48. Josie And The Pussycats (2001) 6
clutch
― woke-ing class zero (s.clover), Saturday, 30 July 2016 21:05 (seven years ago) link
I've watched it J&tP twice now, the second time because it did so well on our comedy poll a few years back, and I still have no idea what people see in it. The boy band episode of The Simpsons did the same thing better like a year or two earlier.
― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Saturday, 30 July 2016 21:23 (seven years ago) link
Those results: sea level rise couldn't happen fast enough
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 30 July 2016 21:25 (seven years ago) link
Josie was a frustrating letdown after Kaplan & Elfont's first film, and for all its critical acclaim seemed to put them into movie jail.
― Shakey δσς (sic), Sunday, 31 July 2016 00:34 (seven years ago) link
I watched it recently with my girlfriend and was fearing bad eyes, but it's still got it - a funny film about the music industry with a great soundtrack - and everyone is pretty.
― Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 31 July 2016 19:21 (seven years ago) link
Josie was a frustrating letdown after Kaplan & Elfont's first film, and for all its critical acclaim seemed to put them into movie jail.― Shakey δσς (sic), Saturday, July 30, 2016 5:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Shakey δσς (sic), Saturday, July 30, 2016 5:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
makes sense, it was a huge commercial flop, it barely made back a third of its budget and iirc it was pretty well-marketed. It only got mixed reviews at the time, I feel like it's only been in the past 5 years or so that I've seen it critically rehabilitated, and even that's been on a fairly small scale. Though it's possible it had a stronger immediate cult than I realized.
― intheblanks, Sunday, 31 July 2016 23:56 (seven years ago) link
I was surprised to see it take this poll, it has its moments but it's just ok
― intheblanks, Monday, 1 August 2016 00:17 (seven years ago) link
ahem.
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 1 August 2016 00:57 (seven years ago) link
Josie and the Pussycats: Classic or Dud
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 1 August 2016 00:58 (seven years ago) link
borat was surprisingly ephemeral; people really did laugh Very Hard at it in the theater but nobody's dared to go back to announce their "funniest movie of all time?" thinkpieces have been vindicated.
― le Histoire du Edgy Miley (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, July 12, 2016 11:48 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah i laughed a ton at this movie but have never wanted to revisit it -- doesn't feel like the kind of thing that rewards repeat viewings. like a lot of the films on this list but don't rly love a lot of them. ones i'd watch again: ghost world, in the loop, walk hard, josie, school of rock.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 1 August 2016 02:02 (seven years ago) link
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)
^^^^^
― salthigh, Monday, 1 August 2016 02:09 (seven years ago) link
the josie soundtrack is pretty all time and as a whole it ages v. well
― woke-ing class zero (s.clover), Monday, 1 August 2016 08:20 (seven years ago) link
Think I found one joke in Josie and the Pussycats funny: "Du Jour, 2008-09." Tara Reid, sometimes--a little went a long way. The music was an okay (but clichéd) simulation of power pop.
― clemenza, Thursday, 4 August 2016 01:15 (seven years ago) link
josie and the pussycats is perfect. adam schlesinger wrote most of the songs so they're actual power pop instead of a simulation imo
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Thursday, 4 August 2016 01:28 (seven years ago) link
Eh, he wrote one song, ""Pretend to Be Nice," which may be the best. He did produce a bunch, though.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 4 August 2016 01:35 (seven years ago) link
I guess it's real enough all right--I read that the singing was done by someone from Letters to Cleo--but I'll stick by clichéd. It just struck me as the most generic kind of power pop.
― clemenza, Thursday, 4 August 2016 02:38 (seven years ago) link
matthew sweet on the soundtrack too, and jason falkner from the jellyfish.
and two pitch-perfect boy band pastiche tracks, with the whole thing executive produced by babyface
― woke-ing class zero (s.clover), Thursday, 4 August 2016 06:01 (seven years ago) link
r/n i feel like "come on" is the best track on the album -- have we ever polled it?
― woke-ing class zero (s.clover), Thursday, 4 August 2016 06:04 (seven years ago) link
Josie & The Pussycats fandom seems like a time capsule for treating fun pop (music and TV-wise at least) much more seriously than ILX currently does.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 4 August 2016 06:08 (seven years ago) link
I agree that the boy-band song was spot-on.
― clemenza, Thursday, 4 August 2016 06:11 (seven years ago) link
Biggest lol on the list is lol @ no super troopers
― poor fiddy-less albion (darraghmac), Thursday, 4 August 2016 06:51 (seven years ago) link
I thought of something that isn't on the list
― stop trying to make fet wappen (wins), Thursday, 4 August 2016 10:03 (seven years ago) link
What We Do In The Shadows is excellent.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 01:01 (seven years ago) link
Not much love here for some reason.
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 01:22 (seven years ago) link
ILX didn't much like Flight of The Conchords either though did we?
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 01:26 (seven years ago) link
Sigh... in retrospect it really does seem like the '00s were a golden age of mainstream film comedy. Nowadays a clever idea for a comedy is remaking Mean Girls. Sad.
