James Absolon explains how this Pope-themed film, despite its risky premise, works
Alex Pollard reviews Hollywood's biopic of the controversial Margaret Thatcher
Decades before Will Ferrell donned a fake moustache and Sacha Baron Cohen affected a ridiculous accent, films of a different stripe roamed the earth. They made us (well, not us, but somebody) laugh without resorting to full-frontal naked wrestling or jokes about whale’s vaginas (do whales even have vaginas?). They were a different breed of comedy film, where the psychedelic absurdity was not tip-toed around but charged straight into. Or they were so sophisticated that their humour was as dry as the martinis sipped by their starring players. And it was all done with tongue-in-cheek, glint-in-the-eye, break-the-fourth-wall-and-wink-at-the-audience style. We shall not soon see their like again.
10. Dr Strangelove (1964)
Stanley Kubrick’s yarn of deranged Nazi scientists, bureaucratic incompetence and nuclear Armageddon has become a cinema classic, and rightly so. USAF General Jack D. Ripper succumbs to mounting paranoia and decides to launch a pre-emptive strike on the Soviet Union. Can a collection of imbecilic officials (almost all played by Peter Sellers) stop the bomber and prevent a nuclear exchange?*
9. Withnail and I (1986)
Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann are two unemployed actors tripping from their squalid flat to the nearest pub and back again. They decide to go on holiday at gay Uncle Monty’s countryside cottage. Hilarity ensues, but the ending is bittersweet.
8. MASH (1970)
Hawkeye and Duke are two fun-loving and extremely talented surgeons who happen to find themselves embroiled in the Korean War. Satirical comedy is juxtaposed with the confusions camp-life and the grizzly realities of army surgery. The second best film of the seventies.
7. Fletch (1985)
Ace reporter Fletch (Chevy Chase) is undercover, posing as a tramp, when he is made an offer he can’t refuse: help a millionaire commit suicide and pick up a great deal of cash. As Fletch’s journalistic instincts kick-in, he soon realises that there’s more going on than meets the eye.
6. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
The Pythons’ greatest work is the oft-quoted story of Brian, a young man growing up in a time when Messiahs were more common than sheep. Banned in some localities because of apparent blasphemy, this is the film that never dies – even though Brian does. But at least he always looked on the bright side of life.
5. Arthur (1981)
Drunken billionaire playboy Arthur (Dudley Moore) quite literally has it all… except for true love. But even that doesn’t elude Arthur for very long, as poor waitress Liza Minnelli comes into view – it’s just a pity about his family’s expectations. The real romance, however, is in Arthur’s love-hate relationship with his acerbic butler, Hobson (John Gielgud).
4. The Pink Panther (1963)
David Niven is the ‘Phantom’ – a gentleman jewel-thief who constantly eludes the bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers). Now the Phantom has set his sights on a priceless Arabian diamond – the eponymous Pink Panther stone. Can Clouseau match the Phantom in a game of wits? Definitely not, but it’s funny to watch him try.
3. In Like Flint (1967)
Forget Bond. Our man Flint (James Coburn) is a million times more intelligent, quick-witted, funny, and popular with the girls. In a sequel that is only slightly better than the magnificent original, Flint never loses his cool, whether he’s skydiving into the Caribbean, undermining a military coup, being launched into space, or just chilling at home with his three girlfriends.
2. What’s New Pussycat? (1965)
Woody Allen’s first film, starring Peter O’Toole as an inveterate womaniser who is forced to seek help from a sex-crazed Austrian psycho-therapist (Peter Sellers again!) to win the woman he loves. But fate doesn’t let old Pete off that easy and constantly places temptation in his path.
1. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Perhaps the classiest classic comedy of them all. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are on the run from the mob for witnessing a massacre. This naturally means joining an all-girl band, dressing up as women and falling for Marilyn Monroe. You know, all the usual stuff.
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