Board 8 > Board 8 Watches and Ranks Satire Films: The Ranking!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Payouts? Yeah, baby! Gavs and Johnbobb get a groovy $500 as we head into the final eight.

VEGAS ODDS ON #8:

+500 Sorry to Bother You
+850 Thank You For Smoking
+1100 Team America: World Police
+1200 Airplane!
+1500 Young Frankenstein
+1500 Jojo Rabbit
+2000 Office Space
+2000 Galaxy Quest

Leaderboard:
1) Poke $4350 (+500 Mystery Men, +500 The Freshman, +1250 The Interview, +600 Duck Soup, +600 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, +900 Enchanted)
2) Mega $2350 (+500 The Freshman, +1250 The Interview, +600 Borat)
3) Johnbobb $2200 (+850 Spaceballs, +850 National Lampoons Christmas
Vacation, +500 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery)
4) Inviso $1700 (+850 Not Another Teen Movie, +850 National Lampoons Christmas Vacation)
5) Forty $1500 (+600 Duck Soup, +900 Enchanted)
6) Gavs $1000 (+500 Mystery Men, +500 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery)
7) Mythiot $600 (+600 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping)
8) Suprak $500 (+500 Mystery Men)

The House Won On:

• Stripes (+1000 odds)
• Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (+500 odds)
• Beverly Hills Cop (+1000 odds)
• Return of the Living Dead (Unlisted; +2500 odds)
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Unlisted; +2500 odds)
• Modern Times (+700 odds)
• This is Spinal Tap (+1250 odds)
• Monty Pythons The Life of Brian (+1500 odds)
• Zoolander (+850 odds)
• Black Dynamite (+850 odds)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (+1000 odds)

Sticking with Sorry to Bother You.

"He'd make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark." Excellent spoof of all things spy-related; of course paying homage to James Bond. Austin Powers is great fun, Mike Myers is a legend playing both hero and villain. Hilarious film.

Still guessing Sorry to Bother You

I'm gonna go for the swerve here with Airplane

Guess Thank You For Smoking

I had it ranked kind of low, but that wasn't necessarily because I thought it was bad. I thought it was pretty good! It held up a lot better than I was expecting, honestly. Enjoyable film all the way through even if it was kinda dumb at some points. It was at least fun dumb and it was a perfectly pleasant re-watch for me. It was just that something had to go at 18 and I liked all the other movies above it a bit more.

Impressive run for it though! A lot of other similar movies went out a while ago, so this was a bit of a surprise to me that it got this far.

I'm going to do the dumb thing and finally switch my guess because I am dumb and love jinxing myself. I'll go with Team America in a slight upset.

One thing I'll say about Austin Powers... I was never bored while watching that movie. Totally fun despite its flaws.

I just think Austin Powers does a great job of parodying the inanities of the classic James Bond movies, before they got all serious and started trying to rip off the Bourne franchise.

I'll be predictable and guess Sorry to Bother You

Still guessing Thank You For Smoking

I did enjoy Austin Powers more than I thought I would!

I definitely agree with that. I saw it and thought it would be bottom five, but didn't remember much about it and honestly was drawing more of my memories from the (inferior) sequels.

It was one of the films I was actually most pleasantly surprised by!

8. Team America: World Police
Directed by Trey Parker
Score: 119

Forty: 4
Vis: 7
GavsEvans: 8
Plasma: 8
Karo: 10
John: 10
Poke: 13
Tangy: 19
Suprak: 19
Mythiot: 21

4. Forty
Matt Damon. I think everything Trey Parker and Matt Stone do is genius. I wont say only they could pull off a movie with marionettes but it cannot be an easy task. The puppets add another level of hilarity just in the way they move. The fights, the sex, the shoot-outs, everything is funnier because theres people right off screen pulling the strings. Its juvenile and raunchy and in true Parker and Stone fashion, no one is safe from being made fun of. Terrorists, Kim Jong Il, numerous celebrities, the French, the right, the left, the center. Probably missing others but this is an equal opportunity mock-fest. One thing thats always set these guys apart is their song writing and theres some excellent ones here. America, Fuck Yeah, Freedom Isnt Free, Only a Woman, Im So Ronery, Everyone Has AIDS. SO GOOD. I just had to put the soundtrack on and still laugh after hearing these songs a million times. Im pretty sure Team America offended a lot of people and thats partly why I love it.

7. Vis
Regardless of Trey Parker and Matt Stones current politics (and honestly, based off this movieit really shouldnt be a surprise), Team America remains really funny. Its a combination of just being completely irreverent in its humor, and the artistic choice to use marionettes made for hilarity throughout the film. I mean, with animation or live action, bad choreography or stilting motion is something that ruins the film. But with the puppets, its a feature, not a bug. Something about watching these janky puppets flop around and pretend to simulate walking, or martial arts, is amazing to me, and it makes the actions scenes comes across as that much more hilarious. And knowing that Matt & Trey wanted to do musicals, the number of funny songs in this film is great, including all-time classics like AIDS, Montage, and America Fuck Yeah.

Plus, I do appreciate that pretty much EVERYONE gets their moment to go through the wringer. The Hollywood liberals are right about Team America being overly-aggressive, but they take it too far and start siding with the terrorists. The terrorists are somewhat justified by Team America being overly-aggressive and destroying more than the terrorists manage (outside of Panama), but theyre still violent and actively trying to destroy the world. And then Team America itself are uncaring warmongers who just blow things up in the name of safety. The dicks/pussies/assholes speech is a perfect encapsulation of the message of the film, and I think it still holds up pretty well.

8. Gavs
Here we have the most unique film on the list, on account of being the only one that entirely uses puppets. This film can easily get laughs just from the way the puppets move or act - the way the terrorist the little boy bumps into in the opening scene slowly turns around and looks at him gets me every time. The concept of a big action movie like this being made entirely with puppets is inherently funny.

Whats also funny is having puppets do some of the outrageously inappropriate things shown in this film. In the same way South Park is funny because poorly animated children swear, Team America is funny because puppets swear, and have sex, and gruesomely kill each other. The world is a richer place for the BBFCs content warning for this film Contains strong language, violence and sex, all involving puppets. The sense of humour is similar to South Park, as expected from the two sharing creators. As in that one, celebrities come in for less than flattering portrayals, like Kim Jong Il as terrorist mastermind with plans for world destruction, as well as a more sensitive side stemming from his roneriness, or Matt Damon repeating his name like a Pokemon.

This film feels like the most topical one on the list, in that it was commenting specifically on US politics in the immediate aftermath of the War on Terror beginning. That ties it to a specific period, whereas the rest of the list has a more timeless feel to it. Almost twenty years on, that aspect, along with a few other things (the running gag of terrorist attacks being measured by how much worse than 9/11 they are, the song about how bad the film Pearl Harbor was, Kim Jong Il being the villain after his death in 2011) mean this one is showing its age in a way the other films on the list dont. Fortunately, thats not a dealbreaker because there is plenty of satire that will always be relevant, like the spoofing of patriotism and Americas role in the world. Team America are destructive saviours who cause as much damage as their targets do, who are more often than not Middle Easterners who speak foreign-sounding gibberish. Other countries are portrayed as small stereotypical areas with all their landmarks in close proximity to each other, and introduced with a message saying how far away from America they are. Although this film ranks highly, parts of the satire being a little dated keep this out of the top tier.

8. Plasma
Legendary humanitarian Kim Jong-il joins forces with weapons safety expert Alec Baldwin in this wacky puppet satire that I never expected to enjoy but somehow did.

Gotta say, I never really liked South Park, and when Team America started, I expected it to land in my Bottom 5. Then something magical happenedit actually clicked for me. The style of humor was hit-and-miss, but when it hits, BAM! I love how it attacks right-wing militarism and Hollywood hypocrisy all at once, pointing out how the people we look up to (Matt Damon!) dont have the answers.

The choice to use puppets turned me off at first, but its a brilliant creative choice because of the strings. I especially loved how the world leaders didnt have any strings and Kim Jong-ils strings were noticeably less visible than those of the soldiers and the actors (Matt Damon!).

And how prophetic was this movie? It predicted North Korea and celebrity virtue-signaling back when everyone couldnt think past the Middle East and GTAs Hot Coffee mod. B

10. Karo
Trey Parker and Matt Stone's sendup of the post 9/11 world featuring Team America, a woefully incompetent strike team whose simple counter-terror ops leave cites in ruins and who always manage to destroy the most valuable and historical targets with their oft-missed shots.
I was concerned that the movie would be less funny when viewed outside of its topical era, and thankfully that wasnt the case. If anything it was more funny nowadays, and maybe even with some nostalgia for a world where the worst thing in American politics was warmongering cowboys.

10. John
This movie is dumb. Like really dumb. And offensive in a lot of ways, though less in a "this aged badly" kind of way and more in a "that was the whole point" kind of way, which is better I guess? But Matt Damon and Trey Parker just know how to make people laugh, which is the reason why almost 20 years later there's like 5 different songs from this movie that still pop into my head consistently. The very idea of a puppetry/stop-motion action movie is hilarious on its own. To this day there's just nothing out there quite like it (and I have to assume that's in part because the moment one would come out, they would be met with complaints of 'this is just a Team America' ripoff). Definitely loses some points for the vomiting scene though.

19. Tangy
Despite this relatively low ranking, I do like Team America on the whole. The puppetry is both hilarious and impressive and of course this movie was an absolute classic for me in high school. That said, my interest in this movie has waned pretty significantly. The comedy only really works in this movie when its actively taking a dump on American foreign policy, everything else either drags or is just plain unfunny. Take the sex scene for example, I think the backstory behind its creation is far funnier than the scene itself. Same with the story behind the Damon puppet and his frustrated reaction to it. Im also not really keen on the drama between the members of Team America. I get that its a satire of how action movies literally do the same thing, but its not funny enough to warrant its inclusion.

Biggest Laugh: Hans Blix being fed to the sharks

Outlier Ranking

Suprak: 191
Mythiot: 191
Plasma: 142
GavsEvans: 137
John: 127
forty: 123
Karo: 118
Vis: 116
Tangy: 110 +
Poke: 105 -

America....FUCK YEAH! South Park duo does puppets and makes magic. So ronery, MATT DAMON, it's all so funny and holds no punches back when making fun of anything or anyone.

Guess Sorry to Bother You

PAYOUTS! Suprak goes against the wagering grain and snags a nitfy $1100!

VEGAS ODDS ON #7:

+500 Sorry to Bother You
+850 Thank You For Smoking
+1000 Airplane!
+1200 Young Frankenstein
+1200 Jojo Rabbit
+1700 Office Space
+1700 Galaxy Quest

Leaderboard:
1) Poke $4350 (+500 Mystery Men, +500 The Freshman, +1250 The Interview, +600 Duck Soup, +600 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, +900 Enchanted)
2) Mega $2350 (+500 The Freshman, +1250 The Interview, +600 Borat)
3) Johnbobb $2200 (+850 Spaceballs, +850 National Lampoons Christmas
Vacation, +500 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery)
4) Inviso $1700 (+850 Not Another Teen Movie, +850 National Lampoons Christmas Vacation)
5) Suprak $1600 (+500 Mystery Men, +1100 Team America: World Police)
6) Forty $1500 (+600 Duck Soup, +900 Enchanted)
7) Gavs $1000 (+500 Mystery Men, +500 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery)
8) Mythiot $600 (+600 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping)

The House Won On:

• Stripes (+1000 odds)
• Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (+500 odds)
• Beverly Hills Cop (+1000 odds)
• Return of the Living Dead (Unlisted; +2500 odds)
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Unlisted; +2500 odds)
• Modern Times (+700 odds)
• This is Spinal Tap (+1250 odds)
• Monty Pythons The Life of Brian (+1500 odds)
• Zoolander (+850 odds)
• Black Dynamite (+850 odds)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (+1000 odds)

yeah that makes sense there

going airplane again

Still guessing Sorry to Bother You

Guessing Sorry to Bother You

7. Office Space (1999)
Directed by Mike Judge
Score: 117

Plasma: 2
GavsEvans: 5
Suprak: 10
Vis: 11
Poke: 12
Mythiot: 13
Tangy: 14
John: 15
Forty: 17
Karo: 18

2. Plasma
Yeeeaahhh If we could get this masterpiece ranked near the top, that would be great. A

5. GavsEvans
This film was painful to watch. I could feel my soul being slowly crushed underfoot as it went on. Thank goodness that this was entirely intentional the film was that good at portraying a monotonous white-collar job, staffed by passive-aggressive supervisors who would rather avoid conflict than resolve problems or give straight answers. The corporate culture depicted here is efficient to the point of soullessness in all the areas it shouldnt be, and woefully inefficient in areas that would benefit from such efficiency.

The employees are victims of this system in different ways. Michael and Samir are laid off despite their work performance. Peter has totally checked out and does barely any work, but he gets a promotion anyway because he is able to play the game and tell upper management what they want to hear, which leads him to feel guilt when his friends suffer undeservedly and propose the embezzlement scheme. The loss of his job drives Tom to attempt suicide. Finally, theres Milton, the office doormat who is exploited and abused by everyone until he finally snaps. He may well be the most pitiful and pathetic character in all of fiction. While Im talking about characters, it would be remiss of me not to mention the Bill Lumberg, the petty micromanaging tyrant who is the bane of Peters life. Suffice to say, I think weve all come across a Lumberg at some point.

The rap soundtrack stands out in contrast to how mundane the rest of the setting is, as its not the sort of thing you would expect to hear on the soundtrack of an office-based comedy. In this case, its also used when characters are able to liven up their lives or rebel against the corporate drudgery, most memorably in the printer destruction scene.

This one may not have the most laugh-out-loud funny moments, but it does have some of the most effective satire on this list. Yeah, if we could just go ahead and give this one a respectable ranking, that would be great

11. Vis
The first half of this movie is GREAT. If youve ever worked an office job, you can recognize some hilarious circumstances that just felt so real they inflicted psychic damage on me. But even if youve never worked in an office, the general attitude of going to a job that you hate, dealing with stupid, trivial bullshit, is on full display. Its great. From minute one, with the fucking traffic that stalls when youre in a lane, then speeds up when youre able to merge, then stalls when you merge overits SO accurate. Everything in the soul-crushing office work section of the film is SO perfect, and its exaggerated in JUST the right way to make for a fantastic film. The fact that Peter learns to slack off and stop giving a shitand is REWARDED for thisthats perfect satire for the corporate world.

Where the movie loses me is the back half. The actual PLOT about stealing money from the company via a computer virus just isnt that fun, and you spend far too much of the film just watching the plan unravel in awful ways, and whatever good will that Peter built up in the first half just falls apart. Its disappointing, because theres something hilarious about watching this guy fail upward by learning to stop giving a shit about corporate norms, but then he has your standard third act downfall, and I just wish this wasnt that kind of movie. The first half is REALLY strong though, so Im fine with this high of a ranking.

13. Mythiot
A much funnier and incisive poke at 90s office culture than Dilbert was in any decade. After being called in to work on the weekend by his perfectly obnoxious boss and seeing a hypnotherapist die in front of him, an office worker fulfils our fantasies of sleeping in late and saying whatever we think, no matter how rude, at work without consequences. (The higher-ups even think his abrasive turn perfectly qualifies him for upper management. No kidding.) Then after his friends are laid off, he and his coworkers plot to embezzle from the company while he starts a new relationship with a waitress with her own frustrations with work and forced positivity. The biggest standout is Stephen Root as the anxious doormat Milton, who looks even more like a cartoon than the cartoon character that this film was based on.

14. Tangy
Dont get me wrong I love Office Space, but dear god did they botch the final act of this. The jokes are fantastic, its a perfect reflection of all kinds of toxic work environments and all the characters manage to strike a balance between fun and realistic. So my question is why did they turn Peter into a complete asshole out of nowhere? All of his motives were pretty justifiable and the embezzling scheme wasnt even really his idea to begin with. So I dont know why all of a sudden hes getting all paranoid and everyone starts shunning him. Dont get me wrong theres definitely potential for a story about how promotions can corrupt your ideals (more on this in Sorry to Bother You), but this wasnt the movie for it. Or at least with how it was set up. To be fair I really dont have too many ideas on how to fix it, but the comedy is honestly funny enough that the typical 3 act structure couldve been skipped entirely and this movie wouldve been a blast to watch.

Biggest Laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jq6e8s1sik

15. John
Milton is by far the best part about the movie, which I'm sure isn't a particularly unpopular opinion, but Stephen Root is just too good. Really all the cast is pretty great, though it admittedly falls into the trap of the main character being the most boring person on the cast. The humor of the movie kind of comes and goes in waves, but the highs are just downright hilarious. While its core plot doesn't really do a lot to distinguish it from the average "lazy guy going about life" comedies that were everywhere around the early 2000s, it's the little things that make it so easy to see why this movie became such a cult hit.

17. Forty
"I Did Absolutely Nothing, And It Was Everything I Thought It Could Be!" I knew right off the bat that Office Space would be great. Not just because it was Mike Judge, creator of my beloved Beavis and Butthead, but the opening scene is so relatable. From time to time, Ive been the nerdy looking white guy stuck in traffic blasting gangster rap. The relatability continues throughout for anyone thats had a job that feels like its sucking the life out of you. With the proliferation of quiet quitting nowadays, its more relevant than ever. Its as if Judge has an uncanny way of predicting the future, as he did later with Idiocracy. The characters dont get a whole lot of depth and theyre pretty much caricatures (the dream girl, the inept co-worker, the heartless boss) but that doesnt matter because they fit within the context of the movie. The ending isnt great but the journey getting there is terrific and for me its the cultyist of cult classics.

18. Karo
An unhappy office drone has an epiphany when his hypnotherapist dies of a heart attack, and decides to basically not do his job. Like at all. He is then considered as a candidate for corporate management as a result. Ha ha.
It does a good nob of satirizing white collar office work, but it doesnt seem like there is a whole lot of story to go around and it ends up having to rely on random plot points like the cyber heist to fill out a feature length runtime. I feel it would have made a much better TV series in the vein of Mike Judge's most famous work.
Also, there was some uncomfortable mocking of disabled people that seemed really not cool. Although it is true the character in question did get to have the last laugh, I pretty much got ready to cringe every time I saw him appear on camera.

Outlier Ranking

Mythiot: 197 +
Suprak: 194 -
Plasma: 147
GavsEvans: 139
John: 135
forty: 133
Karo: 129
Vis: 120
Tangy: 117
Poke: 110

MY CROWN

I'm shocked Office Space isn't top 5. I'm also shocked I was the third highest ranker with a 10 spot. Office Space really could've gone as high as like 3 for me at any give time and my top 11 or so were very fluid and I mixed them around quite a bit before a final submission. Kinda wished I had it slightly higher now, but I think it was doomed to top out at like six even if I did go with my initial rankings.

This was another rewatch, and I remembered most of the film. Despite that, I still laughed out loud several times. It is just a great comedy that does almost everything right.

In retrospect, I do agree with the idea that maybe it sputters a bit in its final act. I didn't really consider that in my rankings but if I did have a complaint about it, it would probably be that.

Now is the time for Sorry To Bother You, imo.

Still guessing Sorry to Bother You.

The House wins, and damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

VEGAS ODDS ON #6:

+500 Sorry to Bother You
+850 Thank You For Smoking
+900 Airplane!
+1000 Young Frankenstein
+1100 Jojo Rabbit
+1500 Galaxy Quest

Leaderboard:
1) Poke $4350 (+500 Mystery Men, +500 The Freshman, +1250 The Interview, +600 Duck Soup, +600 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, +900 Enchanted)
2) Mega $2350 (+500 The Freshman, +1250 The Interview, +600 Borat)
3) Johnbobb $2200 (+850 Spaceballs, +850 National Lampoons Christmas
Vacation, +500 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery)
4) Inviso $1700 (+850 Not Another Teen Movie, +850 National Lampoons Christmas Vacation)
5) Suprak $1600 (+500 Mystery Men, +1100 Team America: World Police)
6) Forty $1500 (+600 Duck Soup, +900 Enchanted)
7) Gavs $1000 (+500 Mystery Men, +500 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery)
8) Mythiot $600 (+600 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping)

The House Won On:

• Stripes (+1000 odds)
• Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (+500 odds)
• Beverly Hills Cop (+1000 odds)
• Return of the Living Dead (Unlisted; +2500 odds)
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Unlisted; +2500 odds)
• Modern Times (+700 odds)
• This is Spinal Tap (+1250 odds)
• Monty Pythons The Life of Brian (+1500 odds)
• Zoolander (+850 odds)
• Black Dynamite (+850 odds)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (+1000 odds)
• Office Space (+1700 odds)

Guessing Thank You For Smoking

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

MY CROWN

I'm shocked Office Space isn't top 5. I'm also shocked I was the third highest ranker with a 10 spot. Office Space really could've gone as high as like 3 for me at any give time and my top 11 or so were very fluid and I mixed them around quite a bit before a final submission. Kinda wished I had it slightly higher now, but I think it was doomed to top out at like six even if I did go with my initial rankings.

This was another rewatch, and I remembered most of the film. Despite that, I still laughed out loud several times. It is just a great comedy that does almost everything right.

In retrospect, I do agree with the idea that maybe it sputters a bit in its final act. I didn't really consider that in my rankings but if I did have a complaint about it, it would probably be that.

I'm shocked, too. My expectations were biased because I found the story so relatable (offices really haven't changed much in 24 years), but even with the weak final act and its deus ex machina climax taken into account, I thought this one was a lock for the Top 3.

Thank You for Smoking

Man I was tempted to go for Office Space for the big prize because I thought Vegas had it a little overrated

Sticking with airplane

Actually change me to Jojo Rabbit. I want to go for some BIG BUCKS here at the end.

Oh COME ON! Guessing Sorry to Bother You

Mike Judge is a legend. Has so many incredible films and Office Space is so on point for anyone who's ever worked in that type of company. Feels more like a documentary at times. Solid entry.

I stand by my comment that the first half is amazing and accurate, but the movie tanks once they feel the need to inject an actual plot and actual conflict into it in the second half/final third.

I'll guess Thank You For Smoking

6. Thank You For Smoking (2005)
Directed by Jason Retiman
Score: 115

Plasma: 1
Vis: 5
Suprak: 6
Poke: 7
Karo: 9
Forty: 10
Tangy: 13
John: 14
GavsEvans: 23
Mythiot: 27

1. Plasma
Absolutely brilliant. I love when a movie makes me empathize with a character I should hate, and somehow TYFS pulled off a miracle by convincing me to root forof all peoplea Big Tobacco lobbyist.

The opening scene sets the tone here by showing how good Nick Naylor is with his verbal ninja skills. He can spin anything, and even with a livid studio audience glaring at him, he keeps his cool and talks his way out of it. Thats a skill I envyusing strategy and rhetoric to escape a situation thats brutally stacked against youand when he worked his magic, I got heavily invested in this one. That opening scene is, without exaggeration, one of the best Ive ever watched.

Of course, Nick Naylor is still an asshole lobbyist, and the movie acknowledges this by showing how he negatively impacts the people around him, as well as society as a whole. The corrupt mentor segments with his son add lots of tension and emotion to the story, while the lunch meetings between Nick and the Alcohol/ATF lobbyists are always darkly comical.

But what makes this movie so compelling is the way it seeks truth. A lesser story wouldve presented a one-sided argument against Big Tobacco. TYFS, however, doesnt go for the easy layup. Instead it portrays almost all the major characters as corrupt scumbags who are doing it for the mortgage. Everyone gets roasted for their self-serving attitude, and it was refreshing to see a movie that doesnt lionize journalists and well-meaning politicians.

This is one of those rare movies that explores the truth between two extremes rather than taking a side. It raises so many interesting questions Yes, tobacco is bad for you, but what about alcohol, weapons, Vermont cheese, video games, social media, etc.? Should we ban all of those? Who decides what gets banned? How does individual freedom factor in?

I could continue rambling on, but Ill wrap things up by saying that everythingthe characters, pacing, humor, theme, and emotionwowed me here. Even the ending was surprising and fantastic. Best movie on this list in my opinion. I cant wait to read the novel its based on. A+

5. Vis
Id heard about this movie before (though I cant remember where, and its killing me that I cant remember), and I heard it was a solid film, and after watching it, I have to agree. Its not the funniest movie on this list, but its very thoughtful in its subject matter. I think it takes a lot of skill to craft a movie, told from the perspective of a corporate lobbyist from the tobacco industry, and make him the good guy. Long before Jeff Winger pushed his style of law and debate on Community, Aaron Eckhart was basically teaching us that the best way to always be right is to shift and deflect until you can paint the people defending a childhood cancer victim as monsters. That happens in the very first scene: Eckhart makes the case that the cigarette companies are the GOOD GUYS, because they dont want kids to die from lung cancer, but the anti-smoking advocates do, because it gets them more money. Its just a really interesting way of twisting words and reframing the debate towards an angle that isnt normally explored. Plus, Eckhart is just so charming and charismatic, and he always finds a way to wriggle out of any hole he finds himself in. Its great.

9. Karo
A satirical look at the tobacco industry featuring a big tobacco lobbyist who can put a positive spin on the even the most grim situations.
The lead character is the big star here, the dark hilarity of everything he does really carries the movie. Be it blowing off the dangers of cigarettes to a room full of schoolchildren or his weekly meetings with alcohol and firearms lobbyists so they can all brag about how many people they are killing, it never ceases to entertain. It is funny because it is true.

10. Forty
My point is that you have to think for yourself. If your parents told you that chocolate was dangerous would you take their word for it? So perhaps instead of acting like sheep when it comes to cigarettes you should find out for yourself. First off, the title sequence of this movie is amazing. As a graphic designer I really appreciate how they make the names of cast and crew look like labels on different brands of cigarettes. The song to go with it is great too. Anyway, as far as the movie itself, its equally as awesome. As far as satires go, this one pulls no punches, taking aim at the unscrupulous lobbyists whose job is to defend American staples like cigarettes, booze, and guns (with brief appearances by fast food, big oil, and big pharma). Aaron Eckhart is a perfectly charming sleazeball, and oddly, one that you actually find yourself rooting for. I think its because he doesnt come off like a bad guy, even if he is a self-styled and unapologetic merchant of death. Hes mostly a nice guy and he does have principles despite the nature of his work. He believes everyone has the right to be defended, that truth is a matter of opinion that can be manipulated, and that ultimately everyone should have freedom of choice. Hes surrounded by an excellent cast of oddballs and assholes, the script is tight, and it has a lot of style. All in all, a very good watch thats funny and thought-provoking.

13. Tangy
There were a lot of ways this movie couldve gone horribly wrong, but its saved by its fantastic cast. When majority of your characters are anti-heroes at best and villains at worst, you need to find a way to make them fun to watch and thankfully everyone from Aaron Eckhart all the way to Rob Lowe are incredibly quick witted and just fun to watch to matter how important their part was. Of course Macy was the standout to me. He always brings the most to every role and seeing him as this smarmy politician was an absolute delight. I also loved how absurd his assassination attempt was, just slapping a bunch of nicotine patches on someone? Thats freaking hilarious and its made all the more funny when Nick actually survives and thanks smoking (haha) for it. Absolutely ridiculous.

That said, I think the movie is overall a little too douchey for my tastes. I can get behind some dark comedy, but the whole appeal of Nick Naylor is tied to the fact that hes doing it for the mortgage and yet all of the antagonists are basically punished for doing the exact same thing? I get that the movie is also attacking virtue signaling from journalists and politicians, but cmon. That little ending montage of them getting their comeuppance felt really out of place in comparison to the overall tone of the movie.

Biggest Laugh: Naylor waking up in the hospital and JK Simmons being ready to get some good publicity out of it.

14. John
Thank You For Smoking served as kind of my balancing point for the list. Everything above it I enjoyed a good bit, everything just below it was good but could definitely use some improvement. This is just a solid 2000s comedy led by Aaron Eckhart in what isn't his best but probably is his most Aaron Eckhart role to date.

23. Gavs
This satire takes us back to the 90s and sees a tobacco lobbyist arguing on behalf of the tobacco industry in various situations, such as pushing for cigarette product placement in an upcoming movie, or trying to keep additional health warnings off cigarette packaging. The latter serves as a reminder of this historical context, as here in the UK we have had plain packaging and large health warnings on packs of cigarettes for a few years now, and as a non-smoker myself, its already difficult to remember a time when cigarettes boxes didnt have pictures of cancerous tumours or dead babies on them.

Aaron Eckharts performance here is very charismatic and suave. His silver-tongued lobbyist could convince anyone to do whatever he wanted if he so desired, which makes him an intriguing screen presence. I also liked William H Macy as the anti-smoking senator who is a little overzealous in his opposition to tobacco, and the Mod Squad were always fun, with their weekly lunches providing the comic relief of the film.

This film seemed rather disjointed and episodic overall, with Nick meeting with his various clients and persuading them to his point of view. There is an emotional throughline of Nick wanting to set a positive example for his son, and Heathers incriminating article does reference some of the earlier clients, but I do think the connection could have been a little stronger. There was the odd loose end here and there too, like the kidnapping. The conversation between the senator and his aide in a later scene implies they might be connected to it, and it would make sense since Nick has been a persistent thorn in their side, but unless I missed it, I dont think theres an explicit confirmation, which is a little odd considering this was a pivotal scene that changed the films trajectory.

Fun fact: this is the second film in a row on this list where smoking saves a characters life!

Outlier Ranking

Mythiot: 218
Suprak: 194
GavsEvans: 156 +
Plasma: 152 -
John: 143
forty: 137
Karo: 132
Tangy: 124 +
Vis: 121 -
Poke: 111

Thank you for betting, Mythiot, Gavs, and forty.

VEGAS ODDS ON #5:

+500 Sorry to Bother You
+800 Airplane!
+900 Young Frankenstein
+1000 Jojo Rabbit
+1200 Galaxy Quest

Leaderboard:
1) Poke $4350 (+500 Mystery Men, +500 The Freshman, +1250 The Interview, +600 Duck Soup, +600 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, +900 Enchanted)
2) Mega $2350 (+500 The Freshman, +1250 The Interview, +600 Borat)
2) Forty $2350 (+600 Duck Soup, +900 Enchanted, +850 Thank You For Smoking)
4) Johnbobb $2200 (+850 Spaceballs, +850 National Lampoons Christmas
Vacation, +500 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery)
5) Gavs $1850 (+500 Mystery Men, +500 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, +850 Thank You For Smoking)
6) Inviso $1700 (+850 Not Another Teen Movie, +850 National Lampoons Christmas Vacation)
7) Suprak $1600 (+500 Mystery Men, +1100 Team America: World Police)
8) Mythiot $1450 (+600 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, +850 Thank You For Smoking)

The House Won On:

• Stripes (+1000 odds)
• Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (+500 odds)
• Beverly Hills Cop (+1000 odds)
• Return of the Living Dead (Unlisted; +2500 odds)
• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Unlisted; +2500 odds)
• Modern Times (+700 odds)
• This is Spinal Tap (+1250 odds)
• Monty Pythons The Life of Brian (+1500 odds)
• Zoolander (+850 odds)
• Black Dynamite (+850 odds)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (+1000 odds)
• Office Space (+1700 odds)

Guessing Young Frankenstein

I'm a bit surprised by two of these last five getting all this way, but then I had Mystery Men at 4 on my list so whatcha gonna do.

Well uhhhhh I agree with 1 of the Top 5

Still guessing Sorry to Bother You

Like Black Dynamite, Thank You For Smoking was another film that I felt bad about ranking too low, but something had to go there and I didn't want to move anything else down.

Guessing Jojo Rabbit next.

This is truly remarkable. Guessing Sorry to Bother You. Inb4 it's the top film ever.

Thank you for Smoking is such a delightful satire. Rooting for tobacco, say whaaat? The cast is great, the script is solid. Eckhart is a charming son of a gun.

Amazing that Sorry to Bother You is a top fiver. I predict it will be next though.

Aw man. Ive been losing all my favs lately!

Go with Sorry To Bother You

still sticking with airplane in spite of the sorry to bother you slander

Just a quick update. The Top 5 will start tomorrow, I just had a busy weekend and there's a lot I need to catch up on.

5. Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Directed by Boots Riley
Score: 111

Tangy: 1
Karo: 2
John: 3
Mythiot: 4
Plasma: 7
GavsEvans: 14
Forty: 16
Suprak: 17
Poke: 21
Vis: 26

1. Tangy
I first watched STBY about a year ago, I found it relatively interesting at the time and was in no way expecting it to be my number 1 for the list and yet here we are. Maybe the fact that I watched it while I was at work has something to do with it.

I think what makes this film so good for me is our protagonist, Cassius Green. Hes a great representation of how America not only treats POC, but the general workforce as well. No matter how hard you work, no matter how you degrade yourself for others, theres always going to be someone above you pulling your strings.

I also find the brand of comedy to be remarkably unique, its not as in your face as something like Popstar or Monty Python, but it more so focusing on taking everyday situations and exaggerating them to the point of extremity. This movie fully takes advantage of the medium and shows it. Most other filmmakers would take the easy route. Seeing things like the calls Cassius makes or the horse people or the humiliating reality tv shows. All of it is played up in a way that shows exactly how ridiculous this country is and Im not going to deny the impact this movie had on me.

Biggest Laugh: Nothing really got me to burst into laughter, although Tessa putting on the helmet for her second performance caused a solid chuckle during both of my viewings.

2. Karo
In the near future, a young telemarketer's rises through the ranks to become a legendary 'power caller', and his bizarre journey challenges his own greed and morality. It also features horse cocks.
The whole WorryFree angle was especially brilliant, the logical next step of corporate america maximizing profits at the expense of workers is of course just straight up fucking slavery. Its funny because its true.
It is an impressive and excellent outing from a newbie director, and I can think of few parts of the film that are not both engrossing and hilarious. It's very good.

3. John
I absolutely adore magical realism. So much so I plan for a list entirely for that at some point down the line, and may or may not include this one at that point, as it's definitely been a standout of the last few years. Lakeith Stanfield has been one of my favorite actors of the last decade, between this and Atlanta and Get Out and Judas and the Black Messiah. David Cross as his "white voice" is a stroke of genius casting. The callers appearing directly in the homes of the people being called never failed to crack me up, and the film is shockingly good at balancing being hilarious and dark with actually making really powerful points

7. Plasma
Brilliant, stupid, and everything in between. STBY probably wouldve worked better as a TV miniseries because theres a TON going on here. It starts off looking like a sequel to Office Space, then it turns into Eyes Wide Shut before morphing into Animal Farm and concluding with a final act that is a flaming mess. So, yeah, its all over the place, but Im not complaining because I was hooked the entire time.

