100 Funniest Performances

Part 2, by Alex.

Such good stuff. We’ve got Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator, and Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck. And Alex’s commentary!

A couple snippets, but you really have to go read the whole thing:

On Groucho:

Groucho Mark usually gets the short end of the stick when speaking about The Marx Brothers. All of them were comic geniuses, but Groucho is the only one who had lasting celebraty. In “Duck Soup”. Freedonia is in trouble, and guess who comes to save the day????? Groucho at his sarcastic, impudent best.

Alex on Jim Carrey in Pet Detective. (Full disclosure: I am an enormous Jim Carrey fan, and have been since his Fire Marshall days. I think he’s spectacularly talented, and can pretty much do anything – IF they will let him.)

Okay, so I’m a 13 year old moron, I don’t care. I happen to think Carrey is a wonderful actor, and within the next couple of years, he’s going to do some stuff that’ll amaze Hollywood. In the mean time, I LOVE wacky, rubber faced, wacked-out Jim. I think he’s the physical comedienne of this century. As a Detective whose love for pets has driven him to protect them under the law at any cost, Carrey is bouncing off the walls, spouting out minute-by-minute sayings: “LLLooser!”, “Alllllrighty then!”, and is as funny as any physical comedienne of this generation. Not the greatest film, but a hilarious performance, and the one that made him a star.

And lastly – here are Alex’s words on John Gielgud in Arthur:

I’ve put this man, and this particular performance, on numerous lists of mine, and for good reason. It’s unmatched. Gielgud is sardonic and bitter, but there’s moments of glorious rebirth in this role. I also have to say, he dies with true dignity. An Oscar for him here, and deservedly so.

Trivia: Sir John was not a Liza fan when the shoot began. He was very worried about her reputation. After the first week of shooting, he sent her a box of violets (her favorite) with a card that read: “I’m so terribly sorry for what I was thinking. Love, John.”

Amazing! Go read her whole list.

(Here’s Part 1, by the way)

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1 Response to 100 Funniest Performances

  1. JFH says:

    Hmmm… The trivia question she asks about the 30th entry is probably stumping everyone… I doubt with even your vast knowledge of movies, you know the answer. ;)

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