Jerry Zucker directs Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Lovitz in this zany comedy where a group of strangers race across country to reach a hidden fortune.

It’s Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World for Generation X. The first act is a dud but it gets better and better. The squirrel lady. The bus full of Lucys. Hitler’s car. The various domino rallies build and build from those small beginnings to genuine massive laughs. Welcome smaller turns from John Cleese, Amy Smart and Smash Mouth. Jon Lovitz’s exclamation of the innocuous line “I don’t want to work in Hooome Deeepot!” is a thing of true cinematic beauty. At times in intended bad taste, other times gloriously orchestrated… this feels very much the lost gem of broad, mainstream Hollywood comedy.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Ruthless People (1986)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Mark Dindal directs Zach Braff, Joan Cusack and Garry Marshall in this Disney animated kids movie about an all-American chicken nobody believes.

Flat and textureless, not a scrap for adults. The Mouse House at its most insular. Stinks of corporate misguidance.

3

Perfect Double Bill: Meet The Robinsons (2007)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

John Fortenberry directs Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan and Molly Shannon in this comedy following two dumb brothers who are into the LA nightclub scene but too obnoxious to realise how unwelcome they are in the clubs they frequent.

Wayne’s World and Tommy Boy have a lot to answer for. This is a one joke movie and British audiences weren’t around when the joke being rehashed had its moment in the zeitgeist. There’s very little to absorb here if you didn’t watch SNL in the Nineties. Molly Shannon is the glimmer of hope and then the story does her dirty and makes her the villain. What are laughs, baby don’t hurt me, baby don’t hurt me… no more.

3

Perfect Double Bill: Superstar (1999)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Uli Edel directs Madonna, Willem Dafoe and Joe Mantegna in this erotic courtroom thriller where a lawyer must defend a sexy lady who is accused of killing a millionaire with her rumpy pumpy.

It seemed every movie Madonna made got a knee jerk kicking. And while there are very few classics, not all of them deserve their instantly stinky reputation. Sharon Stone went through the same critical grinder post-Basic Instinct. And I wouldn’t want to live in a world without Sliver and The Quick And The Dead. Nineties movie reviewers seemed pretty reactionary – female stars who traded in explicit sex acts on screen were met with a predictable, blinkered misogyny. And that brings us to Body Of Evidence. A more cartoonish Basic Instinct that takes the femme fatale mystery in front of a judge, has extreme and sustained simulated sex and looks consistently beautiful. There’s more kink than Verhoeven’s masterwork and far more flesh on show. Madonna is very game in an uninhibited performance. Her noir throwback costuming is on point and when it comes off you’d struggle to say the footage isn’t arousing. Sure, I’ll admit the plot is pulp hokum and the ending has been disappointingly and obviously reshot to conform to conservative Hollywood mores… yet this has a tip top cast, playing a trashy hook straight faced and delivering the sexy goods. Low bar but Body of Evidence actually proves one of the best examples of its short-lived sub-genre and deserves a kinder set of eyes on rediscovery. It delivers.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Who’s That Girl (1987)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

John Bonito directs John Cena, Kelly Carlson and Robert Patrick in this action thriller where a dishonourably discharged marine’s wife is kidnapped (eventually) by an evil gang of crooks on the run.

Dishonourably discharged for being too goddamn All-American heroic, by the way. This is a stinker. Should be a neat little Hard Target rip-off where a lunk rampages in the backwaters but does everything but stick to that brief. The explosions are regular and visually arousing. Robert Patrick plays his villain role like he owns it. That aside The Marine is lowest common denominator slop that can’t even reach its own short bar. Surprised Cena has been starring in product for this long. Better things were to come but he’s no The Rock or Rowdy Piper. This isn’t a vehicle so much as an unassembled kit car.

3

Perfect Double Bill: 12 Rounds (2009)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Michael Hoffman directs Sally Field, Kevin Kline and Elisabeth Shue in this farce comedy where a TV soap opera’s off-camera bed hopping and back stabbing is more turbulent than the zany plots of the show.

I remember renting this VHS from Variety Video as the cast in 1991 absolutely slapped. The movie wastes so much time and energy setting up an ending that felt like a letdown then and plays in awkward bad taste now. There’s so little to like here and you just wish Kline, Goldberg and Downey Jnr had better lines to deliver. The Almodóvar inspired opening credit sequence is the only time your goodwill is recompensed.

3

Perfect Double Bill: I Love You To Death (1990)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Glenn Gordon Caron directs Jennifer Aniston, Jay Mohr and Kevin Bacon in this romantic comedy where an advertising creative uses a photo of a wedding guest to pretend she has a boyfriend.

AI generated feature films existed all the way back in 1997.

5

Perfect Double Bill: The Pallbearer (1996)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Adrian Lyne directs Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña and Danny Aiello in this mind bending classic horror where a Vietnam veteran begins to see flashes of a demonic underworld in the shadows and alleyways of New York.

Full throttle disturbing. If there isn’t an elliptical nightmare shot momentarily glimpsed here that doesn’t chill you to your bone then maybe you are the devil. Elizabeth Peña = hot. A wonderful whispery shouty performance by Danny Aiello. Bonkers conspiracy narrative. Lyne’s masterpiece and up there with Fire Walk With Me and Se7en as one of the most scarring American horror flicks of the Nineties. If only he made another horror?

9

Perfect Double Bill: His House (2020)

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Martin Bourboulon directs Eva Green, François Civil and Vincent Cassel in this second half of this big budget French swashbuckling Dumas adaptation where Cardinal Richelieu’s femme fatale assassin steps out of the shadows.

Any scene with Eva Green’s titular wrong-un buzzes with dangerous eroticism and humanity, there’s a decent assault sequence on a fort and some nice side mission banter between Porthos and Aramis. Compared to the first entry though this does feel a little underwhelming. Probably will work better when watched together with its predecessor over a full day with plenty of time for tea and toilet breaks.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan (2023)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Takashi Yamazaki directs Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe and Yuki Yamada in this prestige period prequel to the long running Japanese kaiju franchise.

Has the tone of a blockbuster of yesteryear. What now seems quite high minded and then had the cut of undeniable quality… yet always accessible. The comparison points from 25 years ago would be Titanic or Saving Private Ryan. Though this is still riveted to fantasy rather than pure historical recreation for entertainment. There’s something very considered and reverent about Minus One. The destructive set pieces shine – especially when Godzilla is hunted like Jaws (another impressive touchstone). I’m going to reveal my own mindless desires and say the actionless middle section did drag on. But in general, more like this, please.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Shin Godzilla (2016)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/