Favorite Underrated Comedies - Jeremy Kinney

Jeremy Kinney shares a fanatical devotion to movies with me as well as a love for 'Dottie' from CLUE CLUB. His favorite films are TRUST, SEX, LIES & VIDEOTAPE, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and GYMKATA. He should be followed on twitter @FakeShemp!

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I'm not quite sure what deserves the label underrated anymore. Ever since I became a member of some film communities on the interwebs, I've found out that I'm not the only one that loves 2001's Josie & The Pussycats or 1981's Student Bodies. All of a sudden these movies weren't underrated anymore as they were under seen. All of the films listed below are under seen and therefor underrated.

The Monster (1994)
Just before Roberto Benigni annoyed the shit out of us at the Academy Awards with his hysterical concentration camp comedy (when do we get to make an overrated list, Rupe?), he made this comedy of mistaken identity. Benigni plays a man, who because of his odd behavior, becomes mistaken for a serial killer. When a female detective (played by Benigni's wfe) goes undercover as his roommate, shenanigans ensue. It was the highest grossing film of all time when it was released in Italy. I saw it in the theater here in the states, where I'm sure it made upwards of 10's of dollars.

The Freshman (1990)
Matthew Broderick plays a NYU film student who in order to support himself, takes up running errands for Marlon Brando's character Carmine Sabatini. Not only does Carmine look and sound like a certain Godfather, we're told he was also the basis for him. Written and directed by Andrew Bergman, the film is all charm. There's a scene where Broderick & his roommate played by Frank Whaley go to pick up a "package" that should have you in stitches.

Late For Dinner (1991)
After being shot by mean ole Peter Gallagher, brothers Willie and Frank seek out medical attention only to find themselves cryogenically frozen. When they wake up, 30 years have past. Life has past them by and all they want to do is go home to their family. While it's not zingers coming at you left and right, the comedy comes from characters. 30 years have past for us and others in the movie, but it's only been a few hours for our protagonists. I dare you to not leave it with a smile on your face.

The Tall Guy (1989)
A romantic comedy written by Richard Curtis and starring Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson & Rowan Atkinson and I'll bet you've never even heard of it. Goldblum plays an American actor in London who's only real known trait is being tall. The plot doesn't really matter. He meets adorable Emma Thompson, they fall in love. Complications happen. Blah blah blah. Pretty standard romantic comedy tropes that Richard Curtis would later come to perfect in films such as Four Weddings & A Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually. But there's an absurdness at play that makes it more fun than normal. Sex scenes with singing underwear, Elephant Man the musical & Rowan Atkinson playing a total douche bag are just highlights.

Observe & Report (2009)
Now this one I can say is UNDERRATED. In the future, just as they did with Blade Runner & The Thing, film scholars will look back and wonder what the hell was wrong with us. It seems to me that America wasn't ready to see Seth Rogen play a "character". He's deeply committed to playing Ronnie, a security guard with emotional and mental issues that have kept him from his dream job of becoming a police officer. When a flasher starts stalking the ladies of his mall, including his dream girl Brandi (Anna Faris), it's up to Ronnie to bring the man to justice. Jody Hill has mentioned the inspiration of such characters as Travis Bickle & Rupert Pupkin (!!!) in the creation of Ronnie. It shows. Ronnie is pathetic, unlikable & has everything to prove and he's going to do it whether you give him permission or not. Hill's direction is assured. The film is an assault on comedy. It dares you to laugh. I'm still laughing..

Warner Archive Grab Bag: WILD ROVERS, LOVE ON A BET

I'm not typically a fan of Blake Edwards. I won't get into it too much, but let's just say our sensibilities with regard to comedy don't quite mesh. I can't even watch BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S anymore for example. Edwards' portrayals of minorities and women(and how they are treated in his films) are just too much for me a lot of the time. I understand that part of it is that the Edwards' comedy is of its time, but that doesn't make it easier to take. 
So it's no surprise that I held off on seeing this film for a very long time. I used to see the cover of the widescreen lasederdisc staring at me from behind the counter of the video store I was working at in early 2000. The poster image of Ryan O'Neal hugging William Holden just never grabbed me. Just felt like there'd be too much goofy cowboy palling around and dopey comedy.
Right away though, WILD ROVERS let me know it wasn't going to be your typical Blake Edwards movie. It opens with a long sequence of some cow hands starting their day. Very deliberate in its pacing. One thing that got my attention right off was the cast as the opening credits rolled over picture. I mean, I knew  Holden and O'Neil were in it, but I hadn't realized that Karl Malden, Tom Skerritt, Joe Don Baker and Moses Gunn were also on board. A great cast to be sure. Anyway, I guess I'm just used to Blake Edwards cutting to something (often broadly)comedic pretty quickly. Instead, there's an extended existential conversation between O'Neal and Holden. I do love it when I can feel a movie taking its time in the beginning. Certain movies that is. Sometimes it's just tedious, but when you can sense you're in the hands of a veteran filmmaker, it is a neat feeling.
It's easy to see why folks might not have known what to make of this movie when it came out. First off, it's a western so right away that's not the kind of thing one expects from Edwards. Of course, those expecting a standard comedy certainly don't get that. Not that there aren't moments of humor, but the film really is quite a mix of stuff.  There's tension as well as drama. Some might call it meandering(at 137 mins, it's got some girth), but I rather liked it. Truly, if I didn't know it was Edwards I'd never guess it. His normal partner in music(Henry Mancini) isn't present here. Instead Jerry Goldsmith has stepped in and delivers a great western adventure score. Kinda Elmer Bernstein-ish in parts. Also, there are some odd, almost Peckinpah-like, flourishes of slow-motion that I didn't expect to see. While watching it, I was thinking that it felt like a filmmaker trying out some new ideas/techniques and that was intriguing.
Ultimately though, what Edwards has put together here is a very interesting western that goes well with other 70s genre efforts like BAD COMPANY or something along those lines. It is a pretty unique film though for sure. Worth a look.
The WILD ROVERS MOD dvd can be purchased from Warner Archive: HERE

