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Movie Previews

The Movies of Summer 2025

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The year has already been a roller coaster ride, and not just at the box office.  Focusing in on the state of movies for now, the last few months have been defined as being alarmingly weak at the box office, save for one unlikely savior.  The month of March was particularly marked with some alarming box office results.  In a month that has usually seen a strong performer or two taking advantage of those Spring Break crowds, this year’s March for the first time since Covid had failed to deliver a film that made over $100 million domestic.  This same time last year, we had two films reach that mark with Dune: Part Two (2024) and Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire (2024).  But this year, we had two of the costliest flops to to hit the screens in quite a while.  Warner Brothers’ ambitious sci-fi epic from auteur director Bong Joon-ho, Mickey 17 (2025) fizzled out pretty quickly beyond it’s opening weekend, and failed to recoup even a quarter of it’s original $100 million+ budget.  Then there was Disney’s Snow White (2025) which is going to be an even bigger financial loser for it’s studio, as Disney may finally be seeing it’s audience lose interest in their live action remake phase. Couple this with an under-performance from Marvel, with their recent film Captain America: Brave New World (2025) only barely reaching break even and a slew of other box office non-starters, 2025 is definitely starting off on the wrong footing.  But then came one of the most unexpected turnarounds in recent memory.  After three months of box office woes, suddenly theaters have been coming alive again with the surprising success of The Minecraft Movie (2025).  How the film is able to generate the box office it had had even with mostly negative reviews is certainly a mystery.  Some of it may be a Rocky Horror like phenomenon with audiences attending the films just for the trashiness of it all and to have the experience of seeing the movie with a rowdy crowd.  Whether people actually like it or not (and I certainly don’t) the good thing is that Minecraft is helping the movie theater industry weather what has been otherwise a bad start to the year.

Now of course it is time to look to the future and see what will be the movie that we’ll all be talking about in the Summer months ahead.  While the Spring has been a tough time at the box office so far, there are a lot of positive signs on the horizon that this Summer will fare a lot better.  Like in the years past, I will be going through this Summer’s most interesting coming attractions, and tell you which ones are the must sees, the ones that have me worried, and the ones that I think should be skipped.  Keep in mind, these previews are based on my own thoughts about the effectiveness of the marketing as well as the buzz that each one is generating before their respective releases.  My predictions don’t always pan out, and sometimes I may miss the mark and either overestimate or underestimate a movie.  The only thing I wish to make happen with these previews is to draw attention to the movies that are on the horizon in the hope that it helps all of you be informed about what to expect at the movies this upcoming season.  So, with all that said, let’s take a look at the Movies of Summer 2025

MUST SEES:

THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS (JULY 25)

It’s a given every summer that when Marvel has a new movie coming out, people are going to want to pay attention.  After taking most of last year off with only one single theatrical release, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), Marvel is back to it’s more ambitious release schedule of multiple films per year.  They had a hard time with Captain America: Brave New World this February, but that was a film long plagued by production problems.  This film and the other Summer release which I’ll spotlight later have not had as difficult a development and are actually arriving with a lot of positive buzz.  Of the remaining Marvel movies, it’s this one that looks to be something really interesting.  Marvel has attempted to bring comic books “first family” to the big screen twice before, and it hasn’t worked out yet.  2015’s Fant4stic was an especially miserable failure.  This time around, it does look like Marvel is making an effort to get this one right and do justice to the iconic characters of the Fantastic Four.  It’s interesting that they are starting their new version of the Fantastic Four in a different universe than the regular MCU.  While it’s an interesting call story wise, it does offer the creative team to make some bold choices in the world building.  The retro-futuristic world that they live in is visually very stunning; mixing high sci-fi with mid-century design.  Another positive sign is the comic book accurate look of Ben Grimm, aka The Thing.  Before, he was either an actor buried under a ton of prosthetic make-up, or in Fant4stic’s case, a terribly animated CGI monstrosity.  Here, his appearance is very close to how he looks in the comic books, while at the same time allowing for expressive features that help bring his personality out much better.  It helps that Emmy winning character actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach is also doing a great job of embodying the character.  Indeed, all of the Four members look right for the part, including Joseph Quinn as the Human Torch, Vanessa Kirby as The Invisible Woman, and Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic.  The fact that they’ll also be dealing with a galactic threat the size of the celestial earth-devouring Galactus should also make this quite the spectacle.  It took a while for Marvel Studios to finally get the rights back to bring the Fantastic Four into the MCU.  Let’s hope the third time is the charm for these four.

SUPERMAN (JULY 11)

While Marvel is preparing it’s summer roll out of highly anticipated titles, it’s rival studio DC is about to begin a new era.  Under the supervision of director James Gunn, we are about to see a relaunch of the DC Universe, and who better to get things started than the man of steel himself, Superman.  The Snyderverse Superman, played by Henry Cavill, always felt like he got the short end in the DCEU, as director Zack Snyder seemed much more interested in the Batman side of DC’s catalog.  For this new version, James Gunn himself is taking on the responsibility of launching Superman’s new era, and that seems to be especially a good sign for the future of the character.  One of the best things about James Gunn as a filmmaker is that he puts a lot of value in comic book tropes, and in particular, he embraces the sillier side that helps to make them so much fun.  He displayed that perfectly with his Guardian of the Galaxy trilogy at Marvel, and managed to carry that over to DC with his excellent The Suicide Squad (2021) and Peacemaker series.  What seems to be especially exciting about his new take on Superman is that he’s not wasting any time in building the world around him.  No more rehashing Superman’s already well tread back story.  For this movie, the DC Universe is already fully formed, and we are just jumping right in.  It’s probably smart, because the problem with the Snyderverse was that they were attempting to build everything up from scratch while at the same time speed running through all of the key story-lines, preventing anything from actually coalescing into a complete whole.  Here Superman (played by newcomer David Corenswet) shares this world with a lot more super heroes, including a Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and a few other in what looks like to be a big screen adaptation of the All-Star Superman comics.  Oh, and Krypto the super dog is also making his live action debut as well.  In contrast with the Snyderverse, the main goal of Gunn’s take on Superman is to return to the sense of fun that we had with the old Richard Donner/ Christopher Reeve classic, which is probably why there are hints of John Williams’ iconic score in the trailer.  Here’s hoping that James Gunn puts the DCU on a strong footing and brings about a bright new future with one of the greatest super heroes of all time.

THUNDERBOLTS* (MAY 2)

While James Gunn is getting his universe up and running over at DC, Marvel is preparing to introduce it’s own take on the Suicide Squad.  When the Avengers are unavailable, who does humanity turn to is the question being posed by this movie.  The answer is a grouping of misfits and outcasts with something to prove.  The team assembled for this version of the Thunderbolts are some of the characters that we’ve been introduced to along the way in the post Endgame MCU, many of whom have done something wrong in the past.  The team consists of former black widow Yelena (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), phase shifting criminal Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), assassin Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and disgraced Captain America turned U.S. Agent John Walker (Wyatt Russell), all under the supervision of CIA chief Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).  The idea of assembling these tarnished figures together and hoping they have it within them to save the world is an appealing one to base a movie around, and certainly new ground for Marvel to cover in their movies.  I’m interested in seeing how these more hard edged characters work off each other, and the chance at redemption could lead to some very interesting character building.  We’ve gotten to meet these characters in various other films; now we’ll see how they function when they are in the spotlight.  I am especially excited to see David Harbour’s Red Guardian here, since he’s been one of the best new characters that Marvel has introduced in the last couple years, and he and Florence Pugh’s Yelena were easily the best parts of what was an otherwise forgettable Black Widow (2021) movie.  Bringing in Marvel veteran Sebastian Stan as his popular character the Winter Soldier should also offer up some fun character interactivity too.  But it will also be interesting to see how they fare against an enemy as powerful as Sentry (Lewis Pullman) in this story.  And what is the mystery behind the asterix in the title that they’ve been teasing about in the marketing.  These may not be A-list Marvel characters, but as we’ve seen with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, the B and C list characters can make a movie a lot of fun when they have their own opportunity to shine.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (MAY 23)

