With Pineapple Express coming out next week, what’s a better time than now to talk about the master of comedy or better known as Judd Apatow.
Apatow has transcended the R-rated comedy in the past few years and has produced some of the best and funniest films in the past decade. No matter what tickles your funny bone, Apatow has made something that’ll surely have you rolling on the floor. But everyone has different tastes and I’m going to share my opinion of his movies.
An important aspect that is worth mentioning before I dive into where his movies rank is the difference between the films Apatow produces and the films he writes and directs. They’re so different that I debated on separating them into two groups when I was ranking them, but nonetheless they’re all tied together by Apatow’s doing so I just couldn’t.
The films that Apatow and his gang writes/directs have become the new craze in comedy, receiving great critical acclaim and grossing enormous amounts of money. These films include The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. These R-rated comedies are chick-flicks with a dirty mouth. They’re raunchy, explicit, and somewhat sexist at times but they all carry their own heart-warming moments and restores faith in geeks and slackers. Each film stands out on its own when compared to the next. They’re all unique in their own way but at the same time they focus to extract laughter, but in a clever way by using the comedy to advance the plot and the characters.
On the other hand, the films that Apatow merely produces fall into the generic, mainstream comedy genre. Some of these include Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and Anchorman. It’s hard to talk about the nature of these three movies without mentioning Will Ferrell who is the lead in all of them. It’s fair to say that there was a span of time when Will Ferrell = mainstream comedy. Maybe I’m biased against Ferrell but his scheme is over. He can’t just keep on playing the same character in every movie. Sure, when he started out with Old School and Anchorman he was the biggest name in comedy. His “old man acting like a child” routine was fresh and it was highly entertaining and funny. But here we are, more than five years later and he’s still the same old man acting like a child. It’s time to move on Ferrell.
Anyway, these three films that Apatow produced are all similar. They’re even more formulaic than Apatow’s other films and they strive on big name, character base comedy (a.k.a. Will Ferrell). These films were made to make money at the expense of trying to make a good movie. Basically, these films take one funny situation and shove it down your throat for 90 minutes. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved Anchorman and consider it Will Ferrell’s funniest movie in his career. But as funny as it was, I would take a well paced, plotted comedy over one with a dozen hilarious one-liners. That’s just my preference.
Now to be fair, I must note that I haven’t seen Step Brothers, Drillbit Taylor, or Pineapple Express yet, so I cannot legitimately rank it among the others until I do so, even though I doubt Step Brothers or Drillbit Taylor will make any kind of impact on my rankings… Pineapple Express on the other hand looks like the most recent king of stoner comedies replacing Harold and Kumar and can very well slip its way as one of Apatow’s best.
So that leaves seven films that I want to rank, so here we go. These are my Top Seven Favorite Judd Apatow comedies:
#7 – Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Sacha Baron Cohen in a comedy about NASCAR driving? Sounds like a good idea, but Reilly is easily forgotten with a miniscule role as Ferrell’s teammate. This leaves the rest of the movie between Ferrell, who goes through the peak and decline of his career while trying to win back his family and confidence after a near-death accident, and his rival Cohen, the flamboyant French driver who challenges Ferrell for the title as best driver in the world.
This was an OKAY film. I didn’t hate it, but I hardly liked it. The sports aspect of the film was fine as we were rooting for Ferrell to beat Cohen, but on the laugh track, it derailed. I remember laughing hard only once during this film (the scene when Ferell drives utensils into his leg), and that’s hardly enough to match up to Apatow’s heavy weights. I must note that this was the middle of Ferrell’s dry spell with the annoying Kicking & Screaming, dreadful Bewitched, and the unmemorable remake of The Producers.
Though Will Ferell was in a dry spell, Sacha Baron Cohen was on the rise and stole the show in this film with an overwhelming amount of funnier lines and deliveries than Ferrell in half the screen time. Even though it seems like I’m bashing this film, it is bearable to watch and I have watched this film on a number of occasions while enjoying it, even though I always vote to watch the other film.
#6 – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
It’s been quite a long time since a spoof movie didn’t end in “Movie” and that’s why this one seemed like it was in a whole nother league. I admit that after viewing the trailer and the commercials that I wasn’t eager to watch Walk Hard. But once the DVD was released I pounced all over this bad boy to see how good or bad this was. And to my surprise, it was pretty damn funny.
I’m sure everyone didn’t like this film. Heck, who actually likes spoof films? I still know a number of people who hate Airplane! Now how could anyone hate Airplane? Anyway, Walk Hard spoofs the recent craze of bio-pics of mainly Ray and Walk the Line because of their critical acclaim and Oscar success. John C. Reilly, for those who don’t know, has proven himself that he is a far talented musician than it shows (Chicago anyone?). His delivery of over-the-top dialogue and his melody of cheesy tunes are spot on. You can definitely feel Apatow’s presence, as he’s one of the writers who penned this film. The situations are bizarre and wacky, but it’s all fun. The way they turn around almost every scene in Johnny’s Cash’s bio-pic Walk the Line had me laughing out loud. Many of the jokes were clever, especially the lyrics of Dewey Cox’ songs (“In my dreams you’re blowing me… some kisses.” “Let’s du-et in ways that make us feel good.”)
I applaud the risk Judd Apatow took to make this because it was anything but a sure thing. Even though it bombed at the box office, in my eyes it was a success for achieving the funniest spoof in years.
#5 – Forgetting Sarah Marshall
We all know Apatow uses the same people for the bulk of his films and this film is no different. I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence of bumping into him, or whether he just has the Midas touch, but Apatow has a keen eye to who has the potential to be comedy’s next big thing and he allows them to bloom into their own under his guidance. This was the directorial debut of Nicholas Stoller, who Apatow knew through productions like Undeclared and Fun with Dick and Jane, and the first screenplay by Jason Segel who has acted in plenty of Apatow’s productions. Although this film was very solid from beginning to end, it lacked the expertise from the master himself, mostly in the screenplay department.
This is arguably the raunchiest of all Apatow films, and this is why it’ll probably test time as a memorable comedy. The plot is pretty straightforward and it unravels rather conventionally (for an Apatow film). Jason Segel gets dumped by his TV-star girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Bell). He tries to get over her by going to Hawaii for a vacation but ends up staying at the same place where Sarah Marshall and her new man (Brand) are staying. It takes time but Segel eventually gains feelings for another girl (Kunis) and then inevitably has to make a choice between which girl he loves.
If there was only one thing I could say about this film, that would be the incredible cast Forgetting Sarah Marshall boasts. Just check out these names: Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Bill Hader, Jack McBrayer, Jonah Hill, and Paul Rudd. Now THAT’S a cast that can drive a comedy.
The depth of the screenplay isn’t as deep as Knocked Up, but it does contain more weight than most people will give it credit for. In Apatow films there are no one-dimensional characters. Even though it sure looked that way from the first half, the second half gave each main character some reasons to justify their actions. Segel isn’t fully the victim from the break-up. Sarah Marshall isn’t the cliché bitchy girlfriend who cheated on the innocent guy. Mila Kunis isn’t the princess that she seems when Segel first meets her.
Just after the summer of Superbad and Knocked Up, which were a man’s comedy in the perspective of guys, Forgetting Sarah Marshall tweaked things up a bit. This was Apatow’s most sensitive and closest to a “chick-flick” film, but those feelings and vulnerability were portrayed through the perspective of a guy. This film wasn’t as successful as Apatow’s others, but it certainly was a very strong effort and in my opinion the first great comedy of 2008.
(For #4 – #1, click here: http://entertainmentblur.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/ranking-judd-apatow-films-part-2/)
Posted by Rob Eng 
