Why do all the best comedies come out in years that end in '"4"?

This all started when I realized most of the comedies I've bought on DVD recently (made post 2000) were from 2004, then I thought about another of my favorites Dumb and Dumber, then back to Ghostbusters and from there the movies just kept getting added.   Before I get crucified, I'm not saying only the greatest comedies have been released in those years, I realize it is leaving out a lot of the best and I know how touchy people can be when it comes to funny movies.  For example, this leaves out some of the all-timers like Caddyshack, Animal House, Airplane, etc (see I recognized them so I know what I'm talking about), but it does include a few of the all-timers Blazing Saddles, Spinal Tap, Ghostbusters, Dr. Strangelove.

Also I'm doing quality control from top to bottom, movies 1-20 type stuff, the best team not the best playmakers you know, these years have for some reason produced the most solid range of comedies ever made.  Some are even considered the best overall movies of their respective years or of all-time, but another characteristic is that they span a lot of different senses of humor, races, sex, ages at the time, and generations over the last century.  You have hugely, high grossing popular movies, cult favorites, oscar winners, slap stick, dark, and many that launched famous careers and series. 

First you got to look at the AFI 100 years 100 laugh which I know you can only take so far since it's a ton of old people and only goes to 2000, but years ending in "4" have 3 movies in the top 10, 9 in the top 50, and 14 overall in the top 100 which leads all years.  Since it is all based on opinion maybe after you see the list below you'll think more of the movies should be in top 100 from these years, but it's a moot point.  AFI is considered by many to know what they are talking about and they keep a good record of every movie every made so they got that going for them. 

Some of these movies I haven't heard of or seen but I added to the list if they got a good rating, had a famous comedic actor of the time, or I've heard discussed amongst aficionados.   I put an AFI next to ones I didn't hear of but were on their list.  There is a lot more from the 80's on since that's what I'm most familiar with and as a kid you find everything fucking funny most of the time.

Check this out:

2004
Sideways
Team America
Anchorman
Napoleon Dynamite
Dodgeball
Shaun of the Dead
Harold and Kumar
Starsky and Hutch
Kung Fu Hustle
Without a Paddle
Spongebob (fuck you, I thought it was good, probably the funniest movie for kids that year or ever)
I Heart Huckabees (kind of out there but I know some people that thought it was funny and it filled that niche nicely, some of the behind the scenes antics turned out to be funnier)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (considered a comedy?)
The Ladykillers (see description of Hudsucker below)
Saved! (made a big splash on the indie scene, but haven't seen it)
Meet the Fockers (looking at strictly box office here)
Girl Next Door

Hands down this has to be the strongest year of the 2000's, no arguments I could see debates for the other decades but this one is not up for questioning.  Each year this decade maybe had 1 or 2 worth talking about or even watching but this year almost every comedy released was able to find their niche audience and succeed on some level. 

1994
Ace Ventura
Dumb and Dumber
PCU
Clerks (not my cup of tea, but pretty landmark film of the 90's)
The Ref
Blankman (haven't seen it since the 90's so I may be a little foggy on the quality)
Cabin Boy
Clifford
The Mask
The Chase
Little Giants/Rascals (hey I was a kid)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (bumbling british humor I think, romantic comedy)
Hudsucker Proxy (not the coen bros best, coen bros nonetheless and still a serviceable movie with great performances)
Airheads (vastly underrated, if you don't think so see it only for its opening sequence)
Forrest Gump (I'm iffy on this one, there were funny moments but you also had AIDS, Vietnam, people constantly dying/getting shot, but that scene when Forrest meets Lt. Dan on the dock, come on.  Plus I think the comedy scenes made it the hit it was)
Naked Gun 33 1/3  (had its moments, end of a great franchise, last movie for OJ)
The Santa Claus (good for families, can't argue with Box Office and spawned 2 high grossing sequels)

1984
Ghostbusters
Spinal Tap
Revenge of the Nerds
Beverly Hills Cop (oh just the highest grossing rated R movie for like 20 years)
Top Secret (often overlooked since they had to follow up Airplane)
Sixteen Candles (chicks love it)
Police Academy (started an 8 part franchise which became a joke in of itself)
Bachelor Party
Splash
The Killing Fields (just kidding, ROFL, but seriously it is a powerful movie)
Muppets Take Manhatten
Cheech and Chong Corsican Brothers (meh, but don't you have to include a Cheech and Chong somewhere?)

