This one is Strictly for me!
The Top Ten Comedy Movies of all Time!
Now, I know I'll get some argument on this list, but I do Love a Good Comedy, and in my estimation, this list is the cream of the crop!
#10 - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Starring Peter Sellers (Arguably the greatest British born Comedic Actor of all time) and featuring the unforgetable image of a young Slim Pickens riding an atomic bomb into oblivion, this 1964 classic was more than just a comedy, but a statement about the atomic bomb at a time when the entire world was beoming paranoid about the prospect of Nuclear war.
#9 - Caddy Shack
If there is a Sport that needs a kick in the pants, its Golf! In this classic cut up, Rodney Dangerfield invades a highbrow private golf cub, and turns things upside down! Two side stories, featuring Chevy Chase and Bill Murray keep you in stitches, in this chuckle fest from the green!
#8 - Animal House
John Belushi leads a band of misfit college students on a wild drunken adventure in this period comedy. Set in the Early 1960's at venerable Faber college, Animal House is the yard stick by which all college comedy movies are measured!
#7 - Cannonball Run
This movie, although completely out to lunch, actually had a grain of truth to it! Based on a real illegal race accross the continental United States, this movie gathered an all star cast including Burt Reynolds, Dom Deluise, Jackie Chan, Roger Moore and Jamie Farr, as a host of misfits and motor heads hell bent for speed! They even managed to dust off a couple of Rat Pack members, in Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Junior!
#6 - Monty Python & The Holy Grail
What list is complete without this master peice of British humor, starring the entire Monty Python gang on a quest for the Holy Grail. This movie was so popular in the UK, that there are now Bus Tours you can take in Scotland, to visit all the castles that were used as shooting locations for this classic film! (Even the Castle Aaarrrggh!)
#5 - Spaceballs
At a time when Science Fiction was taking itself far too serious, along came Mel Brooks to put them in their place! Spoofing everything from Star Wars to Star Trek, from Forbidden Planet to Planet of the Apes, Space Balls follows the misadventures of Lonestar (Bill Pullman) and Barf the Mogg (John Candy) and their attempts to save Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga).
The Evil Spaceballs, lead by President Skroob (Mel Brooks) and Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), do their best to stop them. Although often off color and silly, Spaceballs is the supreme laugh for anyone who thinks Sci-fi needs to lighten up!
#4 - The Blues Brothers
"They Can't stop us... we're on a mission from God!" Based on the SNL skit that featured John Belushi as Joliet Jake, and Dan Aykroyd as Elwood, along with some of the finest Blues Musicians this sorry old world has ever known.
This movie was also had an incrdible impact, introducing a whole generation of movie goers to Blues Music.
#3 - Airplane
"Surely you can't be serious!"
Yes, I am serious... and don't call me Shirley! One of the most quotable comedy movies of all time, this film Starred two relative unknown's in Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty. The movie featured a quartet of serious actor's who hammed it up and stole the show, in Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges.
#2 - Slap Shot
Starring Paul Newman as the over the hill playing coach of a last place Hockey Team, Slap Shot was actually a satirical look at the NHL of the Mid Seventies, and in particular the Big Bad Philadelphia Flyers, or the Broad Street Bullies, as they were known.
Foul language, gratuitous violence and sexual innuendo are the bread and butter of the humor, but caught in the middle of the power struggle between the maniacle coach and bumbling team manager, is a group of players that are the epitamy of the sports movie.
#1 - Blazing Saddles
Mel Brooks Anti-Racist Master Piece, starring Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, and Slim Pickens. The first time I saw this movie, I was 15 years old, with a group of my closest friends and we all had to sneak into the theatre to see it. To say I was blown away is an understatement.
To this day, My friends and I can still quote, word for word, full scene's from this movie. Some people were offended by the content, but I think I saw it as it was intended to be seen. This movie was a statement about race acceptance in the 1970's that used the old western movie as it's setting.
To this day, it is my all time favorite comedy!