Movie brackets as a Friday diversion

April 15, 2005

I know this isn’t a political story, but do readers mind a little Friday diversion?

I stumbled upon this MSNBC feature in which it picked 64 comedies and put them up against each other, March Madness style. Granted, there are serious flaws — some of my favorite movies didn’t make the list (the original “In Laws,” “What About Bob?”), the “regional” breakdowns are a little odd, and some of the first-round pairings didn’t seem to make a lot of sense.

Having said that, I found it kind of fun anyway. My Final Four included Monty Python’s Holy Grail, Office Space, Raising Arizona, and Bowfinger.

How about you? Go to the page and then scroll down to the bracket link towards the bottom. Final Four entries and suggestions for movies that didn’t make the final 64 but should have are welcome in the comments section.

The omission of “A Fish Called Wanda” is a blunder of epic dimension. Not that it would have made my Final Four, but it certainly would have won out over crap like “Lost in America” or “Friday.” Also, the first round pairing of “Rushmore” and “Animal House” is almost like pairing UNC-Illinois in the play-in game of this year’s NCAA tourney. I can just hear Max Fischer saying, “Couldn’t we just let me float by? For old time’s sake?” Unforgiveable. Other noteworthy omissions: “Royal Tenenbaums,” “Bad News Bears,” and “Odd Couple.” I would have replaced “Happy Gilmore” with “Billy Madison.”

Anyway, my final four were Animal House, Something About Mary, Best in Show, and Holy Grail.

  • The first round pairing of “Rushmoreâ€? and “Animal Houseâ€? is almost like pairing UNC-Illinois in the play-in game of this year’s NCAA tourney.

    Making me choose between “Holy Grail� and “Young Frankenstein� in the first round was cruel.

    So true! The guy who set the brackets up said he had pitted better movies with weaker ones in the first round, but it sure didn’t seem like it. Even Raising Arizona vs Ferris Bueller gave me pause. For that matter, how about Office Space vs Election? Meanwhile, two clunkers like Old School and Tommy Boy meet in the first round?

  • And pitting Swingers vs. Best in Show in R1 was another poor decision.

    How do you decide between “I’ll make Gretzky bleed, the little bitch.” and “I went to one of those obedience places once… it was all going well until they spilled hot candle wax on my private parts.”

  • Brother ‘Bagger, there has never been a time in human history when the injection of a little honest laughter into our lives was more needed…and appreciated. Thank you so much!

    Now will someone tell me what twisted gnome decided we had to choose between ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘The Blues Brothers’? I mean, really!!

    ( snort )

    🙂

  • What a relief after a long, horrible week. Now planning a weekend of comedies for my family as an antidote to cruel, unfair legislation and poisonous politicians. ITA about the choices being tough–mine were crazy hard on the right-hand side. Monty Python had already won anyway, so my Final Four: Arsenic & Old Lace, Groundhog Day, Broadcast News, and Raising Arizona. “Son, you’ve got a panty on your head.”

    PS thanks for the tag hints 🙂

  • I had to make the Sophie’s choice of Big Lebowski v. American Pie. I guess Steve Martin was right: comedy is not pretty. So here’s my final four: America Pie, Animal House, This is Spinal Tap and Arsenic and Old Lace. I rated Arsenic number one, because it’s still funny as hell, even after 60 years. I don’t think they’ll be saying the same thing about my other choices in 2065.

  • Well, we can all complain about films left out–Oh, Brother where art thou?(how do you include The Big Lebowski and not Fargo, either), Kind Hearts and Coronets, the original Ladykillers(or almost any comedy with Alec Guiness). But my big question is in what universe is The Graduate a comedy? Is there humor, yes–but there’s humor in King Lear as well, so I don’t think that makes it a comedy. And the scene in the pool, which many people think of as hilarious, is horrifying when you think of what’s happening–and the imagery. The end of The Graduate is terribly depressing–the two kids have almost nothing going for them, there’s no comic resolution, just two kids on a bus who, faced with the lesser of two evil choices chose one. Even Mike Nichols thinks the ending is a downer.

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