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Film

The Best Insults in Film

By Jason Bailey on

Recently, Flavorwire rounded up some of our very favorite punchlines from our favorite funny movies — which was a bit of a job in itself, since there are so many great lines, and they’re funny in so many different ways. But perhaps the most reliable way to get a laugh is one of the oldest: a great insult. The best can come from anywhere (even a serious drama), prompting not only a quick, dirty, slightly guilty laugh, but also the jotting down of a particularly effective slam in one’s mental notebook. Click through for 25 of the cruelest, funniest, and most effective cinematic… Read More

Film

The Best Punchlines in Film

By Jason Bailey on

A couple of weeks back, we perused the entirety of film history and pulled out our very favorite break-up lines — the meanest, the sharpest, and the funniest. For a follow-up, we decided to focus on the latter: selecting some of the best punchlines ever uttered in movies. By definition, a punchline isn’t just a funny bit of dialogue or an amusingly awkward moment: it’s the payoff to a setup, whether in situation or dialogue, and thus must be carefully teed up and smoothly executed. We think these 25 examples do just that, with panache. … Read More

Film

The Best Spoof Movies Ever Made

By Jason Bailey on

The month of January (as we’ve mentioned before) does not tend to give us the most high-quality new movie releases, and this year doesn’t look any more promising than usual. This week, for example, will bring to your local multiplex A Haunted House, a parody of — wait for it — haunted house movies (Paranormal Activity, Insidious, etc.) from co-writer/star Marlon Wayans, one of the originators of the Scary Movie franchise (which will itself take on Paranormal and whatever the hell else was moderately popular recently in this fall’s Scary Movie 5). Between that series, the unwatchable works of the Wayans family, and the Friedberg/Seltzer oeuvre, these are grim days indeed for the “spoof film,” the formerly distinguished comedy subgenre targeting cinematic styles and trends with goofy humor, slapstick spirit, and a willingness to do just about anything for a laugh. In light of what they have become, it’s easy to forget how many great spoof movies there were; as a reminder, we picked our ten favorites (and ranked them even!), so check them out and let us know if you agree after the jump. … Read More

Film

10 Great Multi-Character Movie Performances

By Jason Bailey on

In Cloud Atlas, the ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell’s sprawling novel by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer (out tomorrow), six interlocking but initially unrelated stories are told, decades or even centuries apart, and to further the film’s everything-is-connected theme, the filmmakers had most of their cast take roles — large and small — in each of the stories. Some do it more successfully than others (Hugo Weaving is as versatile as ever, but Tom Hanks’ Cockney gangster is, erm, a bit of a stretch), but it’s an endurance test that actors love to take, the kind of challenge that makes a thesp’s mouth water. Cloud Atlas marks one of the few occasions that multi-role performances (and by that we mean more than two) have been taken on in service of a serious film, however; it’s usually, but not always, a gimmick for character-based comedians. At any rate, we’ve assembled a few of our very favorite performances by actors who decided to flex their chameleon muscles; check them out after the jump. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we readied to play a Vice-Presidential debate drinking game. We talked about why Seinfeld still matters. We prepared for Kraken Awareness Day. We got interstellar with Michael Benson’s amazing photos of the cosmos. We admired an incredible Lego Batcave. We discussed the… Read More

Film

10 Awesome Meta-Movies That Will Melt Your Mind

By Jason Bailey on

The Cabin in the Woods, the wickedly funny and winkingly knowing horror/comedy from director Drew Goddard and co-writer Joss Whedon, hits DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, after a long-delayed theatrical run last spring that sent cinephiles spinning with pleasure. You see, Cabin is the latest example of our old friend the “meta-movie,” the films in which the act of moviemaking (and movie-watching) is part of the experience, and part of the narrative. After the jump, some thoughts on Cabin and nine more of our favorite self-aware motion pictures. … Read More

Film

Flavorpill’s Guide to Movies You Need to Stream This Week

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to Flavorpill’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. Last time, we walked you though a mass exodus of titles at the end of July, but as Netflix taketh away, it giveth; a ton of new (and catalog) titles were added at the beginning of August, so we’ll walk you though the best of those, and a few other films worth seeking out as well. Check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More

Pop Culture

10 Fictional Characters You Probably Didn't Know Were Based on Real People

By Victoria McNally on

By now we all know the story of how there is actually a guy named Kenny Kramer who lived across the hall from Larry David and who became the inspiration for Michael Richards’ character in Seinfeld. But there are plenty of other fictional characters on television and in movies that are secretly based actual people who live among us (or once did). Some of these muses are pretty surprising! In fact, you may want to ask all your writer friends if you’re in any of their screenplays and start demanding royalties now, because if their character ends up as popular as the ones we’ve rounded up are, you’re definitely going to want a cut of the dough. … Read More

Books

Celebrating the Many Talents of Douglas Adams

By Tom Hawking on

Today would have been Douglas Adams’s 60th birthday, had he not been taken from us so prematurely by a heart attack in 2001, at the age of only 49. Adams was a man of hugely varied talents — as well as a perceptive and frequently hilarious writer and satirist, he was a technological visionary, a social activist, and once played guitar on stage with Pink Floyd. While we adore The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, we do think it’s a bit of a shame that the rest of Adams’ work hasn’t enjoyed similar acclaim. So to celebrate and commemorate one of our favorite authors and 20th century visionaries, here’s a selection of the best of his ouevre. … Read More

Television

Terry Gilliam’s Gleefully Sadistic Animated 1968 Christmas Card

By Judy Berman on

Whether they’re mass-produced and store-bought or lovingly made by hand, holiday cards generally have the same message: peace on Earth, goodwill towards men, etc. Not so the animated Christmas greeting below, from the fantastically demented mind of Terry Gilliam. In 1968 — a year before Monty Python’s Flying Circus began its BBC run — Gilliam made the video for Do Not Adjust Your Set, the bizarre children’s series that was a forerunner to Monty Python. But that doesn’t mean this send-up of Christmas cards is any gentler than his later stuff: Gilliam’s delightfully sadistic, surreal sense of humor is on full display, from a kleptomaniac Santa Claus to the murder of several adorable woodland creatures. … Read More