My Favorite Comedies of the Decade, Including Wedding Crashers and The 40 Year Old Virgin

Posted by Jason Ihle | 1 Comment

The next installment in my favorites of the decade takes us to the comedies.

There was something about the comedies of the last decade that really got me. I used to wonder if I would eventually outgrow these kinds of films. Now I think I know the answer. The thing is, these are smart comedies. Notice the absence of Saving Silverman from this list.

You’ll notice the same actors tend to come up in the best comedies of the decade: Paul Rudd; Seth Rogen; Jonah Hill; Owen Wilson; Vince Vaughan; Ben Stiller. These guys have done brilliant work in recent years.

A couple of honorable mentions before I get to my official selections. These are worth watching: Funny People; Knocked Up; Zack and Miri Make a Porno; Zombieland; I Love You, Man; Starsky and Hutch; Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan; Brüno.

Wedding Crashers (2005) dir. David Dobkin – Oh my god! I laughed so hard the first time I saw this that I had to see it again just to catch my breath. Then a third time to hear some of the lines lost behind the roaring laughter. Vince Vaughan’s crowning performance as the fast-talking wise-cracking goofy big kid. Owen Wilson is the perfect balance with his laid-back drawl, that surfer attitude. Rachel McAdams is simply heavenly. Isla Fisher was a real find (NSFW) for this movie. She’s able to pull off behaving like a petulant child and a lunatic girlfriend at the same time convincingly and then turn on a dime to be the mature young adult she really is. Christopher Walken is perfect, displaying an ability as a loving father but also menacingly scary when it comes to protecting them. There’s a moment when a single look he gives to Vaughan says everything you need to know about his intentions. The wedding montage (NSFW) early in the film is a masterpiece of direction and editing.

American Pie 2 (2001) dir. J.B. Rogers – The thing I found so effective about the first film – the friendship and camaraderie among the four boys, characters you really care about – is maintained through this film. It’s also the focus a Kevin’s primary goal is recapturing that unity and closeness after one year apart at college. Whereas the first film was a coming-of-age story focused on the loss of innocence, this one centers on lost love and the beginning of the biggest changes in your life. On top of that, it’s riotously funny, easily matching its predecessor.

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) dir. Rawson Marshall Thurber – Very rarely a movie trailer gets something so right. It happened with American Pie and the over-teased line, “One time at band camp, I stuck a flute in my…” The line was played again and again in the ads to the point you’d never have expected the joke to really pay off. But it paid dividends. Dodgeball’s ads played the clip of Justin Long getting hit in the face with a wrench – “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.” But the movie reveals that the real joke followed, as he spends a good 10 seconds writhing on the floor in agonizing pain. Ah, how we love to laugh at others’ misfortunes. Ben Stiller gives a heroic performance as White Goodman, the film’s villain.

Elf (2003) dir. Jon Favreau – This one has the potential to become a Christmas classic on the order of A Christmas Story. Will Ferrell (whose brand of comedy I don’t really like, but is suited to this film) is a human raised by elves at the North Pole. When he learns this he goes on a journey to New York City to find his real father (an irascible James Caan). It’s got more than a few really funny moments (particularly when he mistakes a dwarf for an elf), a genuinely pleasant amount of schmaltz and a really nice heart. Also, Favreau insisted that all the effects be traditional, non-CGI. He uses forced perspective to make the elves much small than Ferrell, the title sequence is done with stop motion as are the creatures at the North Pole, recalling the television classic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Bad Santa (2003) dir. Terry Zwigoff – The anti-Christmas spirit movie with a brilliant Billy Bob Thornton as an alcoholic thief who earns his living by working as a shopping mall Santa and then robbing the store on Christmas Eve. This particular Christmas season, however, he meets an unusual kid who brings out the best in him. Unfortunately this guy at his best is someone you wouldn’t want around polite company (to put it mildly). Hilarious obscenity-laced dialogue (NSFW) and a hysterical little fat kid. Genius.

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) dir. Judd Apatow – Apatow’s first feature film and the one that started a new trend in buddy comedies. Steve Carell gets his star-making role as the titular virgin. The best comedy comes from the supporting cast that comprise his coworkers: Paul Rudd; Seth Rogen; Romany Malco (NSFW); Jane Lynch. But after starting a romantic relationship with Catherine Keener, the movie and Apatow reveal a heart at the center without which the movie wouldn’t hold together. The chest waxing scene made me split with laughter, as did several other key scenes.

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