In 1996, the first Mission: Impossible movie premiered with it’s star Tom Cruise in top action hero form.   Nearly 30 years and eight movies later, Tom Cruise is still delivering heart pounding action on a grand scale with this long running series.  But, with this new film, there seems to be a drive to the end of the road.  This was originally supposed to be Part II to the previous film, Dead Reckoning Part I (2023), but the filmmakers decided this movie should stand on it’s own, because it may not be the end of the franchise completely, but it’s quite possible that this will be the end for the character of Ethan Hunt.  There’s a finality that’s being presented in this trailer, showcasing all of the events that have led up to now, showing that it’s all been leading to this.  It’s understandable that Tom Cruise may want to step back from doing these movies now considering that he’s well into his sixties and probably can’t pull off the same amazing stunts anymore, though let’s face it, he’s lasted far longer than most in this business.  The only question is, how big of a bang does he want to go out on.  The previous movies had Cruise climbing the outside of the world’s tallest building, hang onto the side of a real plane in the air, piloting a helicopter solo, and in the last film riding off of a cliff on a motorcycle.  Every Mission: Impossible movie has had at least one stand out scene with Tom Cruise really putting himself into the action rather than using a stunt double.  We see some hints of what we might get in this movie, but how well will they stand against all the rest.  You would think that Tom Cruise wants to save the best for last.  Regardless, these movies are always a ton of fun to watch and here’s hoping that this movie at least measures up to all of the movies that have come before it.  The cast that he’s assembled through all the previous movies are all here, plus a few new faces.  I’m especially happy to see Ving Rhames still there because apart from Cruise, he’s the only actor to have appeared in all eight movies.  Whether this is the end, or the beginning of a new era, it will be a hard act to follow for Tom Cruise.  The Mission: Impossible franchise has been his own personal baby for decades and ever the showman, he’ll definitely want us to say goodbye in a grand finale.

ELIO (JUNE 20)

You can always rely on Pixar Animation to deliver some good-nature fun in the middle of the Summer season.  This film was originally supposed to come out last Summer, but was pushed back due to the post-Strike reshuffling of the schedule.  The delay may have worked out in it’s favor, because a year ago, the Pixar brand was not exactly on the strongest footing.  Lightyear (2002) under-performed in theaters, and Elemental (2023) started off poorly before managing to recoup thanks to word of mouth.  Releasing Elio right after this, an original story without a whole lot of per-existing interest from audiences at a time when the Pixar brand couldn’t help to lift it up, would have been a disaster for the already beleaguered studio.  Thankfully, the highly anticipated sequel Inside Out 2 (2024) took its Summer slot instead and gave Pixar a much needed win at the box office.  With a worldwide gross of over $1.5 billion, Inside Out shattered records and re-affirmed that Pixar indeed could still deliver at the box office.  This more positive environment should help Elio out.  It almost certainly won’t perform as huge as Inside Out 2, but it should have a pretty healthy run that will be on par with most of Pixar’s best movies.  It all depends on how well audiences respond to the story.  What they seem to be going for with this new film is a coming of age story with a child who can’t seem to make friends on Earth, so he instead tries to find his place off planet.  The character of Elio himself looks like he’s going to be a lot of fun to watch, especially when he begins to interact with all of the various alien species.  Pixar seems to perform at it’s best when it deals with the emotions of growing up and discovering one’s place in the world.  This is trope that has proved to work well for them in the past with movies like Coco (2017), Luca (2021) and Turning Red (2022).  We’ll see if Elio is able to live up to the other films.  It definitely looks like it’s going to be a visual feast as well, but of course that’s to be expected from Pixar.  It also marks the first solo directorial effort from Coco co-director Adrian Molina, so we know that it’s going to come from a filmmaker capable of making a movie that balances genuine emotion with a lot of fun mixed in.  Let’s hope that this renewed strength in the Pixar brand keeps going with this film and beyond.

MOVIES THAT HAVE ME WORRIED:

LILO & STITCH (MAY 23)

If there is one thing that seems to not be as safe a bet at the box office as it used to, it’s live action remakes of classic animated films.  Disney, which has been leading the charge with these types of movies, enjoyed some major box office success in the past decade remaking all of the major films in their animated canon.  Some like Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Lion King (2019) even made the studio well over a billion dollars each.  But that box office domination seems to have lessened over time.  The Little Mermaid (2023) performed well domestically, but struggled internationally.  The Lion King prequel Mufasa (2024) also struggled to perform as well as it’s predecessor.  But what has especially thrown cold water on the remake craze at Disney is the disastrous performance of Snow White (2025), which has fallen rapidly off of the box office charts and will likely lose Disney money in the long run.  So, we may be seeing this very divisive trend possibly coming to an end.  Although, that does depend on the remaining remakes that are still in the pipeline.  This summer we are getting a remake of Disney’s late Renaissance era classic Lilo & Stitch (2002), which definitely has a lot to prove in the wake of Snow White.  The one thing that is in this film’s favor is that it makes a lot more sense remaking this film in live action compared to Snow White.  The original Lilo was one of Disney’s more earthbound films, even with all of the sci-fi elements, so it doesn’t take a whole lot to breath it into life in live action.  You don’t need to make lavish sets and costumes; all this movie needs to do is film on location in Hawaii and try to match the vibe of the original film as best it can.  And it does feel like the movie is managing to find that balance.  The CGI Stitch “live action” model does look very adorable, and original film director Chris Sanders returns to do the voice.  Even more importantly, the film seems like it found the right child actor to play Lilo with newcomer Maia Kaeloha.  The one thing that this movie needs to prove more than anything, and some that most of these remakes fail to accomplish, is justify it’s existence.  It has to stand up on it’s own in contrast with the original, and hopefully it can do that and be just as charming as well.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (JUNE 13)

Speaking of live action remakes of animated classics, Dreamworks is getting in on the action now.  Considering that Dreamworks hasn’t been around as long as Disney and hasn’t built up the same amount of classic films over that same time, it’s easy to see why they haven’t been jumping on the bandwagon themselves.  But that ends this Summer as they release their first live action remake through their parent studio Universal.  The original How to Train Your Dragon (2010) is undeniably one of the best films that Dreamworks Animation has ever made; probably the best.  And compared with most of the other Dreamworks movies, this one makes a whole lot more sense than others.  You don’t see a lot of sense trying to do Shrek (2001) in live action.  Dragon was a film that did strive for a bit of grittiness and life like texture to it’s story and world.  More than anything, translating the world of the original movie into live action, with it’s very Viking like aesthetic, seems very natural and the remake definitely feels like it’s doing a very one to one translation.  The film even has one of the original voice actors returning, with Gerard Butler reprising his role as King Stoick.  There’s just one thing that might end up hurting the film in the end, which are the dragons themselves.  The problem is that they still look too cartoonish, and it kind of breaks the life like aesthetic that this film is going for.  Toothless, the main dragon in this film, just looks like the same exact model as the character in the original film, just with a different skin texture.  It might have helped to have changed up the look of the character just a bit more.  Honestly, Disney seems to have matched that better in their Lilo & Stitch remake, as their Stitch does look like he fits better in live action.  Maybe the dragon’s animation might work better in the context of the film, but again, it has to justify it’s existence in contrast with the original.  The original film had an epic quality that is hard to replicate, and if they are just doing the same movie over again, it may not work out well because audiences already fell in love with the original.  We’ll have to see if this Dragon can indeed soar on it’s own.

