Some Like It Hot's Recent Activity - Spout

Film:Some Like It Hot

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:58:13 GMT

Title: Some Like It Hot
Year: 1959
Director: Billy Wilder
Plot: The launching pad for Billy Wilder's comedy classic was a rusty old German farce, Fanfares of Love, whose two main characters were male musicians so desperate to get a job that they disguise themselves as women and play with an all-girl band in gangster-dominated 1929 Chicago. In this version, musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) lose their jobs when a speakeasy owned by mob boss Spats Columbo (George Raft) is raided by prohibition agent Mulligan (Pat O'Brien). Several weeks later, on February 14th, Joe and Jerry get a job perfroming in Urbana and end up witnessing a gangland massacre in a parking garage. Fearing that they will be next on the mobsters' hit lists, Joe devises an ingenious plan for disguising their identities. Soon they are all dolled up and performing as Josephine and Daphne in Sweet Sue's all-girl orchestra. En route to Florida by train with Sweet Sue's band, the boys (girls?) make the acquaintance of Sue's lead singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe, in what may be her best performance). Joe and Jerry immediately fall in love, though of course their new feminine identities prevent them from acting on their desires. Still, they are determined to woo her, and they enact an elaborate series of gender-bending ruses complicated by the fact that flirtatious millionaire Osgood Fielding (Joe E. Brown) has fallen in love with "Daphne." The plot gets even thicker when Spats Columbo and his boys show up in Florida. Nominated for several Oscars, Some Like It Hot ended up the biggest moneymaking comedy up to 1959. Full of hilarious set pieces and movie in-jokes, it has not tarnished with time and in fact seems to get better with each passing year, as its cross-dressing humor keeps it only more and more up-to-date. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 124
Number of Lists: 64
Number of blog posts: 10
Number of discussion threads: 11
SpoutRating: 3

Spout Post: A Marilyn Classic

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:08:41 GMT

Post By: tributetomarilyn
Post To: tributetomarilyn Blog
Post Date: 4/24/2009 6:08:41 PM
Body: I love this movie! It's one of my Favorite Marilyn Moroe Movies of all time. Classic! Janet as Marilyn www.tributetomarilyn.com

Spout Post: Re:Weekly Theme for March 23: Hotels, Motels, Inns and Lodges

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:11:47 GMT

Post By: mercurial
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 3/25/2009 2:11:47 AM
Body: Undoubtedly my favorite film taking place in a hotel is The Shining. From beginning to end I love every frame of this flick. Another film based on a Stephen King story that also takes place in a hotel is 1408. The first time around the film kinda lost me during its uproarious second act, but after watching it again the other night, I was surprised at how amazingly chilling it actually was. A significant portion of Some Like It Hot takes place at a posh Florida resort. Lost in Translation was another film that mostly took place in a hotel. Actually most of the memorable scenes took place in the hotel: the fire alarm, the pool aerobics, the maniacal exercise equipment, the amazingly short shower spout, the karaoke bar, the flower arranging class, etc. As implied by its name, Grand Hotel is all about the misadventures of a group of guests at a swanky hotel. At the hotel to escape, we get that great line from Greta Garbo, "I want to be alone!" Last Holiday (I have only seen the remake with Queen Latifah) takes place in an insanely luxurious hotel in the Czech Republic. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a non-stop romp from hotel to hotel, trashing each room beyond all recognition. Forgetting Sarah Marshall featured yet another luxury resort, this time in Hawaii and occupied by the lovely Mila Kunis (Kristen Bell isn't that bad either). And of course Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Thirteen (I barely remember Twelve) showed us the in's and out's of pulling a fast one on a Vegas casino - and just how insane those penthouse rooms that most of us will never get a chance to stay in look like.

