The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame V: Comedy Edition

does anyone, by any chance, have a link for Ready or Not (2019)?
Thank you SO much in advance

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I do, I'll PM.

One Two Three (1961)

I had never even heard of this one before. In the 50's/60's we had a lot of old men in business type comedies. In this film the head of a branch (James Cagney) has to watch the daughter of the company owner in Berlin when the wall is coming up. This is not a PC film at all which is likely why I never see it on TCM. It's almost like a sitcom three parter played out.

Cagney is having so much fun as a man who really would be considered a villain in today's world. He puts people's lives at risk he pimps out his secretary...this is a major plot point, And we get this great glimpse of communism from the west satirized before a number of atrocities became publicized.

I'm not going to spoil to much about the plot because it's very much a point a to b to c type story. This is an escapade and glorious one at that. This is the first comedy that actually got laughs out of me.

Diner (1982)

Tom Daly, Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Paul Reiser, Kevin Bacon, and David Guttenberg are six friends that spend the majority of their time together in a local 24 hr Diner.
They talk.

Annnd, that's about it, really.
About life, about a guy who can eat a quarter of the menu in one sitting. About something that happened the night before, about betting whether or not Rourke's character can get his date to touch his pecker, so on and so forth.

They talk.

Nonstop.

Even as the credits roll. . . you hear them talking.

Which, on its own, is a lovely lil nostalgic bit of cinema from a bygone time in 1959, and six young men are spending their time together. And in itself, it does a truly excellent job of just that.
Now, would I consider this a comedy? No. I'd barely step into the Dramedy listing since it is far more dramatic than comedic. As a drama, it truly works. It truly does. But as a candidate for a Comedy Hall of Fame. . . I found myself waiting for those "funny" moments to arrive throughout the continual conversation instead of merely enjoying the film in its entirety for what it truly is and for what truly works for it.

If this were a General HoF, I would most likely rave about this film. I am truly glad that I finally saw this film that came out in my Senior Year of High School as a "Slice of Life," with occasional funny moments intermixed throughout the conversations.

Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)

This film kind of solidified something for me: As much as I don't dig story films, I also don't super dig character films either, especially when the characters kind of just feel like a stack of personality quirks. That's probably a tad harsh since there's obviously far more egregious examples out there but it certainly felt that way at points. Some cute moments as the film goes on but mostly a bit of a snoozer. Nothing like, bad about it per se but nothing I could find myself caring about (and certainly no laughs) but it's going to rank high on my ballot because its shot real nice and the bar is kind of low lmao.

Hey everyone,

I feel bad for backing out so late and I feel like I owe a bit of an explanation. As CR mentioned, I messaged them stating that I couldn't finish in time. My youngest son came down with a severe case of croup. It restricts the airways and causes a barking seal like cough in children, it sounds really rough. It was so severe that he couldn't breathe. 4AM one night he's coughing away and he check on him and see that his lips are blue. So we rush to emergency.

The nurse rushes him in, gives some quick tests, heartrate is 140. My wife starts freaking out. They give some Advil and Tylenol to fight the fever. Then some steroids to combat the inflammation of his lungs, which was causing the struggling to breathe.

We all had a really bad stomach bug a few weeks before and this kid has been coughing for the last 3 months. So the hospital visit was a tough one. Been kind of in and out of it recently and hopefully this is the last bit of it. He does seem to be doing better...enough to punch me as he walks past (he's going to be 3 next month).

So anyways, I was behind on my movie watching as it was and this just made things harder and more stressful. I didn't want to be the one dragging my feet, so I opted to drop out.

Sorry for nominating Jackass too....but you kept nixing my nominations that I finally said, screw it, watch this, hahaha.

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Suspect's Reviews

Sorry that your family went through. That would have been a very frightening experience. I'm glad your son is doing better now. No need to feel bad about dropping out. We understand, family takes priority of course.

Aw, poor kiddo. I'm glad he's doing better.

No worries. (Though I could definitely tell that "screw it, watch this!" was the vibe of that particular nomination, LOL).

Dude, I was ready to disappear forever not long ago when one of my dogs was sick so I can only imagine. The best to you and your family.

I've been keeping an eye on this thread waiting to see what you thought of this. I also felt sure you weren't going to like it so I'm quite pleasantly surprised that you do. It's long been a favorite of mine, but I'm a sucker for that kind of sentimental crap. I also love the soundtrack and Brendan Fraser, Patrick Dempsey, and Moira Kelly all look hot in it so that helps.



@TheUsualSuspect

Glad to hear your kid seems to be on the mend. I can't even imagine how stressful that must be!

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@TheUsualSuspect
hope your son is doing better.
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And I'm done, this turned out to be a real pleasure for me.

...and Cricket is the 5th to finish. Glad you enjoyed your choices.

I think of all genres comedy is the most personal and the hardest to recommend to another person. Of all the comedies chosen for me I only really loved one of them, but I did find something to like about most all of them.

Josie and the Pussycats (Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont, 2001)

Ok take 2 lol. So the film has two angles and I think I'd have liked the film more if it just picked a lane. Go with the over-the-top industry parody or the feel-good girl-band rise to stardom but trying to do both just waters down both ideas. I don't even think the movie pulls it off that badly I just like my films to be completely one-note as you may have noticed based on the things I nominate for HoFs. It has positives like having some visual flair here and there, the production designers clearly had a blast with the excessive product placement, Tara Reid is really charming (maybe I just relate to other dumb girls lmao), the opening scene is a lot of fun but for the most part the film doesn't really move the needle. Its just kind of whatever. I think I'd have been a lot more into it if the music was a bigger part of the film and, y'know, if the music was any good lmao.

Used Cars (1980)

A joke often has a setup and a punch line, both have to work for the joke to work. Used Cars is the story of a pair of brothers who after one is murdered his sidekick needs to raise money to get a state senate seat. It's basically a war between two car dealership the successful one and the rebel crappy one across the street.

The problem is that the setup and first hour of the film is great...and then they have no place to go with it. They do the bits that are funny...selling the cars and doing ads for the cars....and then it just meanders and goes on and on and on. They do a big race at the end for reasons I forget almost immediately.


Frankly I wouldn't recommend this film because after the murder, strippers and dead dog jokes it all just falls apart. Jack Warden is good as the brothers but the rest of the supporting cast is forgettable and frankly just bad.

I've not heard of Used Cars before but I kinda like that screenshot

@edarsenal @Siddon

Tomorrow is the deadline May 24th, do you guys need more time? I can extend this if you do. Let me know.