28 YEARS LATER (JUNE 20)

For the most part, there are a lot of exciting things about this movie.  It reunites the original creative team behind the original, Danny Boyle directing from a script by Alex Garland.  It also puts together an impressive cast, with Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes.  Plus it delivered one of the best movie trailers in recent memory, with a chilling montage of post-apocalyptic carnage underscored by a disturbing 1915 recording of a recitation of Rudyard Kipling’s powerful anti-war poem “Boots.”  The one thing that may unfortunately work against the film is that the trailer may have been too good.  I don’t know if the movie itself is going to display the same kind of artistic intensity that this trailer has.  Kudos to the marketing team that put this one out, because it’s almost a two minute long art piece within itself.  The re-team of Boyle and Garland, who last worked together on the original 28 Days Later (2002) over twenty years, should still make this movie a well crafted horror action film.  But I feel like the trailer may be misleading us into believing that this movie is going to be something that it isn’t.  I imagine that the real film is going to be more of a slow burn leading to some big set pieces.  The trailer seems to be preparing us for a much more intense experience.  We may still get that, but it’s going to feel very different than what the trailer showed.  Also, I’m pretty sure that Kipling poem appears nowhere in the final film; it’s just something that the marketing department thought would be cool to use in the trailer.  We’ll see how well this performs once it’s in theaters.  It’s a mid Summer horror film, which often has seen a lot of success in past years.  My hope is that the movie does live up to the promise of it’s intense marketing campaign.  It’s hard to get audiences excited in another zombie movie, which is itself a pretty over-saturated and diluted genre.  Perhaps that’s why the trailer had to go as hard as it does; to get us re-interested in this kind of movie again.

THE NAKED GUN (AUGUST 1)

Making this movie would easily be dismissed as sacrilege in most circumstances.  The original Abrahams and Zucker classic is one of the funniest comedies ever made and one of the iconic roles that turned Leslie Nielsen into an unlikely comedy legend.  But, over time both the Naked Gun franchise and the spoof comedy genre died off, so it’s unusual that a studio would want to pick it up again.  The one trying to make an attempt this time is producer Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy and Ted fame.  He clearly has a soft spot for Naked Gun and it’s clearly seen in his style of comedy.  So, it makes sense for him to be the new shepherd for this series.  And to take over the role of Frank Drebin from Leslie Nielsen, it makes sense to go with someone of the same ilk like Liam Neeson.  Neeson already has been within Seth MacFarlane’s circle with cameos in movies like A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) and Ted 2 (2015).  The only question is, can this movie still be funny?  The spoof genre died out for a reason, because the movies just kept getting less and less funny.  It’s hard to tell how well this movie will pull it off, but the trailer certainly shows that it will be trying for a goofy tone.  It might work out well, given Liam Neeson’s participation here, but it also might be a horrible mess too.  I’ll give the movie this, that O.J. Simpson joke in the trailer is legit very funny.  At least the movie is actually acknowledging the elephant in the room there.  Seth MacFarlane’s team probably understands that there is a lot to prove here, and they clearly have a reverence for the original and will try to do it justice here.  It certainly won’t be anywhere near as inspired as the original film, but if it can still make most of us laugh, than that’s a plus.  The worst thing they could do is make a Naked Gun movie without a single joke that works, and at least from the trailer we see that at least one joke does land.  I worry that we’ll get the former, but I do hope that we’ll at least get something fun and enjoyable

MOVIES TO SKIP:

JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH (JULY 2)

Fool me once is how the phrase goes.  Jurassic Park was a one of a kind masterpiece that still holds up over 30 years later.  Since then, the franchise has failed time and again to recapture the magic of that original.  Even Spielberg could do it with The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), which is easily his worst film.  Jurassic World (2015) came closest to getting there with a fresh new take on the concept, showing us the park in a fully open to the public capacity, but the two sequels that have come after have squandered any of that good will by getting progressively dumber with each outing.  It seems that Universal Pictures is looking to soft re-boot the franchise again by starting fresh with a new cast.  Gone are the stars of the last three movies, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, and instead we get Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali.  While the cast may be new, the same old action scenes look to be more of the familiar.  The premise of scientists and explorers putting themselves in harms way for the sake of studying these dinosaurs seems to be overplayed at this point.  What happened to the more intriguing concept of dinosaurs being let loose into our world that was established a few movies ago.  That seems to have gone nowhere and based on this movie, which chooses to show dinosaurs yet again confined to a remote island, the past continuity of the franchise really doesn’t seem to matter at all.  This movie is just more cash grabbing by the studio, wringing out every cent they can get from a franchise that has been fruitful for them in the past, but is continually running out of ideas.  For this franchise to survive beyond this, it’s better if the studio looks beyond formula and stop just trying to make the same movie over and over again.

FREAKIER FRIDAY (AUGUST 8)

I understand why Disney would be choosing to make this sequel now.  Lindsay Lohan seems to have gotten her life back together after a few years of scandal and hard living and is seeing a career rebound thanks to her well received holiday movies on Netflix.  And Jamie Lee Curtis is riding high after her Oscar win for the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022).  And they both genuinely want to work together again on something.  Unfortunately, like many other sequels made decades after the fact, this movie is just merely doing the same plot over again, only they are including a new generation.  Chalk this movie up to being not a film for me.  I didn’t much care for the original either, nor the even more original film from the 70’s starring a young Jodie Foster that it was a remake of.  The only thing this movie may have going for it is the report between Lohan and Curtis.  They clearly are invested in doing this film.  But, the era in which this kind of movie could work seems like it has passed.  Another body swap comedy is a hard sell, even to a new generation.  I think it would have served better for Curtis and Lohan to re-team in a movie that was more original.  Fans of the original film may like this one, but as we’ve seen with recent Disney live action legacy sequels like Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) and Disenchanted (2022), it’s hard to pick things back up after a twenty year gap.  Not only have you aged up, but so has your audience, and the newer generation may not hold it in the same regard.  We’ll see if this sequel manages to keep things freaky all these years later.

SMURFS (JULY 18)

And here we have a movie that already just spells disaster.  When the trailer puts it in your face that “Rihanna is Smurfette,” you know that there is nothing else noteworthy to sell about this movie.  It’s not even the first time that there has been an attempt to jumpstart a Smurfs film franchise.  There was the live action adaptation from the early 2010’s and then the all animated one from 2017.  Is there anything they are doing differently for this new one.  Doesn’t look like it.  All that they seem to have done is add a different, Spider-verse style filter on the CGI Smurf models to make them look more hand drawn, and that seems to be it.  Otherwise it’s all the lame jokes that we’ve seen before.  Remember how they would replace a curse word with the word “smurf” to make it feel more edgy while still keeping it G-rated.  That’s pretty much what they are doing again.  Hopefully this movie ends up like the ones before and just fades into obscurity, but then again that may just lead to more re-boots again in the future.

So, there you have my outlook on the upcoming Summer movie season.  This will be an interesting Summer to observe at the movies, because it will be the first true season that’s unaffected by the strikes of 2023.  All of the re-shuffling of the schedule in the wake of the labor walk-outs has resolved, mostly in the last calendar year, so this will be the first Summer in a while that feels like it used to. Or at least that’s the hope.  The thing that still lingers over the industry is the uncertainty in the economy due to the tariffs and trade war going on.  One of Hollywood’s big worries is that the lucrative Chinese market may get cut off, which has been essential towards helping the studios recoup financially with their massive, some would say over-budgeted tentpoles.  China has been moving away from Hollywood in recent years and favoring more of their own domestic cinema instead, but if the trade war makes them even less inclined to play American made films in their country, that could have a devastating effect on the movie business here.  We’ll have to see how things turn out.  Can domestic box office be enough in an economy that is becoming less stable?  It does give Hollywood some hope that Minecraft is performing as well as it is right now, and we’ll see if that translates over the course of the rest of the summer.  There will be the usual standards like Marvel, Pixar and DC, but there are a bunch more films out there that I didn’t mention that could also be big surprises.  It’s going to be an interesting couple of months, and the hope is that outside influences won’t spoil too much of the fun we’ll have at the movies.  I certainly am going to try to have as much fun as I can, and I’ll continue to share my thoughts on these movies in the meantime.  So, have a great Summer season at the movies and let cinema be the thing that helps to lift your spirit through troubled times.

Evolution of Character

Evolution of Character – The Joker

Comic books, especially in recent years, have been fertile ground for movie adaptations.  But what is especially interesting about the way that Hollywood brings the characters from comic books to life is the quick turnaround that happens between the different eras.  Because of the potential cash infusion that these kinds of films can make, the studios don’t like having these characters sitting on a shelf for too long.  That’s why when one comic book franchise runs out of steam, the the studio will immediately move to reboot it from scratch with a new team and actors in place.  That’s why in just a short amount of years we’ve seen so many different iterations of the same super heroes.  Now it’s not all uniform with every comic book character.  In the last 25 years, we’ve only had the same actor playing the role of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in the same time frame that we’ve had three different Spider-Men.  And in the era of the MCU, a different tactic has happened where characters end up retiring and passing the mantle of that character over to someone new, much like how it works in the comics.  But, for the most part, it’s been very common to see entirely new versions of these comic book characters hit the big screen very quickly after the last ones have run their course.  And perhaps no other comic book character has seen the most different movie variations over the course of his history than the caped crusader himself, Batman.  The last twenty years alone we’ve seen about four different versions of Batman hit the big screen, with another one coming up soon in the new James Gunn DC Universe being launched.  But, as wildly different as all of the Batman adaptations have been on the big screen, it’s his greatest nemesis that has seen an even more dramatic evolution.  The Joker, a super villain introduced in 1940 in Batman #1, has become not just one of cinema’s most iconic bad boys, but a role that is coveted by some of the world’s greatest actors, who in a few cases have even been rewarded for bringing this agent of chaos to life.  On the page, the Joker has always been a standout villain, being the twisted reflection of everything that Batman is and stands for.  But on the big screen, he’s evolved into something even more; a larger than life manifestation of our nightmares.  From his humble beginnings to the award winning cinema icon he is today, let’s take a look at the most iconic versions of the Joker ever put on screen

CESAR ROMERO from BATMAN THE MOVIE (1966)

The Batman TV series was very much a product of it’s time, but even still it has earned it’s own place in the overall Batman fandom.  The series starring Adam West as the iconic crime-fighter is a far cry from the darker and moodier version of the character that we would get in the decades after.  But, there is a lot of joy in watching the show in all of it’s colorful, psychedelic kitsch.  Even with all that, it’s still Batman’s story and when Batman’s on screen his rogues’ gallery is sure to follow.  Of course, one of the characters that had to make it into the show somehow was his greatest foe, the Joker, and he’s here played by veteran actor Cesar Romero.  Ironically, it’s the Joker that translated into the campy style of the show better than all the rest of the characters given that the “clown prince of crime” already had a larger than life flamboyance to him.  Romero definitely plays up the clownish side of the character very well, and in particular he may have been he most instrumental in defining the Joker laugh.  His multi-part cackle is simultaneously silly and also unsettling, and it’s a laugh that in many ways has been the blueprint for defining all of the Jokers that have come after.  This 1966 film adaptation was released into theater in between the first and second season of the wildly successful show.  The film pretty much is an extension of the show, using all the same sets and costumes, but expands on the scope of the adventure.  Ceasr Romero’s Joker returns, but is also joined by Burgess Meredith’s Penquin, Frank Gorshin’s Riddler, and Lee Merriweather’s Catwoman in a supervillain team-up.  Even though Joker is always defined in the comics as Batman’s most dangerous foe, in this movie he’s more or less just along for the ride, with the Penquin acting more as the ringleader.  But that’s not to say that he’s wasted in the movie either, as Romero’s Joker still looks like he’s enjoying the fun of being bad.  One interesting side note about Romero’s version of the Joker is that Cesar refused to shave off his mustache throughout the entire run of the show, including this movie.  The way that the filmmakers got around this was to paint over the mustache to make it blend in with the rest of his clown make-up, only it’s still very noticeable, especially in HD.  It’s definitely another weird quirk of the show, but at the same time, it also fits within Cesar Romero’s gonzo take on the character and makes just that much more loonier on both the big and small screen.

JACK NICHOLSON from BATMAN (1989)

Heading in the exact opposite direction of Cesar Romero’s campy Joker, we get this absolutely terrifying rendition from Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton’s darker re-imagining of Batman.  Nicholson had been playing roles for a long time that allowed him to be a bit of jokester, but his performance here is far more Jack Torrence than Randall McMurphy.  His origin for the Joker follows closely with the comic books, with him being scared after falling into a vat of chemicals after a row with Batman, a plot point taken directly from Alan Moore’s beloved The Killing Joke story line.  But what we get once he transforms fully into The Joker is purely of the imagination of Tim Burton and Jack Nicholson.  The permanent smile on his face, created with very effective prosthetic make-up, is definitely unsettling to look at, and it just make the moments when Joker starts breaking out into laughter all the more terrifying.  And Jack Nicholson chews into every scene as this character with great delight.  Nicholson had long been a fan of the Batman comics, and his involvement in the project was very instrumental in getting it greenlit at Warner Brothers, who were initially hesitant to bring Batman to the big screen.  To show his faith in the comic characters and Tim Burton’s vision, Nicholson even accepted a back ended deal that would help to save on his salary during production with the hope that it would pay out in the box office receipts, which of course it did and Jack got handsomely rewarded.  There seems to be a bit of the Cesar Romero silliness in Jack’s interpretation of the character, particularly in the moments when he starts dancing, but Jack also knows when to bring the menace out as well.  One of the most effectively terrifying moments is when he delivers the line “Wait until they get a load of me.”  The combination of a scowl with that sinister smile, all in the glow of moonlight is a very nightmarish image.  And Nicholson’s Joker laugh, while not entirely different from his own, is also effectively creepy.  For a whole generation of kids, of which I was one, this was our introduction to the Joker; a character that both scared us silly, but also left us captivated.  Michael Keaton’s incredible turn as Batman was likewise also iconic, but Jack’s version of the Joker is perhaps the thing that most made Tim Burton’s vision as successful as it was.  With him, we were certainly dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight.

MARK HAMILL from BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM (1993)

It’s strange to think that one of the greatest versions of the Joker was played by Luke Skywalker.  It just goes to show how versatile a performer someone like Mark Hamill can be.  After the massive success of Tim Burton’s Batman films, Warner Brothers TV Animation was tasked with creating a Saturday morning cartoon series in the same style and tone of the movies.  The team of Creative Director Bruce Timm and Writer Paul Dini went above and beyond just Saturday morning cartoons and made what many consider to be not just one of the greatest animated series of all time, but also one of the best adaptation of Batman in general as well.  The success of the show was so massive that Warner Brothers commissioned the same team to make a feature film for theaters to tie in with the show.  Mask of the Phantasm features many of the same great traits as the show (it’s style and mature storytelling) but one thing that it certainly couldn’t leave out was the presence of the Joker himself.  He’s not the central villain of the movie’s plot (that being the titular Phantasm) but he’s there to make trouble nonetheless and be a thorn in the Batman’s side.  Mark Hamill came to the role unexpectedly as a last minute replacement when the original actor (Tim Curry) dropped out.  Hamill immediately clicked in the character and has played him off and on for decades after in various formats, including this film.  While Bruce Timm’s design of the character is remarkable enough, it’s Hamill’s vocal performance that truly sells the character.  He’s often described his Joker voice as being a mix of The Invisible Man and the Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine (1968).  His voice is both effectively cartoonish in the right way but underlined with an unsettling bit of shrillness too.  And of course the enormous cackle of a laugh he gives is chilling, and in my opinion never topped.  To be honest, whenever I read a Batman comic, it’s Mark Hamill’s voice I hear as the Joker, which is a testament to how well he has ingrained his version into our memories.  Hamill has put his time as Joker to rest in tribute to the memory of the late great Kevin Conroy who voiced Batman alongside Mark Hamill’s Joker for all these years.  In Hamill’s own words, “Without Batman, crime has no punchline.”