1974
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein
The Longest Yard
Swept Away

1964
Dr. Strangelove
A Shot in the Dark
A Hard Days Night
Viva Las Vegas
McHale's Navy
Robin and the 7 Hoods
Kiss Me Stupid

1954
Sabrina
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
It Should Happen to You
Casanova's Big Night

1944
Arsenic and Old Lace (from the AFI list never sawr it but friends are recommending it hardcore)
The Miracle at Morgan's Creek (AFI)
Cover Girl
Casanova Brown
Princess and the Pirate
Pin Up Girl
Nothing But Trouble

1934
The Thin Man (same thing AFI)
It's a Gift (AFI)
It Happened One Night
Little Miss Marker
Babes in Toyland
The Gay Divorcee (teeheehee, they thought gay meant happy, right?)
You're Telling Me

1924
Sherlock Jr. (AFI)
The Navigator (AFI)
Girl Shy
Leap Year
The Cigarette Girl from Moscow

One thing I really wanted to do was include Billy Madison in 1994 since it was so close, but got to be strict.  However I think if you expanded it to years on either side (ie 93-95) it would expand the quality greatly vs any other group of 3 years.  By the way that late 1994-early 1995 had Dumb and Dumber, Billy Madison, Tommy Boy, Friday and to a lesser extent Major Payne.  Generation Y would never be the same again. 

I don't really have a definitive answer for the reasoning behind this.  I posed it as an open ended question instead of a theory to it.  But why could it be?  Do we realize how stupid the previous decade was and think this decade is the best by this year only to be disappointed down the last 5 years and it just starts all over again.  Someone call a sociologist. 

Am I missing any movies?  Let me know.   Look out 2014!

Alien

The scariest thing about the xenomorphs is that they have to exist somewhere in the universe and they will eventually find there way here if they breed that way, or something much worst is out there.  Chances are our paths will never cross based on the size of the universe, but they could. Holy fuck. 

Seriously I don't know what it is about these things that scares me so much.  They are the only movie monster to have done so.  Maybe it is the way they kill with no flinching, that CGI was rarely used, how they sneak around tunnels.  What if this is the evolutionary path for humans?  What if this is what we become?  What if that was the premise of the first one was that space jammer thing went back in time like a billion years to the present of that movie.  Anything's possible in the universe?  Why did Paul Reiser love them so much?

I liked that one part...

I liked that one part in Point Break where Bodhi plays by his own rules.

Was what Mark Zuckerberg did really that impressive?

(this guy should just get ripped and become the next Schwarzenegger and do stupid action movies that are schweet)

Keep in mind this is a movie blog and I, like many people, form opinion on things I see movies, so sue me because I think women love asshole man children (see Katherine Heigl)  Who wouldn't right?  She reminds me of every girl I didn't have sex with in high school. 

 
In general, I'm always kind of weary on these types of movies.  Ben Mezrich is a great writer and things are always well researched out, but you have to base so many events on personal experience.  Did Zuckerberg really do and so all those things, maybe, and maybe not.  Everyone is guilty of elaborating something.  But I digress onto the meat of the post.

