Top 5 Farrelly Brothers Films
"What the hell is that? Let me guess. You're the gopher from Caddyshack."
"That's all water under the fridge now, Harry."
"Wonder what it would be like to raise a child? Maybe I couldn't afford to send her to the best public schools."
"But I keep forgetting my pin number."
"It is eleven-eleven."
"But I thought it was four numbers?"
"It is four numbers. One-one-one-one."
Dumb And Dumber To (2014) is the best movie The Farrelly Brothers have made since the 1990's thanks to the two lead characters and the many quotes hidden during first few viewings. It gets panned by reviews now but will be appreciated more when it is on cable. But it is barely better than Shallow Hal since it is basically a recycle of 1994's story but with worse music. The music in the first two Farrelly Brothers films were phenomenal. If Dumb & Dumber had the better humor, characters, and soundtrack, Kingpin had more heart, story, and most sympathetic character in Roy Munson. And Bill Murray can outshine Jim Carrey. Ernie McCracken is the funniest character in any Farrelly film.
"It's a small world when you have unbelievable t*ts, Roy."
That was ad-libbed by Murray. Peter and Bobby both said Bill Murray is one of the funniest people they know along with Chris Elliott. Too bad Murray had such a short scene in Dumb And Dumber To as Harry's new roommate known as Ice Pick. I think most people wouldn't realize it until they saw final credits roll like Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. I would love to see Jim Carrey and Bill Murray interact more together. Throw in Conan O'Brien for even better chemistry and fantastic with improv.
Characters -
5 Dumb & Dumber
4 Dumb And Dumber To
3 Kingpin
2 There's Something About Mary
1 Shallow Hal
^^ D&D To had a third idiot in Penny (Rachel Melvin). I also found Karen Duffy to be a terrible actress in the og. Her lines had amateurish deliver. The unattractive Vanessa Angel came off much funnier and more natural. Bill Murray and Lin Shaye can easily make Kingpin top this area.
Story -
5 Kingpin
4 There's Something About Mary
3 Shallow Hal
2 Dumb & Dumber
1 Dumb And Dumber To
Humor -
5 Dumb & Dumber
4 There's Something About Mary
3 Kingpin
2 Dumb And Dumber To
1 Shallow Hal
Heart -
5 Kingpin
4 There's Something About Mary
3 Shallow Hal
2 Dumb & Dumber
1 Dumb And Dumber To
Music -
5 Dumb & Dumber
4 Kingpin
3 Shallow Hal
2 There's Something About Mary
1 Dumb And Dumber To
Ambiance -
5 There's Something About Mary
4 Kingpin
3 Dumb & Dumber
2 Dumb And Dumber To
1 Shallow Hal
Quotes -
5 Dumb & Dumber
4 Dumb And Dumber To
3 Kingpin
2 There's Something About Mary
1 Shallow Hal
Ending -
5 There's Something About Mary
4 Kingpin
3 Dumb & Dumber
2 Shallow Hal
1 Dumb And Dumber To
Overall -
31 - 1st Kingpin
30 - 2nd Dumb & Dumber
25 - 3rd There's Something About Mary
16 - 4th Dumb And Dumber To
15 - 5th Shallow Hal
"Roy, can you get sick drinking piss? Even if it's your own?"
The funniest movie I saw in the theater was There's Something About Mary. I saw it like 3x in the theater and laughed hard each time. It was the directors' third film and it was their biggest hit. A surprise hit during the summer of 1998. I haven't seen them reached that level since. The only other two movies that made me laugh as hard in the theater was Zack And Miri Make A Porno and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. But over the years, I think I've liked each one a little less which also applies to TSAM. Once you see the sight gags, it no longer shines if the story, characters, and music isn't as great.
All Top 5 Farrelly films have HIGH REPLAY VALUE for me though. I always had a tough time ranking between the Farrelly's first three films. It depends on my mood. Sometimes I get sick of D&D and Kingpin too and would prefer TSAM the next day. But I enjoy all three the best with Dumb And Dumber To in the same tier as Shallow Hal and The Three Stooges. I prefer the Farrelly Brothers over Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen humor which drags a little too much at the end in most of their films and can't match the music and replay value. Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat and Brüno can be a little overbearing too. Funny? Yes. A bit much? Yup. The Dictator was a decent balance.
The Three Stooges (2012) would rank 6th best. I enjoy it too being a Stooges fan but still prefer the original Moe, Larry, and Curly from the 1930's and 1940's. Their comedy belong in shorts and not 90 minute movies. The worst to me is Me, Myself, & Irene which was worse than the fairly forgettable Stuck On You.
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Ant-Man (2015)
Worst MCU film next to Iron Man 3 for me. I see his character pointless. I have nothing against the cast. I liked Paul Rudd the best in The 40-Year Old Virgin. Michael Douglas is a legend like his dad. And Evangeline Lilly will always be Kate to me in LOST. They were just handed a bad script to work with. They even gave a role to rapper, T.I., and all he could bring is the typical black guy jokes that Ludicris and Tyrese Gibson bring to The Fast & The Furious series.
But this film has too many Honey, I Shrunk The Kids moments. Now I loved that movie as a kid and wore out my VHS copy of that Disney flick. I even went to see the sequel and enjoyed the Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves attraction at Disneyland. But the situations for a superhero like hopping on an ant to ride on? Nah. I am no longer 9-years old to find any of that amusing.
- Ant-Man's villain sucks. But then again, MCU standalone films usually has unremarkable villians except for puny god, but witty Loki.
- Story sucks which is pretty common for the franchise.
- Third act was a downer like usual in the series unless it was both Avengers films.
- I did like the fight scene between Ant-Man v Falcon. Very surprising and cool.
- I did like the two short scenes at the ending credits.
- And I did like the humor in the script.
I liked the overrated Guardians of the Galaxy more mainly for the better music and decent heart to its story. And I didn’t love Galaxy that much. Reviewers overrate movies and underrate others. I feel reviewers overrates GotG, Ant-Man, and Mad Max: Fury Road but underrate something like San Andreas. Now I enjoyed all those movies but how can Fury Road be a Top 250 great on IMDb when the story was dumber than San Andreas? They run and then go back? That's why I rarely look at reviews anymore.
Some of my all-time favorite movies like Hot Tub Time Machine, The Forbidden Kingdom, Fanboys, Couples Retreat, Wild Hogs, History Of The World Part I, and Tron: Legacy all had bad reviews but I enjoy them more than 95% of films listed on a Top 100 greatest list. And some of my former loves like Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Gladiator, and the Batman character with his lame fight sequences compared to Captain America to be extremely overrated now.
MCU can be an overhyped franchise. But so is Star Wars to me and I probably love SW more than MCU as whole than individually. Where MCU beats SW is two areas. More interesting characters and ACTION sequences. While I love the film versions of Vader, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, Artoo, and so on. The stable of MCU characters is far deeper and more interesting. And the action sequences are can be epic with MCU. Lightsaber duels and mindless space battles don't interest me as much as superheroes and super villains with different special abilities clashing with one another.
Where Star Wars beats MCU is epic music thanks to John Williams and more engaging stories and more emotional weight. MCU stories is too convoluted and I don't feel sympathy for any of them. And the villains in the stand-alone films usually seem cliché of wanting more power and usually losing at the end. The bad guy in Ant-Man was a joke. Still, while I didn't like Ant-Man as much as the others, it is still worth having in the collection and watching a couple times. I just find the entire premise of using ants to travel too silly. But I haven't really HATED an MCU film. Even Shane Black ruining The Mandarin, I can still enjoy Iron Man 3. Mostly dumb and funny scripts catering to the age bracket under me.
Favorite MCU Films
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. The Avengers
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron
4. Thor
5. Iron Man
6. Iron Man 2
7. Captain America: The First Avenger
8. Guardians of the Galaxy
9. Thor: The Dark World
10. The Incredible Hulk
11. Ant-Man
12. Iron Man 3
But I only put the Top 3 among my Top 100. The rest were just pretty good but mostly forgettable. Age of Ultron gets dissed alot and I can agree. The first 80 min is generally boring and the story is terrible. But it is actually one of the better ones with a fantastic last 45 minutes that didn't end terribly like the majority of MCU films. It was put in a situation where it was never going to surpass the original and live up to its hype. I think Marvel is getting a huge EGO like Qualcomm with the Snapdragons. I think they never should've released an Ant-Man movie and focused on someone more interesting like standalone films for Black Widow or Hawkeye. Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and The Vision are more interesting than some dizzying Honey, I Shrunk The Kids superhero who uses insects to travel and isn't all that special in normal human size.
Still looking forward to seeing Ant-Man team up with Captain America and Falcon next year. I figure Civil War will not be accurate to the comics. Marvel Studios isn't going to have Steve Rogers assassinated. The heroes will have an argument and then everyone will team up again to fight Thanos in Infinity Wars. WWE storylines. I enjoy Star Wars and MCU but neither have the same fun and higher replay value as the Back To The Future Trilogy and Indiana Jones Tetralogy. The action sequences in the Raiders films are more thrilling than in SW and the story is better and funnier in BTTF than in MCU. Those two franchises is what I enjoyed first adoring Temple of Doom, Last Crusade and BTTF I & II as a child. Comic adventure! SW OT feels dated now and MCU hasn't lived up to its potential in storytelling and has horrible pacing, unmemorable quotes, weak villains, and an average music score.
Anticipation Rating
Star Wars Sequel Trilogy - 8/10
Batman v Superman - 7/10
MCU Phase 3 - 8/10 (mainly for Civil War & Infinity Wars)
Don't expect much after The Phantom Menace and Age of Ultron with these newer directors and writers who aren't on the same level as Spielberg, Lucas, and Zemeckis.
Currently watching at this moment with my gf- The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring EE again. Now there is a series I don't love as much as Star Wars and MCU because of the characters but is technically superior to both overrated and overhyped franchises. The final 30 minutes looks and feels AMAZING.
Favorite Series (with min three films)
1. Back To The Future
2. Indiana Jones
3. Star Wars
4. Marvel Cinematic Universe
5. The Godfather
6. The Lord Of The Rings
7. X-Men
8. Jurassic Park
9. Spider-Man
10. Batman