An Anytime Movie is a movie you can put on at anytime and be perfectly content. They are movies that do not depend on mood. You do not worry about how long they are, or anything else. They suit you at anytime. They are rainy day movies, or I-am-not-doing-anything-else movies. They are go to standards. This collection does not represent my all time favorite movies, but the movies I can put on and be immediately happy I did. Yes, two are featured in my all time favorites, but that is not the point. These are the movies that do something to me every time. Movies I never tire of. This is week 2 in my five part series. This list is in no particular order.
The Man who knew too Little- This is not a well known movie, at least it does not appear to be. It is what I like to call A Hadley Family Classic. There are 4 or 5 movies in the Hadley Family Classic grouping and this was probably the first one. Bill Murray is dead pan hilarious and with every minute the movie gets more and more silly, and more and more funny. The familiar story of mistaken identity doesn't bother me because Murray deals with it in such a fantastic way. I do not recommend this movie to many people, because I am not sure it is for everyone, but my father, my little brother and myself have watched it plenty of times and it never fails to crack us up. It has been awhile since I have watched it because my DVD got all scratched up and I am missing it.
The Wedding Singer- I love Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, but this is my favorite Adam Sandler movie. It is so quotable; it has awesome clothes, hair and music. It cracks me up every time. Sandler once said every comedian wants to be a rock star, so in true Sandler fashion, he plays a rock star who never became a star. He and Barrymore have an adorable chemistry and it is just a super funny movie and a kind of sweet love story. Some of the jokes are easy because the 80s are easy, but I can bust out all kinds of quotes from the movie and they are all delivered perfectly. The high point would have to be "Somebody Kill me Please" where he wrote half the song in a good place and half in a bad place and then the Jon Lovitz cameo.
Superbad- Robbie and I had a conversation a few weeks ago but where this movie will stand in 5 or 10 years and we both believed it would be a teenage classic. How can it not be? It is just flat out hilarious. It gave Michael Cera and Jonah Hill a chance to do what they both do so well and everything just clicked. There is never a five minute stretch where I am not laughing out loud while watching this movie. I do not like to blow comedies out of proportion, but I really think it is a smart movie without being overly clever. Everything just fits. I find myself more and more picking this movie out of my collection and popping it in as background noise, but about 20 minutes in, I stop whatever I was doing and just watch. I still find new things to laugh at every time I watch it. I do not really have a key moment, because it is all perfect.
Liar Liar- Jim Carrey stars as a man who endures 24 hours of not being able to lie. He is frantic, silly and incredibly funny. This is tops as far as Jim Carrey comedies go. He gets to do everything that makes him Jim Carrey. He makes silly faces, goes crazy physical and gets to deliver wonderfully silly lines with such gusto and force. It is quotable, but does not rely on being quotable for replay value. It is just a flat out funny movie. Carrey's gangly frame was never more perfectly used than in a scene where he is beating himself up. There is great chemistry between Carrey and the child and Carey Elwes even gets a good laughs with his attempt at "The Claw", but the hands down winner scene has to be "The pen is blue" scene where Carrey goes on some Three Stooges/Evil Dead 2 style comedy.
Tommy Boy- I can say without hesitation that I have not seen any other movie more times than I have seen Tommy Boy. It is practically a monthly standing date I have. Tommy Boy was my high school movie. It was the movie that made me believe that comedy of different styles were meant to fit together because this movie's brilliance is in how Chris Farley's physical comedy meshes so perfectly with David Spade's sarcasm. It is my favorite comedy. It is not the best comedy, ever, but it is my favorite. I love for every moment that features the two guys just riffing or being stupidly hilarious. I love it because Rob Lowe plays the bad guy and I love it for "Fat guy in a little coat." I love it for all the bad things the car endures and everything else inside the movie. In high school I wanted to be Chris Farley, but my style of comedy was not physical, I was a dead pan sarcasm guy and this movie let me have both. I can probably recite the movie front to back at this point.
What comedies can you just turn on at any moment and enjoy the hell out of them?
Next week's installment will also be comedies, but they come with a twist, or something. I have not figured out completely how they group together, but I shall!
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