ulture

Colin Slark
Team Member

re you tired of lists of science fiction,
fantasy, and comic book stuff? The
following movies are devoid of any elements
of robots, superpowers, or magic. They
may still be a little weird though. Here are
4 normal-ish comedy films to help stave off
boredom.

Harold is a bored
young man into funerals, hearses, and faking
his own death. His mother constantly tries
to cheer him up by setting him up on blind
dates, but Harold always scares them away
by acting out elaborate fake suicides.

Harold’s life brightens up one day when he
meets an old woman named Maude who
shares his love of attending the funerals of
strangers. They fall in love and Maude shows
Harold there is more to life than death. This
black comedy features one of the strangest
movie vehicles of all time, a classic Jaguar

that Harold has converted into a sports
hearse. A must see for the morbid among us.

One
day in mid-17th century France, a noble
family and a peasant family both arrive at
the same doctor’s house to have him deliver
their babies. Things get confusing as both
mothers are discovered to be giving birth to
twins and each couple is accidentally given
one child from each pair in the aftermath.

Decades later, these two sets of “twins”
(played in both instances by Gene Wilder
and Donald Sutherland) are caught up in
the French Revolution, one set working
with the peasants and the other working
with the nobles. The brothers encounter a
bumbling Louis XVI and a scheming Marie
Antoinette, and are saddled with a series

of increasingly absurd plot twists. This film
makes no attempt at historical accuracy, but
Wilder and Sutherland’s funny performances
will make you disregard the details.

Imagine a time when
Nicolas Cage was able to play a character
other than the manic weirdoes he tends to
play these days. Imagine a Nicolas Cage that
is able to portray a state of mind other than
unflinching intensity. You may think that
this version of Nicholas Cage does not exist,
but he did at least once. Petty criminal Hi
McDunnough (Cage) is bad at staying out
of prison, leaving and returning so fast you
would there was a revolving door on his jail
cell. However, his constant processing by
the police leads to a romance and marriage
to one of the local policewomen, Ed.

Their married life is happy until they find
out that Ed is unable to have children. Soon
after receiving the sad news, they find out
that a local couple has recently given birth
to quintuplets. Hi and Ed figure that this
family probably has more kids than they
need and a plan is hatched to “adopt” one
of the quintuplets. Once they have the baby,
Hi and Ed realize that being parents is a

bit more difficult than they had imagined.

Featuring a laidback yet sweet performance
by Nicolas Cage, this lesser-known Coen
Brothers film is zany but heartwarming.

Iam
cheating a little bit with this one as it was
a TV movie. Before This is Spinal Tap was
conceived of, former Monty Python member
Eric Idle and Python musical contributor
Neil Innes collaborated to produce this
mockumentary about a fictional Beatles-
like band called The Rutles. From the
early boy band-esque days of The Beatles
to their weirder material like the “Yellow
Submarine” cartoon, nothing is safe from
being parodied. The best feat this film pulls
off is managing to have their knockoff Beatles
songs sound like they could be real. If you
were wondering if any members of The
Beatles approved of this venture, George
Harrison does have a cameo in one scene.

Please expect more weird, esoteric,
and bizarre recommendations
from me in upcoming issues!