These days, a lot of anti-capitalism movies come off as ham-fisted, but this one oozes with enough creativity to keep things from feeling preachy. The intro scene won me over with Cassius embellishing the hell out of his resume to obtain the pettiest of jobs, and then we see him waking up in a garage, getting nagged by his landlord/uncle about the rent, etc. Lots of fun stuff early on, but what really dazzled me were those trippy in-house phone calls scenes. And although White Voice is nothing new, it worked well here (shame we didnt get more of Danny Glover btw).

My biggest problemother than the sloppy final actwas Cassius lack of agency. This guy feels like a generic WRPG protagonist who does whatever the supporting cast tells him to do (Use your White Voice. Join our union. Become a Power Caller. Rap for us. Snort this coke.). I get that hes supposed to represent the average American worker who gets caught in the rat race, but there was never a moment when it felt like the guy was driving the plot. Instead, he basically gets passed around like a soccer ball for ninety minutes until he hits rock bottom and has no choice but to fight back against the Power Callers. And when a guy spends the entire movie reacting rather than acting, its hard for me to buy into the idea of him becoming a rebellious MLK-figure toward the end. He needed more character growth.

And that final actyikes. Theres the battleground scene, then Cassius gets captured, then hes rescued by horse-people, and theneverything kinda sorta goes back to normal? Really? I suppose that reflects reality, but given the explosiveness of the climactic scenes, I expected things to change more significantly. That said, I did like the ending when Cassius moves back into his garage with his newfound luxuries before turning into a horse-man. Great way to hammer home the fact that his earlier choices corrupted him.

I could probably ramble on for a dozen more paragraphs about this one. It has plenty to offer, and even as I criticize parts of it, I find myself liking those weak spots more because they do reflect issues in our world. I love this movie for being ambitious and creative, but I also wish it were more polished. B+

14. Gavs
Call centre employee Cassius Green initially struggles at his job, until he is advised to make himself sound white on the phone. This technique enables him to quickly score a promotion while his colleagues go on strike for better pay and working conditions. From there, things get weird

This office based satire distinguishes itself from Office Space with the setting. Whereas that film was squarely set in our world, Sorry to Bother You instead goes with a sci-fi interpretation. This world is more technologically advanced than ours, but its also more dystopian, as people are forced into miserable, unsatisfying jobs for mega corporations, and struggle with living conditions, with only demeaning reality TV shows as entertainment. Cassius phone calls are presented in a visually interesting way, as he and his desk warp into the room with the person hes calling. Theres also his white voice, which makes him sound more assertive, but is also done in a weird way which creeps out other characters, sounding like an entirely different voice rather than Cassius doing an impression.

The white voice is the key point of the films racial satire. Cassius has to hide his true self to get ahead at work, which doesnt make him popular with his colleagues as he continues to work while theyre on strike. In addition to hiding his identity, hes selling his soul to the corporation, and humiliating himself when he raps at a work party. Without saying too much, once Cassius learns the truth, he volunteers to get himself beaten up live on TV to get the truth out, and it ends up being all for nothing as the corporations stocks actually increase. Thats a good twist, as its not one you see very often in stories like this, and it works with the films dystopian setting.

16. Forty
Second one, and I want you to remember this: youre gonna have a horse cock. The first part of this movie is solid. Unique, pretty funny, and super stylish. Thought-provoking in the issues it explores like racial inequality, workplace exploitation, and the mindless consumption of dumbed down media. Then the last half hour goes so bizarrely off the rails by introducing a concept I never anticipated writing about: Equisapien Martin Luther King Jr. The whole thing is kind of like an acid trip that slowly kicks in and things go from weird to really weird. I feel like I still need to process what I watched a bit, but I think I loved this exceptionally surreal trip of a movie.

26. Vis
On the one hand, I GET the message this film was going forbut on the other hand, it didnt land with me at ALL. I will fully acknowledge that I am a white person, and while certain aspects of the films theme can apply to anyone whos worked for big corporationsthe racial component to that theme REALLY comes out in some absolutely cringe-worthy scenes regarding the use of white voice to perform better as a telemarketer, and then the EXTREMELY uncomfortable scene of a room full of white people asking the main character to rapto which he just starts shouting the N-word in a gangsta voiceto much jubilation (and repetition). It was just a little uncomfortable for me to watchas was Tessa Thompsons weird performance art. Like I said, I GET itbut it just left me feeling a little off.

Then the last third of the movie goes insane, and suddenly the plot turns into a rich company owner literally selling slaves, and converting people into horse-human hybrids (with big dicks, as he cites as a positive) to make them stronger and more obedient. Itsinsane. Like, for a movie that was relatively grounded in a racially-charged theme, its fucking crazy to suddenly introduce HORSE-HUMAN HYBRIDS as a major plot element. And Im a FURRY saying this. Its SO weird, and the strange thing is that THAT satire (a rich guy introduces some horrific shit and the news praises him for the scientific breakthrough) was just more enjoyable to me than the more straight-forward stuff. God, writing this whole write-up makes me sad.

Outlier Ranking

Mythiot: 219
Suprak: 206
GavsEvans: 165
Plasma: 154
forty: 148 +
John: 145 -
Vis: 142 +
Karo: 135 -
Tangy: 128 -
Poke: 127