In my house, countless hours have been spent watching one "all-time classic" movie after another with my Dad. To me nothing is better than bonding over a slap-stick, vulgar movie sprinkled with gratuitous nudity and toilet humor with the man who helped create me, as we both laugh until we are both red in the face. So here are ten that fit that delicious description best.
1. National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
Neidermeyer!... Dead.
Starting this list off as hot as the Mandy Pepperidge window scene, Animal House, starring John Belushi, follows a degenerate-filled, party fraternity as it attempts to escape getting shut down by the Dean and a load of his brown-nosers. The line, "We can do anything we want. We're college students!" sums up the movie quite well. From a toga party to bedding the Dean's wife to the greatest non-athletics speech ever given (Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!), this late-70's comedy hits what every high school male senior hopes college to be like, and maybe gives a few ideas to those still living out the best years of their lives.
2. Trading Places (1983)
Directed by the John Landis (Kentucky Fried Movie, National Lampoon's Animal House), Trading Places stars Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy, two legends who dominated the film industry throughout that era. It is based on a social experiment controlled by Aykroyd's bosses where Aykroyd and Murphy basically switch lives. Aykroyd goes from riches to rag, befriending a prostitute (Jamie Lee Curtis) on the way, while Murphy goes from the streets to the manager of a brokerage firm. It's over the top, crude, obscene, and everything in between. Sure-fire comedy with two of the greatest to ever be on the scene.
Looking good, Billy Ray! Feeling good, Louis!
3. Stripes (1981)
This star-studded movie is about a cab driver (Bill Murray) who deems himself a loser and enrolls in the Army with his buddy (Harold Ramis). These two try to turn their lives around with a little bit of hardnosed discipline, only to be diverted by a hoard of topless mud-wrestling women and a few soviets. This movie is damn funny, and that's a fact, Jack!
4. Accepted (2006)
I know, finally, a movie past early 1980's. A new flair is brought on the college genre with this one. Accepted plots two close friends, Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) and Sherman Schrader III (Jonah Hill), at an important junction of their lives. Sherman gets accepted into Harmon College, a well-respected university, while Bartleby creates South Harmon Institute of Technology (S.H.I.T.) in reaction to being rejected by all the universities he applied to. South Harmon becomes a popular choice for the less fortunate where each student can decide what classes he or she takes, even if that means creating their own specific class. A feud develops between the Dean of students and South Harmon because the Dean wants the land. It's one of Jonah Hill's first movies, so don't forget to ask him about his wiener.
5. Caddyshack (1980)
Few can say that Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, that damn gopher and a whole lot of plaid golf pants is not a recipe for comedic gold. And if they do say that, they're idiots. From beginning to end, this classic serves up hysterical laughs at every corner. Bill Murray breaks out as groundskeeper gone full-blown MacGyver in order to take care of the gopher problem, causing one of the most dramatic finishes in golfing history.
...noooonan.
6. The Blues Brothers (1980)
Belushi and Aykroyd team up in this hilarious follow of blues musicians scamming their way through the music world in order to save the old beloved orphanage where they grew up. The Blues Brothers began as a musical act on SNL but quickly went from primetime to the big time. The movie becomes a ridiculous quest to gather five thousand dollars with a load of fantastic cameos, including a gun-wielding Ray Charles. Don't miss this one, they're on a mission from God.
7. American Pie (1999)
Safe to bet most sons have seen this, but maybe not all fathers. Prom night of senior year in high school is supposed to be special, no-longer-a-virgin special. This cult classic shocked the world with its sexual mangling of a, let's be honest, delicious looking pie. Five guys make a pact that they will lose their virginity by prom, quite a lofty goal with just a few weeks left. Jim (Jason Briggs) gets plenty of sexual support from his father (Eugene Levy) with a gift of multiple porno magazines and encourages him to keep studying with the female foreign exchange student. It's as raunchy as the meaning behind the name, so sit there with your Dad, enjoy it, and don't forget to tell your mother that you two ate all the pie.
8. School of Rock (2003)
What is more inspiring than a wannabe rock star who commits fraud to make an extra buck and ends up creating a kick-ass band with a bunch of middle schoolers? Nothing. Okay, well maybe not nothing, but Jack Black surely shreds non-stop laughs out of the audience in this one. He takes ahold of these kids and gets them into the local Battle of the Bands competition while pretending to be his best friend Ned Schneebly, a substitute teacher. He teaches hungover, takes the principle out on a date to find her wild side, and falls in love with the talented kids who questioned him from day one.
I will see you cats on the flip flop laterrrrrr.
9. Blazing Saddles (1974)
The oldest and one of the best movies on this list. Known for Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Gene Wilder showed the wilder side of himself alongside the comedic Mel Brooks. This movie is set in the late 1800 western frontier and is about a new railroad that will soon be through their town. But it is not that simple! Many absurd attempts to stop the construction of the railroad will come about, all to be put out by the cunning and intelligent "Waco Kid" (Gene Wilder). Also, top-five funniest movie endings of all-time.
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Choosing the tenth movie seemed to be difficult, then I remembered this brilliant work. Whatever these crazy brits had going on in their heads, it transpired very well. This medieval search for Knights of the Round Table takes the audience on a horseless, coconut-clunking ride towards the Holy Grail. Between a large trojan rabbit, the knights who say ni, a three-headed giant, a holy hand grenade and a killer rabbit, this classic has not, and will not, be stopped in locking itself in the movie hall of fame.
It's just a flesh wound!