A working class SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS-esque screwball road trip comedy with charm to spare. A young playwright sets up a wager to secure backing for his play. He must get from New York to Los Angeles in 10 days, starting with nothing but his underwear and ending with a suit, $100 & a fiancé. The film has a very freewheeling affability to it that is remarkably infectious. Gene Raymond has a field day inhabiting the adorably clever script by P.J. Wolfson(who also scribed the equally adorable VIVACIOUS LADY) & Philip J. Epstein(CASABLANCA). I was unfamiliar with Wendy Barrie, but she makes a lovely romantic foil for Raymond. The film shares a kinship with the aforementioned SULLIVAN'S as well as the unheralded holiday classic IT HAPPENED ON 5th AVENUE. There's just a warmth here that is quite irresistible. As I believe was mentioned on the always insightful Warner Archive Podcast(https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/warner-archive-collection/id310063354), this movie seems ripe for a remake and I would actually love to see that happen. I recently included it on my Underrated Comedies List(http://rupertpupkinspeaks.blogspot.com/2013/03/underrated-films-series-comedies.html) and I feel everyone should check it out.

Favorite Underrated Comedies - Steve Q

Steve is an avid runner and movie fan extraordinaire. Read his musings about both at his blog: http://stevequick.blogspot.com/ 

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To make "Underrated Comedies" manageable, I limited myself to comedy westerns of 1970. I still have 5:

Support Your Local Sheriff! (IMDB says 1969) ***1/2.
James Garner plays the most reluctant, easily-irritated but completely hands-off sheriff imaginable. With genre stalwarts Jack Elam, Harry Morgan and Walter Brennan, plus Bruce Dern. This delight had a sequel (with a disturbing gambling addiction that killed the comedy).

There Was a Crooked Man ***
Very dark black comedy; too cynical and cruel for many. Kirk Douglas is the bad guy in prison, Henry Fonda the new warden. With Warren Oates, Burgess Meredith and Alan Hale, Jr.

The Ballad of Cable Hogue ***
When you think "Peckinpah western," you think "Wild Bunch," not comedy, but this is a classic Jason Robards comedy. Robards, left for dead, finds water in the desert and the bad guys return. With Stella Stevens for eye candy. The rattlesnake scene is priceless.

The Cheyenne Social Club **1/2
A weak script and weak direction (by Gene Kelly) do not stop Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda and Shirley Jones from making a very watchable film. Stewart unwittingly inherits a whorehouse, against his morals, but gets won over by the girls.

They Call Me Trinity **
Spaghetti western spoof. A drifter and his robber brother (impersonating a sheriff) fight against a land baron. The climactic showdown becomes a choreographed slapstick fistfight. I haven't seen it since it was in the theater (I was 8 and my strongest memory of it is that Terence Hill's eyes are so blue it hurts to look at them.

Favorite Underrated Comedies - Justin Bozung

Justin Bozung is a recovering former podcaster and a featured contributor for SHOCK CINEMA magazine. He is currently collaborating with a Colorado publishing house on a book about the making of Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING, and is about to start pre-production on a unique feature length documentary titled THE ENTERTAINER that will be executive produced by an actor or actors whose name (s) most everyone will know. Wink. Wink.

