The final hoorah from the comedy trio David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker-ZAZ for short- The Naked Gun is so stupid it’s hilarious. The Naked Gun Year: 1988 Director: David Zucker Stars: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban, George Kennedy Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87% Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 85 minutes It’s a charming, romantic trifle that’s made with perfect precision, and one of the best comedies on Max.- Garrett Martinĥ. Musicals can be an acquired taste in the year 2020, but this is one of those legit classics that pretty much anybody interested in the movies should see at some point in their life. The most legendary of Hollywood musicals, Singin’ in the Rain is a warm, beautiful, feather-light look at Hollywood on the cusp of the talkie revolution, with timeless performances from Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor. This is a strikingly pertinent film for our particular moment in history, and well worth dusting off and queueing up not only for its incredible craft but for its resonance as a study in projection. (That said, Chaplin later recounted that he could never have made the satirical film even a year or two later, as the extent of the horrors in German concentration camps became clearer.) The choice to play both the tyrant and the oppressed man was an inspired one, underscoring the frightening but inescapable truth that we all contain a little bit of both characters. Good satire can be powerful, and this film was: Released while the United States was still formally at peace with Germany, it stirred greater public attention and condemnation of the Nazis and Mussolini, anti-Semitism and fascism. The Great Dictator Year: 1940 Director: Charles Chaplin Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93% Rating: G Runtime: 126 minutesĬharlie Chaplin’s first “talkie” was a biting satire that he wrote, directed, produced, scored, and starred in-as both of the lead roles, a fascist despot who bears a rather marked resemblance to Adolf Hitler and a persecuted Jewish barber. A classic for all ages, Peter Boyle’s take on Frankenstein’s monster is more playful than scary-after all, it’s hard to see a kid being terrified by a tap-dancing monster, even if he is “puttin’ on the ritz.” - Mark RabinowitzĢ. Frederick Frankenstein (played by Gene Wilder) as he finally gives into continuing his grandfather’s ( the Frankenstein) experiments. At once a spoof of traditional Universal horror films and a loving tribute, Mel Brooks and his immensely talented cast have created a timeless film. One of the best comedies of all time and one of the 10 or so films I can quote almost entirely from memory, Young Frankenstein is a classic of the genre. Young Frankenstein Year: 1974 Director: Mel Brooks Stars: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Teri Garr Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Rating: PG Runtime: 105 minutes Here are the best comedies on Max today.ġ. With that out of the way, let’s get to it. Acting, storytelling, and technique are all apart of the equation, but the most important single facet is how much it makes me laugh. That’s a good thing.Īlso, my standard disclaimer for these comedy lists: I’m not judging these exclusively on their cinematic qualities. Max today feels like Netflix did a decade ago, before the streaming world splintered into a dozen different walled off rivals. Good luck finding this many classics or pre-’90s comedies on the other services. Let’s see how that goes.ĭespite all the turmoil and nonsensical corporate decisions, Max still has the best, deepest, and most varied selection of comedies of any streamer at the moment. We wouldn’t want anybody thinking Max was classy, would we? So dump the HBO from the name, focus more of the promotion on the bottom-feeding “reality” shows Discovery is known for, and, yes, try to charge even more for it after all of that. It makes sense that the same people who innovated the practice of removing exclusive content from streamers would also want to distance that streamer from the most prestigious name in TV. So the time has come: HBO Max is now just Max.
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