What have Comic Book movies replaced?

Even more than action vs comedy, it’s about original concept vs IP. Look at the 2010s and the 2017 lists vs the 80s and 90s lists. It’s gone from half sequels/adaptations/remakes to virtually all. It would be even more obvious if we had the ‘next tier’ of movies included as well.

To the original question, it’s basically what @Rock8man suggested at the beginning: the current trends in movies have replaced mid-90s Will Smith’s career (Bad Boys, ID4, MIB, Enemy of the State, Wild Wild West) with current Chris Pratt’s career (from LEGO movie through Avengers 3, everything but Passengers was based on existing IP).

(I guess the interesting follow-up given the comedy discussion is: what happened to mid-90s Adam Sandler’s career? Is current Melissa McCarthy’s career all that different? If anything, I’d say it’s worked out better. Is the falloff just in the ‘second tier’ of indie comedy, which is much more likely to end up as a Netflix series now?)

Virgin shines because it’s just barely a Carell movie. It’s the supporting characters that elevate it to greatness - Rogan, Lynch, Rudd, etc.

Same with Anchorman & Farrell. I agree that neither of them can really carry a film by themselves.

Funny as they were, I’d never put the Toy Story movies in the “comedy” category, but Incredibles was gut-bustingly funny. I think it hangs.

Most of the Farrally Brothers’ movies don’t age well, and I didn’t care for most of them to start with. For whatever reason, Something About Mary works on a better level than a lot of the early-2000s “gross-out/humiliation” movies.

The Hangover was just damned funny. The sequels are wastes of digital film.

Borat was groundbreaking and incredible to see… once. I too would rather never see it again. It was a product of its time and place.

I’m with Skipper on Zoolander – it’s an objectively bad movie that nevertheless gets better and better on re-watching. And a great example of Will Farrell being fantastic in a supporting role.

Napoleon Dynamite is an acquired taste, but damn I love that movie. Actually, I guess I just like that style of movie – I personally would put Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom over Caddyshack, but I know I’m not in the majority there.

And I don’t know how I missed Idiocracy in my list. Maybe because it’s becoming more of a documentary.

See, now I actually really like these as well. And would have put them ‘best comedies of the last decade’ before your previous post reminded me of there being others I really liked.

Problem is that the ones I enjoy tend not to be the big tentpole comedies, most of those I hate. But a Wes Anderson flick? That I can dig.

So I guess my revised position is: there are good comedies being made, but more niche. Top grossing comedies from the 70’s and 80’s are superior to the top grossing comedies of the ‘00’s and ‘10’s for the most part.

Kermode has some interesting thoughts on the relative decline of comedies at the cinema in this book. I though there was a relevant extract online, but I can’t seem to find it. To steal the review’s paraphrase:

I think it’s probably also true that, with very rare exceptions, there’s a ceiling on the box office for outright comedies, because senses of humour vary so widely. If you’re relying primarily on jokes (or worse, deadpan humour) for your entertainment, you’re naturally going to be limiting the audience. An argument could be made that back in the day (at least after the mass movie going of the early 20th century died off) that cap was pretty much around what other mainstream movies would make, but now, the ceiling for certain types of movie (particularly taking into account overseas) is much, much higher.

It would be interesting to see a box office analysis that looked at comedy box office beyond the top 10. I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers weren’t that different for the industry as a whole, just not represented in the top 10.

Indeed. Best comedy of 2015 (in the UK anyway)? The Lobster. US gross: $8.7m.

I suspect CraigM hates that film though.

The Lobster is a comedy? I don’t understand anything anymore.

Also, explosions translate into any language. Jokes, much less so.

Heh, never seen it. I really don’t see many movies these days.

Also I’ve always found my sense of humor skews a bit more British. Pick any random British comedy from the last decade, and do the same for an American one, and I’ll give you high odds I prefer the British one.

Patton Oswalt has been very outspoken about being ostracized and shamed for liking these things in high school, and now he feels betrayed that these things “belong” to everyone else. And while I understand that sentiment, I just feel vindicated, and happy for future generations that don’t have to deal with that crap. I tell my son all the time, “You’re really lucky to be alive in this period of time! It’s a great time to be a geek!”

See, I have the exact opposite reaction: I enjoyed the recliner seats the first time for the novelty of it, but now it just bothers me to see theaters with half as many seats, meaning more people are going to be sitting off to the sides. And at the same time, you have theaters with fewer people, so you don’t get those big crowd reactions which, let’s face it, are the primary reason I see movies in the theater anymore. I’d rather be packed in with a bunch of people cheering or laughing, than relaxed with a few people eating meals and napping in their recliners.

I agree. That’s why I usually avoid the theaters with the meals and the recliner seats. On the few occasions I have sat in the recliner seats though, there is still enough people in the theater to get some pretty great audience reactions. So you don’t completely lose that awesome feeling of feeling that crowd reaction.

“Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!”

(with apologies to Monty Python)

“Romanes eunt domus”

I’m currently reading ‘The Children’s Book’ by A.S.Byatt, which focuses on a bohemian set of characters living through the end of the Victorian and into the Edwardian age. One of the principle themes is how the adult populance were yearning and being reinvigorated by what were traditional children’s tales of wonder, striving to relive the carefree imaginative mindset. I wonder if this is coming back around, because of a long period of stability (nose to the grindstone etc) allows us to wander into the (perceived) frivolity of the imaginative arts as a population.

Of course, as I enter the last third of the book, I imagine the story will end with the first WorldWar squashing the fuck out of everyone’s inner child. May we escape that bit a while longer…