HEATH LEDGER from THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)

Perhaps the most iconic and most celebrated version of the Joker we have ever seen on the big screen.  And the most remarkable thing about it is that no one outside of the film’s production ever thought it would work.  When it was announced that Heath Ledger would be taking on the role of the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s widely anticipated Batman sequel, it turned quite a few heads.  Up to that point, Ledger was most known for his Oscar nominated role as a deeply closeted gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain (2005).  No one other than Christopher Nolan could see him embodying the role and it was leading a lot of fans to worry that he was being miscast.  And then, the first teaser for the film was released.  Played exclusively in IMAX theaters, audiences were treated to the introduction bank heist scene played in full as a teaser, and it gave us our first look at what Ledger would look like as the character.  And after that, no one was doubting the casting choice any more.  Ledger looked and sounded unrecognizable as the Joker, and his horrific looking scarred face with smeared on clown make-up made him look far more disturbing than any Joker we had ever scene up to this point.  Further marketing really put the spotlight on Ledger’s Joker and anticipation for the movie really began to pick up.  Unfortunately, Heath would not live to see the laurels given to his groundbreaking performance.  He sadly died from an accidental overdose mere months before the movie released into theaters.  As tragic as his untimely death was, we thankfully were blessed to have had one final masterful and complete performance with him in this film.  And his Joker is iconic in every conceivable way.  He’s terrifying, but also manages to deliver a genuine laugh throughout the movie.  The best thing about his character here is also the fact that he’s left as a bit of an enigma; a man with no past or an identity, except to only be the ying to Batman’s yang  And as over the top as he’s going with the character, it still fits within Nolan’s more grounded vision of the Batman mythos.  There are numerous moments where his brilliant performance shines, but perhaps the most memorable is the interrogation scene where he’s confronted by Christian Bale’s Batman in a literally explosive battle of wills.  Ledger’s performance proved to be strong enough to earn him a posthumous Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor, and his Joker remains a high water mark to this day.  We all doubted him, but in the end he proved us all wrong.

JARED LETO from SUICIDE SQUAD (2016)

Now, to go from the greatest cinematic Joker to easily the worst.  It was hard to find a way to bring the character of the Joker back to the big screen after Heath Ledger’s iconic performance.  But with the beginning of the now defunct DCEU (also known as the Snyderverse) which gave us yet another version of Batman, played by Ben Affleck, it was only a matter of time before we would get a new Joker.  But instead of introducing the Joker in a standard Batman story-line, the DCEU instead had him make his first appearance as a side character in this Suicide Squad adaptation.  Now, why here?  It’s because one of the Suicide Sqaud members is Harley Quinn, Joker’s frequent accomplice and girlfriend; a character who by the way made her debut in the animated series which featured Mark Hamill’s Joker.  Margot Robbie did a fine job bringing Harley to life on the big screen, but the same can’t be said about Jared Leto’s Joker.  Leto made some weird choices with the character.  Instead of playing up the flamboyance of previous versions of the character, Leto’s Joker is just a demented lunatic who barely talks above a whisper most of the time.  I get that this Suicide Squad’s idea of the Joker was supposed to have him be more punk rap gangster than the carnival-esque clown he was before.  But it just feels weird and try hard.  It just makes the Joker feel less intimidating when we see him covered in tattoos and wearing a grill on his teeth.  Even his Joker laugh feels weak, like he’s struggling to get it out and it just comes through as a whimper.  Since Cesar Romero, every actor playing the Joker has put gusto into their laugh; even Heath Ledger with his more sinister version, which oddly feels like it was inspired a bit by Romero’s original multi-part laugh.  The one saving grace about this version of the Joker is that he’s barely in the film at all.  He’s only there to give Harley Quinn motivation in the plot, and let’s face it, she is far more the star of the show here.  Jared Leto would briefly turn up again as the Joker in the infamous Snyder Cut of Justice League, added as part of the re-shoots to bring more definition to Zack Snyder’s original vision.  While he’s not as garish looking playing the part in that scene, he’s also just as equally worthless to the plot as well, and given that the DCEU died a quick death thereafter, it’s probably for the best that we’ll never see this version of the character ever again.

ZACH GALIFIANAKIS from THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (2017)

The surprise success of The Lego Movie (2014) was largely due to it’s groundbreaking animation, what a lot of fans also loved about the movie was the cheeky and imaginative use of all the different IP’s that the Lego brand has been able to cobble together.  The mix and match of characters from across pop culture in Lego form offered plenty of entertainment, but one of the big standouts in the movie was Lego Batman.  The hilarious take on the character proved to be so popular that it convinced Lego and Warner Brothers to green-light a spin off film just centered on the Lego Batman character.  And naturally, if there is going to be a Lego Batman movie, there would have to be a Lego Joker there too.  Lego Joker gets to make his screen debut in this movie, and he manages to be a surprisingly effective antagonist for this story.  The brilliant part of how they portray the Batman/Joker dynamic in this story is by making them like a toxic romantic couple, with each one only finding gratification through the friction of their rivalry.  Zach Galifinakis plays the character closer to his own stand-up comic persona, which helps to differentiate him from other versions of the character, and his performance balances off of Will Arnett’s eccentric and caricatured Batman quite well.  The visual of Lego Joker is also very cool to look at, with the animators accentuating his Joker grin with razor sharp, shark-like teeth.  The plot involves Joker getting back at Batman, out of a need for attention, by unleashing all of the worst villains out of the Phantom Zone, which is another way that this Lego franchise is able to throw in a bunch of other characters from different IP’s; or at least from all the ones that Warner Brothers had the licenses to.  But even in a movie that includes the likes of Voldemort, Sauron, and Godzilla, it’s the Joker that still stands out as the most memorable villain in the movie, and that mainly is because the movie manages to still bring all the best qualities of the character.  He is definitively an agent of chaos and this includes bringing about a chaotic show of force with every embodiment of evil together, all simply because he didn’t feel adequately in opposition with Batman.  He’s also just a fun take on the character that feels right at home in brick built world.

