These are fun. Off the cuff discussions on movies and streaming series, both new and old together we’ll attempt to bridge the gap between Hollywood industry insider and the casual viewer. This is Alec and I’m Ben and you're listening to the Cinema: A to B podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Cinema A to B. Today's episode, we're going be talking about the 1995 comedy Tommy Boy.
But we want to say thank you to Scott for recommending this or asking us to do this, because it is definitely one of my favorite comedies of all time. I know, Ben, it's up there for you as well. And Scott, I know we've had conversations about it, so let's get to dive right in. And Ben, what are your thoughts? You saw it sooner than I have, so and sooner is probably a stretch, but it's soon enough. Soon enough. And and I seem to watch this at least maybe once over a year and a half.
Although lately, it seems to have gotten less TV play. Yeah, I don't know why. I don't know who the rights holders are. Anyway, I digress. This is my. I'm thinking this is my favorite comedy of the nineties, and it's certainly up there. I've not made a ranking of comedies in a long time, but it's. It's high. This is high. And so this is this is my peak nineties comedy. It sits right in the middle of the decade, which is kind of convenient.
And then I don't think it's really an argument that this is the, the best thing that Chris Farley ever did. Hundred percent. Yeah. And sadly, we just didn't get the man very long here today, gone tomorrow. And but he left us gems like this. Yeah, he did. He. I mean, he really wanted to live Belushi's life, unfortunately, and just kind of mimic so much. And unfortunately, that included leaving us early. So very frustrated, but very sad to lose him because I'm going to be I love this.
This is probably my favorite comedy of all time. Like in, you know, in top ten, if I had to pick or even my top five, if I had to throw on a comedy with my top five, this is probably in it because out of all the movies, I think I quote this movie the most, like it's either the most or it's the next most. Like, I'm always there on stuff and even if nobody knows it, because now a lot of people don't know it.
But, you know, you're like, would you do Richard, you know, or just there's so many great lines in this. And honestly, for comedy, it's also, you know, really well done, really tight, like there's not a whole lot of fat on it and there's not a lot of jokes that either don't land or feel forced.
It just kind of feels like, you know, Chris Farley, David Spade, just, hey, we're going to put you in this situation and the two of you just kind of come up with it and just kind of figure it out as you go along. So it's it's definitely, in my opinion, the best comedy to be produced by Lorne Michaels. So anything that's coming out of SNL, like hands down, I know, like there's there's a bunch of like decent ones that come out. But for me, this is my favorite.
So I think it's the most well-produced and the most that doesn't have just its normal shtick. Like, I love Wayne's World. I do. But yeah, yeah, but this is so unique, right? Because this didn't there's no SNL bit that this is based on its its own thing exclusively. I mean you had sketches where with Spade and Farley a bunch of them, but never playing these two characters.
You? No, there's a lot of little little bits of pieces of other characters they've played on SNL that kind of, you know, became this. But they also, if I remember correctly, they shared an office at SNL because they were still both working SNL. It's like they would have to fly back and forth from shooting this and then, you know, going back to do SNL. So there's a lot of probably in-jokes that they have. They were like, you know, we're just going to have to put this in the movie.
You know, that they had an office that they enjoyed. And I think it really works like they were really smart about it. I just I've got a smile on my face thinking about this movie. It's just so it's so darn effortlessly funny. Even Farley is is kind of in a lot of ways dialed back, especially compared to a movie like Beverly Hills Ninja, which I love to. Yeah, I do.
It's it's nowhere near this, but he's he's trying so much harder with the physical comedy in something like Beverly Hills Ninja versus Tommy Boy. So in a lot of ways he's he's feels he feels a little more dialed in but he's not 100% of the comedy. No. I mean, he's he's most of it But the supporting cast including Spade who is is obviously his perfect counterpoint.
But it does go down through the cast and it's just like one, you know, And yeah, you know, obviously, Dan Aykroyd kind of plays a character he's played before, but it's it's great is Zelinsky. But when you bring Dan Aykroyd and he's not the funniest character or he's not even like supposed to be that funny. I mean, he's funny obviously, but like, you kind of pushed him back like that. I just don't get it. How It can be so good when you don't play your strengths of Dan Aykroyd being Dan Aykroyd.