― o. nate, Monday, 15 January 2024 21:56 (four months ago) link
Lots of comedies not even listed here better than what we get these days: The Hangover, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, 2 Days in Paris, Elf, Dodgeball, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Zach and Miri Make a Porno, Napoleon Dynamite, Mamma Mia!, Meet the Parents, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, etc..
― o. nate, Monday, 15 January 2024 22:02 (four months ago) link
what exactly do we get these days? it feels like they don't make these kinds of movies at all anymore. unless there's a bunch of direct-to-Netflix stuff with Adam Sandler or whatever
― frogbs, Monday, 15 January 2024 23:17 (four months ago) link
They're pretty much all direct to streaming now, with the two most recent exceptions being Barbie and No Hard Feelings (which ended up on Netflix like six weeks after it opened anyway).
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 00:37 (four months ago) link
You Hurt My Feelings isn't exactly a guffaw-style comedy, but it was worth watching
― Wack Snyder (Eric H.), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 00:56 (four months ago) link
Holofcener is possibly the secret best Comedy director of the modern era.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 00:59 (four months ago) link
Add me to the three posters who lobbied for Adventureland.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 01:56 (four months ago) link
Honestly I don't miss "let's get 20 takes of Will Ferrell and stitch it together afterwards" (for all that I love, for example, Zoolander and him in it)
From a dumb list of "best comedies of 2023", along with the ones already mentioned, there's Are you there, God?, Bottoms, Joy Ride, Cocaine Bear, Flux Gourmet - Poor Things is out just now, there's Argylle and Wicked Little Letters and Drive-Away Dolls dues later this year - the distinction made by Morbius about character comedies vs jokebook comedies is solid, and there's a lack of "I went in and was in shocked laughter for 90 minutes" (though Bottoms is closest), but again I'm fine with that.
And yeah of course something as hard to audience-size as comedy is getting less time in cinemas in 2024.
I was probably one of the Josie voters, dlh otm both that it slows down towards the end (when it decides needs to be a romcom) and that it's a great corporate dystopia. I suspect that seeing it at #48 on the original list and WHAS at #1 would have affected that, and seeing it on top by one vote is sweet - absent such enjoyable pettiness, I'd probably pick Walk Hard.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 13:16 (four months ago) link
Tbf, they didn't just remake Mean Girls, they made a movie based on the musical based on the movie. Not that you would know it from the trailer, tho. Would add Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar as a good broad comedy of recent vintage. It wasn't a theatrical release but I think it was supposed to be if not for the pandemic.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 13:51 (four months ago) link
Bottoms seemed to split the room pretty sharply. So yeah, perhaps the heir to WHAS
― Wack Snyder (Eric H.), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 13:54 (four months ago) link
I remember Bad Santa being flat and not particularly funny, weird top pick.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 15:26 (four months ago) link
I just couldn't believe how bad the Santa was
― frogbs, Tuesday, 16 January 2024 15:42 (four months ago) link
and then he got badder!
― Disco Biollante (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 15:49 (four months ago) link
I feel like the absurdist, gags-upon-gags sort of comedy in the lineage of Airplane! & Mel Brooks has been missing from contemporary cinema since at least the Anchorman/Step Brothers days and it makes me sad. I love that garbage. No emphasis on story or character, no attempt at biting satire, just an endless buffet of escalating dumb jokes
― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:06 (four months ago) link
I appreciated BASEketball for that reason
― Disco Biollante (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:14 (four months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B6ck7O6BBU
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:15 (four months ago) link
Bottoms had a not-insignificant quantity of that very brand of humor imo
― Wack Snyder (Eric H.), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:20 (four months ago) link
I'll have to check it out! I thought it was more in the "serious" social-satire bracket for some reason.
― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:44 (four months ago) link
Gonna ride for 'Barb & Star' and 'Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping' and that's really about it for our post-Farrell laffaverse
― The SoyBoy West Coast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:56 (four months ago) link
^style boy for life
― Disco Biollante (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 16:57 (four months ago) link
I thought it was more in the "serious" social-satire bracket for some reason
There's what feels like a maybe obligatory amount of that in there too, but the movie's heart never really seems in that aspect
― Wack Snyder (Eric H.), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:02 (four months ago) link
Barb and Star was wonderful.
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:03 (four months ago) link
i saw theater camp on a plane recently and imo it was a really solid endless-cascade-of-jokes movie that was also clearly angling for wet hot american summer cult status (bottoms seems more “improv” than either to me, tho i also enjoyed it)
― ivy., Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:14 (four months ago) link
oh my god, Theater Camp was amazing. it's enjoyable for all audiences but anybody who's done the theater kid experience will probably lose their shit.
the bit that went:
"I know this is an incredibly stressful process and it can kinda feel like life and death. It's designed to feel that way"If you drop a line, if you crack, if you're a little flat, what does that say about you?"
"If you drop a line, if you crack, if you're a little flat, what does that say about you?"
slayed me
the making up the song on the spot part was great too.
― Disco Biollante (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:18 (four months ago) link
and the kid auditioning with Better Now lmao
― Disco Biollante (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 16 January 2024 17:19 (four months ago) link