All of the SNL movies suck so terribly, except the Blues Brothers. What was the secret?

[JVS]

How did they make the movie so good? Why did the Blues Brothers' sequel suck so badly? Why do all the other SNL characters turn to total shit on the big screen?

[DerekG]

1. I thought the first Wayne's World was hilarious

n/t

[rbnyc]

2. I don't think Wayne's World sucks...

...can't touch the Blues Brothers. But it stands above all the rest of them.

[JVS]

3. Yeah, you're right. Wayne's world is pretty good. It's not nearly as good as Blues Brothers but...

it is pretty good.

[Initech]

32. Wayne's World! Party time! Excellent!!!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. Christmas Vacation is great. It was full of SNL people.

[JVS]

7. Christmas Vacations sucks ass. Vacation and European Vacation were awesome.

Also, the Griswalds were never SNL characters, which is the defining characteristic of an SNL movie.

It's Pat
The Ladies' Man
Stuart Saves His Family

Those are SNL movies.

Black Sheep
Deuce Bigelow
Happy Gilmore

These are movies that involve people from SNL but are not SNL movies. They may or may not suck.

[REP]

27. Tommy Boy - SNL people, not an SNL movie, and didn't suck

[Manifestor_of_Light]

33. I loved Christmas Vacation. I beg to differ.

When we put up lights we call it doing a Griswold.

[stanwyck]

36. My husband and I have both been in the Christmas bonus

situation before - not knowing how much - or even if - the annual Christmas bonus would appear - and when. Some years - it was a lot of money - and in time for Christmas shopping. And some years it literally showed up as a automatic bank transfer on Christmas Eve. And then a few years ago, it disappeared - without advanced notice. So - that part of the drama really hits home.

[LynneSin]

11. I wouldn't define it as an SNL movie just like I wouldn't define "Animal House" as one

SNL movies are movies based on skits you'd find on SNL. Christmas Vacation, Animal House, Caddyshack - those movies had a slew of SNL cast members in it but they weren't based on any SNL skit.

[JVS]

14. Actually wouldn't being National Lampoon movies preclude both Animal House and Vacation...

movies from being SNL movies?

[LynneSin]

17. That's true too. But I had mentioned Caddyshack and that is not a National Lampoon movie

just a vehicle for some SNL stars.

[hifiguy]

23. But Lampoon alumnus Doug Kenney was one of the writers

of Caddyshack IIRC. There was a lot of interplay between the Lampoon in its glory days and the first incarnation of SNL. A number of future SNLers turned up on the Lampoon LP "Lemmings."

[geardaddy]

20. To be fair, that was a National Lampoon movie.

Along with Animal House.

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. I liked Coneheads. But yes, in comparison to the Blues Brothers, many many films

should not have ever even been made.

[taterguy]

6. Belushi was an exceptional talent and the cast member best suited for movies

There were several other factors:

By design, most SNL sketches are things that are somewhat amusing for a few minutes. The musical nature of the Blues Brothers bit allowed them to expand it.

The studio was willing to spend shitloads of money on it because after Animal House they knew they would make it back.

They had access to a group of great guest stars who needed the money due to the decline of interest in blues and soul music in the early 70s.

[JVS]

8. It still doesn't work on paper.

We have 2 SNL characters, so let's compensate for the fact that such characters wear thin quickly by grafting the story onto a form that has been unpopular for about a decade: the musical. In fact, not just the musical but the musical in the classic format of "a movie about people trying to put on a musical show" (see Bing Crosby in White Christmas for the pinnacle of the genre and a huge portion of the movies made from 1935-1945)

Maybe it's that they added those old forms with smokey and the bandit type driving.

Still a puzzler.

[rug]

9. The music.

Most of the SNL movies are the extended, exaggerated shtick of a slim premise. It becomes hollow, unfunny and unauthentic.

They couldn't do that to the music.

[ElboRuum]

10. Outside of the Blues Brothers and Waynes World...

Most SNL skits don't have the depth for a backstory. The backstory becomes the movie.

Can you imagine a movie made out of the Whiners? How about Operaman? How about Stuart Smalley? Oh wait, you don't have to imagine that last one, we have empirical evidence of its suckage.

[JVS]

13. Stuart Smalley's book was good but the movie failed to do it justice

If you are familiar with Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegone you can get the impression that this is what happened to some of the families when they moved into the city and developed undiagnosed cases of depression. Of course this is Minnesotan/Scandihoovian type humor which Franken understands quite well, but is generally not quite grasped by a) national movie audiences and perhaps more importanly b) Hollywood, who would benefit from understanding what they're dealing with before trying to present it to the general public. Anyway, the backstory worked quite well but it probably should have been directed by the Coen brothers (they an Franken grew up in Minneapolis and would all understand what they're dealing with) instead of Harold Ramis.

[OriginalGeek]

28. No doubt Stuart made for a bad movie

but I would still love to have Al Franken as one of my senators or congressman or even President some day...