01. THE UNTITLED STAR WARS MOCKUMENTARY (2003)
Calling Damon Packard's film underrated seems a bit insulting. Instead it should be called underseen or misunderstood. Part experimental film, part satire and attack on George Lucas, MOCKUMENTARY is a painfully hilarious microfeature masterpiece. A cinephile of the same status as Quentin Tarantino, Packard has created a work that pre-dates the Youtube hipster explosion of re-editing film content or trailers for humorous purposes for the web.
With MOCKUMENTARY he not only orchestrates a comedic attack on the big business of George Lucas, his kiss-ass employees and THE PHANTOM MENACE, but he also creates a defensive Death Star like shield for his love of the films of Hollywood made during the '70s and early '80s.
Packard not only lampoons the making of THE PHANTOM MENACE by cutting and pasting himself into the making of footage for the film, but he also inserts his cinematic obessions for insane satirical and poignant effect like a home video introduction conducted by Tony Curtis to kick-start the work to the movie trailers for EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC and the Ken Russell film WOMEN IN LOVE onto the screen at the now infamous opening night screening of PHANTOM MENACE in Los Angeles.
See this film, and Packard's other great work. He'd be the future of filmmaking if someone would just give him a proper budget.
Watch The First 10 Minutes Of The Film Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEJBghFLlIY
Or Download The Entire Film For Free Here:
http://archive.org/details/The_Untitled_Star_Wars_Mockumentary

02. DEATH TO SMOOCHY (2002)
Originally here I had written something that said that if you'd didn't like DEATH TO SMOOCHY you were stupid and had no understanding of basic film language. The sentence you just read summed up what I had previously written in 500 words. You're welcome. SMOOCHY is one of two films in the last twenty years that I've been compelled to see theatrically where I got up after the credits rolled and bought a ticket to the next screening. Its a masterpiece, a singular and striking comedic vision with a gaggle of characters that are all skirting on the edge of insanity. There's a particular desperation on screen that's addicting in SMOOCHY and its all up-for-grabs in a seedy noir world of drugs, pornography, blackmail and murder all set against an underbelly of the childrens programming television industry. Kiddie show hosts are trying to kill one another, their strung out on heroin, the mafia is blackmailing them..... There are career defining performances here for everyone involved too. A staggering work of comedy brilliance from start to finish that's just so one hundred percent perfect.

03. THE MALTESE BIPPY (1969)
My magazine editor told me a few months back that I'm the only person that he's ever met that actually likes THE MALTESE BIPPY. I'm totally fine with this. I don't see how you couldn't like a Dark Shadows esque black comedy about two pornography peddlers from NYC that leave to go upstate to stay in a mansion that supposedly has a bunch of gold hidden in it. Oh yeah..... A werewolf, Dracula, and a bunch of mafia goons come looking for the gold and hijinks ensue. Dan Rowan and Dick Martin of NBC's Laugh-In fame take to the big screen in one of the strangest films ever released within the studio system. On its release it was shamed by the film critics and it didn't stay in theaters for too long.
BIPPY is a blast. Not only is THE MALTESE BIPPY litered with Laugh-In esque gags, trap doors in the floors in all, but it has an all-star cast and some extremely surreal moments like Dick Martin and a werewolf man on a tandum bicycle having a rootin n' tootin gay ol' good time riding around together in Flushing, NY in a dream montage. The sequence could be edited out of the film and inserted into any epsiode of the classic '67 Patrick Mcgoohan series The Prisoner and it would fit just fine. You've gotta see THE MALTESE BIPPY. The setup is exquisite, the concept a swingin' '60s homage to the monster films of Abbott & Costello (even though the roles are switched here) and the comic finale is one of the funniest moments in the history of film obscura.
Here's Justin talking about THE MALTESE BIPPY with it's trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb5kuC2LD-Y

04. THE BIG MOUTH (1967)
I still hold a great deal of hope that the films of Jerry Lewis will be discovered by my generation before Master Lewis passes away. At age 87, the clock is ticking ever so quickly. More potent and surreal than Chaplin, more sympathic than Harry Langdon, and even quirkier than Buster Keaton, Jerry Lewis for my money is the greatest comedic filmmaker of his generation if not of all time. Lewis is truly the last of his kind. THE BIG MOUTH is a very different film in comparsion to his earlier cinematic masterpieces like THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, THE LADIES MAN or THE BELLBOY. It's a striking split-personality confessional slapstick crime caper set against San Diego that sees Lewis pullling double duty in the middle of a case of mistaken identity after literally catching his gangster doppelganger on a fishing line thrown out in the ocean. The premise is insane, and Lewis playing himself here (and a pushy redux of Professor Kelp from THE NUTTY PROFESSOR) in many respects is a sane man hung out to dry juxaposed within a universe of insane and oddball characters that are all out to get him or go crazy trying.
Perhaps more cartoon and surreal like than any of his other self-directed films, it's painfully obvious how a film like THE BIG MOUTH has influenced David Lynch and his TWIN PEAKS. You will find the similarities of ideas and gags in the narrative and the filmmaking style itself jaw dropping when you compare THE BIG MOUTH and TWIN PEAKS. THE BIG MOUTH is an important Lewis film, and it is a must see...as are all of Jerry's films.
Here's Justin talking about the brilliant 1961 Jerry Lewis film, THE LADIES MAN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUp2lTP9PyY