But I have to say, like I agree with you, Chris Farley, it almost feels like Chris Farley is playing this as straight as he possibly can. Like he's not going to his comedic strengths that he had in SNL. You know, you have, you know, little bits. One is that the fat guy, little coat kind of moments or whatever where he kind of gets that bigger. But overall, it's almost like he's just playing the kind of dumber son of this company, just trying to make it. And he's playing a real person.
We've we've all seen this character before. You see this character at least once a week in your real life, a guarantee that the offspring of some highly successful business owner that's in its works, in the business, that's an absolute moron like we've seen it.
The nice thing is, though, that the redeeming quality is that he, Chris Farley's character, doesn't have an over indulgence of his self-worth, and he just kind of is overall just a nice guy who doesn't think he's better than what he actually has. I mean, like, obviously he misses the movie that I am not my father. Kind of a situation. Like, my father could do this. I can't buy. Right. And so there's a humanity to Tommy, which in real life you don't get that he was coddled.
But he's not he's not particularly spoiled in a lot of ways. Like, yeah, the character is in it. It's real. It's really interesting because yeah, when you see this real person, the people I'm talking about, they're usually pretty spoiled and they kind of know it. And yeah, this characters we've seen pieces of this person, but there is a humanity to him. The other thing is he actually has a legitimate character arc.
Tommy is not the same guy at the end of the movie that he was at the beginning, and it's taken for granted in comedies. And this reminds me, you know, kind of goes back to our discussion about Ferris Bueller's Day Off with Alan Ruck character. Cameron has a really nice arc. Tommy's arc is is just as good. It's different, but it's really, really good how much he changes and evolves and but it's still kind of it still kind of fits the classic Hollywood like, everything's okay.
He saves the business, he gets the girl. So it's it's that old formula that it feels like movies now are just afraid to go back to. Yeah, it's like they're almost afraid to dip back into that. Well, this is a really feel good movie with a lot of great lines and this is my favorite David Spade. I really do like David Spade and how Bitey is. But this is, I think, the best. I mean, I know they tried to recreate it in Black Sheep and it just it felt far more forced than this did.
This really felt like ease of them working together and having kind of work this out and not trying to push in the jokes, just let the jokes kind of happen and it just worked. So Laura actually is hates David Spade, and so she really doesn't like this movie too much. Not so much the movie just she can't stand David Spade. So it's really hard for her to watch this. So even though this is, I think at his least biting the least speediness, you know, of what he's done.
Yeah. The problem is and I've got no problem with somebody not liking David Spade. I mean, I've got my actors that I don't particularly care for, and I'm not a huge fan of his. But the more I've read about him, the, the more kind of an appreciation I have for him, mainly because of all these amazing characters that he wrote on SNL, hoping that he would be the one to deliver them. And unfortunately, they kept going to Dana Carvey, and I can't even imagine how frustrating that had to be.
I mean, the church lady, that's a spade character. And that just was a common kind of shtick. And by the way, there there doesn't seem to be any angst anymore between them because I've seen Carvey on Spade's show recently and they they get along fine. But and it was discussed, but it was ultimately decision made by by Lorne Michaels.
Yeah. So it's it's cool that Spade got a role like this and eventually kind of burst through the glass ceiling I guess with with his filmmaking and kind of achieved a level of success in movies that he never unfortunately, never got on SNL because he never really could get past playing a secondary character on the show. And I have to think with his writing background that I know he's not a credited writer on Tommy Boy, but I'm telling you, there's got to be.
I'm confident that there's entire sequences in here that he he and Kris dreamed up or he himself came up with. And yeah, he's great in this. he's great. Just, just to play that a niner in there. Are you calling from a walkie talkie now? I love this movie like, just thinking about it. I'm just kind of like the same thing. You just smile my face, laughing at all this stuff. And again, but even taking away from the comedy, it's still a story told.
