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Posted Thursday 04/17/2008 3:00 PM in
Articles
Filed under: Actors, Directors, Movies, Bond, Actress, Popular movies, List, Must-see, Best movies
Frankly, we can’t imagine a heaven without movies, but just in case God’s tastes lean more toward extended lyre jams than Bond marathons, you’d better grab your remote. Given the endless availability of films via rentals, Netflix, on-demand, and downloads, there’s no excuse for not watching movies 22 hours a day. But maybe you need a bit of guidance to the ones you can’t miss, in the form of a fearless, definitive list that doesn’t bother with musicals or Gone With the Wind but isn’t afraid to mix critic-approved cool like The Third Man with cult trash like The Warriors—and 298 other classics. Read on, and, for God’s sake, start watching.
Comedy & Buddy || Action, War, & Westerns || Rebels, Cops, & Criminals
Horror, Sci-Fi, Art House, & Mindbenders || Classics, Nudity, & Train Wrecks
COMEDY
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| Airplane! 1980 Animal House 1978 American Pie 1999 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery 1997 Bachelor Party 1984 Bananas 1971 Beverly Hills Cop 1984 Blazing Saddles 1974 Caddyshack 1980 The Cannonball Run 1981 Clerks 1994 Dazed and Confused 1993 Duck Soup 1933 Dumb & Dumber 1994 Election 1999 The 40-Year-Old Virgin 2005 Ghostbusters 1984 Groundhog Day 1993 Happy Gilmore 1996 Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle 2004 It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1963 The Jerk 1979 Modern Times 1936 The Nutty Professor 1963 Office Space 1999 Old School 2003 The Pink Panther Strikes Again 1976 The Princess Bride 1987 Raising Arizona 1987 Sixteen Candles 1984 Some Like It Hot 1959 Trading Places 1983 Vacation 1983 Wedding Crashers 2005 Wet Hot American Summer 2001 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory 1971 Young Frankenstein 1974 |
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
1975
Before saying, “I fart in your general direction,” in a French accent became a cliché, the merry British anarchists’ Arthurian satire was genuinely clever (debates over a swallow’s air-speed velocity), subversive (an exasperated God), and silly (killer rabbits). After all, 100 million movie quoters can’t be wrong.
Extra: Investors included Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
The Big Lebowski
1998
Nihilists. Cowboy philosophers. Obsessive bowling. This box office gutterball turned dorm room essential (if you’ve spent a single day in college over the past decade, you know every word) is so stuffed with compulsively quotable dialogue that you almost forget it’s also a virtuoso display of the Coen brothers’ editing and cinematography.
Line, please: “Hey, careful, there’s a beverage here!”
Kingpin
1996
All respect to Dumb & Dumber and There’s Something About Mary aficionados, but this gross-out opus about a one-handed bowler and his Amish apprentice is the Farrelly brothers’ funniest. How can you top Bill Murray’s gut-busting improv—or comb-over?
Line, please: “What is it about good sex that makes me have to crap? You really jarred something loose, tiger.” 
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
2004
Will Ferrell–philes can debate if it’s the SNL alum’s funniest —or simply weirdest—star vehicle, but this spoof of ’70s newscasters founded the foolproof formula of throwaway lines (“Milk was a bad choice,” “I’m in a glass case of emotion.”) and surreally silly situations (a Frat Pack cameo-studded news team gang fight!) that made him a modern comedy institution.
Line, please: “San Diego, of course, in German means ‘a whale’s vagina.’ ”
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
2006
You know a comedy scores when its absurdly popular character is retired rather than mess with perfection. This “doc” about an anti-Semitic, oddly lovable Kazakhstani journalist grossed $260 million, and twice as many gasps at its nude wrestling.
Line, please: “I want to buy a car with a pussy magnet.”
This Is Spinal Tap
1984
Before there was Guffman or The Office, Spinal Tap simultaneously ignited the mock-doc genre and set the bar unreachably high—to 11!
Extra: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer were so convincing as clueless metalheads, even-more-clueless fans believed they were the real thing.
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Three Must-See Comedy Clips |
BUDDY MOVIES
The Last Detail
1973
The lucky alchemy of Robert Towne’s profane script, Hal Ashby’s art-house direction, and Jack Nicholson’s wild-eyed rebelliousness forge an underappreciated counterculture classic about three Navy men behaving badly.
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| American Graffiti 1973 The Blues Brothers 1980 Breaking Away 1979 Glengarry GlenRoss 1992 The Goonies 1984 Lethal Weapon 1987 The Right Stuff 1983 Saturday Night Fever 1977 The Shawshank Redemption 1994 Stand by Me 1986 Stripes 1981 Swingers 1996 The Warriors 1979 |
Superbad|
Three Must-See Buddy Movie Clips |
Page 1: Comedy & Buddy | Page 2: Action, War, & Westerns | Page 3: Rebels, Cops, & Criminals
Page 4: Horror, Sci-Fi, Art House, & Mindbenders | Page 5: Classics, Nudity, & Train Wrecks
