![]() What ensues is not so much a con-artist caper but more an Irish celebration of community, camaraderie and the spirit of human generosity. Two of his old-timer buddies, Jackie (Ian Bannen) and Michael ( Fawlty Towers’ David Kelly), decide to scam the big-city lotto agent into thinking that one of them is Ned, alive and well. Ned is an old-timer in a small Irish village who wins the lottery and dies from the shock of it. Waking Ned Devine may be the most feel-good heist flick ever made. Waking Ned Devine (1998) Director: Kirk Jones Smith would return to the world of Dante, Randal, Jay and Silent Bob many times (and with modestly larger budgets), but it would never feel quite as a perfect as the original. Filled with philosophical discussions on relationships, purpose and the relative innocence of construction workers on the Death Star, it established Smith as a unique voice for at least a corner of the slacker generation. When Kevin Smith spent $27,575 to film a black-and-white film about a slacker working at a Quick Stop, no one could imagine how much it would resonate. Sometimes a labor of love becomes something much bigger. Here are the 100 best (English language) comedies of all time: (Note: Because so much of the impact of comedies often relies on language, we’ve only included English language films on this list.) Let the films on this list of best comedies ever made-and the laughter they elicit-help balance the scales. After all, life is hard, people can suck, misfortune may indeed lurk around every corner, and we all know how it ends. Every film on this list should be a dependable source of grins, chuckles and guffaws. Ultimately, when creating a list of the best comedies ever it’s all about the laughs. We appreciate those pioneers, but there are plenty of lists out there giving them their due. ![]() This should not be seen as a slight (intended or unintended) against any director or movie. Finally, and related to the previous point, since this list does not weigh factors such as “cultural impact” or “pioneering importance” as heavily as it could, it inevitably skews more modern. Or perhaps, as with Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges, the type of humor they pioneered has been adopted and developed in iterations that have the end result of bumping them down or off the list. Second, there are some films-and some comedic actors-whose importance to the development of the genre is unquestioned even as their appeal to modern audiences has waned due to changing times and tastes. ![]() More often, it’ll mean a more precipitous drop. In some cases, that may mean just a spot or two lower on the list. So, what’s the criteria for our list of best comedy movies of all time? First, it means some great films that are also comedies may appear lower on the list than they would if we were weighing technical execution of those non-comic elements equally with humor present. That, in turn, means a couple of things for what might otherwise be the usual suspects on a Best Comedies list. These films have been chosen (and ranked) based on how many laughs we think they are likely to generate for the modern audience. Faced with this challenge, we’ve decided to approach this particular list in a manner that seeks to guarantee laughter and amusement for the people most likely to look to it when seeking something that will bring some joy to the daily grind. In considering the top comedies ever made, there are as many flavors of culturally specific comedy as there are cultural sensibilities (and, of course, there are plenty of folks capable of enjoying more than one type). ![]() For others, deft character studies that find the humor in our all-too-human foibles are the only comedies worth watching. For some, slapstick and farce hit the spot while more cerebral fare falls flat. But while all lists, no matter how objective a scale one tries to apply, have some degree of subjectivity to them, few things are as subjective as humor. It’s not because there’s any shortage of great comedies out there-as a category, the film comedy has existed from pretty much the beginning. Of all Paste’s curated Best 100 lists, the top comedies of all time has probably been the toughest to put together.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |