Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) - Judge's hilarious America portrait

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+ Best Road Movie of the Year + Best Satire of the Year

Mike Judge's uniquely off-putting animated teenage characters arrive on the big screen in full colors on this adventure-teasing poster for his Beavis and Butt-Head Do America

Typical US teenagers and heavy rock fans Beavis and Butt-Head suffer the agony of having their TV set stolen, and to get it back they end up crossing the country and falling into a nasty situation with an assassin, without ever really realizing this however.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is written by Joe Stillman (Gulliver's Travels (2010)), co-writer/director Brian Mulroney (KaBlam! (1997, TV-series)) and great Ecuadorean-American filmmaker, feature-debuting co-writer/director Mike Judge (Idiocracy (2006)), who created the Beavis and Butt-Head TV-series that ran from 1993-11. Mike de Seve (Father of the Pride (2004, TV-series)) and Yvette Kaplan (Zooey's Zoo (1999, TV movie)) co-directed.

Beavis & Butt-Head Do America may be the funniest adult animation comedy of all time. A road movie comedy based on MTV's popular cartoon-looking series' juvenile duo, the humor is drier, more low-key and hysterical than the loud escapades of Springfield (in the Simpsons TV-series (1989-) and the 2007 movie), and different from the 1999 South Park movie, which are the two closest comparison works.
The animation is neat, and especially the delightful caricatures of a palette of more or less archetypical American characters is highly comical. Robert Stack (Mumford (1999)), Demi Moore (Ghost (1990)), Bruce Willis (Die Hard (1988)) and Cloris Leachman (When We Last Spoke (2019)) deliver some of the best voices in the film, besides the two leads which Judge do himself.

 

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2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

Silicon Valley - season 1 (2014) - Judge and Co. introduce a hilarious tech-centric satirical sitcom

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 63.1 mil. $ (North America alone)
= Huge hit (projected return of 5.83 times its cost)

[Beavis and Butt-Head Do America premiered 15 December (Los Angeles) and runs 81 minutes. The show was put on hiatus to make the film. The film opened #1 to a 20.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend in the top 5 (#4), grossing 63.1 mil. $. The film went unreleased in many markets and was likely mostly a North-American-centered hit. My projected world gross total is 70 mil. $. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. A VoD sequel followed in 2022, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe. Judge returned with Office Space (1999). Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is fresh at 71 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America?

Airplane! (1980) - The deadpan/spoof/crazy-comedy classic!

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The iconic poster poster for Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker's Airplane! makes me laugh all by itself

The majority of the passengers and personnel on a route airplane contract sudden food poisoning, so that a former hunter pilot with practically no skills for flying a major airplane has to step in for the ailing pilot.

This the first disaster movie spoof/satirical comedy by co-writer/directors 'ZAZ', Jim Abrahams (Mafia! (1998)), David Zucker (Scary Movie 3 (2003)) and Jerry Zucker (Ghost (1990)), is an incredibly funny film, even though I personally might find that Abrahams' Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) has even more laughs.
The style is the same though: A bombardment of gags and jokes and funny moments. The trio managed to cast a string of great male actors formerly unconnected with comedies for Airplane!, and they made them play their ridiculous lines and characters straight: Leslie Nielsen (Spy Hard (1996)), Lloyd Bridges (Bear Island (1979)), Peter Graves (Biography (1994-01, TV series documentary)) and Robert Stack (Uncommon Valor (1983)). Especially Bridges and the master of deadpan-comedy, Nielsen, carry many of Airplane's funniest moments.
Airplane! especially spoofs the disaster films Zero Hour! (1957) and Airport (1975), and references numerous other known films of different genres.
The ZAZ-trio more or less founded the spoof genre in American films here with this nonperishable delight.

Related post:

Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Be reminded of some of the fun of Airplane! in its pretty long trailer here

Cost: 3.5 mil. $
Box office: 130 mil. $
= Blockbuster (returned 37.14 times its cost)
[Airplane! was released 2 July (USA) and runs 87 minutes. The ZAZ trio bought the rights to remake Zero Hour! for 2.5k $, from which they got the basic plot structure for the film. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, from June - August 1979. Nielsen brought a whoopee cushion onto the set to keep his cast mates off balance. The film made its budget in its first week of release domestically and became the year's 4th highest grossing film. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this review. The ZAZ trio returned united with Police Squad! (1982, TV-series) and theatrically with Top Secret! (1984). Robert Hays (Dr. T & the Women (2000)) returned in Angie (1979-80) and theatrically in Take This Job and Shove It (1981), Julie Hagerty (Instant Family (2018)) in The Day the Women Got Even (1980, TV movie) and theatrically in A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982). Airplane! is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.38/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Airplane!?