Well, like they don't try to put the story is not secondary. The story is kind of the purpose of it, that they just fit the jokes in and they fit that comedy into it, you know? And it's a mix of physical comedy of obviously David Spade is very kind of more not cerebral is not the right word, but it's all words and not so much that physicality that Chris Farley has. But I mean, they just do, you know, like the opening sequence of remember, it's like him as a kid.
And then but then he runs through the the back, the trees or whatever, and then gets chased by the dog and misses the bus. And like the the you know, of course David Spade, you know, alter eat not alter ego but his young self drives by it again you know and then it's the the bus and the smoke and then it transitions to him in college missing the bus to take his exam and like that is a great transition like the show this character is this way as a child he's still this way in college.
They kind of automatically, you know, connects us to this person. I'm like, okay, I can see the background of why he is who he is, right? So like, let's let's break this down because if if somebody is listening and thinking to themselves, why, why can't more comedies be this good? Well, let's let's do a breakdown. Because, hey, the script is really good. Like, really good. And there's there's good structure here as far as a beginning, a good defined beginning, middle and an end.
The hero's journey is totally at play here because he does have like, the refusal of the call, even when his dad, Big Tom, dies. And yeah, he's going to have you know, he initially kind of rejects that. And so the script's good. There's plenty of places for them to improvise, which I think is key. When you make a comedy like don't don't put every single joke, have it scripted, like, why? Why are you hiding hiring good comedic actors if you're just going to make them read verbatim
script jokes? That's that's a silly. And I'm confident that that wasn't the case here. And then every other technical detail in this movie, it's shot well the edit, the edit is hella good. Yeah. You know why? Because you don't notice it. You don't watch this and go, the editing was tremendous. But I'm telling you, as it as somebody edits every day or just about every day, the editing in this movie is really, really good. Yeah, really good. Well, it's the same thing.
Like you go to a concert, you listen to, you know, a band. The only time you think about the sound guy is when things get messed up. You know, you don't walk away from the concert and going, Wow, the sound guy just did. Amazing job. You go. The band sounded really good, but a lot of that is the sound guy. Like in this case. A lot of it is the editing. But it you don't think about that. You're like, the story was good. You know, it was shot really well, all that stuff.
But you don't think, hey, the editor just nailed it out of the park. Editing comedy is kind of difficult because you have to you have to paste the jokes properly, but then you have to create that natural breathing room for the audience to actually laugh before you hit them with another joke. And that's easier said than done on like how long that should be and how to kind of manipulate that in the course of the movie. And this this movie does that great.
You're not you're not laughing over the next joke or lack of the next gag or even expository stuff that's going to move the story along. They they give you that kind of space a laugh. And maybe I do miss the next line, but the next line is not that important, you know? So it's more along the lines of it does you know, obviously it does move the story. It is important, but it's not you're not missing anything major. You can still see the movie and still get it.
Without that, the antagonists are really, really good in this movie, too. Yeah. I mean, I think Bo Derek's kind of underrated in the in the role and but Rob Lowe, the thing is, I didn't really I had a good understanding of like how talented Rob Lowe really is until I was much, much older. He was just always the the jerk in these these SNL movies. I mean, he's in he's Benjamin in Wayne's World, and then he's the quote unquote stepson in this. But he's so good. He is. He's so good.
These shoes are worth more in your life. Yeah. You're eating chips as a kid. Yeah, y he he's a a very integral part of of this ensemble. And supposedly he was asked by Lorne Michaels to do this. Like, Lorne was just like, he wasn't going to do this movie because he just done Wayne's World and he was still, I think, still doing SNL at the time, too. But Lorne was just like, Yeah, you should die. You need to do this. I thought, you know, we're doing this movie.
You need to fly out and he was like, All right, Lorne, I'm going to do this. Yeah, The only other one that jumps out, well, there's two people I want to talk speak to briefly. Brian Dennehy's is just a good actor. And there is I don't know who it was. It wasn't you, but somebody I knew had just convinced themselves that, like Brian Dennehy died in, like, I don't know, 20 or something. Like there were just constant conversations about who Daniel he's he's dead. It it was like we know it.
