that are pretty good comedy films, and are from Hollywood, but you'd just arbitrarily decide aren't "True" comedy, or are simply bad because they're not to your taste.
You don't like most post-2000 comedy more often than not, that's cool. But that's just a combination of your taste, and what you've seen(or chosen not to see), not an objective measurement of quality. That's pretty much the long and short of it.
What was the last Hollywood comedy movie that was actually funny and worth seeing? Ever since the Something About Mary/Jim Carrey/Austin Powers era changed the formula, Hollywood comedy has been in the shitter. They just keep making trash that's funny for 13 year olds and no one else. Some of that Adam Sandler level shit was funny when I was younger, but not now. The fact that Ghostbusters even partially holds up is worthy of high praise.
Okay old man Rubin.
Name one then ya punk kid.
I have severe generation dysphoria and am hard pressed to think of a big name comedy I've liked since John Beluschi died, but the modern stuff is no worse than that 80s/90s stuff you like.
Are you trying to say that Hot Tub Time Machine is no worse than Airplane! ??
What was the last Hollywood comedy movie that was actually funny and worth seeing? Ever since the Something About Mary/Jim Carrey/Austin Powers era changed the formula, Hollywood comedy has been in the shitter. They just keep making trash that's funny for 13 year olds and no one else. Some of that Adam Sandler level shit was funny when I was younger, but not now. The fact that Ghostbusters even partially holds up is worthy of high praise.
Okay old man Rubin.
Name one then ya punk kid.
I have severe generation dysphoria and am hard pressed to think of a big name comedy I've liked since John Beluschi died, but the modern stuff is no worse than that 80s/90s stuff you like.
Are you trying to say that Hot Tub Time Machine is no worse than Airplane! ??
Airplane! sucks.
There, I said it.
It was good at its time, but no longer.
Pete was good in his time, but no longer.
I jumped the shark years ago. Same tired predictable jokes, no forward-thinking vision, a parody of myself clinging to past glory.
But I have double ovens, so suck it.
Also, Archer is incredibly clever and well-written, so your opinion is clearly wrong.
But if you like more traditional "likable characters" comedy, you should try Kimmy Schmidt. The main character is rather likable, and it's written by Tina Fey, so it's legit funny.
yea almost everything Mel Brooks made doesn't hold up particularly well. It's very much of the time it was made..
For immortal comedy you have to look towards Monty Python stuff.
Pete, aren't we just talking about movies here? cause there has been a ton of good comedy shows, I don' t think that's what Scott is talking about.
Having recently just seen Blazing Saddles again in what must have been at least 10 years, that movie definitely still holds up. Actually, the way Blazing Saddles comments on race is just as relevant today as it was when it was made.
yea almost everything Mel Brooks made doesn't hold up particularly well. It's very much of the time it was made..
For immortal comedy you have to look towards Monty Python stuff.
Pete, aren't we just talking about movies here? cause there has been a ton of good comedy shows, I don' t think that's what Scott is talking about.
Having recently just seen Blazing Saddles again in what must have been at least 10 years, that movie definitely still holds up. Actually, the way Blazing Saddles comments on race is just as relevant today as it was when it was made.
Young Frankenstein and the Producers also hold up. Spaceballs, History of the World, Men in Tights, hold up less, but still okish. Let's not talk about that awful one from, oh, the mid '90s!
Not Mel Brooks, but similar genre, Princess Bride holds up 100%.
It's an old man thing to say "they don't make 'em like they used to," but at least in this one case I'll stand by that statement.
The thing that gets me is that I don't think it's impossible to make a new quality comedy. Just nobody is doing it. Why can't someone make something just like Duck Soup or a Holy Grail in 2016? Not a remake. Just make a new movie in the same fashion.
Another type of movie Hollywood doesn't make anymore - the opulent dance/musical. We still get opulence like in Grand Budapest Hotel. We still get dance/musical, Pitch Perfect. They just haven't been combined since.... Moulin Rouge?
Why can't there be a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers of 2016? People still love this shit. Look at Hamilton. It wouldn't hurt to have some in the movie theater to go with the broadway theater. Unlike comedy, this isn't a situation where all the new ones aren't any good. There just aren't any new ones at all.
Another one that I liked recently was Hail, Caesar! but I clearly liked it way more than the people I went with (and most people in the theater for that matter). It's incredibly absurd, but I enjoy abusrdist comedy quite a bit.
Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Team America World Police, Hot Fuzz, Wedding Crashers, 40 year old Virgin, Knocked up, O Brother Where Art Thou, Borat, Superbad, Idiocracy. Apparently the Hangover and Bridemaids are good but who knows didn't see it :-p
Hangover is definitely a film that was lauded in a similar way, but when I stop to think about how good it is it doesn't come away that great. It's just a more mainstream take on the type of humor Zach Galafanakis had been doing for years prior. The rest of the cast is mostly there to push his jokes forward.
Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Team America World Police, Hot Fuzz, Wedding Crashers, 40 year old Virgin, Knocked up, O Brother Where Art Thou, Borat, Superbad, Idiocracy. Apparently the Hangover and Bridemaids are good but who knows didn't see it :-p
Don't think I wasn't thinking of ya boy Edgar Wright. Yeah, Hot Fuzz is ok. But also, not Hollywood.
O' Brother is fantastic, but is it a comedy first and foremost??? Hmmmm.
yea almost everything Mel Brooks made doesn't hold up particularly well. It's very much of the time it was made..
For immortal comedy you have to look towards Monty Python stuff.
Pete, aren't we just talking about movies here? cause there has been a ton of good comedy shows, I don' t think that's what Scott is talking about.
