NO. 3
comedy CINEMA
ISSUE NO. 3 Comedy Classics In the third issue of our fledgling magazine we tackle possibly the broadest genre of film imaginable; comedy. In it we discuss the roots of modern comedy cinema, dissect the career of renowned funny man Judd Apatow, and present to you the ‘ultimate comedy film’ list. 18 feature films that you will simply not want to miss!
In Memoriam Leslie Nielsen 1926-2010 pg. 16
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
A HISTORY:
CAREER PERSPECTIVE, JUDD APATOW:
18 OF THE BEST:
Everything you could ever need to know about the comedy film genre.
In depth analysis of the director famed for comedy classics such as Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Includes a filmography, interview excerpts, illustrative interpretations & more.
A compilation of the most acclaimed comedy films. Includes plot summaries, cast notes, year of release, trivia tidbits, quotes & more.
CHAPTER ONE A HISTORY: Everything you could ever need to know about the comedy film genre.
romp hits and laugh a minutes It’s hard to pin point exactly what good comedy is. Every person has a different sense of humour and a range of interactions and dialogue makes different people laugh. So you know when a comedy gains universal praise it must be good, after all, nothing divides opinion more than something supposedly ‘funny’. Look into the origins of comedy cinema, and be the judge yourself. Do you agree with our choices?!
A BRIEF HISTORY INTRODUCTION Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences. The comedy genre humorously exaggerate situations, the way of speaking, the action and characters. The comedy genre can be considered the oldest film genre (and one of the most prolific and popular). Comedy was ideal for the early silent films, as it was dependent on visual action and physical humour rather than sound. Slapstick, one of the earliest forms of comedy, poked fun at physical mishap, usually in practical jokes, accidents and water soakings. A COMEDY OF MANNERS film satirises the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters. The plot of the comedy is often concerned with an illicit love affair or some other scandal. However, the plot is generally less important than its witty dialogue. This form of comedy has a long ancestry, dating back at least as far as Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare. SLAPSTICK was popular in the earliest silent films, since they didn’t need sound to be effective, and they were popular with non-English speaking audiences. The term slapstick was taken from the wooden sticks that clowns slapped together to promote audience applause. Slapstick films involve aggressive, physical and visual action, including harmless or painless cruelty and violence, horseplay, and often vulgar sight gags. Slapstick often required exquisite timing and well-honed performance skills. In a FISH OUT OF WATER style comedy, the main character or character finds himself in an unusual environment, which drives most of the humour. Situations can be swapping gender roles, as in Tootsie, 1982; an age changing role, as in Big, 1988; a freedom-loving individual fitting into a structured environment, as in Police Academy, 1984; a rural backwoodsman in the big city, as in Crocodile Dundee, 1986, and so forth. The Coen Brothers are known for using this technique in all of their films, though not always to comedic effect. Some films including people fitting the ‘fish-out-of-water’ bill including The Big Lebowski and A Serious Man. A PARODY or spoof film is a comedy that satirizes other film genres or classic films. Such films employ sarcasm, stereotyping, mockery of scenes from other films, and the obviousness of meaning in a character’s actions. Examples of this form include Blazing Saddles, 1974, Airplane! 1980, and Young Frankenstein, 1974.
Police Academy According to an interview in Entertainment Weekly, Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton and Judge Reinhold were considered for the role of Mahoney.
Dumb & Dumber In the bar scene in Aspen, the line “No way... that’s great. We’ve landed on the moon!” was not in the script but made up by Jim Carrey on the spot during shooting.
The ANARCHIC comedy film uses nonsensical, stream-of-consciousness humour which often lampoons a form of authority. Films of this nature stem from a theatrical history of anarchic comedy on the stage. Wellknown films of this sub-genre include Duck Soup, 1933, and National Lampoon’s Animal House, 1978. The BLACK COMEDY film deals with normally taboo subjects, including, death, murder, sexual relations, suicide and war, in a satirical manner. Examples include Arsenic and Old Lace, 1944, Monsieur Verdoux, 1947, Kind Hearts and Coronets, 1949, The Ladykillers, 1955, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1964, The Loved One, 1965, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, 1983, The War of the Roses, 1989, Heathers, 1989, Your Friends & Neighbors, 1998, Keeping Mum, 2005, and Burn After Reading, 2008. GROSS OUT films are a relatively recent development, and rely heavily on vulgar, sexual or ‘toilet’ humour. Examples include Porky’s, 1982, Dumb and Dumber, 1994, There’s Something About Mary, 1998, and American Pie, 1999.
The Marx Brothers & Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Teasdale
The ROMANTIC COMEDY sub-genre typically involves the development of a relationship between a man and a woman. The stereotyped plot line follows the “boy-gets-girl”, “boy-loses-girl”, “boy gets girl back again” sequence. Naturally there are innumerable variants to this plot, and much of the generally light-hearted comedy lies in the social interactions and sexual tensions between the pair. Examples of this style of film include The Shop Around the Corner, 1940, Sabrina, 1954, Annie Hall, 1977, When Harry Met Sally, 1989, Pretty Woman, 1990, and Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994.
1895 TO 1959 Comic films began to appear in significant numbers during the era of silent films, roughly 1895 to 1930. The visual humour of many of these silent films relied on slapstick and burlesque. A very early comedy short was Watering the Gardener, 1895, by the Lumière brothers. In American film, the most prominent comic actors of the silent era were Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. In his native France and throughout the world, Max Linder was a major comic feature and might qualify as the first true film star. A popular trend during the 1920s and afterward was comedy in the form of animated cartoons. Several popular characters of the period received the cartoon treatment. Among these were Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Betty Boop. Toward the end of the 1920s, the introduction of sound into movies made possible dramatic new film styles and the use of verbal humour. During the 1930s, the silent film comedy was replaced by dialogue from film comedians such as the W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who had made a number of very popular short silent films, used the arrival of sound to deepen their well-formed screen characterizations and enhance their visual humour, and went on to great success in talking films. The comedian Charlie Chaplin was one of the last silent film hold-outs, and his films during the 1930s were devoid of dialogue, although they did employ sound effects. Screwball comedies, such as produced by Frank Capra, exhibited a pleasing, idealized climate that portrayed reassuring social values and a certain optimism about everyday life. Movies still included slapstick humour and other physical comedy, but these were now frequently supplemental to the verbal interaction. Another common comic production from the 1930s was the short subject. Hal Roach Studio specialized in this form. While Columbia was prolific, producing 190 Three Stooges releases, alone. These non-feature productions only went into decline in the 1950s when they were migrated to the television. In the United Kingdom, film adaptations of stage farces were popular in the early 1930s, while the music hall tradition strongly influenced film comedy into the 1940s with Will Hay and George Formby among the top comedy stars of the time. In England in the late 1940s, Ealing Studios achieved popular success as well as critical acclaim with a series of films known collectively as the “Ealing comedies”, from 1947 to 1957. They usually included a degree of social comment, and featured ensemble casts which often included Alec Guinness or Stanley Holloway. Among the most famous examples of the Ealing comedies were Kind Hearts and Coronets, 1949, The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951, and The Ladykillers, 1955.
