BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) SCARY MOVIE
This 2000 spoof of the state of horror films is a modern classic. They cranked out a bit too many sequels to this, but the first one is still good stuff. This Keenan Ivory Wayans directed parody movie just works. He directed the old school hit “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” and then produced “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood” so this family knows their spoof. They had that little show called “In Living Color” too, in case you’ve been under a rock for the last twenty years. I think because of the million spoof movies that came after this many would group this one with it, but I don’t think that’s all that fair. In this movie Anna Faris mocks the main character of “Scream”, but the movie mocks not only that but “The Sixth Sense”, “Blair Witch”, “I Know What you Did Last Summer”, and others. This was when the franchise actually stuck to parodying their aimed target and not just any and every pop culture joke they can. Between the sequels for this movie and it’s offspring like “Epic Movie”, “Dave Movie”, and that bullshit the art of the parody movie was almost ruined. Others have tried, but I don’t think any other movie properly blasted horror movies as well as this one movie.
(THREE) BLACK DYNAMITE
In 2009 I sat down to watch this with a friend and I think the experience made us closer. “Black Dynamite” is awesome. It’s a parody of old school blaxploitation movies. While Tarantino will try to “borrow” the style of the old genre, this movie chews it up and spits it back at us. Michael Jai White, “Spawn” to most, owns this movie as the character “Black Dynamite”. The movie has tons of cameos and a great supporting cast, but White carries it from scene to scene. The movie has a fun plot to follow and if I got into the details it would be spoiling the experience for you. The little things in this movie make it so special. It’s shot on Super 16 film to give it that old gritty look, certain shots don’t match up, and it’s just presented in an ultra-low budget guise as many of the blaxploitation flicks were.”I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” was great, but I can’t help but love this one a little more. If you’ve not seen this movie then I recommend doing so NOW.
(TWO) THIS IS SPINAL TAP
This 1984 rock musical mocumentary is still loved by a lot of people. What Rob Reiner did with this rocked. Before then, there were plenty of pretentious documentaries covering rock bands. In this, we follow the lives of the fictitious rock band “Spinal Tap”. Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer rock their roles as the band members with massive awesomeness. This movie has tons of cameos and many many laughs. It pokes fun at the world of rock stardom better than any movie ever made. The jokes in this movie are still relevant to musicians now and will most likely always be. The only two movies that come close to mocking music this properly are the hip hop mocumentaries “CB4” and the VERY underrated “Fear of a Black Hat”, but this one is still king.
(ONE) AIRPLANE!
I fought with myself on this, but in the end I ultimately won. The 1980 “Airplane!” is the best spoof movie of all time. The casting was great, the tone, the style, and the whole movie was just hilarious. It’s joke after joke after joke. Some of it is cheesy, but for the most part it’s that old school smart slap-stick stuff. We don’t see that anymore. The “wit” in humor has been replaced by “sarcasm” and “snarkiness”. That’s not saying today’s movies aren’t as funny, but there’s just something more artistic to the humor of old than now. This is just one of the best comedies of all time so it’s hard not to list it as number one. Without this movie, Leslie Nielson’s career would probably not of happened. I’ll get back to you once if I figure out if that’s a good thing or not.
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