Spout Post: 80s Cult Classics That Need Remakes NOW

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:00:31 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 12/12/2008 12:00:31 PM
Body: Earlier this month, Production Weekly reported that Alex Cox and David Lynch would begin shooting their Repo Man sequel, titled Repo Chick, next month. Fifteen years after the release of the first movie, Cox revealed that it’s a timely revisit, as the new movie will “unfold against the background of the credit crunch and the subprime mortgage crisis in the US, where repossessions of homes, cars and other forms of property is at a new high.” Coupled with the recent announcement that John Carpenter is producing a remake of his own They Live, the news of a second Repo Man film has us wondering what other ‘80s cult classics should appropriately be remade or revisited now that the economy is shit again. Depending on your definition of “cult film” (many people call Ghostbusters a cult classic), some of the selected films may not be fitting for that term. Regardless, the following ten movies, if redone today, would have definite relevance to these troubled times. Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981) With unemployment on the rise, and homelessness sure to increase, it’s time for Hollywood to break out the ol’ Capra-esque stories of bums hitting the big time. Some films, such as Trading Places and Down and Out in Beverly Hills, don’t need to be touched. But this forgotten yet somewhat beloved movie could use a redo. Alan Arkin stars as an unemployed baseball player who may have a new job in the minors if he can only raise the money to get across the country. Fox could remake this story without retaining the title or the profession (though what’s more American Dream-like than baseball player? Capra employed the same idea in Meet John Doe), so as not to associate the new film with this ancient box office disappointment. Eating Raoul (1982) We recently spotlighted this “gold standard for black comedies” on a Thanksgiving-related list of cannibal movies. But it fits here as well. A couple in need of money ends up killing people and selling the corpses for cash. While the original film has the human meat sold to a dog food company, it might be even a greater gag in this financial crunch to have it feed the homeless. Or, better yet, in the U.S. Capitol’s cafeterias. The Survivors (1983) The opening premise alone will have the recently laid off feeling better about their own firing. One guy (played by Robin Williams) is let go by a parrot, while another (Walter Matthau) loses his business when it blows up. From there, anything goes with the remake as long as it still shows desperate measures resulting from unemployment. As a buddy movie, though, it’ll be worthwhile to pit a financial layoff with a blue-collar layoff. Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984) Don’t say it makes no sense to remake a sequel without remaking the original. Nobody cares about the first Breakin’. Besides, Electric Boogaloo is the one that features the cliché plot involving a greedy real estate developer wanting to tear down a community center. And evil real estate developers and bankers ought to be making a comeback. Rappin’ (1985) If nobody wants to touch the sacred icon that is Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, then here’s another hip-hop movie involving an evil real estate developer. Despite a similar cheesiness, it’s not nearly as celebrated, or remembered. A remake could right all the wrongs of the original, especially with regards to the rhymes. The Goonies (1985) Hardly a cult classic, sure, but it does have the feel of one, especially to all those people who take trips to Astoria, Oregon, just to visit the film’s locations. Anyway, more evil real estate developers here, and more kids trying to save the day. Rather than truly remake the movie, which would be met with disapproval, and rather than completely bypass the reunion sequel that’s been talked about for so long, Warner Bros. ought to make a separate remake-type sequel titled The Goonies Too. The new movie will simply follow another group of kids on another adventure that will similarly stop the impending foreclosure of their homes. One Crazy Summer (1986) Yeah, yeah, more greedy real estate developers. But this one involves saving the house of an old man who nobody in the audience cares about. And a regatta. Actually, without the warped genius of Savage Steve Holland and without John Cusack in the lead, a remake of this comedy would be pointless, even if relevant. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time Hollywood made a pointless remake, right? The Money Pit (1986) It may not technically be a cult classic, but it’s so rarely celebrated for its good qualities (like the excellent scene involving a cataclysmic sort of Rube Goldberg machine) that it deserves to be here. Plus, few plots are more relevant to the subprime mortgage crisis than one involving a couple (played by Tom Hanks and Shelley Long) that finds a deal on a new home that’s too good to be true. Wisdom (1986) If a cult classic requires only a cult of one member, then Wisdom is a cult classic. And since every economic recession needs its own Robin Hood movie, this is ripe for a remake (never mind Ridley Scott’s forthcoming Nottingham). Repo Man star Emilio Estevez wrote, co-directed (with Robert Wise) and co-starred (with Demi Moore) in this Bonnie and Clyde tale of a pair of bank “robbers” who bomb bank file cabinets in order to erase records of loans and mortgages, thereby helping out the struggling debtors. This time, though, it’s key that the main characters don’t get killed. Hiding Out (1987) Jon Cryer stars as a stockbroker on the run from mobsters he’s cheated. Does he flee to Florida and join an all-girl band? No, he shaves off his beard and magically becomes a teenager again. Then he reenrolls in his cousin’s high school and falls in love with a young girl who’d probably get him in worse trouble than he is already in. A remake of this film could be more depraved, more American Psycho than Some Like it Hot, by having the protagonist on the run from the government rather than the mob (he’s guilty of insider trading or some other form of Wall Street corruption), and his unlikable traits would extend to his multiple affairs with minors while pretending to be a high school student. And this time, it’s key that the main character does get killed. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:52:22 GMT

Post By: pippin06
Post To: Top 5
Post Date: 11/7/2008 7:52:22 AM
Body: [quote user="Risselada"] [quote user="pippin06"]When I think overrated, I'm thinking of films that garner a boatload of critical and/or popular acclaim and don't live up to the hype. Braveheart was a great example. I have an example, though I really have to think about five in total - Some Like It Hot. It gets all of these awards and high-rankings for being wonderfully funny, and it is silly, but I don't laugh, except an occasional chuckle, when I watch it, and I've seen it at least twice. I don't know what the IMDB ranking is because I don't use that marker - is that what we should base our understanding of "overrated" on? It's just so subjective. I think I made this same argument, or at least thought it really hard, in the other group...I have to go check that out.[/quote] I agree with you about Some Like It Hot. I was sorely disappointed, and didn't actually laugh that much at all. I don't think you have to use the IMDB ranking as a marker whenever you discuss whether a movie is overrated, but I think it's a valid one since it's probably the most popular and utilized movie rating website in the world. And Some Like It Hot ranks as #79 on it's top 250 list. [/quote] See, and I was just visiting IMDB for the articles and the easy lookup of films. I didn't even notice this is other list, though I've probably heard about it in passing. I like Rotten Tomatoes, because you get actual print and media critics and then other people too. It'd be interesting to compare the two. Plus, I like tomatoes. I mean, I really like tomatoes. Though not when they're rotten.

Spout Post: Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:19:30 GMT

Post By: Risselada
Post To: Top 5
Post Date: 11/5/2008 11:19:30 AM
Body: [quote user="pippin06"]When I think overrated, I'm thinking of films that garner a boatload of critical and/or popular acclaim and don't live up to the hype. Braveheart was a great example. I have an example, though I really have to think about five in total - Some Like It Hot. It gets all of these awards and high-rankings for being wonderfully funny, and it is silly, but I don't laugh, except an occasional chuckle, when I watch it, and I've seen it at least twice. I don't know what the IMDB ranking is because I don't use that marker - is that what we should base our understanding of "overrated" on? It's just so subjective. I think I made this same argument, or at least thought it really hard, in the other group...I have to go check that out.[/quote] I agree with you about Some Like It Hot. I was sorely disappointed, and didn't actually laugh that much at all. I don't think you have to use the IMDB ranking as a marker whenever you discuss whether a movie is overrated, but I think it's a valid one since it's probably the most popular and utilized movie rating website in the world. And Some Like It Hot ranks as #79 on it's top 250 list.

Spout Post: Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:46:39 GMT

Post By: pippin06
Post To: Top 5
Post Date: 11/4/2008 4:46:39 PM
Body: [quote user="leeroy711"] [quote user="SkyPilot"] [quote user="pippin06"] Sheesh, SkyPilot, you nearly made me faint... ...Amelie is loads of charming and French, what do you want? [/quote] pippin06, give this message a little waft before you inhale; you may find my writing resembles ether more than smelling salts. Amelie is indeed French, but beyond that I must disagree. I suppose one person's "charming" is another person's "cloyingly sentimental," but I'll agree to disagree on that one. I don't know what Jeunet's intentions were with Amelie. If he just meant to make an entertaining movie, alright; I'll admit the film is a pretty little thing. But I don't think it offers anything of value about how healthy romantic relationships actually work. My friend porcupine calls Amelie the "the hipster's Jerry Maguire" because we're shown no reason why the two characters could actually be good for one another. (Pippin, I don't mean to say you think Amelie portrays healthy romance. Whatever your perspective is, I'm interested in hearing it!) So now you see what I'm looking for in romantic movies, and hopefully I explained how I could consider Amelie to be extremely overrated. [/quote] OK, First things first [quote user="dictionary"] cloyingly One entry found. Main Entry:cloy·ing Pronunciation:\ˈklȯi-iŋ, ˈklȯiŋ\ Function:adjective Date:1594 : disgusting or distasteful by reason of excess ; also : excessively sweet or sentimental [/quote] Jerry Mcquire is much more about the relationship between the two main characters than Amelie is. In fact, I don't really think you could make the case that there was more than one main character in Amelie. The movie was about her not necessarily her and him. And I think I would have liked it just as much whether they ended up together or not. The reason Amelie is a far superior movie to JM or most other romantic comedies was the direction. It was a cute little story that could have been told a number of ways. The way Jeunet told was in Jeunet's style, which is, full of French charm. The breaking off into constant tangents, the meta-film, and the overall cinematography made this movie much much more watchable. I think it's Jeunet's style that I love more than anything and Amelie is a very good example of it. It also happens to be his first romantic comedy (Delicatessen and City of Lost Children were both quite dark) so I think it was destined to much more notice in the states. But I digress, as much as I like it, I will admit that it is overrated. It seems to be somewhat of a gateway drug when it comes to foreign films of the past 20 years and being overrated is going to be inherant in a film like that. [/quote] See, I find it strange calling a gateway to anything "overrated" (and this is in response to Rizzo's comment too). Film aficionados decry the (at least) American masses for their general lack of wherewithal when it comes to foreign fare, and then present a film that actually gets people interested, and all of a sudden, it's a foreign film packaged for American sensibilities; it's liked just because it's cool to like it, or it's liked just because it's dumbed down enough (my paraphrase, naturally) for people to stomach it over here. Never mind that it's actually a wonderful story with some inventive direction. I'm not a Jeunet expert by any means, but I think it's the kind of fairy tale being presented in Amelie that's the draw, and, let's face it, Americans on the whole are a more conservative movie-viewing audience that are less prone to give the racier, more graphic, more in-your-face subject matter typical of many foreign films a try. Put another way, if Amelie is the microwave Stouffer's lasagna compared to the Tuscan lamb of films from elsewhere, so be it, but mark it overrated just because it's more American audience-friendly? Good night! Again, I ask, how do we define overrated? In Amelie, it's not the romance element that is the focus, as leeroy indicated. It's the main, as in title, character herself, and her creative way of reaching out and trying to make a connection when she previously would not be able to do so. It's the shy, awkward, introvert's poster-movie, not the banner of healthy romantic relatonships, because most people, real or imagined, could not be compared to Mlle. Amelie, so why should her romance, even if it is the focus (which it really isn't), be compared to other more standard, show-me-the-money fare? When I think overrated, I'm thinking of films that garner a boatload of critical and/or popular acclaim and don't live up to the hype. Braveheart was a great example. I have an example, though I really have to think about five in total - Some Like It Hot. It gets all of these awards and high-rankings for being wonderfully funny, and it is silly, but I don't laugh, except an occasional chuckle, when I watch it, and I've seen it at least twice. I don't know what the IMDB ranking is because I don't use that marker - is that what we should base our understanding of "overrated" on? It's just so subjective. I think I made this same argument, or at least thought it really hard, in the other group...I have to go check that out.

