9. Diane Weist/ Jennifer Tilly in Bullets Over Broadway. Since you guys have doubled it up on your lists, I am pairing the incredibly versatile Diane Wiest with the perfectly cast Jennifer Tilly. I can't decide whose lines I find more hilarious: "The world will open up to you like a giant vagina!" VS. "We're allowed to add stuff. It's called ad-libbing!"
8. Madeline Kahn in Clue. Her tragic prissiness is the best performance in this star-studded cast (the whole cast would probably be on this list if it were a top 50!) "I hated her SO MUCH...!"7. Diane Keaton in Love and Death. She makes crap now, but in her hey-day, she was the funniest thing to happen to Woody Allen since Louise "Trainwreck" Lasser. In my favorite Woody comedy, she shines as Napoleonic Russia's most desperate housewife.
6. Parker Posey/ Catherine O'Hara in Waiting for Guffman. Both Guestian grande dames shine as aspiring Broadway actresses: from O'Hara ever-so-subtly mouthing the other actors' lines, to Posey's musings on working at the DQ.
5. Bill Murray in Kingpin. Really, this slot could be devoted to Bill Murray in just about everything he's ever done (including his brief cameo in the otherwise unfunny Get Smart), and I loudly echo my fellow reviewers' nods to Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. But I hold his performance as bowler Ernie McCracken very close to my heart. He condescends so well.
4. Jim Carey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just have to. Judge me, make fun of me, roll your eyes, leave mean comments. I can't help it: this movie gets me everytime. This is about as low-brow as you can get, but when he's talking out of his butt to Ton Loc, I turn into a fifth-grader all over again.
3. Nathan Lane/ Hank Azaria in The Bird Cage. Azaria is the butler who can't walk with shoes on, and Lane is the gay community's answer to Rosalind Russell. I just die when Agador Spartacus mops the kitchen floor to Gloria Estefan, and when Albert cries for his "pirin pills"!
2. Reese Witherspoon in Election. The incomparable Witherspoon shines as ruthless Tracy Flick. My favorite moment is when Matthew Broderick spies Tracy jumping up and down in the hallway. She is the essence of evil glee.
1. Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice. Ah. Well... I attended Juilliard... I'm a graduate of the Harvard business school. I travel quite extensively. I lived through the Black Plague and had a pretty good time during that. I've seen The Exorcist about a hundred and sixty-seven times and it keeps getting funnier EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE IT... NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT YOU'RE TALKING TO A DEAD GUY!
2 comments:
Well, at least you acknowledge your mistake with Carrey (not to say he can't be funny, but... pet detective? Really?).
I think Jim Carrey's funniest role was in Dumb and Dumber, personally, but when he sings out of his butt "Asshole-o-mio" in Pet Detective -- it is pretty good.
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