The Great Dictator, 1940 When this film was released, Adolf Hitler banned it in Germany and in all countries occupied by the Nazis. Curiosity eventually got the best of him and he had a print brought in through Portugal. He screened it not once but twice.
Television The post-war period was an age of reflection on the war, and the emergence of a competing medium; the television.
By the 1950s, the television industry had become a serious competition for the movie industry. Despite the technological limitations of the TV medium at the time, more and more people chose to stay home to watch the television. The Hollywood studios at first viewed the television as a threat, and later as a commercial market. Several comic forms that had previously been a staple of movie theaters transitioned to the television. Both the short subject and the cartoon now appeared on the television rather than in the theater, and the “B� movie also found its outlet on the television. As television became filled with family-oriented comedies, the 1950s saw a trend toward more adult social situations. Only the Walt Disney studios continued to steadily release family comedies. The release of comedy films also went into a decline during this decade. In 1947 almost one in five films had been comic in nature, but by 1954 this was down to ten percent.
Larry Fine, Moe Howard & Curly Howard as The Three Stooges
The 1950s saw the decline of past comedy stars and a certain paucity of new talent in Hollywood. Among the few popular new stars during this period were Judy Holliday and the comedy team phenom of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Lewis followed the legacy of such comedians as Keaton and Harold Lloyd, but his work was not well-received by critics in the United States. The British film industry produced a number of highly successful film series, however, including the Doctor series, the St. Trinian’s films and the increasingly bawdy Carry On films.
1960 TO 1989 The next decade saw an increasing number of broad, star-packed comedies including It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, 1963, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, 1965, and The Great Race, 1965. By the middle of the decade, some of the 1950s generation of American comedians, such as Jerry Lewis, went into decline, while Peter Sellers found success with international audiences in his first American film The Pink Panther. The bumbling Inspector Clouseau was a character Sellers would continue to return to over the next decade. Toward the end of the 1950s, darker humour and more serious themes had begun to emerge, including satire and social commentary. Dr. Strangelove, 1964, was a satirical comedy about Cold War paranoia, while The Apartment, 1960, Alfie, 1966, and The Graduate, 1967, featured sexual themes in a way that would have been impossible only a few years previously. Among the leading lights in comedy films of the next decade were Woody Allen and Mel Brooks. Both wrote, directed and appeared in their movies. Brooks’ style was generally slapstick and zany in nature, often parodying film styles and genres, including Universal horror films (Young Frankenstein), westerns (Blazing Saddles) and Hitchcock films (High Anxiety). Following his success on Broadway and on film with The Odd Couple playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon would also be prominent in the 1970s, with films like The Sunshine Boys and California Suite. Other notable film comedians who appeared later in the decade were Richard Pryor, Steve Martin and Burt Reynolds. Most British comedy films of the early 1970s were spin-offs of television series, including Dad’s Army and On the Buses. The greatest successes, however, came with the films of the Monty Python team, including And Now for Something Completely Different, 1971, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975, and Monty Python’s Life of Brian in 1979. In 1980, the gag-based comedy Airplane!, a spoof of the previous decade’s disaster film series was released and paved the way for more of the same including Top Secret!, 1984, and the Naked Gun films. Popular comedy stars in the 1980s included Dudley Moore, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Many had come to prominence on the American TV series Saturday Night Live, including Bill Murray, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase. Eddie Murphy made a success of comedyaction films including 48 Hrs. 1982, and the Beverly Hills Cop series, 1984–1993. Also popular were the films of John Hughes such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He would later become best known for the Home Alone series of the early 1990s. The latter film helped a revival in comedies aimed at a family audience, along with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and its sequels.
Young Frankenstein The cast, and especially Mel Brooks, had so much fun and were so upset when principal photography was almost completed, that Mel added scenes to continue shooting.
Scary Movie, 2000 The original script featured a cameo role for Jamie Lee Curtis. Cindy would discover her hiding in a closet in her house while the killer was chasing her up the stairs.
1990 TO 2012 One of the major developments of the 1990s was the re-emergence of the romantic comedy film, encouraged by the success of When Harry Met Sally in 1989. Other examples included Sleepless in Seattle, 1993, Clueless, 1995, and You’ve Got Mail, 1998, from the United States, and Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994, Sliding Doors, 1998, and Notting Hill, 1999, from the United Kingdom. Spoofs remained popular as well, especially with the Scary Movie series and Not Another Teen Movie series. Probably more representative of British humour were the working class comedies Brassed Off, 1996, and The Full Monty, 1997. Other British comedies examined the role of the Asian community in British life, including East Is East, 1999, Bend It Like Beckham, 2002, and Anita and Me, 2003.
Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Sagdiyev
Another development was the increasing use of ‘gross-out humour’ usually aimed at a younger audience, in films like There’s Something About Mary, American Pie and its sequels, and Freddy Got Fingered. In mid 2000s, the trend of “gross-out” movies is continuing, with adult-oriented comedies picking up the box office. But serious black comedies (also known as dramatic comedies or dramedies) were performing also well, such as The Weather Man, Broken Flowers and Shopgirl. In late 2006, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan blended vulgar humour with cultural satire.
AFI’S 100 YEARS Part of the AFI 100 Years series, AFI’s ‘100 Years, 100 Laughs’ is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction including slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of manners and comedy of errors. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 13, 2000. Below are the top 25 films from the list, in the correct order, complete with director name and the year of release. CRITERIA The film must be in narrative format typically over 60 minutes long. The film must be in the English language with significant creative and/ or financial production elements from the United States. Regardless of genre, the total comedic impact of a film’s elements that creates an experience greater than the sum of the smiles. Laughs that echo across time, enriching America’s film heritage and inspiring artists and audiences today. Some Like It Hot 1959 Tootsie 1982 Dr. Strangelove 1964 Annie Hall 1977 Duck Soup 1933 Blazing Saddles 1974 MASH 1970 It Happened One Night 1934 The Graduate 1967 Airplane! 1980 The Producers 1968 A Night at the Opera 1935 Young Frankenstein 1974 Bringing Up Baby 1938 The Philadelphia Story 1940 Singin’ in the Rain 1952 The Odd Couple 1968 The General 1927 His Girl Friday 1940 The Apartment 1960 A Fish Called Wanda 1988 Adam’s Rib 1949 When Harry Met Sally 1989 Born Yesterday 1950 The Gold Rush 1925
dir. Billy Wilder dir. Syndey Pollack dir. Stanley Kubrick dir. Woody Allen dir. Leo McCarey dir. Mel Brooks dir. Robert Altman dir. Frank Capra dir. Mike Nichols dir. Jim Abrahams dir. Mel Brooks dir. Sam Wood dir. Mel Brooks dir. Howard Hawks dir. George Cukor dir. Stanley Donen dir. Gene Saks dir. Buster Keaton dir. Howard Hawks dir. Billy Wilder dir. Charles Crichton dir. George Cukor dir. Rob Reiner dir. George Cukor dir. Charlie Chaplin
Some Like It Hot, 1959 In 2007, the American Film Institute additionally ranked this as the 22nd Greatest Movie of All Time.