Spout Post: 15 Characters Who Unconvincingly Play Another Race

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:00:37 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 8/8/2008 2:00:37 PM
Body: Yesterday’s list dealt with Tom Cruise’s performance in Tropic Thunder. Today, a response to Robert Downey Jr.’s role in the same film as a white actor portraying a black soldier in a war movie (seen in the above clip). Doesn’t it seem such an original and shocking idea? I guess not if you see it as an update on blackface. Fortunately, it’s different when it’s an actor playing a character who makes himself up to look black. It’s funny. But isn’t it typically more acceptable when the make-up isn’t quite as authentic-looking as Downey’s? He actually looks black. Specifically, he looks like Fred Williamson. I’ve seen plenty of lists detailing the worst instances of one race or nationality playing characters of another race/nationality (John Wayne and Susan Hayward in The Conqueror comes to mind as #1), but I can’t recall any lists involving actors playing characters disguised as or playing another race. So here’s one: My Geisha (”Lucy Dell”/”Yoko Mori”) - Shirley Maclaine is an American movie star who fools her filmmaker husband when she disguises herself as Japanese in order to win the lead role in his latest movie. She’s so good that throughout the whole production, he thinks he’s shamefully falling for a woman who isn’t his wife. But really, she’s not so much passing for Japanese as she is passing for the look of a geisha, which itself is not an ethnicity but a costume. Still, the makeup designer (Shu Uemura) pinned Maclaine’s eyes back in a way that wasn’t always done for “yellowface” in Hollywood films. The method (seen here) looks like it must have been excruciatingly painful. Gambit (”Nicole Chang”) - A few years after My Geisha, Maclaine played white playing Asian again in this crime caper starring Michael Caine, but this time her primary character is apparently part-Asian already, hence her surname, Chang. So, I guess she’s more like Eurasian playing more exaggerated Asian. Shanghai Noon (”Chon Wang”) - Did you know that Chinese and Native Americans look the same? You don’t even have to do anything cosmetic. Well, maybe some war paint. Otherwise, just put some Native American dress on Jackie Chan, and he’ll pass as an Injun. Or a Jew? (see this gag). Once Upon a Time in China and America (”Wong Fei-Hung”) - In that part of Shanghai Noon, Chan’s racial “transformation” was likely referencing this film, directed by his oft-collaborator Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, in which an amnesia-inflicted Jet Li mistakes himself for Native American. Which is even more ridiculous when considering that all the Native Americans in this sixth installment of the Once Upon a Time in China series were apparently played by white actors. Black Like Me (”John Finley Horton”) - The problem with this adaptation of John Howard Griffin’s memoir is that James Whitmore doesn’t look all that convincing as a black guy. Eddie Murphy was more convincing the other way around in the old SNL skit when he goes undercover as a white man. Soul Man (”Mark Watson”) - Even C. Thomas Howell looked more black in this unofficial remake. The thing I truly don’t buy with this movie, though, is how Rae Dawn Chong’s character forgives him and even falls for him at the end despite the fact that he pretended to be another race to win the scholarship she should have won. That couple belongs on the list I compiled earlier this year of romances that probably didn’t last. True Identity (”Miles Pope”) - Going back to the Eddie Murphy thing, I never realized that this early ’90s comedy was actually a feature-length spin-off of that SNL skit (both were written by Andy Breckman) combined with the ol’ accidental murder witness plot of Some Like It Hot, Pineapple Express, etc. Here, the witness is a black actor (British comedian Lenny Henry) who disguises himself as white. I’ve never seen True Identity, nor can I even find any stills from the movie (the image above comes from the Siskel & Ebert review), but in the Washington Post review, Henry is said to resemble Mr. Potato Head more than an actual white guy. Trading Places (”Louis Winthorpe III”) - Another Eddie Murphy connection. Here it’s Dan Aykroyd, though, whose character changes race. Let me tell you: I know this reggae singer who sounds authentically Jamaican and almost seems to think he’s actually Jamaican. But he’s still just a white guy in dreads. Yet I have to give him credit for being more passable as Jamaican than Louis. Silver Streak (”George Cardwell”) - Maybe it’s just easier to fool people on trains. A few years before Aykroyd’s character did it in Trading Places, Gene Wilder’s character attempted to look black in order to sneak past some cops and get onto a train. I get the tradition to portray policemen as stupid, but nobody is that stupid. The Master of Disguise (”Pistachio Disguisey”) - Among the many disguises Dana Carvey’s character takes on in this lame comedy, a few are offensively ethnic, including Indian and Cuban (really just an impersonation of Al Pacino as Tony Montana from Scarface). The fact that this guy is supposed to be the greatest master of disguises is upsetting. The fact that so many children saw the thing was even more upsetting. Zelig (”Leonard Zelig”) - The titular “Chameleon Man” character of Woody Allen’s mockumentary also “becomes” other ethnicities, such as African American, Chinese and Native American. The fact that he always still just looks like Woody Allen is part of the joke, though. Torch Song (”Jenny Stewart”) - Most of the time I don’t even buy Joan Crawford as a white woman, but in this movie her character performs in blackface for the infamous number “Two Faced Woman,” and she looks even less authentic as an African American woman. Maybe one day I’ll figure out what race and gender I would have actually accepted her as. Sexless alien creature? (YouTube clip, unauthorized for embedding, can be found here). L’eclisse (”Vittoria”) - Maybe I’m just used to seeing women with too much bronzer or too many tanning salon visits, but when Monica Vitti’s character goes blackface for a tribal dance in this Antonioni film, she simply looks like a white girl who has darkened her skin. I guess she’s not really trying to pass (neither is Crawford in Torch Song), but her costume isn’t traditional minstrel-type blackface, either. Krippendorf’s Tribe (”Shelly Krippendorf”) - To produce a fake documentary program on a made up lost tribe, James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) disguises his children in black skin and junky tribal costume. But as even his daughter (Natasha Lyonne) admits, she looks more like Tammy Faye Baker than a native of New Guinea. White Chicks (”Kevin Copeland” and “Marcus Copeland”) - Quite possibly the least convincing racial disguises of all time, Shawn and Marlon Wayans play two FBI agents (so I guess this list is actually of 16 characters) who go undercover as Paris Hilton types. But they look like a cross between a Michael Jackson Halloween mask and Eric Stoltz in Mask. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Re: AFI's 100 Funniest - Comedy and the Oscars (a List in Progress)

