The Comedy Film Nerds Guide to Movies: Featuring Dave Anthony, Lord Carrett, Dean Haglund, Allan Havey, Laura House, Jackie Kashian, Suzy Nakamura, ... Schmidt, Neil T. Weakley, and Matt Weinhold

253 Pages·2012·1.89 MB·English

by  Graham Elwood

THE COMEDY FILM NERDS
guide to movies
Featuring
Dave Anthony, Lord Carrett, Dean Haglund, Allan Havey, Laura House,
Jackie Kashian, Suzy Nakamura, Greg Proops, Mike Schmidt, Neil T.
Weakley, & Matt Weinhold
Graham Elwood & Chris Mancini
THE COMEDY FILM NERDS
guide to movies
Featuring Dave Anthony, Lord Carrett, Dean Haglund, Allan Havey, Laura
House, Jackie Kashian, Suzy Nakamura, Greg Proops, Mike Schmidt, Neil
T. Weakley, & Matt Weinhold
© 2012 Graham Elwood & Chris Mancini. All rights reserved.
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Chris: To my wife Audrey and my two little Gremlins
who I have to remember not to feed after midnight, Isabella
and Griffin.
Graham: To my hippie theater parents for never telling
me to get a real job and letting me dress up as Batman for
Halloween three years in a row . . . in college.
And to all of our fans across the world.
Contents
FOREWORD By Doug Benson
PREFACE
1
SCIENCE FICTION By Chris Mancini
2
WESTERNS By Graham Elwood
3
COMIC BOOK MOVIES By Mike Schmidt
4
FANTASY By Jackie Kashian
5
HORROR By Matt Weinhold
6
COMEDY By Suzy Nakamura
7
ROCKIN’ MOVIES By Lord Carrett
8
ANIMATION By Neil T. Weakley
9
ACTION AND ADVENTURE By Chris Mancini
10
WAR MOVIES By Allan Havey
11
FILM NOIR By Greg Proops
12
MUSICALS By Jackie Kashian
13
DOCUMENTARIES By Graham Elwood
14
FILM SCHOOL CLASSICS By Chris Mancini
15
ROMANTIC COMEDIES By Laura House
16
COPS AND ROBBERS By Graham Elwood
17
SPORTS MOVIES By Mike Schmidt
18
DRAMA By Dean Haglund
19
FAMILY MOVIES By Chris Mancini
20
MARTIAL ARTS MOVIES By Graham Elwood
21
CULT CLASSICS By Neil T. Weakley
22
SEQUELS, TRILOGIES, AND FRANCHISES By Dean Haglund
23
MOVIES WE’RE ASHAMED TO ADMIT WE LIKE
24
MOVIES THAT DESERVE TO BE YELLED AT By Dave Anthony
25
MOVIES WE’D LIKE TO SEE MADE
411 NERD
THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
FOREWORD
By Doug Benson
Hey everybody, my name is Doug and I love movies. That’s the way I open
every ep—short for episode—of my podcast, Doug Loves Movies. I don’t know
if I love movies more than anybody else, but it sure feels like I do. I’ve loved
movies ever since my parents took me to a triple bill of Dr. No, From Russia
with Love and Goldfinger, and maybe even before that.
My mom and dad took me to movies regularly when I was a kid, and weren’t
particularly concerned about what kind of movie my impressionable little
eyeballs would be eyeballing. I remember being particularly traumatized by a
movie called The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. There is nothing like a Dario
Argento serial killer movie for an impressionable young mind. But you know
what was even more traumatic than the movie? Me dropping my hot dog, but not
being able to find it on the sloping theater floor, and my Pops then telling the
zitty adolescent at the concession stand that they sold us an empty bun. I’m not
sure if anyone believed us, but the dude behind the counter coughed up another
dog, so I was able to watch that creepy foreign horror movie with some sweaty
processed meat in my belly.
But now it’s time for a proper introduction to this book, The Comedy Film
Nerds Guide to Movies. I’ve been a guest on the Comedy Film Nerds Podcast a
few times, and always enjoy talking cinema with my friends Graham Elwood
and Chris Mancini. These dudes are funny and their obsession with film—and
nerdy shit like “Did Greedo or Han shoot first?”—is contagious. Not Contagion-
starring-Gwyneth-Paltrow contagious, I’m talking contagious in a good, non-
coughing-blood kind of way. Not only do these two enthusiastically talk and
write about movies, they come to it from a place of having made (and are still
making) films themselves. I’m sure they’ll tell you all about it if you ask them,
or you could just look up their work on IMDb.com and not bother them.
For The Comedy Film Nerds Guide to Movies, Chris Mancini and Graham
Elwood assembled a fine group of comedians and writers to throw down their
opinions, each tackling a different genre, and finishing with a list of that genre’s
ten best (Hey, why didn’t my film Super High Me make the cut in the
documentary chapter?) and ten worst (Hey, I’m glad my film Super High Me
didn’t make the cut in the documentary chapter!)
You may not agree with everything in this book. I know I don’t. I mean,
seriously, Predator is on the list of ten best action movies and Speed is on the list
of the worst!? Sure, Speed 2: Cruise Control was shit on a jet ski, but the
original Speed has one of the greatest action premises of all time. (I know you’re
dying to get into this book, so I’ll take this up with Mr. Mancini in person,
probably between rolls of a 20-sided die.)
Bottom line? The guys and gals who contributed essays in this tome deliver a
passion for film to anyone who will read it. Or listen to it, if this becomes an
audio book. (Sidebar: I’d like Alec Baldwin to read this part. That shouldn’t be
too hard to arrange, unless he’s busy running for public office or something.)
So, are you ready for some movie love? Good. Let’s do this.
—Doug Benson