‘When people are laughing, they don’t beat you up. You’re secure and safe. It’s when they stop laughing that it’s dangerous.’
Leslie Nielsen 1926 - 2010
Trade Marks Delivering sophomoric punchlines with a deadpan expression. Misinterpreting what other people say. In The Naked Gun, a character offers him a cigar and says, “Cuban?” Leslie’s character replies with “Err, no. Dutch Irish. My father was from Wales.” His characters are often deeply stupid but still get praised as intelligent by others in the film.
LESLIE NIELSEN Born February 11, 1926 Regina, Saskatchewan
Early Life Leslie William Nielsen was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. He appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters. Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Nielsen enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and worked as a disc jockey before receiving a scholarship to Neighborhood Playhouse. CAREER Making his television debut in 1948, he quickly expanded to over 50 television appearances two years later. Nielsen made his film debut in 1956, and began collecting roles in dramas, westerns, and romance films from the 1950s to the 1970s. Nielsen’s performance in the films Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure received positive reviews as a serious actor, although he is primarily known for his comedic roles. DEATH In November 2010, Nielsen was admitted to a Fort Lauderdale, Florida hospital for treatment of pneumonia. On 28 November it was announced that Nielsen had died in his sleep. As a final bit of humor, Nielsen chose “Let ‘er Rip” as his epitaph.
Forbidden Planet 1956 Commander John J. Adams Poseidon Adventure 1972 Captain Harrison Airplane! 1980 Dr. Rumack The Naked Gun 1988 Lt. Frank Drebin
CHAPTER TWO CAREER PERSPECTIVE; JUDD APATOW In depth analysis of the director famed for comedy classics such as Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Includes a filmography, interview excerpts, illustrative interpretations & more.
‘America fears the penis. that’s something I’m going to help them get over.’
Judd Apatow, Personal Quote
JUDD APATOW Born December 6, 1967 Flushing, NY
EARLY LIFE Judd Apatow was born in Flushing, New York to a Jewish family, and raised in Syosset, New York. His father, Maury Apatow, was a real estate developer, and his mother, Tami Shad, worked at a comedy club in Southampton. Apatow has an older brother, Robert, and a younger sister, Mia. His maternal grandfather was music producer Bob Shad. When Apatow was twelve years old, his parents divorced. Robert went to live with his maternal grandparents, and Mia went to live with her mother. As a child, Apatow lived mainly with his father, and visited his mother on weekends. Apatow’s sense of humor provided access to friends during his teen years; obsessed with comedy, his childhood hero was Steve Martin. Apatow got his comic start while attending Syosset High School, where he hosted a program called Club Comedy on the school’s 10watt radio station WKWZ. He relied on his mother’s contacts at the comedy club to gain access to the comedians; during this time, he managed to interview Steve Allen, Howard Stern, Harold Ramis and John Candy, along with then-unknowns Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Wright and Garry Shandling. CAREER In the September 1985 issue of Laugh Factory Magazine, he is listed as an Associate Editor. After graduating from high school in 1985, he moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in the screenwriting program at University of Southern California. While at USC, he organized and hosted a number of on-campus “Comedy Night” events, featuring headliners such as Saturday Night Live performer Kevin Nealon. Apatow introduced the acts at these events with short standup routines of his own. He also began volunteering at Comic Relief and introducing comedians at the Improv.Apatow later dropped out of his two year enrollment at USC and moved into an apartment with comedian Adam Sandler, whom he met at the Improv. Apatow competed in the Johnnie Walker Comedy Search in 1989. He continued performing standup comedy; he has since admitted that although his act was well-written, he was unable to develop his own unique comedic personality. After finding little success as a performer himself, Apatow began writing jokes for others, including up-and-coming star Roseanne Barr. He also appeared on HBO’s 15th Annual Young Comedians Special in 1992. Also that year, Apatow produced The Ben Stiller Show for Fox; Apatow had met Stiller outside of an Elvis Costello show in 1990, and they became friends. Although the show was critically acclaimed and earned Apatow and the rest of the writing staff an Emmy
Trivia Apatow began performing stand-up comedy at age seventeen, during his senior year of high school.
Television USA Today media critic Susan Wloszczyna called Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared ‘two of the most acclaimed TV series to ever last only one season’.
Award, Fox canceled the show in 1993. In 1994, Apatow served as consulting producer and staff writer for the animated comedy The Critic, starring Jon Lovitz. Apatow’s manager, Jimmy Miller, introduced him to comedian Garry Shandling, who hired Apatow as a writer and producer for The Larry Sanders Show in 1993. Apatow worked on the show for five years until the show’s end in 1998. Apatow credits Shandling as his mentor for influencing him to write comedy that is more character-driven. Apatow earned six Emmy nominations for his work on Larry Sanders. Apatow was hired to re-write the script for the movie The Cable Guy, which was released in 1996. He expected the film to be a major success, but it ultimately had a mediocre box office performance and mixed reviews. It was during the shooting of the film, however, that Apatow met his wife, actress Leslie Mann. His next script was entitled Making Amends, and had Owen Wilson attached as a man in Alcoholics Anonymous who decides to apologize to everyone he has ever hurt. However, the film was never made. Apatow did an uncredited rewrite of the 1998 Adam Sandler comedy film The Wedding Singer and was featured in four tracks on Sandler’s 1996 comedy album “What the Hell Happened to Me?.” From 1999 to 2002, he produced two short-lived television series: Freaks and Geeks, and Undeclared. Both shows received critical acclaim but were canceled after a season because of low ratings. He additionally wrote and produced three television pilots that were never aired: North Hollywood, Sick in the Head, and Life on Parole (with Brent Forrester). Apatow has screened and introduced them at “The Other Network”, a festival of un-aired TV pilots produced by Un-Cabaret. RECURRING COLLABORATORS Apatow frequently collaborates with the same cast and crew in his projects. To date, Seth Rogen has been involved with 11 of Apatow’s projects, as an actor, writer, and/or producer. His wife Leslie Mann has starred in five, Will Ferrell has starred in five, Paul Rudd has starred in seven, Jonah Hill has starred in seven, and Jason Segel has starred in four (as well as written one). Adam McKay has directed and/or written for four of his projects.
Kristen Wiig Saturday Night Live and Bridesmaids star Kristen Wiig has appeared in four Apatow movies and, alongside Leslie Mann, is Apatow’s main female collaborator.
PERSONAL LIFE He admires filmmakers James L. Brooks, Hal Ashby, Robert Altman, John Cassavetes, and John Hughes. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected his first application for membership, even though he was sponsored by Academy Award-winning screenwriters Akiva Goldsman and Stephen Gaghan. Apatow became a member in 2008. He married actress Leslie Mann, whom he met on the set of The Cable Guy and who has appeared in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Drillbit Taylor, and Funny People. The couple have two daughters, Maude and Iris. Both girls appeared in Knocked Up and Funny People as Leslie Mann’s character’s daughters. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his family.
2004 TO 2010 In 2004, Apatow produced the hit comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, starring Will Ferrell and directed by Adam McKay, marking his first major comedy hit after a string of critically acclaimed but relatively obscure shows. In 2005, he directed and co-wrote the comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Steve Carell, which was nominated for best original screenplay by the Writers Guild of America. His film Knocked Up was released in June 2007 to wide critical acclaim. Apatow wrote the initial draft of the film on the set of Talladega Nights. In addition to being a critical success, the film was also a commercial hit, continuing Apatow’s newfound mainstream success. In August 2007, Apatow produced the film Superbad, which was written by Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg. A concept Rogen and Goldberg had created as teens, Apatow convinced Rogen to write the film as a vehicle for himself in 2000. Rogen and Goldberg finished writing the film, but were unable to find a studio interested in producing it. Apatow then enlisted Rogen and Goldberg to write Pineapple Express, a stoner action movie that he felt would be more commercial. After the success of Anchorman and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow was still unable to sell both Superbad and Pineapple Express; it was only after he produced the commercial hit Talladega Nights that Sony Pictures Entertainment decided to produce both.[9] At this point, Rogen was unable to play the lead for Superbad, as he had grown too old to play the part of Seth. Subsequently, he was cast in a supporting role as a police officer and friend Jonah Hill took his role as the high school student. Apatow credits Rogen for influencing him to make his work more “outrageously dirty.” In August 2007, Superbad opened at #1 in the box office to critical acclaim, taking in $33 million in its opening weekend. Industry insiders claimed Apatow was now a brand unto himself, creating movies geared toward older audiences, who would watch his movies even when the films delved into the teen genre. Apatow once vowed to include a penis in every one of his movies. He explained his position as, “I like movies that are, you know, uplifting and hopeful...and I like filth!”. Apatow has helped to foster the acting careers of Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Jason Segel, and also tends to work with his close friends. He has frequently worked with producer Shauna Robertson, whom he met on the set of Elf. He reunited with Jason Segel and Amy Poehler for the 2001 Fox sitcom pilot, North Hollywood. He tries to keep a low budget on his projects and usually makes his movies about the work itself rather than using big stars. After his success in film, he hired the entire writing staff from Undeclared to write movies for Apatow Productions. He never fires writers and he keeps them on projects through all stages of productions. Apatow is not committed to any specific studio, but his projects are typically set up at Universal and Sony.
The 40 Year Old Virgin The 40-Year-Old Virgin was a sleeper hit, grossing $177,378,645 worldwide and making many critics’ Top 10 lists for the year.
FILM 1992 TO 2012
Director 4 Credits
Producer 25 Credits
Writer 9 Credits
The 40 Year Old Virgin, 2004 Knocked Up, 2007 Funny People, 2009 This is 40, 2012
Crossing the Bridge, 1992 Heavyweights, 1995 Celtic Pride, 1996 The Cable Guy, 1996 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004 Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, 2004 Kicking & Screaming, 2005 The 40-Year-Old Virgin, 2005 Fun with Dick and Jane, 2005 The TV Set, 2006 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, 2006 Knocked Up, 2007 Superbad, 2007 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, 2007 Drillbit Taylor, 2008 Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 2008 Step Brothers, 2008 Pineapple Express, 2008 Year One, 2009 Funny People, 2009 Get Him to the Greek, 2010 Bridesmaids, 2011 Wanderlust, 2012 The Five-Year Engagement, 2012 This Is 40, 2012
Heavyweights, 1995 Celtic Pride, 1996 The 40-Year-Old Virgin, 2005 Fun with Dick and Jane, 2005 Knocked Up, 2007 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, 2007 You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, 2008 Funny People, 2009 This Is 40, 2012
TELEVISION 1992 TO 2012
Director 3 Credits
Producer 7 Credits
Writer 7 Credits
The Larry Sanders Show, 1993–1998 Freaks and Geeks, 1999–2000 Undeclared, 2001–2002
The Ben Stiller Show, 1992–1993 The Larry Sanders Show, 1993–1998 The Critic, 1994–1995 Freaks and Geeks, 1999–2000 Undeclared, 2001–2002 Funny or Die Presents, 2010 Girls, 2012
The Ben Stiller Show, 1992–1993 The Larry Sanders Show, 1993–1998 The Critic, 1994–1995 Freaks and Geeks, 1999–2000 Undeclared, 2001–2002 Funny or Die Presents, 2010
selected filmography Judd Apatow is a man of many talents, and a man with just as many fingers in pies. His contribution to modern comedic cinema is nothing less than extraordinary. His involvement in recent cinema spans to an impressive thirty credits, and what with so many projects it’s hard to pick just one recommendation, so here’s three instead.
Quote ‘You expected Mike and Carol Brady to raise me! I’m the bastard son of Claire Huxtable! I am a Lost Cunningham!’ Run Time 96 min Trivia Every cast member of The Ben Stiller Show appears on screen during the film at least once.
Quote ‘If it grows from the ground, it’s probably okay.’ Run Time 129 min Trivia This movie was originally going to be a follow up to The 40 Year Old Virgin, having Seth Rogen and team to reprise their roles as the Smart Tech team.
Quote ‘Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus. ’ Run Time 98 min Trivia Will Ferrell does his own singing and John C. Reilly does his own drumming.