05. MOVIE 43 (2012)
To be honest, MOVIE 43 was a film that had flown completely under my radar until one Saturday morning I awoke and read Roger Ebert's review of it. In the review he trashed the film. It's perhaps the nastiest Ebert review of a film I've ever read. Given Ebert's penchant for mistaking great works for trash I could only assume that MOVIE 43 was in fact not "one of the worst films ever made" but probably pretty close to a masterpiece. On that notion, I got in the car and went to the first showing of the day at my local multiplex. Ebert hated A CLOCKWORK ORANGE on its inital release, and until most recently he had hated Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO, but "found" its merits on a revisit of the film in a frame-by-frame capacity some years later. You're in the wrong business if you can't watch VERTIGO just once and not exclaim at the top of your lungs walking down a busy city street of its sheer greatness and personal audacity. Its an crazy notion right? How does one get a job as a film critic when they have no understanding of basic cinema language? It's beyond my understanding, but I disgress.
Ebert's review went on to call the film MOVIE 43 simply "Awful. Unwatchable. Non Sensical. Not funny." I decided I'd take on the role of judge and jury and do what I always do, find out for myself. I'll be damned if I'd ever let someone influence my thoughts or opinions about a film ever or a music album.
Following the screening of MOVIE 43 I rushed home and began to look at other reviews for the film. In doing this I realized something very strange. All the reviews via the major outlets in the United States and United Kingdom were very similar almost to the point that these reviewers all called each other on a secret film critic phone the night before and agreed that they'd all write exactly the same thing verbatim in regards to the film. Then something dawned on me, but more on that in a minute.
Seeing MOVIE 43 was like a swift kick in the balls. It was uncomfortably funny. It had me on the edge of my seat clasping my hand over my mouth in shock, but a fun shock -- thinking that what I was seeing and hearing in that moment was so very politically incorrect. I was thinking too about the fact that I was there in the dark in this big multiplex where across the hall there was a screening of WRECK-IT RALPH which probably contained dozens of children eating away at their popcorn and laughing to their hearts content and there I was in the next theatre laughing my ass at cheap jokes about the female menstral cycle, the objectification of women, and the shallowness of the human being. I was laughing my ass off at a vignette starring Hugh Jackman sitting in a restaurant with Kate Winslet and Jackman's got a pair of fleshy giant testicules hanging from his chin and there's soup dripping down them to Winslet's disgust. My god, how is this film even at the multiplex? I knew from this point that MOVIE 43 was a purely sociological satire work of greatness.
Yet, film critics didn't see that. The reviews were very cut and dry. It seemed to me that none of these film critics had bothered to read between the lines when it came to MOVIE 43. To them it simply just wasn't funny, and it was billed as a comedy. To them it seemed simple....They went to a see a comedy and they didn't laugh, and because of this, MOVIE 43 was a bad film plain and simple. It became clear to me that MOVIE 43 was now the nail in the coffin signifying the death of American film criticism.
As a film critic reviewing MOVIE 43, how could one not stop and ask themselves the following questions. Why is this so unfunny? Why is this film so bad? None of the reviews of MOVIE 43 bothered to ask these questions, and none of the reviews bothered to find out exactly how a filmmaker like Peter Farrelly, who's directly responsible for Hollywood comedy blockbuster's like DUMB AND DUMBER and THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY could have delivered such a mega misstep onto the doorsteps of the American movie-going public. What went wrong here for Farrelly?
In the first ten minutes of MOVIE 43, Farrelly tells you exactly what kind of film you're about to see. He tells you where he's at as an artist and how disenchanted he's become with the Hollywood system. Yet, this is a film that's been financed and distributed within the studio system, right? MOVIE 43 is a series of non-connected comic vignettes, seven to fifteen minute short films written and directed by a hodge podge of really inventive and up-and-coming filmmakers as well as veterns like Farrelly and Griffin Dunne. Because of it's structure, one must ask two questions like: Is Farrelly lampooning the modern era Hollywood Blockbuster comedy that he is almost solely responsible for creating for this generation? Is Farrelly satirizing the Sid Field structure of three act screen-writing predictability? Is he telling us that Hollywood comedies have become so formulaic and boring that you can almost time out the laughs? It's almost as if by creating a ninety minute film of comic vignettes Farrelly is telling us that today's comedies are so awful that you can literally take all of the best bits from the film and string them together and it would still be just as a effective film as one that had a formulaic three act structure like MEET THE PARENTS, THE GUILT TRIP or OLD SCHOOL. This is something that needs to be asked isn't it?
Regardless of whether you "buy in" to new age ballyhoo or not, there seems to be a meaning behind the film's title MOVIE 43 as well that critics never bothers to ask. After all, it's a title that has no connection to any of the story lines contained within the film. So, as a critic you'd think that you'd ask yourself to be somewhat curious about that, no? A friend recently suggested in conversation, that the title suggests a genericism, and while that's a great theory numerology suggests something different. Number theory implies that the number 43 is directly linked to a universal conflict between men and women. One clear commonality amongst all the vignettes of MOVIE 43 is exactly that, a major conflict of communication and general understanding between men and women. This is basic old-as-time sociological stuff, right?
But the number theory is just the tip of the iceberg in MOVIE 43, there's so much more. As a satire, MOVIE 43 bares it all. There may be more satire here than many can endure even in a fast seventy minutes. MOVIE 43 stabs away at the shallowness of human beings, our insistance and obsession on and with physicality, the objectification of women, disenchantment with traditional gender roles, the male ignorance of the female menstral cycle, and the personal connection lost to human over indulgence in modern technology.
How obvious and blatant does cinematic satire have to be for people such as film critics at Total Film or The New York Times when there's a 10 minute vignette starring Richard Gere as a technology CEO who's biggest problem in life is whether his company should put a cooling fan into the vagina of a life size fully nude female human turned living and breathing Ipod that people can take around with them that even allows for them the use of headphones. The debate of course was whether male users would cut their hands off or other appendages if the company placed the cooling fan into the nude female's vagina. Again this played in multiplexs across the United States. It doesn't matter if it was for 1 week or 2 weeks, the important thing is that it played nationally to the masses. How did something like this, something teetering on the edge of the experimental film make it out into national theatres. We will ever know?
MOVIE 43 is not a masterpiece. I'm not even certain that it warrants repeated viewings either after all is said and done, but it is a important film. It is an important satire that rings the bell loudly on contemporary society, and it's an important work because of the fact that its yet another pitch perfect example of exactly why film critics are the dumbest smartest people on the planet. 43 is a very funny film. I mean uncomfortable you're going to hell for laughing at that shit funny that speaks volumes, and I mean volumes. Will you be able to hear it?
MOVIE 43 TRAILER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHQwLY0M-E8

