Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #19 There's Something About Mary
Box Office: $176.5 Million
Oscar Nominations: None
Oscar Wins: None
MovieRankings.Net: 75/100
Available To Stream: Starz
I feel like I've spent a lot of time in these reviews talking about how the mid-budget dramas like Sleepers, Rounders, Ransom or The People Vs. Larry Flynt just wouldn't be made today. So often, it's tentpole big budget action movie or nothing. Horror movies do still get made as well but so many of the kinds of movies that you saw released in the 1990's just wouldn't be made today.
That's especially true with comedies. From 2010 on, it's tough to find a very funny comedy. A lot of that is because we shifted as a culture (for good and for bad) and studios determined it wasn't worth the risk when they could invest in a movie with an established IP that is a better guarantee to make money.
There's Something About Mary cost about $23 million dollars to make. It brought in over $360 million if you count worldwide box office. That's before cable or video rental revenue. It would also never be made today.
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The Judd Apatow comedies like Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up stopped being made and were deemed as "frat boy" movies. I think that's bullshit but that became the narrative. Apatow also seemed to want to focus on other projects and no one picked up the torch. But why can't movies like this or Kingpin or Dumb & Dumber get made? The Farrelly Brothers movies could be kinda gross (I guess?) but they aren't mean spirited. Why can't this be done today? Why isn't it?
This movie is so funny. Ben Stiller is perfect as Ted and you can see why he parlayed that success as a nice, awkward guy in the Meet The Parents movies. Cameron Diaz is so perfect in this and because she's so pretty, it's easy to forget how funny she is. I love that she took risks in a dark comedy like Very Bad Things and then in smaller parts in interesting movies like (#86) Being John Malkovitch and (#98) Any Given Sunday. She got stuck in rom-com after rom-com after around 2005, but she did some really cool stuff before that.
Matt Dillon should have been nominated for an Oscar for his role as Pat Healy. It's such a weird part and just about everything his does in this movie is hysterical. This scene of Mary and Pat talking at the driving range might be the funniest scene in movie history.
There's Something About Mary isn't trying to offend or make a political statement. It just wants to be funny. There is something wonderful about that. It's also something we just don't see as much. Now, everything feels like a teaching moment. It's almost like we have to pay a price for laughing at something. Or it's through a political lens. Something can just be funny.
That went away sometime and I really wish we could get it back. We see it with stand-up comedy. That's become one of your last true art forms because it hasn't been inundated with notes from studios or focus groups. Their only job is to be funny and make you laugh.
I saw There's Something About Mary in the theaters in 1998. I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes. There's been movies since then like Borat or The Hangover or Role Models or Superbad where I was laughing that hard as well. But I haven't done that in a movie theater in 15 years. I'd love to have that feeling again.
I'm starting to doubt that I ever will.
19. There's Something About Mary
20. Sleepers
21. Schindler's List
22. Rushmore
23. Fight Club
24. Saving Private Ryan
25. True Romance
26. Dumb & Dumber
27. Kingpin
28. Donnie Brasco
29. Heat
30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
31. Rounders
32. Unforgiven
33. Trainspotting
34. The Game
35. Out Of Sight
36. Carlito's Way
37. Seven
38. L.A. Confidential
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks