Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Eight days of favorite films III: Comedy

Continuing my eight day look at my favorite films by genre we have comedies:

  1. The Great Dictator (1940)
  2. Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
  3. Duck Soup (1933)
  4. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
  5. A Christmas Story (1983)
  6. Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House (1948)
  7. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
  8. To Be or Not to Be (1942)
  9. Bringing up Baby (1938)
  10. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Once again, there are certain trends you can observe; for one, I appear to be roughly 90 years old. For another, I really seem to like Cary Grant.

Comedy is a tricky one with me. I like amusing wordplay more than slapstick and I like slapstick more than gross-out humour. I also have a limit to the amount of snark I can take with my comedy, so modern comedies have a hard time winning me over. I usually do my best to avoid comedies.

Explaining why I find something funny is a task I'm not equipped to meet. Instead, I'll just give you a scene from my favorite comedy, the Great Dictator:

Tomorrow: the Mystery/Suspense genre

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5 comments:

  1. traumadorJanuary 28, 2009 at 2:37 AM

    well modern comedy films... films!

    plenty of modern comedy you and me both like, just from TV mostly

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 28, 2009 at 10:02 AM

    You sound like a good friend of mine. I mean that in a good way, though. Ever watch I Love Lucy?

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 28, 2009 at 10:06 AM

    HOLY CRETACEOUS!! Did he just get Shot?!! Is he dead?!!!

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  4. Michael HoskinJanuary 28, 2009 at 6:29 PM

    I'm not much of a Lucille Ball fan, albeit my experience with her work is mainly around her old radio show, My Favorite Husband.

    If you like the bulletproof vest scene from the Great Dictator, you'll love the parachute scene.

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  5. Michael HoskinJanuary 29, 2009 at 8:34 PM

    You're correct Craig; we both dig plenty of Brit-coms (Black Books, Spaced) and animated comedies (Tick, Critic) and we share a good sense of humour for similar internet gags, bad movies and Weird Al songs. I guess it's really just in film that you and I part ways since you, I think, have more love for contemporary comedies.

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