JOAQUIN PHOENIX from JOKER (2019) and JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX (2024)

If there was ever a portrayal of the Joker that comes closest to matching the visceral, terrifying version that Heath Ledger brought to the screen, it’s this version portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix.  The first Joker movie was controversial for many reasons, mainly with it’s attempt to humanize such fundamentally diabolical character.  Too many people misinterpreted the movie as a validation for the persona of the Joker, that it was giving sympathy towards the toxic, incel type of masculinity that the Joker often represents, rather than see what the movie was really about which was a critique about how social and economic disparity are often to blame for creating monsters like the Joker.  But, what most people who either love or hate the movie will still agree on is that Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is undeniably great.  In telling the backstory about how one man became the Joker (a first on the big screen), Joaquin perfectly embodies this broken down man who descends further and further down the rabbit hole of his own demented mind; externalizing all of his anxiety and mistrust of the world into this Joker persona, which unfortunately boils over into murderous rage.  The unsettling message of the movie is that monsters like the Joker start to infect societies of people desperate to find larger than life symbols that will help to galvanize their own darker tendencies.  Unfortunately there is real world evidence of the Joker being a potent symbol for violent people, as the shooting in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado tragically showed us.  There’s nuance to the portrayal of Joker in the movie that gets lost in all the controversy around this film, and that’s largely thanks to Phoenix’s fearlessness in the role.  For his efforts, Phoenix won an Oscar for Best Actor, making him the second performer to earn an Academy Award for playing this character after Ledger.  Unfortunately, the awards success and stellar box office convinced Warner Brothers to green-light an unnecessary sequel.  It worked so much better for the story of Arthur Fleck becoming the Joker to be just a one off, but director Todd Phillips still moved forward anyway, and the sequel Joker: Folie a Deux became one of the more baffling misfires of a sequel we’ve seen in recent memory.  Sadly the movie undoes all of the effective character building that was done in the original film, and even leaves us with an unsatisfying rug pull in the end, showing that this Joker was not in fact the same Joker that would one day face off with Batman.  And it’s pointlessly made into a musical too.  Phoenix’s performance is still the most worthwhile aspect of both movies, but certainly used much better in the first film.

It is fascinating to see a character like the Joker go from comic book heavy to a movie role capable of winning it’s actor an Academy Award.  And not just one, but twice.  That’s the incredible effect that this character has had in our pop culture.  That iconic mix of white skin, green hair and a purple suit has made the Joker stand out, especially in contrast with the Dark Knight himself.  Whether he’s played more light-heartedly by the likes of Cesar Romero or with terrifying intensity by Heath Ledger, he’s a character that demands our attention.  And each generation seems to find new ways to bring this character to life and keep him relevant to the times.  For me, I grew up with the mix of fear and funny found in Jack Nicholson’s iconic performance.  And like I stated before, Mark Hamill’s vocal performance as the Joker has become the voice that I hear whenever I read a Batman comic.  There really has only been one Joker performance that has fallen flat for me, which is Jared Leto’s weird take on the character.  Leto’s a talented actor, but his performance just feels at odds with what the character has always represented, and worst of all, his performance is neither scary or funny.  Thankfully, Joaquin Phoenix managed to find that right mix, while at the same time creating a fascinating portrait of a man unraveling due to his demented belief that the world has been unfair to him.  Looking at every version of the character, the one that certainly transcends them all is Heath Ledger’s portrayal in The Dark Knight.  His performance in that movie not only stands as perhaps the best ever given in a comic book movie, but one of the best ever in cinematic history.  In that performance, you do see the “agent of chaos” unleashed, and it’s one of the most profound portraits of evil ever put into a film.  Where Joker goes from here will be interesting to see.  There was a tease for the character in Matt Reeve’s The Batman (2022), played by Barry Keoghan behind a cell door.  Whether anyone can reach the heights that Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix reached remains to be seen, but the opportunity has certainly become something that great actors now actively pursue.  The one thing we know for sure is that when there is still a Batman in the world, there will likewise always be a Joker not far behind, hanging around like the bad joke that he is.

Top Ten Lists

Top Ten Funniest Performances in Movie Comedies

There are a variety of emotions that audiences go through when they’re watching a movie.  They can be scared, they can have a good cry, or if the movie is terrible, they will likely be bored.  But perhaps the greatest thing that can happen to an audience member while watching a movie is to have a really good laugh.  Indeed, comedy is one of the weapons that cinema has at it’s disposal because it’s the style of filmmaking that best appeals to the communal activity that is going to the movies.  It’s fine if you alone are laughing while watching a movie, but it’s even better when you are laughing along with other people in the theater.  Laughter is contagious and it’s something that a lot of moviemakers hope to deliver with their movies.  Even in a serious movie, a humorous moment can be a valuable thing, because it helps to break up the tension and allow an audience to relieve so pressure in between the heavier moments.  Comedy has been a part of the fabric of cinema from the very beginning.  Many comedy acts from vaudeville halls across the world began to take their routines to the big screen and became some of the most popular icons of the era.  The evolution to talkies also benefitted from comedy, with funny movies favoring more quick witted jabs than physical slapstick.  And all through the history of film, there has always been a place for a good comedy, even as tastes and norms have changed.  In all that time, movies have helped to establish iconic comedic talent through the years, from Charlie Chaplain as The Tramp to Will Farrell as Buddy the Elf, there are plenty of iconic performances that have left audiences in laughing fits that not only leave a mark in their own time, but also have endured many decades later.

For this top ten list I had to make some hard choices about who to leave out and who to put in.  There are so many good choices out there that it was hard to leave it to just 10.  That’s why you’re not going to see comedy icons like Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Peter Sellers, Chris Farley, Leslie Nielsen, Adam Sandler, Mel Brooks, Charlie Chaplin or the Marx Brothers on this list, even though they do deserve a place on here.  This list is purely my own preferences, so you can agree and disagree with my choices as much as you’d like.  So, with all that said, let’s take a look at the Top Ten Funniest Performances in Comedy Movies.

10.

GENERAL “BUCK” TURGIDSON from DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964)

Played by George C. Scott

One of the finest examples of a hilarious performance coming from an actor not known for doing comedy.  Scott was renowned for his dramatic work in movies like Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and The Hustler (1961), but what surprised many people was a hidden talent in comedic acting as well.  In Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War era satire, Scott plays a caricature of a very hawkish general who’s extremely suspicious of the “ruuskies” and yet has to deal with the fallout of one of his fellow generals going rouge and possibly setting off a nuclear war.  Here Scott plays against the way you would typically suspect an actor like him would perform the role.  He’s naturally fitted for playing someone of military brass, considering that years later he would give an iconic performances as General Patton, but as you watch Dr. Strangelove, you see that veneer of authority diminish in his character and reveal the manic buffoon underneath.  It’s quite a feat when you’re sharing the screen with a comedic performer on the level of Peter Sellers and he’s the one who has to play straight-man to your performance.  Everything about George C. Scott’s performance is beautifully eccentric, with him even getting into some slapstick-y pratfalls as well, including an unplanned tumble where Scott trips over his own feet, does a summersault, and still gets his line out; a hilarious blooper that Kubrick still left in the film.  Even with the subject matter being as serious as it is, the comedic performances throughout the movie all still land and make the film a very unforgettable farce, with Scott’s Turgidson being one of the key highlights.  And it’s a great example of why it works to the comedy’s advantage to have a serious actor delivering some truly ridiculous lines.  Only Scott could sell the President on the idea of committing war crimes like it’s not such a big deal: “I’m not saying we won’t get our hair a little mussed.”  It’s a risky thing to poke fun at something as deadly serious as nuclear Armageddon, but Dr. Strangelove managed to do it in a classic way, and show that even serious people can be silly.

9.

CHER from CLUELESS (1995)

Played by Alicia Silverstone

Proof that girls can be just as funny as the boys, this may be the most iconic comedic role for an actress in the last 50 years.  Clueless was very much a product of it’s time, encapsulating the early to mid 90’s in a brightly colored time capsule.  But it’s the lead performance by Alicia Silverstone as the pampered Beverly Hills teenage matchmaker Cher that still feels timeless to this day.  Silverstone is perfectly cast in this modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma, playing Cher with a hilarious level of dimwittedness, but still retaining emotional intelligence that helps to keep her from just being a stereotype.  The way we see how she views the world through her small enclosed, pampered life is hilarious to watch, especially when a lot of it is way off from reality.  But, she manages to remain endearing because there is a funny sense of innocence behind all that.  As the film moves along, we do see her maturity grow, and that ultimately leads her towards being a more thoughtful individual.  But, both Silverstone and writer/director Amy Heckerling both know that the most appealing part of Cher’s character is that airheaded naivete that defines her early on.  There’s some hilarious one liners throughout the movie that very much makes the character live up to the title Clueless.  Everything she says, even the introspective comments, have to be tied into shopping and fashion.  It’s that well-meaning spirit framed within a very enclosed mind frame that makes the lines so hilarious, especially the ones where she thinks she’s saying something very intelligent but it comes out totally absurd.  I will forever laugh out loud when I hear her say “Spora-tacus.”  Sure, it’s a bit dated due to being a product of it’s era, but Alicia Silverstone’s Cher is still a comedic performance that can make me laugh even 30 years later.