 (see what I did there)

I'm not going to sit here and say Mark Zuckerberg has accomplished nothing.  He's created a phenomenon that has changed the global landscape forever and I commend him for that (since he already has too many detractors)  But was that idea, that website, so far fetched.  In the movie, again I get it, but in the movie he says we are doing things at facebook that no one imagined or something like that.  As an extremely amateur website developer, it didn't seem like the codes for the original facebooks would be that hard, maybe I'm missing osmething or you could download them as attachments like I did with the a forum on hostmonster, but dreamweaver was available that year.  Was his idea and execution really that complicated.  Maybe an expert programmer can fill me in on what they think, which is what Zuckerberg should have been, for going to Harvard right?  They have a day where they say they have been programing code all day.  Why couldn't that be an exageration, like the movie is an exaggeration of itself you know. Of course it is going to be exaggerated and that is a distinguish that only character can claim.  Basically I'm saying who isn't going to embellish their life from this movie, these are all sketchy characters, they are all evil in some way as with everyone in the world is and that is the movie of the now.  That may be why a critic claimed it as such.

 As I said everyone is guilty of elaborating something...

I also have to admit in a previous post that I was down on Kevin Spacey.  Dude's okay.  He's producing a lot of solid material.  I mean absolutely hated 21, but with Social Network showed that he knew how to improve and that's what it is about.

So it is popular to masturbate to Angelina Jolie Right?

So I'm sitting here it is 2 AM and sometimes I like to kill two birds with one stone.  I go through the Netflix queue and i find Without Borders, or no Beyond Borders sorry.   I figure out yeah Angelina Jolie is in this, I've never rubbed one out before maybe I'll try it, she seems to be popular amongst fan boys, and I'm sure something like this has happened in the history that she has been sex symbol.  When in rome.  Long story short, I can safely say I have a boner for the plight of Africa. 

PS Clive Owen Fucking Owns. 

PPS Is Noah Emmerich in every fucking movie?

Battle LA

You know I haven’t seen Michelle Rodriguez play a tough as nails woman in a really long time, maybe ever.  An independent woman who is bitter in a way that she hates the hand that was dealt to her in life but she has dealt with it, and she is stronger because of it.  Sure she made some mistakes in the past, but she is trying to make them right by aggressively fighting for what she believes in.  No she hasn’t done one of those in awhile. Oh good one of those is opening this weekend...

2 Movies in 2 days

 

 Unbeknownst to me I watched 2 Cheri Oteri movies in 2 days.  I don't think I could ever do that again even if I was trying. 

Chris Pine was in Just My Luck?

Does everyone realize that Chris Pine was in Just My luck with Lyndsay Lohan.  James T Kirk was in a movie Lindsay lohan.  Girl from such and such is the highest grossing to pay actress in the game. Look at that you don't even see him in that picture.  Marketers got a strike it while it's hot I guess.  I wonder how they pitched this picture.  Okay this movie is called just my luck, lets have a big ass picture of Lindsay Lohan winking at the camera, because that's never been done before...

Here's another trip down mamory lane.  

Probably the best picture ever taken, but more as of a matter of what was happening when I first saw it.  Good times.  

The Good Shepherd

I watched the Good Shepherd awhile back and the older version of Matt Damon's character looks exactly like Bruce's pissed of dad character (without a mustache mind you), Gordon I think his name is, the dad who gets pissed of when Dave says the meatloaf is *beep* good. Even some of the mannerisms are the same, I couldn't stop cracking up. Bruce should have gotten that role.

Inception and Water World

This article here puts together a somewhat spotty claim on how American cinema is dying thanks to people not getting wet enough for Inception. The writer goes on to say how hollywood should be clamoring over exactly the kind of story that Inception is instead of rehashing every stale bit of popular culture, but there are many problems inherent with doing that. 

Newsflash Hollywood makes movies that make money, hence movie industry, and they do that pretty well.  Hollywood needs to make money on the almost sure bets on sequels, prequels, brand names and proven commodities so they can fund passion projects and arthouse directors to make quality films (ie. Focus is owned by Universal).  It’s a sad state to be in, but if I have to watch a trailer for the Smurfs in order to see a PT Anderson movie get made or a movie like the Coen Bros A Serious Man, which barely make their budgets back if at all then so be it.  You just can’t take it too personally when you get the 5^th movie to a sequel, or a movie based on a toy that is popular.  Didn’t people originally laugh at the idea of a movie based on facebook (mainly because they weren’t aware of the book)?   How long would Hollywood be in business if they didn’t do this?