HONORABLE MENTION:

SKIN DEEP (1989)
There's little to say about SKIN DEEP. You just need to see it. But here's a couple things you need to know about the film.

Blake Edwards directed. John Ritter in a tour de force performance that features him seething through new emotions on screen that he'd never reached before, and an insane scene that takes place in the pitch black between Ritter, a Brit heavy metal musican and a woman. They're all nude. Next thing you know the glow in the dark condoms come out and there's almost a "sword fight" amongst the ruckus. My god, you need to see SKIN DEEP for that scene alone. It's pee your pants funny.

Favorite Underrated Comedies - Phil Blankenship

Phil Blankenship is one of my favorite film programmers of all-time and is the mastermind behind the outstanding Heavy Hitter Midnites series currently running at Cinefamily.  Thusfar he's featured movies the likes of NEVER TOO YOUNG TO DIE, DETENTION, JOYSTICKS, ROLLING THUNDER, BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW, PURPLE RAIN, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, KRULL, REPO MAN, D.C. CAB, THE NEVERENDING STORY, THE SANDLOT, HARD TARGET and more.

Upcoming screenings include:

4/26 - RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY

5/17 - TANGO & CASH

5/31 - ALTERED STATES

Keep up with the latest Heavy Hitter Info:
http://www.cinefamily.org/films/heavy-hitter-midnites/
https://www.facebook.com/HeavyMidnites
https://twitter.com/HeavyMidnites 

Without any further ado, Phil's List!

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THE GOLDEN AGE OF BONER JAMS 1982 – 1986

A virtual high school of hilarity.

THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN (1982)

Ha ha just kidding! I’ll start the list off with the kingslayer of the genre. Though it has all the elements of a classic boner comedy, it’s perhaps the most depressing laugh riot of the ‘80s, showing its young audience a harsh truth: love is hell.

JOYSTICKS (1983)

Legendary exploitation filmmaker Greydon Clark distills everything great about the 1980s (punks, nerds, valley girls, wild fashion, and Pac-Man) into one video game-fueled, late-night partyblast! Featuring extensive use of classic machines like Galaxian, Pole Position, Super Pac-Man and Satan’s Hollow - in addition to an all-time-great theme song and an epic battle against parental disapproval - this is a film for people totally into the neverending pursuit of brain-shattering FUUUUUNNNNNNNNN!!!!

HARDBODIES (1984)

Three middle-aged dudes visit California to have a sexy time at the beach but quickly learn that what they have won’t cut it. Enter scammin', jammin' Scotty Palmer and his total-rager-of-a-buddy Rag (Children of the Corn’s Courtney Gains!) to help out. This sex comedy is one of the best of the bunch, bolstered by Vixen briefly performing one of the best songs of the decade, Computer Madness!

HOT MOVES (1984)

Hot Moves is an amateurish mess but has a laid back charm and vintage Venice Beach & Hollywood Blvd authenticity that’s hard to resist. Private School star Michael Zorek leads a pack of young horndogs that makes a pact to lose their virginity by the end of summer. Yep, the classic boner jam plot.

MEATBALLS PART II (1984)

They say you can tell a lot about a person based on their favorite Meatballs movies… and I’m a Part II fan all the way! Though this entry in the franchise eschews total sex to focus on camp hijinks and inspired lunacy (it’s rated PG like the similarly themed and equally great Oddballs), it’s still a total ball. C’mon, what sort of asshole wouldn’t love a comedy starring Richard Mulligan, Hamilton Camp, Paul Reubens, John Larroquette and an adorable ET-knockoff named Meathead?

WEEKEND PASS (1984)

Like many Crown International comedies, Weekend Pass is unremarkable but pleasant, existing as barely passable entertainment to fill late night cable or drive-in triple bills. Following the amorous exploits of four wise-guy sailors through loosely connected segments (one featuring a young Phil Hartman as a stand-up comedian), the film’s one claim to immortality is a totally killer theme song!

DELIVERY BOYS (1985)

Oh boy do they deliver! Antics and calamities abound as a break-dance crew moonlight as pizza delivery boys. Or pizza delivery boys moonlight as a hot break-dance crew. I guess it could go both ways. If you’ve been dying to see a combination of Loverboy (1989) and Breakin’ (1984), this is the movie you need in your life.

FRATERNITY VACATION (1985)

The ultimate sex comedy cast: Academy Award winner Tim Robbins, Fright Night’s Stephen Geoffreys, Valley Girl’s Cameron Dye, Walker Texas Ranger’s Sheree J. Wilson, Hamburger The Motion Picture’s Leigh McCloskey, Married With Children’s Amanda Bearse, Re-Animator’s Barbara Crampton and (holy shit!) John Vernon! Nerds! Frat dudes! Bikinis!

LOOSE SCREWS (1985)

Beaver High’s four horniest screwups are sent to Coxwell Academy where they’ll break every rule for a private lesson with sexy new French teacher Miss Mona Lott. This is THE ONE, the ultimate cinematic embodiment of the teenage male, the boner comedy distilled down to the bone, every moment sexualized to a new height of hormoned hilarity with terrible puns & phallic one-liners. Jaw-dropping!

HAMBURGER: THE MOTION PICTURE (1986)

The comedy that serves up the laughs… and dishes out the bull! Fellow Hamburger-file Zack Carlson describes it best: “It’s a relentless storm of grease, gags and gratuitous nudity, peppered with countless chunks of ‘80s insanity, burger-based rock anthems and what is possibly the most racist fart joke to ever invade a VCR.”

Favorite Underrated Comedies - Kevin Clarke

Kevin Clarke works at Scarecrow Video and  is one half of the almost award-winning comedy group/film-making team The Entertainment Show (www.entertainmentshow.tumblr.com). They've made a feature length post-apocalyptic sci-fi/fantasy comedy, STEEL OF FIRE WARRIORS 2010 A.D. and an epic six episode "TV" series, ADVENTURE BUDDIES, both of which can be seen in (most of) their entirety at funnyordie.com/clarkethevogt. He's also one of the filmmakers behind HAMBURGER DAD, which is on Amazon Instant right now:
http://www.amazon.com/Hamburger-Dad/dp/B006S0OMG4

WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER (2001)
"Underrated" is a hard word to define. Can a bonafide cult-hit like WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER be considered "underrated?" From my experience working in a video store, when someone comes in asking for a great comedy, this is the first one I recommend, and nine times out of ten they have never seen it, even with all the future famouses peppering the cast. Plus, I think this is the best comedy of the last 15 years, so even if it were "overrated," I would consider it underrated.

TOP SECRET! (1984)
The funniest and most under-appreciated movie of the Zucker/Abrams/Zucker's oeuvre. The silliest movie ever (well, since DUCK SOUP, anyway ). AIRPLANE and THE NAKED GUN are great, but this is the master class on parody filmmaking and visual gaggery. And remember when Val Kilmer was hilarious? With not one, but TWO perfect jokes centered around boots!

MIAMI BLUES (1990)
Hands down the funniest (and therefore best) Alec Baldwin performance ever. His delivery of "Everything is turning all orange…and silver!" is sublime.
Also this bit:

"Freeze, I'm a cop!"
"You just shot me!"
"That was a warning shot, and it happened to hit you!"

EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU (1996)/DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (1997)
Woody Allen made these two tonally divergent and mostly forgotten masterpieces back to back. EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU is probably my favorite Allen film, an effortlessly charming musical that recalls the magic of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire and the wackiness of the Marx Brothers.

DECONSTRUCTING HARRY, on the other hand, is an acerbic black comedy about a sociopathic author (played by Allen himself) who's burned every bridge he's come across. It also contains some of the director's best magical realist visions, such as an actor who is out of focus, and a trip to hell.
These are both sadly out of print on video and have yet to receive even decent transfers on DVD (or, God forbid, Blu-Ray).

Woody (to another man in Hell): What did you do?
Damned Man: I invented aluminum siding.

FREAKED (1993)
We need more comedies like this ingenious live action cartoon from Alex (Bill S. Preston Esq.) Winter. It's sad that audiences have seemingly outgrown their ability to enjoy weird, unironic silliness like this. The spiritual ancestor of the Garbage Pail Kids trading cards (way more than the abysmal "official" GARBAGE PAIL KIDS movie) and the gross-out craze of the late '80s.

KISS KISS BANG BANG (2005)
Shane Black's already forgotten love-letter to/almost parody of film noir mysteries and screwball comedies plays like a self-reflexive THIN MAN or HIS GIRL FRIDAY that turns on a dime from comedy to action to drama and is not afraid to let itself get weird. Robert Downey Jr. (pre-IRON MAN super fame) has never been better as the movie's unreliable (and often forgetful) narrator, and Val Kilmer shows he can still be incredibly funny (see TOP SECRET! above), if he decides to be. Maybe this will get more attention once IRON MAN 3 is a huge hit, or maybe they'll finally make that sequel I've been wanting, but probably not.

REAL LIFE (1979)
Albert Brooks did a parody of reality TV twenty years before reality TV that also doubles as a brilliant satire on unchecked ego and Hollywood kissassery. Albert Brooks is a wizard or something.

LOONEY TUNES (1930s and 1940s)
Maybe I'm crazy, and I know that LOOONEY TUNES aren't underrated in the usual sense, but I feel, due to the sheer pop-culture ubiquitousness of the characters, and the significantly lesser knock-off/"sequel" series' (TINY TOONS, ANIMANIACS, LUNATICS, THE LOONEY TUNES SHOW), the world has forgotten that the original theatrical shorts are some of the silliest and most bat-shit insane comedy films ever made. Modern filmmakers should take a cue from these shorts and learn how to cut loose from the shackles of common sense once in awhile.

Bonus!

STELLA: The Complete Series
The surreal adventures of three idiots named Michael, Michael and David. From the genius minds of three guys named Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain. The Most criminally underrated television comedy ever.

Favorite Underrated Comedies - Spenser Hoyt

Spenser Hoyt works at Scarecrow Video, the Seattle Public Library and helps out at The Grand Illusion Cinema. He contributed a bunch of reviews to Destroy All Movies!!! and sometimes does stuff on the internet when he’s not busy watching movies or listening to records.

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Allegro Non Troppo(1976)- Italian animator Bruno Bozzeto’s riff on Fantasia has been a favorite of mine since I stumbled onto it as a kid. The animated bits are simply wonderful and alternate between extremely silly and downright sad. The live action framing scenes are broadly played and involve a bombastic director who has never heard of Walt Disney (“Who is this guy Prisney?”), a cruel conductor, an animator who is kept in chains and an orchestra comprised of elderly women.

The Big Bus(1976)- Even though it beat Airplane to the cinemas by a few years most people have forgotten about this disaster parody. Directed by the hard working James Frawley the film’s cast alone makes it worth watching but, for me, it comes down to Joseph Bologna and Stockard Channing—two highly underrated performers who liven up just about everything.

Foul Play(1978)- Poor Colin Higgins, he died way too young and really should have a better reputation as a screenwriter and director. He wrote the scripts for Harold and Maude and Silver Streak then went on to direct 9 to 5 and this underrated gem. Sure Chevy Chase is kind of a smarmy schmuck but the rest of the cast is outstanding with Dudley Moore’s swinging weirdo a stand out. My favorite scene involves two old ladies playing an all dirty word game of Scrabble.
   

Andy Warhol’s Bad(1977)- This black comedy isn’t nearly as well know as the other “Andy Warhol’s” and I guess that is because it isn’t on DVD, it isn’t directed by Paul Morrissey and Joe Dallesandro isn’t in it. Carroll Baker runs an electrolysis hair removal business from her home. To help make ends meet she rents out rooms to a trio of female assassins. Into her life comes Perry King portraying a sociopathic drifter whose general disposition is not much different than the students the actor would encounter a few years later in the Class of 1984. Bad has a very grim view of human nature and the comedy is pretty extreme, for example a baby getting thrown out a window is played for laughs. This is definitely not for all tastes, but I like it and that’s why it is on this list.

The Gazebo(1959)- I loved this movie as a kid, though I only understood about half the jokes. It also made me a fan of Glenn Ford and for that I am eternally grateful. It’s a lightly hued dark comedy about a screenwriter who hides a corpse under a backyard gazebo. The cast is a blast and includes Debbie Reynolds, Carl Reiner, John McGiver, Bert Freed, Martin Landau and Herman the Pigeon. The Gazebo was released by Warner Archives on DVD last year.