8.

SHERIFF BUFORD T. JUSTICE from SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977)

Played by Jackie Gleason

Jackie Gleason was already a legendary comedic actor long before he appeared in Smokey and the Bandit.  The star of the iconic Honeymooners TV series and a dozen comedic movies along the way had already cemented himself as a iconic performer.  But it was in this late career performance as the heavy in this Burt Reynold’s vehicle where Gleason perhaps created his most consistently hilarious character.  Buford T. Justice is a whole lot more than just a parody of a small town, Southern law enforcement agent.  He is a very larger than life presence that Gleason milks for every laugh he can possibly get.  The most hilarious part of the character is the pressure cooker like way that he grows more and more frustrated throughout the movie.  It’s also great that he has a foil to work off of with his dimwitted son Junior (played hilariously by Mike Henry) who agitates him even more.  The film itself is much more of a road action movie than a comedy, playing to Burt Reynold’s strengths as an actor, but Gleason’s presence easily makes this one of the funniest movies you’ll ever see as well.  He gets all the best lines, many of which Gleason got to improvise himself, and he delivers them with this hilariously over-the-top Southern inflection.  Only Jackie Gleason could make ordering a diablo sandwich and a Dr. Pepper into one of the funniest quotable lines in the movie (and make it fast, he’s in a goddamn hurry).  But even his subtle physical expressions can get a big laugh.  The way he tilts his head when he’s frustrated with Junior’s incompetence is also one of the funniest parts of the movie.  And nobody shouts out “sum-bitch” with more gusto than he does.  It showed that even during the tail end of his incredible career in comedy that Jackie Gleason still had it in him to leave us in stitches.

7.

RON BURGANDY from ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGANDY (2004)

Played by Will Farrell

Will Farrell has played a wide variety of characters both on the big and little screen, honing his craft during his time on Saturday Night Live like so many iconic comedic actors over the last 50 years.  The one thing that most of them have in common is Farrell’s hilarious talent with becoming loud and overly dramatic in his funniest scenes.  Perhaps the movie that bring this out most effectively is in the Adam McKay satire Anchorman.  Ron Burgandy is a true Will Farrell creation; a satirical impression of 70’s era machismo put into the persona of a local news anchor with an inflated ego.  He’s another character that becomes more hilarious due to the misplaced confidence he has in himself when he says things that he thinks are smart but end up being hilariously wrong instead.  One of the funniest bits in the movie though is the hilarious observation about how local news anchors will literally read out anything you put in front of them and not be aware of what they just said, from something as simple as a misplaced question mark (I’m Ron Burgandy?) to flat out telling the City of San Diego to go “F” themselves.  Farrell’s performance is hilarious both in the broader aspects of the character, such as the moments when Ron completely loses his mind and becomes overly dramatic (“I’m in a glass case of emotion”), but he also gets huge laugh through some of the subtler line deliveries that stand out just by how absurd they are (“The human torch was denied a bank loan”).  Anchorman itself is a movie about all the absurdities of male insecurity manifesting as false veneer of foolish self-confidence, and Will Farrell’s Ron Burgandy is a perfect deconstruction of that particular kind of character.  Whether it’s the boisterous WTF did he just say lines that he delivers with such confidence throughout the movie or the hilarious times he goes over the top with his physical pratfalls, this performance shows Will Farrell at the peak of his talent.

6.

LLOYD CHRISTMAS from DUMB AND DUMBER (1994)

Played by Jim Carrey

It is undeniable that Jim Carrey is one of the funniest actors to have made it to the silver screen ever.  There are so many iconic comedic performances on his resume that it’s hard to nail it down to just one.  While there’s something to be said for his hilarious roles in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1993), The Mask (1994), The Truman Show (1998), Bruce Almighty (2003) and even some of his recent work as Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, I have to say that the role that is moment for moment the most consistently funny is Lloyd from the Farrelly Brothers’ Dumb and Dumber.  This movie uses every tool at Jim Carrey’s disposal effectively, from his wild facial expressions to his hilarious line reads.  Of course this is a movie where Jim Carrey has to come up with “the most annoying sound in the world,” but more importantly this movie is a great place for him to show off his talents as a physical performer.  There are so many great slapstick moments in the movie like when Lloyd eats something too spicy and his first instinct is to squeeze ketchup bottles so hard it creates a ketchup fountain and he sticks his tongue out hoping to catch some of it in his mouth.  Carrey’s performance is great, and it’s nearly matched by the surprisingly fearless performance of Jeff Daniels as his equally dimwitted companion, Harry.  Daniels is able to keep pace with Carrey throughout the movie, even though he’s known as more for his dramatic work, and that’s quite the achievement.  But even still, it’s Jim Carrey who delivers the biggest laughs throughout the movie, and it cemented his reputation as a comedy legend.  You can definitely feel the anarchic spirit of classic comedy that flows through his veins in this performance, which is natural given that the Farrelly Brothers made Dumb and Dumber as a throwback screwball in the same vein as the Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy.  In a career full of laugh out loud hilarious performances, Jim Carrey’s Lloyd undoubtedly gives up the laughs per minute, and that helps the character stand just a bit taller than the rest.

5.

CARL SPACKLER from CADDYSHACK (1980)

Played by Bill Murray

Caddyshack was definitely one of the raunchiest of raunchy comedies made in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  It’s also become one of the funniest comedies ever centered around sports, in this case golf.  The film is already filled with great comedic talent, including Rodney Dangerfield and Chevy Chase, but it’s Bill Murray who steals the show as the grounds-keeping doofus known as Carl Spackler.  Murray does away with his usually sardonic persona that he brings to his other roles, like in Ghostbusters (1984) or Groundhog Day (1993), and instead creates this entirely different and hilarious character in Carl.  Murray’s Carl is a true oddball, mumbling all the time in this doofus like voice that often is accentuated with a crooked mouth.  And if that wasn’t weird enough, he spends the whole movie delivering strange anecdotes like the time he caddied for the Dalai Lama.  But it’s perhaps the moment when he pretends he’s playing for a championship at the Master’s Tournament that has become the most iconic moment for the character, and perhaps the whole of his career as an actor.  Pretty much any person who has stepped onto a golf course has at one time quoted this scene; I know the people I know who golf have done it (“Cinderella story, out of Augusta”).  One of the other great things about his performance in the movie is the hilarious rivalry that he has with a gopher that lives underneath the golf course, itself played by a puppet.  The way he treats exterminating this gopher like a soldier going into war is another hilarious layer added onto the performance.  It’s too bad that not many more performances like this came out of Bill Murray in the years after.  Certainly the slick talking jokesters that he brilliantly brought to life in the years after are all great, but Carl was a very different kind of funny for him, and it’s too bad we only got to see this side of him as a performance once.

4.