You better believe that people in the studio were sweating on whether or not Inception would be a hit, because 9 times out of 10 they don’t want to take that gamble as it would probably fail.  What’s the rate of passion projects making their money back and then some 40/60, 30/70, less?  And I'm talking about all the independent fare, for every Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith there are 1000 people that mortgage their houses, max their credit cards and fail completely.  Inception was budgeted at an estimated $160 million which I would hardly call “moderate” as the article put it.  I can certainly see why studios were worried about it as an unproven commodity making back that much money, and I would doubt their intelligence if they weren’t.  All you have to do is bring up the case of Waterworld which can be looked at in the same light as Inception.  Popular (even oscar winning) director, popular actor, interesting story, amazing set pieces but today is looked at mostly as a joke (even though it eventually made it’s budget back overseas).  Inception could have easily gone that route and the studios knew and feared that.  Oooh, people going through dream worlds, hmm so basically a $200 million 13th floor.  But not just with Inception.  If I have an idea for an unbelievable sci fi movie and drop the price tag of $160 million I'll get laughed out of the room.  Remember when Corky got laughed at for wanting a million, it is the exact same thing.

I'm going go home and bite my pillow! (I wonder if Nolan ever said that?)

I think you will have a huge influx of these type of Sci-Fi Drama pieces in the $40-60 million dollar which I would label as moderately budgeted (Source Code/Adjustment Bureau is coming up), and Nolan probably has a free pass to make as many movies as he wants in that range.  But Hollywood is first and foremost and will always be a business so don’t expect them to be lining up to take $200 million dollar gambles on unproven brands unless your name is James Cameron.  

The second problem to this article is, and I'm putting the blame on the GQ mindset, that Hollywood is the only one make movies in the US.  Granted it is the Hollywood studios mostly in other major cities, and that term Hollywood is more of a description of practice rather than place, but Independent cinema is achieving things that no one would have thought of even 5 years ago.  With youtube, film festivals, custom tailored special effects shops, the lines are very much blurred between what is a hollywood production and what some guy made in his basement and that will always keep the American industry alive.  But make no mistake about it ever, people don't set out with a movie hoping to lose money.  You make your passion projects in hopes that everyone will see it.  Granted you can't figure those times out since movies do flop.  As I said earlier it is about picking your poisons, I'm perfectly fine with Studios dumping money on sure things in order to be able to finance the ones that might not make money back but occasionally become modern classics.  

The Women of Adaptation

Adaptation has hands down the hottest woman cast of any film ever made. 

 BOOM

 BANG!

  BING!

 SING!

 LOOM!

Top to bottom I challenge anyone to bring a second fighter to this table.  I didn't even know that was Tilda Swinton when I first saw this, but now I'm attracted to her in everything she does based on this.  It's kind of like when a hot girl does something to do you at an impressionable age and from then on you are always attracted to those features.  And for some reason I got a boner every time Cara Seymour said Charlie. 

Is James Cromwell officially a President?

I think James Cromwell has technically been a president longer than Mr. William Henry "32 days" Harrison.  Does that get him a spot in the hall of honor? 

Movies/TV he was President - W., RFK, Sum of All Fears, West Wing,  I think that's about 4 months worth of work, eat Harrison.  

And why do they look so much a like??  It's the ghost of Harrison living out his fantasy. 

Crank 2 and The Chase

Way to stay original action poster designers.  Why even change it from the first Chase poster?  Smart move taking out Kristy Swanson, I mean who wants a hot blond on the cover of a movie.  I loved The Chase when I was 13, that pretty much says all you need to know about the movie.