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:19:50 GMT

Post By: pippin06
Post To: It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar!
Post Date: 7/18/2008 8:19:50 AM
Body: Oh yes, you're certainly right. I forgot about the American part. Though, there's lots of examples of when they bent those rules to include some films with American filmmakers or simply produced by American studios (such as Lawrence of Arabia). But I guess Monty Python doesn't qualify, even with bendy rules - which is good. Though Terry Gilliam is an American, and he was a co-director....but that's probably too bendy. I actually like Annie Hall. It makes me laugh more than any other Woody Allen film that I've seen, anyway. But I would look at that film being more of a comedy drama. As I would the Graduate (I didn't laugh at that film either!). So it seems the AFI didn't restrict their list exclusively to straight comedies. I think I want to be come a member, just to see how these films get chosen. [/quote] I guess there's just quite a mix on the list of movies for people with different senses of humor. [/quote] And that's what begs the topical questions. How do you rank films that have so many styles of sense of humor and say one is better than the other one? And I'm not just talking about the AFI. I'm talking about any list. Where does a ranking institution even begin, knowing that humor is so opinion-based, so varied by individual? I mean, lots of people clearly like Some Like It Hot, but it obviously does not have universal appeal on the comedy front. So, I'll start a poll, a la the Top 5 concept (stolen from the Top 5 group - thanks). What are the five funniest films you've ever seen, and explain why you chose them. I think this'll be an interesting experiment. Don't look at any lists. Just pick the five that strike your funny bone the most and tell us about them. I'll tally anything that gets the most votes. This will only work with participation. I'm going to think about mine for a bit, though I'm positive a Monty Python movie will make the cut (it'll be tough to choose between Holy Grail and the Life of Brian, but I'm thinking I might favor the former, just because I quote it all the time).