JOHNNIE GRAY from THE GENERAL (1927)

Played by Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton was a pioneer in how to use comedy on film.  Like his contemporary Charlie Chaplain, Keaton relied upon his talents as a physical actor.  The acrobatic actor often put a lot of effort into his comedic bits, and a few of them were fairly death defying.  He famously survived the collapse of an entire wall of a building all around him in Steamboat Bill Jr. (1927), with his placement being conveniently in the space of the window frame, sparing him from the worst of it.  Another stunt involving a train in Sherlock Jr. (1925) also left him with a broken neck that he left untreated for years.  But that accident didn’t deter him from raising the bar of physical comedy, nor make him stop working with trains either.  In what is perhaps his masterpiece, Buster Keaton delivers some of his most impressive visual gags ever in The General, a film that still garners huge laughs even nearly a century later.  There are some incredible stunts accomplished in this movie, including one where he could have killed himself many times as he rides the front grill of a real moving train.  But what really makes the comedy work even better is Keaton’s deadpan face through it all.  He delivers so much humor purely through the blinking of his eyes than he ever would’ve through dialogue.  The juxtaposition of his expressionless face along with the madcap situations that he finds himself in is beautifully realized and it make his performance here still as hilarious as it was when it first played in theaters almost 100 years prior.  While there are so many impressive performances in silent comedy that still resonate today, particularly from Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton stood out just a little more just because of the huge contrast between what he was doing and how he was reacting to it, which often was without emotion.  And all that made his comedy brilliant is on display in every moment of his most impressive work in The General.

3.

NAVIN JOHNSON from THE JERK (1979)

Played by Steve Martin

There are few comedic movies that feel as close to the style of stand up comedy of their creator as Steve Martin’s The Jerk does.  Steve Martin became a sensation in the 1970’s with his oddball style of stand-up, and he translated that kind of comedy perfectly into his first feature film.  This movie is entirely geared around his talents as a performer and it is a remarkable mix of comedy and absurdism all rolled together in one.  You know you are in for a hilarious ride when the very Caucasian Steve Martin introduces his character’s life story by saying, “I was born a poor black child in the South.”  It only gets sillier from there.  Steve Martin’s Navin Johnson goes through life with a hilarious wide-eyed innocent naivete, sort of like a much goofier version of Forrest Gump.  The film, directed by the legendary Carl Reiner, manages to keep up with Steve Martin’s manic performance, taking every wild swing that comes and hilariously staging each gag perfectly.  One of the classic bits involves Navin getting shot at while he works at a gas station, but the sniper keeps missing and ends up hitting the cans of oil on display.  Navin, not having a clue what’s really going on, starts to scream out “Somebody hates these cans.  Stay away from the cans!!”  What is great is the complete commitment to the bit that Steve Martin puts into his performance.  His performance as Navin is sincere even through all of the absurdity, and that makes the comedy hit all that much harder.  The film was a huge hit, and even found an unlikely fan in director Stanley Kubrick who apparently said it was his favorite comedy.  That’s when you know that your comedy performance has truly become transcendent when it earns the praise of the man who made Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).  Steve Martin has continued to be a great comedic actor, but it’s in The Jerk where we see him at his creative zenith, and showing his style of comedy better than anything else that he has made.

2.

LEO BLOOM from THE PRODUCERS (1967)

Played by Gene Wilder

Mel Brooks is undoubtedly the greatest comedy filmmaker that Hollywood has ever seen.  He pretty much invented the genre spoof film with movies like Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974), and in many of these movies he brought out some of the best work of some of comedy’s funniest performers, including the likes of Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman.   But there was no other collaborator of Mel Brooks that shined as much in is films as Gene Wilder.  They worked on three films together, including the aforementioned Saddles and Frankenstein, but it’s in their first film together that we see Gene Wilder at his most hilarious.  His performance as accountant turned theater producer Leo Bloom is one that displays Wilder at his best.  One of the things that Gene was great at was going from understated to manic so effortlessly.  The bit where he gets hysterical during his first meeting with Max Bialystock (a brilliant Zero Mostel) is easily one of the funniest scenes in any Mel Brooks movie.  It’s the escalation of that scene that makes it iconic, where you just see Gene Wilder get more and more unhinged, even after he has water poured on him and slapped across the face as Max fails to calm Leo down.  Gene Wilder was also a master at a slow burn build-up into a manic state, which he also puts to great use in the movie.  It’s fitting that when Mel Brooks won his Oscar for the Screenplay he wrote for the movie, he gave a special acknowledgement to Gene in his acceptance speech.  He knew how much Mr. Wilder was integral to the level of comedy in that movie.  It even made him stand out against a comedy veteran like Zero Mostel, who is also giving a hilarious iconic performance in the film.  Gene Wilder was an undeniable comedy icon, and you can certainly find his best work in his three collaborations with Mel Brooks.  Each one is special in it’s own right, but it’s in The Producers where you see the actor at the peak of his talent.

1.

JOHN “BLUTO” BLUTARSKY from NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE (1978)

Played by John Belushi

If you were to ask me what I find to be the funniest performance in movie history, the one that never fails to make me laugh every time I watch it, it’s John Belushi’s iconic role as Bluto in Animal House.  This raunchy college set comedy has a lot of things that make it hilarious, but it’s Belushi being completely unleashed in this role that elevates it to the top.  Belushi sadly only ever acted in a handful of movie roles before he dies prematurely from an overdose in 1982.  Some are more iconic than others, especially here and in his big screen debut of The Blues Brothers (1980).  There are so many iconic moments that Belushi is responsible for in this movie.  There’s the food fight scene where Belushi shows off his impression of a zit.  His toga party arrival down a staircase where he breaks apart a guitar on the wall is also another moment that gets a huge laugh.  But it’s also the hilariously idiotic lines that he gets to deliver throughout the movie that also stand out.  His pep talk speech is hilariously dim witted, with him telling his fellow frat brothers “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”  There’s no other character that personifies the chaotic nature of college life better than him, and that makes his performance so brilliantly funny.  It’s not just his knack for hilarious line deliveries or physical comedy either.  Just by giving a look with a raised eyebrow or dead eyed stare he can get a big laugh out of his audience.  It’s easy to see why so many of his peers were jealous of his effortless ability to get a laugh.  He was a true comedy icon and Bluto from Animal House is undeniably where he showed us everything that made him great.  The movie called for a person you could believably see getting a GPA of 0.0 and still be someone charismatic enough to one day get elected to the U.S. Senate.  That’s John Belushi’s undeniable talent as a comedy legend.

So, there you have my choices for the funniest performances in movie history.  It’s pretty evident that tastes in comedy are shaped largely by the time we live in, and a lot of my picks are from movies that I certainly grew up admiring.  Even still, there are a lot of great classic performances in older comedies that are definitely worth spotlighting too, like Jack Lemmon’s cross-dressing turn in Some Like it Hot (1959) or Cary Grant’s rapid fire quips in His Girl Friday (1940).  Some of the best comedic performances can also come from actors you normally don’t associate with comedy, like Barbara Streisand in What’s Up Doc? (1973) or Ryan Gosling in The Nice Guys (2016).  One thing that you’ll probably notice in my top ten picks is the abundance of Saturday Night Live alum, with John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Will Farrell represented.  Even Steve Martin has been such a frequent host of the show that many would’ve mistaken him as a regular cast member.  SNL has been an institutional fixture in comedy over the last 50 years, so it’s only natural that so many of the most iconic comedies of the last couple decades have featured someone from that popular show.  But, there are some classic performances that have made it into my favorites as well.  I’m particularly impressed with George C. Scott’s hilarious turn in Dr. Strangelove, especially considering that he upstaged Peter Sellers.  Even with the top ten choices I made here, there are countless other that were certainly on the periphery of the list that should absolutely be celebrated in their own right.  Eddie Murphy in Coming to America (1988), Mike Myers in Austin Powers (1997), Robin Williams in Aladdin (1992), Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther (1963) and more.  Comedy is genre with so many styles and flavors that offer up so many different ways that can make us laugh.  Comedy is subjective, and different people have their preference, but when a movie comedy is able to make a room full of complete strangers all laugh at the same time, that’s a great sign of how well your comedy can work on a universal level.  And many of the performances I spotlighted here have been responsible for some of the best and biggest laughs that have ever been captured on film.