THE CABLE GUY 1996 Steven Kovak has been kicked out of his apartment by his girlfriend. Steven has a new apartment, and decides to slip the cable guy $50 for free cable. Steven then fakes an interest in Chip’s line of work. However Chip takes this to heart trying to become Steven’s best bud. When Steven no longer wants to be Chip’s friend the man who can do it all goes on an all out assault to ruin Steven’s life.
KNOCKED UP 2007 When Alison Scott is promoted at E! Television, she goes to a nightclub to celebrate with her older married sister Debbie. Alison meets the pothead Ben Stone and, completely wasted, they end up having a one night stand. Ben does not use condom and eight weeks later, Allison discovers that she is pregnant. She calls Ben and they decide to try to stay together and have the baby. However, Ben needs to growup first to raise a family of his own.
STEP BROTHERS 2008 Brennan and Dale are both 40 when Brennan’s mom and Dale’s dad marry. The sons still live with their parents so they must now share a room. Initial antipathy threatens the household’s peace and the parents’ relationship. Dad lays down the law: both slackers have a week to find a job. Out of the job search and their love of music comes a pact that leads to friendship. Hovering nearby are Brennan’s successful brother and his lonely wife. Can harmony come from the discord?
RON BURGUNDY PORTRAYED BY WILL FERRELL IN ‘ANCHORMAN’ 2004
ALDOUS SNOW PORTRAYED BY RUSSELL BRAND IN ‘FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL’ 2008
CHAPTER THREE 18 OF THE BEST: A compilation of the most acclaimed comedy films. Includes plot summaries, cast notes, year of release, trivia tidbits, quotes & more.
‘Real diamonds! They must be worth their weight in gold!’
Sugar, Marilyn Monroe
SOME LIKE IT HOT 1959 DIRECTOR BILLY WILDER WRITER BILLY WILDER When two Chicago musicians, Joe and Jerry, witness the the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, they want to get out of town and get away from the gangster responsible, Spats Colombo. They’re desperate to get a gig out of town but the only job they know of is in an all-girl band heading to Florida. They show up at the train station as Josephine and Daphne, the replacement saxophone and bass players. They certainly enjoy being around the girls, especially Sugar Kane Kowalczyk who sings and plays the ukulele. Joe in particular sets out to woo her while Jerry/Daphne is wooed by a millionaire, Osgood Fielding III. Mayhem ensues as the two men try to keep they true identities hidden and Spats Colombo and his crew show up for a meeting with several other crime lords.
CAST Tagline ‘The movie too hot for words’ Run Time 120 min Trivia A preview audience laughed so hard in the scene where Jack Lemmon announces his engagement that a lot of the dialogue was missed. It had to be re-shot with pauses added.
Marilyn Monroe as ‘Sugar’ Kane Kowalczyk
Pat O’Brien as Detective Mulligan
Tony Curtis as Joe
Joe E. Brown as Osgood Feeling III
Jack Lemmon as Jerry
Nehemiah Persoff as Little Bonaparte
George Raft as ‘Spats’ Colombo
John Shawlee as Sweet Sue
‘That sex was the most fun I’ve ever had without laughing.’
Alvy Singer, Woody Allen
ANNIE HALL 1977 DIRECTOR WOODY ALLEN WRITER WOODY ALLEN & MARSHALL BRICKMAN Woody Allen’s romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismatched New York neurotics. Jewish comedy writer Alvy Singer ponders the modern quest for love and his past romance with tightly-wound WASP singer Annie Hall. The twicedivorced Alvy knows that it’s not easy to find a mate when the options include pretentious New York intellectuals and lifestyle-obsessed Rolling Stone writers, but la-di-dah-ing Annie seems different. Along the rocky road of their coupling, Allen/Alvy weigh in on such topics as endless therapy, movies vs. TV, the absurdity of dating rituals, antiSemitism, drugs, and, repressed Midwestern WASP insanity vs. crazy Brooklyn Jewish boisterousness.
CAST
Tagline ‘A nervous romance’ Run Time 93 min Trivia Annie’s outfits, which caused a brief fashion rage, were Diane Keaton’s own clothes.
Woody Allen as Alvy Singer
Shelley Duvall as Pam
Diane Keaton as Annie Hall
Janet Margolin as Robin
Tony Roberts as Rob
Colleen Dewhurst as Mrs. Hall
Carol Kane as Allison Portchnik
Christopher Walken as Duane Hall
Paul Simon as Tony Lacey
Jeff Goldblum as LA Party Guy
‘Grab a brew. Don’t cost nothin’.’
John Blutarsky, John Belushi
ANIMAL HOUSE 1978 DIRECTOR JOHN LANDIS WRITER HAROLD RAMIS & DOUGLAS KENNEY Director John Landis put himself on the map with this low-budget, fabulously successful comedy, which made a then-astounding 62 million dollars and started a slew of careers for its cast in the process. National Lampoon’s Animal House is set in 1962 on the campus of Faber College in Faber, PA. Incoming freshmen Larry “Pinto” Kroger and Kent “Flounder” Dorfman find themselves rejected by the pretentious Omega fraternity, and instead pledge to Delta House. The Deltas are a motley fraternity of rejects and maladjusted undergraduates whose main goal, seemingly accomplished in part by their mere presence on campus, is disrupting the staid, peaceful, rigidly orthodox, and totally hypocritical social order of the school.
CAST
Tagline ‘Relive the best seven years of your college education.’ Run Time 109 min Trivia Virtually unheard of, “Toga Parties” became all the rage in colleges all over America after the release of this film.
John Belushi as John Blutarsky
Stephen Furst as Kent Dorfman
Tim Matheson as Eric Stratton
Douglas Kenney as Stork
Peter Riegert as Donald Schoenstein
Kevin Bacon as Chip Diller
Thomas Hulce as Lawrence Kroger
Donald Sutherland as Professor Jennings
‘I say you are Lord, and I should know. I’ve followed a few.’
Arthur, John Cleese
LIFE OF BRIAN 1979 DIRECTOR TERRY JONES WRITER GRAHAM CHAPMAN & JOHN CLEESE On a midnight clear 2,000 years ago, three wise men enter a manger where a baby is wrapped in swaddling clothes. It is an infant called Brian, and the three wise men are in the wrong manger. For the rest of his life, Brian finds himself regarded as something of a messiah, yet he’s always in the shadow of this other guy from Galilee. Brian is witness to the Sermon of the Mount, but his seat is in such a bad location that he can’t hear any of it. Ultimately, he is brought before Pontius Pilate and sentenced to crucifixion, which takes place at that crowded, nonexclusive execution site a few blocks shy of Calvary. Rather than utter the Last Six Words, Brian leads his fellow crucifixees in a spirited rendition of a British music-hall cheer-up song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
CAST
Tagline ‘He wasn’t the messiah. He was a very naughty boy.’ Run Time 94 min Trivia Spike Milligan was holidaying in Tunisia while the film was being shot. When the Python team realized he was nearby they offered him a part in the film.
Graham Chapman as Brian
Terry Jones as Mandy
John Cleese as Reg
Michael Palin as Mr. Big Nose
Terry Gilliam as Geoffrey
Kenneth Colley as Jesus Christ
Eric Idle Mr. Cheeky
Neil Innes as Weedy Samaritan
‘For one dollar I’ll guess your weight, your height, or your sex.’
Navin R. Johnson, Steve Martin
THE JERK 1979 DIRECTOR CARL REINER WRITER STEVE MARTIN & CARL GOTTLIEB Carl Reiner directs Steve Martin in this gag-laden comedy about an idiotic white man, raised by a poor family of black sharecroppers, who doesn’t realize he’s not black. Navin R. Johnson is told the horrible truth when he finds himself instinctively tapping his feet to an easy listening tune on the radio, instead of a low-down blues. His mother tells him he’s white and Navin takes to the road (in a World War II bomber helmet and goggles) to start a new life in St. Louis. A filling station owner, Harry Hartounian, give Navin his first break, hiring him to pump gas, and the rest of the film is full of mad cap adventures.
CAST Tagline ‘From rags to riches... to rags’ Run Time 104 min Trivia Bill Murray filmed a cameo that was deleted. On the 15 December 1979 broadcast of Saturday Night Live, Murray jokingly reviewed The Jerk, saying: “I was in the movie but cut out of it. That doesn’t influence my opinion. The movie is a dog. There’s something missing. I don’t know who it is, I can’t say.”
Steve Martin as Navin R. Johnson
Mabel King as Mother
Bernadette Peters as Marie Kimble Johnson
Richard Ward as Father
M. Emmet Walsh as Madman
Bill Macy as Stan Fox
Jackie Mason as Harry Hartounian
Caitlin Adams as Patty Bernstein
Dick O’Neill as Frosty
Maurice Evans as Hobart
‘I am serious. and don’t call me Shirley.’
Dr. Barry Rumack, Leslie Nielson
AIRPLANE! 1980 DIRECTOR JIM ABRAHAMS & DAVID ZUCKER WRITER JIM ABRAHAMS & DAVID ZUCKER This spoof of the Airport series of disaster movies relies on ridiculous sight gags, groan-inducing dialogue, and deadpan acting. Airplane! pulls out all the clichés as alcoholic pilot Ted Striker, who’s developed a fear of flying due to wartime trauma, boards a jumbo jet in an attempt to woo back his stewardess girlfriend. Food poisoning decimates the passengers and crew, leaving it up to Striker to land the plane, with the help of a glue-sniffing air traffic controller and Striker’s vengeful former captain, who must both talk him down. Along the way, we meet a clutch of stock disaster movie passengers like the guitar-strumming nun, a sick little girl, a frightened old lady, and two African-American travelers whose ‘jive’ has to be subtitled.
CAST
Tagline ‘The craziest flight you’ll ever take!’ Run Time 88 min Trivia Singer/songwriter Barry Manilow was considered for the role of Ted Stryker before Robert Hays was hired.
Robert Hays as Ted Striker
Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey
Julie Hagerty as Elaine Dickinson
Robert Stack as Captain Rex Kramer
Leslie Nielson as Dr. Barry Rumack
Lorna Patterson as Randy
Peter Graves as Captain Clarence Oveur
Stephen Stucker as Air Traffic Controller
‘I’m going to feel this way until I don’t feel this way anymore.’
Sandy Lester, Teri Garr
TOOTSIE 1982 DIRECTOR SYDNEY POLLACK WRITER DON MCGUIRE & LARRY GELBART Michael Dorsey is an unemployed actor with an impossible reputation. In order to find work and fund his friend’s play he dresses as a woman, Dorothy Michaels, and lands the part in a daytime drama. Dorsey loses himself in this woman role and essentially becomes Dorothy Michaels, captivating women all around the city and inspiring them to break free from the control of men and become more like Dorsey’s initial identity. This newfound role, however, lands Dorsey in a hot spot between a female friend/’lover,’ a female co-star he falls in love with, that co-star’s father who falls in love with him, and a male co-star who yearns for his affection
CAST
Tagline ‘This Is a Hell of a Way To Make a Living’ Run Time 116 min Trivia Bill Murray agreed to omit his name from the opening credits to prevent audiences expecting a “Bill Murray” movie along the lines of Meatballs or Caddyshack.
Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey/Dorothy
Bill Murray as Jeff Slater
Jessica Lange as Julie Nichols
Sydney Pollack as George Fields
Teri Garr as Sandy Lester
George Gaynes as John Van Horn
Dabney Coleman as Ron Carlisle
Geena Davis as April Page
Charles Durning as Leslie Nichols
Doris Belack as Rita Marshall
‘Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?’
El Guapo, Alfonso Arau
THREE AMIGOS! 1986 DIRECTOR JOHN LANDIS WRITER STEVE MARTIN & LORNE MICHAELS This slapstick farce features Dusty Bottoms, Lucky Day, and Ned Nederlander, as three silent movie cowboy stars who get the axe from their Hollywood studio. Just at that opportune moment, a woman named Carmen asks them to come to her forgotten little town south of the border and do some work for her, for a tidy sum. The three “stooges” agree, thinking they are going to perform their singing cowboy routine, but instead Carmen wants them to get rid of the nasty El Guapo who is running roughshod over the good citizens of the town. Not the kind of heroes they appear to be in the movies, they have a difficult time helping out the distressed townsfolk.
CAST
Tagline ‘They’re Down On Their Luck And Up To Their Necks In Senoritas, Margaritas, Banditos And Bullets!’ Run Time 104 min Trivia Originally the movie was supposed to star Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
Chevy Chase as Dusty Bottoms
Tony Plana as Jefe
Steve Martin as Lucky Day
Joe Mantegna as Harry Flugleman
Martin Short as Ned Nederlander
Patrice Martinez as Carmen
Alfonso Arau as El Guapo
Randy Newman as The Singing Bush
‘It’s true what they say, Cops and women don’t mix.’
Lt. Frank Drebin, Leslie Nielson
THE NAKED GUN 1988 DIRECTOR DAVID ZUCKER WRITER JERRY ZUCKER & JIM ABRAHAMS Seeking vengeance when his partner is shot full of holes by drug dealers, Lt. Frank Drebin searches for the Mister Big behind it all. Drebin suspects above-reproach shipping magnate Vincent Ludwig, but he can’t prove a thing. Bumped from the force by the mayor, Drebin, with the unexpected assistance of Ludwig’s ex-girlfriend, manages to nab the bad guy at a baseball game, where Reggie Jackson has been programmed to assassinate Queen Elizabeth.
CAST
Tagline ‘The Villain. Even Mother Teresa wanted him dead.’ Run Time 85 min Trivia This movie is a big-screen version of the cult cop spoof series Police Squad!.
Leslie Nielson as Lt. Frank Drebin
O.J. Simpson as Det. Nordberg
Priscilla Presley as Jane Spencer
Susan Beaubian as Wilma Nordberg
Ricardo Montalban as Vincent Ludwig
Nancy Marchand as Mayor Barkley
George Kennedy as Capt. Ed Hocken
Raye Birk as Pahpshmir
‘I say hurl. If you blow chunks and she comes back, she’s yours.’
Wayne Campbell, Mike Myers
WAYNE’S WORLD 1992 DIRECTOR PENELOPE SPHEERIS WRITER MIKE MYERS Based on the Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name, Wayne’s World is a wacky, irreverent pop-culture comedy about the adventures of two amiably aimless metal-head friends, Wayne and Garth. From Wayne’s basement, the pair broadcast a talk-show called “Wayne’s World” on local public access television. The show comes to the attention of a sleazy network executive who wants to produce a big-budget version of “Wayne’s World” and he also wants Wayne’s girlfriend, a rock singer named Cassandra. Wayne and Garth have to battle the executive not only to save their show, but also Cassandra.
CAST Tagline ‘One world. One party.’ Run Time 94 min Trivia While filming the Bohemian Rhapsody sequence, both Mike Myers and Dana Carvey developed severe pain in their necks from all the head banging. There are scenes later in the movie where it becomes apparent they are trying to move their necks as little as possible.
Mike Myers as Wayne Campbell
Lara Flynn Boyle as Stacy
Dana Carvey as Garth Algar
Brian Doyle Murray as Noah Vanderhoff
Tia Carrere as Cassandra Wong
Ed O’Neill as Ed
Rob Lowe as Benjamin Kane
Alice Cooper as Himself
‘If I’m not back in five minutes... just wait longer.’
Ace Ventura, Jim Carrey
ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE 1994
DIRECTOR TOM SHADYAC WRITER JACK BERNSTEIN When your dog, bird, or water-dwelling mammal disappears, who do you call? Ace Ventura is a low-rent private eye who specializes in recovering lost animals, so when Snowflake, the Miami Dolphins’ aquatic mascot, is kidnapped, team representative Melissa Robinson puts Ace on the case. However, Snowflake isn’t the only Miami Dolphin who has gone missing; several key members of the team also disappear, including quarterback Dan Marino. With the Super Bowl only two weeks away, will Ace be able to find Snowflake and the missing athletes in time to salvage the big game?
Tagline ‘He’s the best there is! (Actually, he’s the only one there is.)’ Run Time 86 min Trivia The voice of Ace Venutura and the manner in which he speaks, was added by Jim Carrey only after several read throughs of the script. The “All righty then” was the catch phrase of one of his stand up characters and after the lines from the script weren’t feeling right, he added it to the script and read through it again using that voice for all the lines.
CAST Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura
Dan Marino as Himself
Courteney Cox as Melissa Robinson
Noble Willingham as Riddle
Sean Young as Lt. Lois Einhorn
Troy Evans as Roger Podacter
Tony Loc as Emilio
Raynor Scheine as Woodstock
Jimi Hendrix deceased, drugs. Janis Joplin deceased, alcohol. Mama Cass deceased, ham sandwich.
Austin Powers, Mike Myers
AUSTIN POWERS 1997 DIRECTOR JAY ROACH WRITER MIKE MYERS Austin Powers is a 60’s spy who is cryonically frozen and released in the 1990’s. The world is a very different place for Powers. Unfortunately for Austin, everyone is no longer sex-mad. Although he may be in a different decade, his mission is still the same. He has teamed up with Vanessa Kensington to stop the evil Dr. Evil, who was also frozen in the past. Dr. Evil stole a nuclear weapon and is demanding a payment of (when he realises its the 90’s) 100 billion dollars. Can Austin Powers stop this madman? or will he caught up with Evil’s henchman, with names like Alotta Fagina and Random Task? Only time will tell!
CAST Tagline ‘If he were any cooler, he’d still be frozen, baby!’ Run Time 94 min Trivia Part of the influence for this film can be seen in an early sketch Mike Myers did for Saturday Night Live in which several of James Bond’s nemeses complain about his invulnerability and how much easier it should be to kill him.
Mike Myers as Austin Powers/Dr. Evil
Robert Wagner as Number Two
Elizabeth Hurley as Vanessa Kensington
Seth Green as Scott Evil
Mimi Rogers as Marie Kensington
Will Ferrell as Mustafa
Mindy Sterling as Frau Farbisssina
Paul Dillon as Patty O’Brien
‘None of this would have happened if Mr. McAllister hadn’t meddled the way he did.’
Tracy Flick, Reese Witherspoon
ELECTION 1999 DIRECTOR ALEXANDER PAYNE WRITER ALEXANDER PAYNE Jim McAllister is a popular and well-respected instructor at George Washington Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska, but lately he’s been unhappy in both his personal and professional life, and his anxieties finally come to a head with the school’s student elections. Tracy Flick is running for student body president, and she certainly seems like the sort of girl who would win a high school election, she’s pretty, popular and takes part in all the right extra-curricular activities. In fact, she seems so perfect she’s running unopposed, which offends McAllister’s sense of democracy. So Jim intervenes and persuades Paul Metzler to run against Tracy.
CAST
Tagline ‘Reading, Writing, Revenge.’ Run Time 103 min Trivia Reese Witherspoon’s portrayal of Tracy Flick was voted as the 45th Greatest Movie Performances of All Time by Premiere Magazine.
Matthew Broderick as Jim McAllister
Phil Reeves as Walt Hendricks
Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick
Molly Hagan as Diane McAllister
Chris Klein as Paul Metzler
Colleen Camp as Judith Flick
Jessica Campbell as Tammy Metzler
Nicholas D’Agosto as Larry Fouch
‘Don’t water the plants, they’re plastic!’
Gerry Fleck, Eugene Levy
BEST IN SHOW 2000 DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER GUEST WRITER CHRISTOPHER GUEST & EUGENE LEVY The owners of five show dogs head for the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. A film crew interviews them as they prepare for the trip, arrive at Philly’s Taft Hotel, and compete. From Florida come the Flecks: she keeps running into old lovers. A wordless ancient in a wheelchair and his buxom trophy wife who may have a thing for the dog’s handler own the two-time defending best in show, a poodle. From the piney woods of N.C. comes a fella who wants to be a ventriloquist. Highstrung DINKs feud loudly in front of their Weimaraner. Two outré gay men from Tribeca round out the profiled owners. The dog show brings out the essence of the humans. Who will be best in show?
CAST
Tagline ‘Some pets deserve a little more respect than others.’ Run Time 90 min Trivia Fred Willard’s character Buck Laughlin was based on baseball legend Joe Garagiola, who had cohosted the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in years past, to similar effect.
Christopher Guest as Harlan Pepper
Michael Hitchcock as Hamilton Swan
Eugene Levy as Gerry Fleck
Parker Posey as Meg Swan
Catherine O’Hara as Cookie Fleck
Jennifer Coolidge as Sherri Ann Cabot
John Michael Higgins as Scott Donlan
Jane Lynch as Christy Cummings
Michael McKean as Stefan Vanderhoof
Fred Willard as Buck Laughlin
‘It took me like three hours to finish the shading on your upper lip.’
Napoleon Dynamite, Jon Heder
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE 2004 DIRECTOR JARED HESS WRITER JARED HESS & JERUSHA HESS The directorial debut of filmmaker Jared Hess, who also co-wrote the screenplay, Napoleon Dynamite is a quirky, offbeat comedy set in the small Idaho town of Preston. Jon Heder stars in the titular role, a carrot-topped oddball with a decidedly eccentric family that includes his llama-loving, dune-buggy enthusiast grandmother. The story centers on the local high school’s race for class president. Using some nontraditional means, Napoleon is determined to help his pal Pedro run a winning campaign and defeat popular girl Summer.
CAST Tagline ‘He’s out to prove he’s got nothing to prove.’ Run Time 82 min Trivia Every dish shown during the opening credits is eaten by a character later in the movie. The dishes presented in the opening credits were the work of the three people who present them.
Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite
Aaron Ruell as Kip Dynamite
Jon Gries as Uncle Rico
Diedrich Bader as Rex
Efren Ramirez as Pedro Sanchez
Haylie Duff as Summer Wheatley
Tina Majorino Deb Bradshaw
Trevor Snarr as Don
‘I’m sorry that people are so jealous of me, but I can’t help it that I’m so popular.’
Gretchen Weiners, Lacey Chabert
MEAN GIRLS 2004 DIRECTOR MARK WATERS WRITER TINA FEY Cady Heron is a 15-year-old girl who has spent most of her life in Africa, where she was home-schooled by her zoologist parents. When her family relocates to the United States, Cady finds herself attending a high school in suburban Illinois, where she gets a crash course in the various sub-strata of the student body: the jocks, the cheerleaders, the stoners, the “cool” kids, and so on. Much to her surprise, Cady finds herself embraced by a clique of rich and popular girls known to outsiders as “the Plastics,” led by Regina George. While Cady is grateful for her new friends, it doesn’t take long for her to realize how manipulative they can be, and she soon discovers she’s violated an unwritten law when she goes out on a date with Aaron, Regina’s former boyfriend.
CAST
Tagline ‘Mean. Meaner. Meanest.’ Run Time 97 min Trivia Tina Fey and Amy Poehler coached Rajiv Surendra on how to rap for his onscreen performance in the school’s Winter Talent Show.
Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron
Tina Fey as Ms. Norbury
Rachel McAdams as Regina George
Tim Meadows as Mr. Duvall
Lizzy Caplan as Janis Ian
Jonathan Bennett as Aaron Samuels
Lacey Chabert as Gretchen Weiners
Daniel Franzese as Damien
Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith
Amy Poehler as Mrs. George
‘it’s so damn hot. milk was a bad choice.’
Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell
ANCHORMAN 2004 DIRECTOR ADAM MCKAY WRITER WILL FERRELL & ADAM MCKAY Anchorman is set during the 1970s and stars Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, San Diego’s top-rated news anchorman. While Burgundy is outwardly willing to adjust to the idea of females in the workplace he certainly doesn’t want his own job challenged. Keeping that in mind, it’s no wonder that the arrival of Veronica Corningstone, an aspiring newswoman, is, in Ron’s eyes, not the studio’s most welcome addition. After Veronica pays her dues covering so-called female-oriented fluff pieces, the ambitious Veronica sets her eyes on the news desk; more specifically, on Ron’s seat behind it. Not unpredictably, Ron doesn’t take the threat lightly, and it isn’t long before the rival newscasters are engaged in a very personal battle of the sexes.
CAST Tagline ‘If Ron Burgundy says it... it’s the truth!’ Run Time 94 min Trivia Many of the actors as well as Will Ferrell are well versed in the art of improvisation and would sometimes do up to 20 different versions of reaction lines trying out the first thing that popped into their heads.
Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy
Fred Willard as Ed Harken
Christina Applegate as Veronica Corningstone
Chris Parnell as Garth Holladay
Paul Rudd as Brian Fantana
Vince Vaughn as Wes Mantooth
David Koechner as Champ Kind
Luke Wilson as Frank Vitchard
Steve Carrell as Brick Tamland
Peanut as Baxter
‘Just look at the face: it’s vacant, with a hint of sadness. Like a drunk who’s lost a bet.’
Dianne, Lucy Davis
SHAUN OF THE DEAD 2004 DIRECTOR EDGAR WRIGHT WRITER SIMON PEGG & EDGAR WRIGHT It’s often said that the true character of a man is only revealed in times of dire crisis, and for likable, lovelorn loser Shaun, that moment of reckoning came when the dead rose from their slumber to feast on the flesh of the living. A hapless electronics store employee who spends most of his spare time downing pints at the local pub with his roommate, Ed, Shaun’s life seems to fall apart when he is dumped by his girlfriend, and his obnoxious stepfather, Philip, shows up to berate him for not being more attentive to his caring mother Barbara. Things take a turn for the worse when the dead return to stake their claim on the Earth, and though the chaos that follows threatens to swallow up all of England, it’s up to Shaun to keep his cool and prove himself once and for all.
CAST Tagline ‘Buy Milk. Ring Mum. Dodge Zombies.’ Run Time 99 min Trivia Many of the Zombie extras are fans of the TV series Spaced, which also starred Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and was also directed by Edgar Wright. They were recruited through the Spaced Out fan web site to be in the film.
Simon Pegg as Shaun
Penelope Wilton as Barbara
Nick Frost as Ed
Bill Nighy as Phillip
Kate Ashfield as Liz
Jessica Stevenson as Yvonne
Lucy Davis as Dianne
Peter Serafinowicz as Pete
Dylan Moran as David
Rafe Spall as Noel