He and he did pass away. Yeah, just three years ago. But I was there was kind of a running joke and I'm trying to remember who this was in my life at that time. I was just convinced that the Brian Dennehy was like, not with us. The thought of me because I had this was John Rhys-Davies from this I for some reason I thought John Rhys-Davies was dead, completely dead, like AP film Lord of the Rings. He passed and still not believing that he was alive. Then Mandela, in fact.
Yeah, yeah. And he's still he's still okay. So yeah, like he's still alive. But yet for some reason in my head, he died. He's dead. John Rhys-Davies I'm sorry, John. Yeah, sorry, sorry. No one's thinking about some of the other cast members. This Julie Warner that plays Michelle, that plays kind of his love interest, that works at the auto parts store. I was really I really liked her.
And she's not had a bad career, but I was thinking to myself, I was like, she she was almost born too early because when this was made, you know, she was in a few films and then kind of was relegated to television. And I was thinking to myself, you know, what? If she was coming up now, she'd have gotten her limelight with like two or three movies, and then she would have been able to continue having a nice career starring in things on like Netflix in the streaming series.
And I was just thinking about this is such a different era where it's like either movies or like just network TV or kind of bottom of the barrel TV. The the streaming stuff has opened up such a huge opportunity for for actors that just didn't exist in 1995.
And she feels like one that would have been able to carve out a little bit different career path, had something like a Netflix been around, you know Yeah because she's just not he's she's not been in like a ton of stuff since like she was in was in Hollywood and and Tommy Boy But after that it's like it's mostly, you know it's mostly television. Yeah. It's just different era. Different era. Much tougher, I think. Much tougher era of as an actor in a lot of ways.
Just not, you know, not not that more movies are made now, but I'm guessing you do have more opportunities because of the streaming services when not everything has to make a ton of money on the big screen. And this was an era where like, you do comedy, this is all you do is comedy. And that's a lot that's less true. Now you've you've had more and more actors be able to cross over. I mean, people quickly forget that Tom Hanks started his career as purely a comedic actor. Yeah, The Bosom Buddies.
Yeah. yeah, Yeah. Splash and Turner and Hooch. Yeah. It's like he he was he was purely comedy and was one of the few that was able to bust through. That doesn't happen for a lot of folks. But you know anyways back on topic with with Tommy Boy. Yeah it just kills me that two, three, two years after this Chris is gone. Yeah, it's like his, his filmography is tiny and it, it and he still feels larger than life. Like it's just jump on IMDB. His time is just short. It's just not that many movies.
And I don't know. I mean, I think it's a generational thing. I think now, you know, more and more kids are coming up that they probably haven't seen some of his stuff. Yeah, he doesn't have that draw. I mean, they may have seen the the motivational speaker, you know, one where like you look, you know, in a van down by the river. Yeah. YouTube will keep him alive to a certain extent. Just the the back catalog.
But I know we've got some younger listeners that were frankly born like in the year or two after he passed. Yeah. And I and a lot of them I think have seen Tommy Boy and hopefully like Beverly Hills Ninja but if they haven't you know you got to watch these and it's not that many movies it's not we're not we're not telling you to watch a guy's filmography that's like 50 films. Like he basically from is basically just like a two or three year window in the nineties.
And then, yeah, what I mentioned to you off air a couple months back was how much he had recorded of Shrek before. They like 80, 80, 85% of the of the Shrek voice work was already in the can before he died. And it was going to be really different. It was no Scottish accent much more heartfelt. You can find it on YouTube. You can pull up Chris Farley scene. It's like a sketchy animatic.
Shrek was drawn differently tailored to him, and it was a scene with him and Eddie Murphy, and it's a much more in some ways is a little more heartfelt. Performance on Shrek is a little more of a little darker character He but what could have been I mean, it's kind of wild. So yeah, they had to redo all of that when he when he passed away. This is his crowning achievement. And frankly, it's a crowning achievement in in comedy. So well-made.
It's so and again, it's just a good story to begin with. It's not like I love, you know, airplane and, you know, movies like that, you know, really laugh. But Airplane is just one little joke after another where this is, like you said, it's the hero's journey. It's still still a good story. You have you know, those characters change. You have those characters learn things and become better and work together. And then it's still absolutely hilarious.
