Weekend Small Talk:TV on the Silver Screen
At first glance, I was really depressed about this topic. Looking over Box Office Mojo's list of best TV adaptations, there just weren't that many. I found five live action films that made the list but then I was left mulling over films like Charlie's Angels or Mission Impossible: 3.
Thankfully, a little more research and I broadened by horizons by adding in films inspired by sketches or characters from TV show. Still, Borat will not make my list because I thought it was a fairly overrated flick and that the non-reality moments were painfully bad. Well, except for the naked fight which was painfully funny. How that won Best Screenplay I'll never know.
Still, TV has given us some terrible movies. The Avengers still is one of the most ridiculous and boring films I've ever seen. Josie and the Pussycats is lousy. I'm sorry but the new Miami Vice was atrocious and I've never been a Sci-Fi fan so no Star Trek or Serenty. (Not that they're bad, just not my faves)
So what did make the list?
10. Jackass: The Movie - I know that I've mentioned this movie in a couple other Small Talks and that probably explains why I'm still single (If only that was the reason...) but whatever, it made me laugh out loud.
9. Wayne's World - SNL has inspired a lot of crap but this movie worked. Granted, it introduced a lot of one-liners to the That Guy's of the world who love to say one-liners ad nauseum but it's still a very funny movie.
8. Traffic - It was based on a BBC miniseries so I'm counting it. Not only was it a great film but it also inspired a wave of copycats that tried to copy the multiple stories structure (Syriana, Babel, Fast Foot Nation, etc.) Some were good, some were bad, but none measured up to Traffic.
7. Strange Brew - I'm pretty sure this is the first movie I ever watched on my family's VCR. What a way to break in that crazy VHS technology. (And maybe this explains why I'm a booze hound) Anyway, the SC TV characters broke onto the big screen and delivered a forgotten gem, eh?
6. The Fugitive - Somewhat overrated but still very entertaining, this was one of Harrison Ford's last great roles. A Clear and Present Danger & Air Force One were solid movies but Ford has never really reached the level of The Fugitive.
5. The Naked Gun - I'm surprised that more TV shows don't get turned into movies ala The Naked Gun and Serenity (and reportedly Arrested Development). In a lot of cases, the shows might be better off as films rather than something which people would tune in to watch week in and week out. Hell, Naked Gun almost had more films than it did episodes. It was cancelled after four episodes and there were three movies (although two more episodes were aired the summer after it was cancelled). Even stranger, despite the show only airing six episodes total, Leslie Nielsen still managed to grab a Prime Time Emmy nomination.
At the very least, I think I might have just come up with my Small Talk for next week.
4. The Blues Brothers - A classic. Great comedy. Great music. Nazis. How did it not win an Oscar?
3. South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut - I'm going to give this film the nod over The Blues Brothers because it actually had funny musical numbers and it had something to say.
2. The Untouchables - How can you not love a movie that is based on a TV but then is really an homage to moves of the past. It's almost a post-modern wet dream. One of my all-time faves with one of the best monologues of DeNiro's career while also being the beginning of a great run of everyman roles for Kevin Costner. After Untouchables came: No Way Out, Field of Dreams, and Bull Durham. It's really a shame how far he's fallen.
1. The Muppet Movies - OK, maybe I'm cheating but if I didn't lump the Muppets together than this list might look like a Muppets convention. The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan are some of my favorite films and the Muppets can always make me laugh. Even Big Bird's line from The Muppet Movie, "Oh, no thanks. I'm on my way to New York City to try to break into public television." still makes me smile. Muppets Forever!