[stanwyck]

35. Totally disagree about the Stuart Smalley movie!

Several of my co-workers watched it around the same time after I'd seen it. And we found it so funny we've kept repeating lines over the years. "Daddy shot Donnie" Daddy shot Donnie". And - "I wouldn't normally say this, but do you think you can get yourself to a pound cake?" One co-worker actually had a real life experience with relatives in a fist fight at his grandfather's funeral. And Stuart's sister is so close to my sister - it's scary. And don't forget "That was not a quality ham." OK. OK. It's an acquired taste - but for those of us who like it - we really like it.

[LynneSin]

12. There's one other really great SNL movie, it barely makes the criteria but it is - Bob Roberts

A movie based on an SNL sketch defines a SNL movie.

Tim Robbin's "Bob Roberts" started out as a SNL sketch so technically it is an SNL movie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Saturday_Night_Live_films


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Roberts
The film is Robbins' directorial debut, and is based on a short segment of the same name and featuring the same character that Robbins did for Saturday Night Live on December 13, 1986. This is also the movie debut of Jack Black.

[JVS]

15. Interesting. But as a mocumentary it kind of lacks the "just like you saw on TV" thing that most...

SNL movies have.

[TuxedoKat]

16. Have you seen

Opportunity Knocks with Dana Carvey? It's from the early '90s. I'm not much for comedies, usually they are too formulaic and contrived but that one was well done. There is one scene in there that was so funny and unexpected, I never laughed so hard!

[LynneSin]

18. That's not an SNL movie, just a movie with someone who was in SNL

SNL movies are based on skits from SNL

[TuxedoKat]

19. OK

thanks for setting me straight. Forgot about that distinction.

[applegrove]

21. Mike Myers films were great... until the "love guru".

[JVS]

22. Other than Wayne's World, none of the movies were SNL movies.

Although he came perilously close to making a Sproket's movie. That got preempted by an Austin Powers sequel.

[savalez]

24. Don't forget Tommy Boy!

Farley ruled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMZ6dDgkUmQ

[JVS]

42. Not SNL movie. Tommy was not an SNL character

[Lucian]

25. I couldn't stop laughing through "Happy Gilmore."

[KamaAina]

26. Define "SNL movie".

Most of the non-sucking options here feature SNL alums but are not based on SNL skits. The exception is (the original) "Wayne's World".

[JVS]

29. The thread contains the definition.

[Generic Brad]

30. The Blues Brothers movie was good?

I finally watched it for the first time last weekend. I give it 2 out of 5 stars. Except for the music, I was totally unimpressed.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

31. I liked Superstar

quite a bit.

[ThoughtCriminal]

34. If you limit it to movies based on SNL sketch

"Coneheads" is underrated.

[dbt]

37. Cab Calloway.

End of story.

:smoke:

[jmowreader]

38. The main reason is very simple

SNL has sucked, badly, since the second cast disbanded. The actors haven't been good nor have the sketches, with very, very few exceptions like "Wayne's World."

You can't make a quality movie out of a bad three-minute sketch, and that's what they're trying to do. I mean, come on: It's Pat? A sketch that revolves around trying to figure out what gender Pat is? That's something you do once to wedge between a sauerkraut commercial and the "featured musical guest," not make into either a running series or a feature-length film.

[cemaphonic]

40. The '87-91(ish) cast was pretty awesome too, although the writing wasn't as good.

I think it's that it wasn't really a SNL movie, in the sense that that it wasn't written/produced by the SNL people. Also, instead of having to build a movie around some "wacky" gimmick, The Blues Brothers were just a pair of brothers. Who played the Blues. So you could really build any kind of plot around that.

Throw in some great musical numbers, Belushi's natural talent, and some hilariously over-the-top car chases, and you're golden.

[Recovered Repug]

39. Most of the SNL movies were based on skits that sucked.

Make a movie out of a skit that sucked and you have a movie that sucks. The two exceptions being Wayne's World and Blues Brothers - although I never thought that the Blues Brothers was very funny.

Those 2 movies didn't rely on just one joke. Also, I think that having 2 main characters - with distinctive personalities - helps. The movie then doesn't rely on just one person being funny.

[JVS]

43. So if we use Toonces the driving cat to do a remake of Le Mans it won't be good?

I don't believe you!

[Recovered Repug]

44. How you took what I said and came to that conclusion

is an absolute mystery to me.

[TreasonousBastard]

41. The secret is that "The Blues Brothers" ....

sucked as bad, or worse, than any of them, even "The Coneheads," but everyone was so stoned back then that we never noticed how bad they were.

[WinkyDink]

47. (oops)

[mucifer]

45. It was fun to see Chicago as a main character in a film.

As a Chicagoan I gotta say that is what made the movie for me. There had not been any major films for decades shot in Chicago because the elder mayor Daley was upset about the TV show
"M Sqaud" which was filmed in Chicago having an episode about police bribery. The music was great, too.

[Enthusiast]

46. Would Ghostbusters qualify? nt

[WinkyDink]

48. The exceptional music.

[valerief]

49. I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Ladies Man. But I hate SNL. Too right wing. nt

[PuffedMica]

50. 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan

In describing the car to his brother, Jake, Elwood said, "It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas."

Elwood: It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
Jake: Hit it!

[PuffedMica]

51. they were on a mission from God