So I love a good bad movie. Tubi recommended a 70s movie “Record City” so I put it on…
”Bizarre and funny employees and customers pass through the popular Record City music store in Los Angeles during a live radio concert in the parking lot, hosted by a wild disc jockey wearing half a monkey costume.”
And I started wondering about this specific kind of "f*** around’ movie?You know, where there’s a loose plot set in basically one location, over a short period of time (a day or a weekend), usually a contest is involved (may or may not be a “save the community center” situation), a lot of weird vignettes, sex, often with a mix of new and old comedians (or at least recognizable elderly celebs). This was a thing especially in the 70s. I have seen the term “Episodic Comedy” used.
”Drive In” “Car Wash” “Skatetown USA”…lots of examples out there.
Then I was trying to think of what the most recent one was… Empire Records is basically that idea. But that’s 25 years old now. Anything newer? Any particularly enjoyable ones?
I’m not sure if you and I are thinking of the same thing, but one film that I kind-of liked, back when I saw it, has similar themes to what you describe. Midnight Madness (1980) involves several groups of college students – the nerds, the militant feminists, the jocks, the cheating jerks, and the Good Kids – competing in a sort of scavenger hunt across Greater L.A. over the course of a night and the next morning. There was, however, no sex and, IIRC, no older comedians. It’s a B-movie at best but it has some cute scenes.
Also, a few trivia points about the movie:
It was the first movie produced by Walt Disney Studios aimed squarely at adults. It’s rated PG, and the “adult” content is limited to some crude-ish (by the standards of the day) sex humor (a woman with huge breasts is the butt of a joke about the double meaning of the word “melons,” for example).
It stars Michael J Fox in his film debut.
It also stars Stephen Furst, who plays somewhat of a villain, in a sort of antithesis to his dumb but good-natured Flounder in Animal House.
The description of this type of film by the OP makes me think of Caddyshack, but that’s another one that’s pretty old now. Without going over to IMDB, I think it was an 80s movie?
The first one that came to mind was “Blue in the Face” a sort of sequel to “Smoke”. Harvey Keitel runs a tobacco store in NY and a series of customers come in and tell their stories. Apparently this was filmed during the shooting of Smoke as in character improv stuff between takes. 1995-ish.
“UHF” with Weird Al? Definitely older than 25 years, but still enjoyable.
Maybe the last great offerings were the movies in the ‘Scary Movie’ (now reached #6) / ‘Disaster Movie’ / ‘Spanish Movie’ etc series of parody films from the 2000s to now.
They are sending up entire genres of film but have a key cast, often with recognised actor cameos, who link together what are otherwise a very loosely-connected series of sketches based on better-known movies, which is what you’re after.
The National Lampoon film series is pretty much the same, but that’s for others to research.
And if Scary Movie can reach its 6th incarnation next year how can you call it a ‘dead genre’? As we know all too well, reaching #6 is almost a guarantee that it will reach # 10 soon enough.
Midnight Madness is REAL close, but I dont think it counts because the scavenger hunt is such a strong plot engine and there’s no real central location.
Caddyshack is pretty close.
Blue in the Face is like a high-end version, I can see that. It fits a lot of it.
Hot Tub Time Machine has too much plot.
The others mentioned are mostly parody movies and don’t fit.
Strangely enough, the movie Love Actually (2003) meets most of these parameters. It’s a bit more sentimental than the older movies of its type, but other than that…
“Freaky Tales” came out last year and seems to fit your description. These are sometimes called “anthology movies”–a collection of stories featuring characters that often meet up in some way by the end.
The Goods takes place at a car dealership, with Jeremy Piven doing his signature schtick and Kathryn Hahn doing hers and various SNL alums and castmembers from The Office putting in appearances while the sales force throws everything it has at the public: give away free hot dogs? Put on a live-music show? How about if a skydiver makes a spectacular entrance? If we claim this is the Trans Am from Smokey And The Bandit, we could showcase the heck out of it…
Nothing really to add, but as I read through your description, the first movie to pop into my head was Car Wash. Glad to see that you beat me to it; as well as Drive-In. Heck, I thought I was the only one who remembered (and quite enjoyed) that movie!
Not sure if this fits, but: wasn’t Grown Ups pretty much just the story of pals from junior high meeting back up years later in their hometown for a weekend of, what, hanging out at the lake house, and reminiscing and joking around with each other, and maybe getting in some drinking while getting in some fishing, and maybe we’ll shoot some hoops tomorrow and maybe we’ll mess around with a bow and arrow like we used to when we were kids?