And I do have to I do have to wonder, you know, you and I think this is hilarious. And obviously watch it. I'm pretty sure that it's still going to translate like there's not a whole lot of jokes in here that are probably from the time I think that it still kind of works. It's all very relatable, still comedically. It doesn't feel too far removed from from what's worked over the last 20 years. And this this movie, frankly, is crazy. This movie is coming up on 30 years. Yeah.
You know, in two years time, it's going to be we're going to be talking about 30th anniversary rerelease probably of Tommy Boy. But watching a movie like this reminds me that just comedy feels like such an abandoned genre by Hollywood right now. Like kids because they don't feel confident that they can get butts in seats into theaters just purely on comedy. The gamble is walls Up. We'll have a bunch of jokes in Guardians of the Galaxy, and it's more comedic, but it's big.
It's expensive, big action sequences. These movies, if they're getting made, they're they're not getting big theatrical releases if they're if at all. If at all. Yeah. And so comedic, I think comedic writers are really much more relegated to a to the streaming stuff and and maybe some still some network television. Yeah Well and just comedy feature films I think are not that a lot of rounds like it usually if is going to be comedy it's going to be a television show or streaming series.
Yeah, that, you know, you can do six, eight, ten episodes of and then move on. You know, it's you're not going to have that nine minute, you know, not only 2 hours, but 90 minutes of of a comedy that doesn't have something else. Like I'm trying to think back of streaming movies that have been really comedic. You know, I'm thinking of some of like Ryan Reynolds stuff that has come out on Netflix. But again, those are, you know, sci fi related or isolated or like Deadpool. Yeah, yeah.
So it's it's comedic, but that's not really what it is. Like it's a superhero movie or it is a heist movie that has comedy in it because of the people you have. But it's not just a straight. Yeah, that's a lot of cross. Cross genre stuff is what is where you see comedy now. You don't see it in its pure form in a movie like this, at least I haven't very recently.
I'm trying to, trying to think of and one of the last ones, I mean, you know, you're going to go back to like eight or nine for something like Tropic Thunder and it's even kind of masked as a sort of a quasi action piece to. So yeah, they've kind of figured out they've got to package these things a little bit differently, which is kind of unfortunate to me. I like these more grounded. Grounded.
You know, there's not there's really not anything in this movie that's that's like unbelievable, by the way, that the deer shot took like weeks to get right, apparently, or something. I don't know what that is, but it was a long like it was multiple days, if not multiple weeks to actually get that right. And it was I mean, I'm glad they did because it's comedy gold. It's fantastic. But, you know, it makes me think genre wise, this has got to be one of the best road trip movies ever made.
This along with the original National Lampoon vacation movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's another one that you don't get very many of anymore. They seem to come in spurts. The the road trip film and road trip films are typically like cheaper to make. And again, like you said, it's shot really well, edited really well. I mean, and by that I mean you don't really think about it.
You're not getting these beautiful, amazing shots like you would from some of these sci fi movies that are out there or some of these, you know, Marvel films. You're like, my goodness, it's a gorgeous shot. But again, it's you're not going, that's kind of crappy. You know, they shot on location a bunch. You know, you had you didn't have that many probably soundstage shots. So when they're calling on those mechanics and stuff, those those all feel legit.
And yeah, they shot on location in Sandusky, Ohio and then they shot up in Canada. Ontario, Canada. Yeah, that's crazy. They shot from September 12th to December 9th, 1994. What the count. Yeah. Which for comedy. That's a pretty decent amount of time, actually. But it's cool They shot on Sandusky on the go bucks by the way and I just we just lost like the one person listening from Michigan but you know it does it feels authentic. It doesn't feel like a studio set. Picture. Yeah. Picture at all.
Kind of like, yeah, it's 1995. It's shot on 35 millimeter film. It's beautiful. It looks the way a movie should. So are we are we effectively saying that comedies peaked in the nineties? I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. I mean, you've got obviously you got some stuff, but I think it changed obviously how we view movies has changed. What we expect from comedies have changed, but the world also drastically changed in the 2000.