Having recently just seen Blazing Saddles again in what must have been at least 10 years, that movie definitely still holds up. Actually, the way Blazing Saddles comments on race is just as relevant today as it was when it was made.
The Producers is surprisingly relevant in the age of 4Chan.
I side with Old Man Rubin on this one. I honestly can't think of a comedy movie or TV show I've bought that was made in America in the last 10 years because I wanted to see it again. Foreign stuff, sure. But at the same time, I'm not much of one for comedies anyway. I find comedic bits in more serious movies to be more effective on me than movies dedicated to that purpose. Like Scott says, most of the comedies nowadays are full of unlikeable people or over-the-top disgusting situations. Those are just not enjoyable.
...There seems to be a subgenere of comedy that some people are into. When there are just awful people doing awful things. Jonah Hill in Superbad and John Goodman in Big Lebowski are the two prime examples, but I'm sure there are others. Just awful people being awful. It's not funny. It's like OMG get me the fuck away from this person, kill them with fire!...
John Goodman's character in The Big Lebowski was really interesting to me and not at all clearly evil. His liberated attitude and stubborn unwillingness to bow to others -- the stuff about him that made him capable of being a huge asshole at times -- was also his greatest strength at other times. His refusal to be bullied and his blind willingness to bowl over obstacles with brute force was the foil for Lebowski's excessive yielding.
Lebowski was easygoing to the point of being a pushover. And while some going-with-the-flow is necessary, his approach seems to miss opportunities that require initiative or be turned away by obstacles that should have been readily surmountable by even a modest effort.
I felt I had a lot to learn from Walter's approach, although I ultimately I think it's good to have both yielding and asserting tools in one's repertoire.
Comments
"but the modern stuff is no worse than that 80s/90s stuff you like."
So I said:
Are you trying to say that Hot Tub Time Machine is no worse than Airplane! ??
There have also been a few indie comedies from the US that are decent.
But if you look back there haven't been any quality comedies from Hollywood for a very long time. Just look at these:
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=comedy&sort=moviemeter,asc&title_type=feature&year=2015,2015
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=comedy&sort=moviemeter,asc&title_type=feature&year=2014,2014
The movies on this list are either
a) Not Hollywood
b) Not comedies first and foremost. (e.g: a kids movie that happens to have comedy)
c) Bad
And when I say bad I'm not talking about my personal taste. I'm saying that I don't think anyone here thinks highly of these movies. Any fans of Entourage here? How about The Interview? Beuller?
See, you can't even avoid making references to the old comedies they're so strong.
But if you look back in the day, Hollywood used to produce magnificent comedies. From the Marx Brothers to Mel Brooks to Richard Pryor. The comedy was strong. That's not to say that all old comedies are good. They've always made the Porky's or Revenge of the Nerds. The low brow bro has always been there. It just completely took over and jumped the shark in the mid-late '90s.
Haven't laughed since.
There, I said it.
It was good at its time, but no longer.
There seems to be a subgenere of comedy that some people are into. When there are just awful people doing awful things. Jonah Hill in Superbad and John Goodman in Big Lebowski are the two prime examples, but I'm sure there are others. Just awful people being awful. It's not funny. It's like OMG get me the fuck away from this person, kill them with fire!
Oh, a lot of those Adult Swim/Archer cartoons Rym likes have characters like that as well.
Dude, get over it. Comedy is fundamentally a matter of taste. Even just on those two lists you picked, I can see films that are pretty good comedy films, and are from Hollywood, but you'd just arbitrarily decide aren't "True" comedy, or are simply bad because they're not to your taste.
You don't like most post-2000 comedy more often than not, that's cool. But that's just a combination of your taste, and what you've seen(or chosen not to see), not an objective measurement of quality. That's pretty much the long and short of it.
But I have double ovens, so suck it.
Also, Archer is incredibly clever and well-written, so your opinion is clearly wrong.
But if you like more traditional "likable characters" comedy, you should try Kimmy Schmidt. The main character is rather likable, and it's written by Tina Fey, so it's legit funny.
For immortal comedy you have to look towards Monty Python stuff.
Pete, aren't we just talking about movies here? cause there has been a ton of good comedy shows, I don' t think that's what Scott is talking about.
Not Mel Brooks, but similar genre, Princess Bride holds up 100%.
It's an old man thing to say "they don't make 'em like they used to," but at least in this one case I'll stand by that statement.
The thing that gets me is that I don't think it's impossible to make a new quality comedy. Just nobody is doing it. Why can't someone make something just like Duck Soup or a Holy Grail in 2016? Not a remake. Just make a new movie in the same fashion.
Another type of movie Hollywood doesn't make anymore - the opulent dance/musical. We still get opulence like in Grand Budapest Hotel. We still get dance/musical, Pitch Perfect. They just haven't been combined since.... Moulin Rouge?
Why can't there be a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers of 2016? People still love this shit. Look at Hamilton. It wouldn't hurt to have some in the movie theater to go with the broadway theater. Unlike comedy, this isn't a situation where all the new ones aren't any good. There just aren't any new ones at all.
Personally, I find comedy better suited to the half-hour show format than to a movie format, but that's because I don't like laughing for that long.
O' Brother is fantastic, but is it a comedy first and foremost??? Hmmmm.
The rest can die in a fire.
Yeah no. That would be beyond shit-talk.
Lebowski was easygoing to the point of being a pushover. And while some going-with-the-flow is necessary, his approach seems to miss opportunities that require initiative or be turned away by obstacles that should have been readily surmountable by even a modest effort.
I felt I had a lot to learn from Walter's approach, although I ultimately I think it's good to have both yielding and asserting tools in one's repertoire.