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Fun movies only.
We've been on "Exceptionally original film making" for a while. I think we've tapped the best movies out of it.
I've noticed something. People want to vote for and nominate serious movies. But people want to show up for and watch and come back to fun movies. So let's just make fun manditory.
We might as well make this list large. I'm confident we want to stay on this for a while. Especially hitting the movies we haven't seen in a while would be good. So reach deep into your memory. What movies were just properly fun.
Let's start nominating. Mine will be in the thread. If you are new here and aren't familiar with this, all of the movie nominations will go into a poll and drive what we watch on movie nights, for the next... many moons.
Don't worry about listing something someone else did. I'll de-dupe the list in the end.
As always, we generally meet here: https://player.submatrix.net/r/MatrixHub, on Saturday, every other week.
This sub, /s/MatrixEvents, will keep you up to date.
Here are my nominations:
Beerfest
Forest Gump
Minority Report
Independence Day
Airplane
Naked Gun
Shanghai Noon
Stranger than Fiction
Dumb and Dumber
Anchorman
Hot Rod
The Other Guys
The Rundown
Shanghai Knights
Rush Hour
Rush Hour 2
Pineapple Express
Tropic Thunder
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Last Crusade
Hot Fuzz
Shaun of the Dead
The Nice Guys
European Vacation
Animal House
Caddy Shack
Stripes (1981)
Revenge of the Nerds
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Without a Paddle
Evolution (2001)
Private School (1983)
Blame it on Rio (1984)
Black Sheep (1996)
Black Sheep (2006)
Tommy Boy
Joe Dirt
Ghostbusters II
Zombieland
I think three kinds of films manage to be fun:
That is to say I think the topic is more broad than just comedy by a little bit. For non-comedies it just comes down to how they choose to execute it. 50% of it is pacing. 50% of it is what's emphisized. The thrill of a unique situation, or the unbearable weight of a unique sitation. At the end of the day we just know what is a fun action movie. I think almost the entire 80s is just solid fun.
Agreements with x0x7's list:
Airplane
Naked Gun
Anchorman
Tropic Thunder
Hot Fuzz
Shaun of the Dead
Animal House
Caddy Shack
Stripes
Potential additions:
Dr. Strangelove
Big Lebowski
This Is Spinal Tap
Young Frankenstein
Sideways
Raising Arizona
Idiocracy
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
A Fish Called Wanda
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Team America: World Police
Four Weddings and a Funeral
The Princess Bride
The Philadelphia Story
It Happened One Night
Fargo
Highlighted agreements with Pumpkin:
Dr. Strangelove
Raising Arizona
Those are my easily in my top 5 and I'm shocked I didn't think of them. I got distracted trying to list out Jackie Chans.
I art directed on a few films in Toronto under production designer Harold Thrasher, art director of Raising Arizona.
Ice Pirates
Spies Like Us
Nothing but Trouble
Eurotrip
Exceptionally original movies are far from tapped out.
People voted for pop stuff, rather than exceptional stuff. And people vote who don't show up, arrive late, or only to movies they want to see for whatever reasons. Lastly, if folks haven't seen the movie, they can't know how exceptional it is - plus, everyone has different ideas of what is exceptional and original and worth watching.
A while back I recommended Eddington (2025).
Different movie but a contemporary vibe I recently saw: One Battle After Another (2025)
Fun movies sound fun. You may not have heard of these:
Run Ronnie Run! (2002) 1h26m 6.2 WP on Trailer
The Wrong Guy (1997) 1h32m 6.8 WP [At Topix, we did the credits for this flick.]
Also Fun:
And there are some writers and/or directors that are consistently good.
Folks listed Edgar Wright's Sean Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, but not The World's End (2013) or Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Wes Anderson, who is not related to also great Paul Thomas Anderson.
If you liked Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch there are other similar glam-vibe gangster movies from Guy Ritchie.
Also vintage fun based on classic novels:
Speed
Smiley Face
Strictly Ballroom (1992)
Emma (2020)
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
Knocked Up (2007)
Strictly Ballroom was the first of Baz's Red Curtain Trilogy. Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! were also really fun movies - until they turned tragic.
Like her or not, I still have a soft spot for the 1996 Emma movie with Paltrow (not the 1996 Emma TV movie with Beckinsale).
Also:
They don't make fun movies anymore.
I hear Backrooms (2026) is good, but I know nothing else about it.
I tried watching once, link didn't work. Just fyi