So, you know, things got darker or things got I need more than just this, you know, quote unquote popcorn flick. I need something. It's on into 2001. Yeah, 2001 pivoted. The world got a whole lot more serious. And I think we've been kind of reeling ever since. I'm trying to, man, I tell you, I think this. I think we'd be a lot better off if we could just get a little less serious now and again. But I'm not going to kind of preach on that.
I do love that the director of this and we were talking about this before he started recording Seagull. Peter Segal I do love that he directed Naked Gun three in the third link. He just and it's funny because it was the year year before and comedically there's there's not a ton in common but it helps to just know what makes people laugh like what What makes a good laugh and yeah, Naked Gun, I love those movies, but yeah, those are what you refer to.
That's, that's just joke on joke on joke on joke with a little bit of story to kind of keep things moving. Very little paper thin plot to keep things kind of churning forward. But those movies know what they are. And I miss I miss those movies, too. Yeah. Airplane Naked Gun, like where, you know, I wish I wish those would make a comeback, too. Yeah. But first, I'd love to see something like Tommy Boy so racking my brain.
The only ones I can kind of think that would be as close to a regular comedy is something like Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead. Where? Yes, Yes. But again, they kind of trap themselves in other things to kind of get the comedy around. But it's the closest thing to, I guess, Tommy Boy that I can really think of. And in this regard. So but again, it's a little bit more of a top of the story over top with what we're at.
It's bigger than than just hey, I'm saving my dad's, you know, break a company or muffler company, my friend when it was his Breaking Bad breaks. Yeah. Yeah. I still laugh at that. Roger Ebert hated this movie. So that's that. I mean, not that I care, but, you know, no offense or honor, but, you know, but it did get panned, even though it's my favorite. People just talk themselves into and in needing to have some sort of elitist mentality to judge comedy.
Like it just feels like that genre is just never appreciated. No. And okay. And it's I can't keep going. You know, I think I think you can pick up exactly what I'm what I'm throwing down here. And as an actor, I can tell you, comedy is so much harder than drama, but yet we always give best actor to someone who did drama and a, you could talk to other actors. Maybe they feel differently, but the actors I've talked to comedy, especially like broad based comedy of what?
Like Tommy Boy is really where you can get a whole host of people laughing is so difficult to the timing, the pacing, like all that stuff is so much more work than just feeling sad or being teased. Obviously that does take work like that is still you know, we talked like, I think do you know, last week or whatever the last time we talked about doing like do that energy out of kind of that scream, that fight this fight.
Scenes of like that takes a lot of energy, too, but it takes a lot of kind of creativity and ability to kind of control yourself, to not rush jokes or not to force jokes and just kind of let them come. And honestly, I it it makes me upset every single time that there's not a comedy actor, you know, voted best actor. No, get the Academy Award. Never was the Golden Globes that had them separated, right? Yeah. Which then then now that now the Globes are a mess because of the. Yeah. Foreign press.
So yeah so the way that all blew up maybe they Yeah maybe they need to add another category at some point. I mean I could see it separated but I'd also like it's still it's still acting, you know why, why do we have this idea that dramatic acting is so much better and so much harder and are the ones get I mean, yeah, it's a serious topic. You know, at times it makes us think and this makes us laugh, which automatically kind of makes us push it away.
But it takes just as much work, if not even even more work to do comedy than it does to do drama. But I digress. That's yeah, my thoughts on it. No, I, I completely agree. It's a much harder to write comedy. It's harder to write. It's underappreciated. I mean, this is one of the best comedies that I've ever seen. And it's it's only like a 7.1 on IMDB. And a lot of that is we have we all have such different ideas and tastes sometimes with what is funny and what is not. But this is a funny movie.
I mean, this is a real this is one of the funniest movies that you're likely to see. And I think we can wrap this up. Yeah, I appreciate everybody. Catchiness. As we discussed, Tommy Boy revisited revisit thanks again to Scott for for the recommendation Yeah yeah yeah. If you want us to talk about a movie that you love, go ahead and recommend it. Well we take and recommendations always. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
And especially if it's movies we haven't seen before, you know, And you can, you can kind of follow the podcast what's going the goings ons on Facebook, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Yeah. And we will catch you on another episode of Cinema: A to B. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks everybody.