Vernon, Florida(1981)- Some people criticize this early Errol Morris documentary as being condescending but I disagree. Admittedly film makes the citizens of a tiny town in the panhandle of Florida look pretty weird but I think it is put together with a lot of affection and really doesn’t go out of its way to put anybody down. For a few years it was one of my most quoted movies and we would play it almost daily at a video store I worked at. There is a monologue about turkey hunting as a cure for diarrhea and a preacher gives a sermon about the word “therefore.” If those scenes don’t make you laugh then I don’t know what to say.

The Runnin’ Kind(1989)- This one falls into the dramedy category. I’d seen its neon pastel cover on the shelves of video stores for years and dismissed it as some sort of John Hughes knock off. It’s actually an enjoyable representation of the Southern California punk rock scene of the late 80s and presents the tale of a yuppie maggot from Ohio who travels to LA with a rocking chick drummer. Our hero soon discovers the coolness of punk rock but his friends and family back home don’t approve. It features a real all-girl band (The Screaming Sirens) and has a pretty fun cast. The front woman for the band is Pleasant Gehman who was a big part of the LA punk landscape and she helped write the script giving the whole thing a lot more credibility than similar films.

Love Crazy(1941)/I Love You Again(1940)- Since they both star Myrna Loy and William Powell these pictures are doomed to live in the shadow of the Thin Man (that’s a joke, son). Loy and Powell make a nearly unmatchable on-screen couple and both of these films are pretty damn funny (Double Wedding is good too). I Love You Again pushes along a forced plot and doesn’t give Loy enough to do but Powell proves himself to be game to all sorts of ridiculous situations and spends the final reel in drag. Love Crazy makes better use of Loy’s charms and the film has an efficient pace thanks to veteran director W.S. Van Dyke (who also did the Thin Man movies). Both showcase the stars chemistry and all these movies and more can be seen in TCM’s Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection. I wonder how these films would be regarded in an alternate universe where the Thin Man movies don’t exist?

The Glass Bottom Boat(1966)- This later FrankTashlin film is often overlooked but I think it’s one of his best (Susan Slept Here is another nifty neglected Tashlin offering) and I’m typically not a big Doris Day fan but here she is goofy and charming plus she is a mermaid! Actually it’s just a suit she wears to entertain the passengers who ride her dad’s (Arthur Godfrey) titular boat. Rod Taylor plays a rocket scientist who falls for the mermaid’s charms but, after a few misunderstandings, starts to suspect his new girlfriend is a Russian spy. There are tons of goofy gags involving reliable sources of humor like vacuum cleaners, banana cream pies, nosy neighbors and Paul Lynde in drag just to name a few. While the plot is a bit formulaic it definitely succeeds as a fun breezy movie and that’s all it tries to be. Pretty much every time I put this on the in-store monitor at Scarecrow Video somebody either rents it or wants to buy it. As a bonus feature the DVD also contains the Oscar winning Chuck Jones/Maurice Noble cartoon The Dot and the Line.

That Darn Cat!(1965)-I really wanted to pick a Disney comedy for this list. As a kid I could count on at least one amusing G-rated comedy from Disney every summer and, thanks to The Wonderful World of Disney TV show, many Sunday nights as well. There were a few nostalgic favorites like the Dexter Riley films, The Absent Minded Professor, Gus and The Apple Dumpling Gang that don’t quite hold up but I think That Darn Cat! is really good and it is also historically important in the Disney cannon as it is Haley Mills last Disney film and Dean Jones first Disney film. The plot centers around a mischievous Siamese cat named D.C. who helps solve a crime. The film mostly avoids any cutesy-pie kitty antics and finds most of its humor from its plot and characters. The supporting cast is outstanding and includes Neville Brand and Frank Gorshin as kidnappers, Elsa Lanchester and William Demarest as nosy neighbors plus Roddy McDowall waves a shotgun around. I guess there was a remake but I’d rather just watch this version again.

Evil Roy Slade(1972)- Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson originally conceived Evil Roy Slade as a TV series about a bad guy who killed a different good guy every week. Their concept was reworked into this laugh packed stand alone western parody that was made a couple of years before Blazing Saddles. The jokes are relentless and range from silly to surreal and the cast is packed with all sorts of reliably funny folks (Henry Gibson, Dick Shawn and Milton Berle to name a few) but much of the hilarity belongs to the criminally underrated John Astin who has never been funnier. He stars as the titular “meanest villain in the west” who makes an attempt at reforming his ways after he falls for a schoolteacher. Astin portrays Slade as strange and childlike with a disposition towards casual violence and eyebulging. I loves me a good made for TV movie and this is probably the funniest and, therefore, best.

Runner Ups: The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Used Cars, Get Crazy