Spout Post: Re: AFI's 100 Funniest - Comedy and the Oscars (a List in Progress)

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:08:25 GMT

Post By: Risselada
Post To: It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar!
Post Date: 7/17/2008 6:08:25 PM
Body: [quote user="pippin06"] I thought I'd revive this discussion, even though I am the only one who seems to have been having it. I just watched Some Like It Hot again (for the second time), and I'm still baffled as to why this gets top honors on AFI's Funniest List when it fails to make me laugh. I sort of chuckle at Jack Lemmon, but it's not the roll-on-the-ground-clutching-your-sides-type-funny you would expect it to be for such a high ranking, at least not to me (but I know I'm not the only one who feels this way). Which makes me wonder if I've even got it right. Is my sense of humor out of wack? Or do I not appreciate the finest sensibilities of art versus comedy? Can't comedy be an art form? If comedy can be artsy, does the artsy quality detract from the funny? What's the perfect balance? And is there a film that strikes it - and if that film is Some Like It Hot, let's talk about why. [/quote] I saw Some Like It Hot not too long ago as well, and was quite disappointed knowing it's reputation. I did not laugh too much. It was also my first Marilyn Monroe movie too, and I find her quite irritating. This is also now my least favorite Billy Wilder film I've seen. So I have no idea why it's number one on this list. There are a couple others high up on the list that I don't laugh at all either like The Graduate. Annie Hall and MASH don't really make me laugh out loud either. But then you get Airplane!, the Marx Brothers, and Mel Brooks films all up high on the list too, and those all make me laugh outloud almost constantly. And then of course there is Dr. Strangelove at #3 which is no only one of the most laugh out loud hilarious movies, it is also one of the greatest movies of all time in every other category as well. I guess there's just quite a mix on the list of movies for people with different senses of humor. [quote user="pippin06"] Here, Some Like It Hot is rated #4, while Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a film I personally find gutbustingly hilarious is #1 (and that film never even made the AFI list!). [/quote] Well you seem to forget that this is the American Film Institute's list of America's Funniest Movies. Monty Python is 100% British so I don't think it counts. If we started letting those Brits and even those Canadians in we'd have a lot more to contend with.

Spout Post: Re: AFI's 100 Funniest - Comedy and the Oscars (a List in Progress)

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:24:44 GMT

Post By: pippin06
Post To: It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar!
Post Date: 7/15/2008 8:24:44 AM
Body: I thought I'd revive this discussion, even though I am the only one who seems to have been having it. I just watched Some Like It Hot again (for the second time), and I'm still baffled as to why this gets top honors on AFI's Funniest List when it fails to make me laugh. I sort of chuckle at Jack Lemmon, but it's not the roll-on-the-ground-clutching-your-sides-type-funny you would expect it to be for such a high ranking, at least not to me (but I know I'm not the only one who feels this way). Which makes me wonder if I've even got it right. Is my sense of humor out of wack? Or do I not appreciate the finest sensibilities of art versus comedy? Can't comedy be an art form? If comedy can be artsy, does the artsy quality detract from the funny? What's the perfect balance? And is there a film that strikes it - and if that film is Some Like It Hot, let's talk about why. A SpoutBlogger raised a similar question here:http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/1/3/23470.aspx Talking about filims such as Superbad and Juno, successful comedies of 2007, versus arguably classier fare (nevermind that Juno was nominated for Best Picture, but the point is made). And one of the commenters provided an indepedent film society's annual ranking of what they consider to be the funniest films: http://www.chlotrudis.org/favorite/funny.html Here, Some Like It Hot is rated #4, while Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a film I personally find gutbustingly hilarious is #1 (and that film never even made the AFI list!). How does comedy get measured? What criteria go into deciding what constitutes a funny film (and the funniest of all, no less)? I compiled that Premiere magazine list in 2006 (pop culture mag yes, but a good gauge of non-hoity toity institutions like the comedy-snubbing Academy or the AFI), which didn't even bother to rank their list of 50 funny films. Maybe that's the way to go. So how do we do it? How can this classification be anything but suggestive? Is it a matter of classifying the craft of comedy versus the response of whether or not the film makes you laugh? I invite the group to discuss this. What do you think?

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