The comedy search continues with "Clue" and "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion"

Yesterday I came back from a pretty incredible vacation where I didn't think about the 2018 Oscar season, work, or even my Best Films Rewatch. I had planned to keep moving forward when I got back and watch "Billy Elliot," before heading out again (Houston, TX...this morning) for work but when I got back to Oxford, I wasn't quite ready to dig back into reality and thought, why not watch the two comedies I mentioned in my previous piece, just to see if they belong on the list.

I started with "Clue," written by John Landis and directed by Jonathan Lynn. Landis is/was a British television director and Landis has done everything from act, produce, direct and a bit or writing.

You more than likely know the board game. Although, if you are of our current youth generation, you may have never even touched a board game, for all I know. The story is this: 6 guests have been invited to a mysterious mansion who meet various staff including the Butler, Wadsworth (played by Tim Curry) only to discover they are all being blackmailed by the surprise 7th guest, Mr. Body.

In a twist of events (although a Red Herring), Mr. Body has brought a briefcase with the game's famous weapons, rope, candlestick, dagger, revolver, lead pipe, wrench...suggesting that if one of them kills Wadsworth, everything will be over.

This is, of course, the first big question...if Mr. Body, didn't know the guests would be there, why would he bring the weapons?! Later on, Wadsworth says the house belongs to a friend of his...which also doesn't quite make sense.

Now...the thing that might be forgotten by today's cult audience for the film is that when it was originally released, theaters were given one of three cuts of the film with different endings. I don't think I'm spoiling things here...but in the first ending our killer is Ms. Scarlett (the divine Lesley Ann Warren), the second, Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan...with her "my this soup's delicious" quirkiness) and finally, in the one that is touted as the real ending on the dvd/blu ray/Netflix release, everyone's guilty...except Mr. Green (Michael McKean). In this one, Wadsworth is actually Mr. Body (making the confusing bits I mentioned earlier make more sense. They are clues!) with each of his staff and the seemingly "uninvited," and eventually murdered, visitors - feeding him information for his blackmailing scheme.

Upon its release, the film didn't receive good reviews, with most of the critics up in arms about the 3 endings gimmick. Which I can certainly understand. When I saw it in the theater, I think Ms Scarlett was my killer. But with all 3 endings, it's perfect. Well...the ending is perfect.

The cast is absolutely flawless. I haven't even mentioned Martin Mull as Col. Mustard, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Christopher Lloyd as Prof. Plum, Colleen Camp as Yvette, or Kellye Nakahara as The Cook. All wonderful! When I was about 15 minutes into the film, I posted on Twitter (the only place for this sort of declaration...although I still wish I could cut that chord!) that the critics were wrong...until I got to the middle of the film.

I think most of you know that I no longer drink, but I think...other than that first viewing when I was a kid, I've always watched the film under the influence. Once we get into the middle act of the film, I more than likely drifted off into conversation...or left to make a drink without really paying attention to what was actually happening. Now that I actually watched it, the middle sucks! From the moment they split off into pairs until they come back for Wadsworth's recap of the events, it drags...terribly, with very little humor.

So..."Clue" isn't going to make the final list either.

Which brought me to "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion." This one is directed by David Mirkin (another television guy...I see a theme here!) and written by Robin Schiff, based on her play. It stars the incomparable Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino as high school besties Michele and Romy.

Unlike "Clue," "Romy and Michele" is really spot on from beginning to end. Everyone is great...and at the hour mark, when you think it's heading one way, you realize (when Cameryn Manheim flots above the moon roof of a nipped/tucked Sandy Frink's (Alan Cumming) limo that something might be amiss. If you're a bit dim about such things, like I was, it takes the vehicles driving out of the reunion space to really grasp that this is probably not real. That along with the hilarious flash forward to our leads...who at this point are 108 years old, still fighting over who is the Mary and who's the Rhoda!

Then we get the real reunion...which is still a bit ridiculous, particularly with an obviously choreographed dance sequence that might have fitted better in Michele's dream.

"Romy and Michele" has a better chance of making my top 10, although "Shag" might actually have a shot as well. Yes...I know I said otherwise just a few days ago, but who knows, y'all?!

I have decided to take off "A Walk to Remember," because there is no way it's making the list. I know that, despite how much I might enjoy it. Maybe we'll do a guilty pleasure list one day. But I am adding Gregg Araki's "Doom Generation."

Tonight I'm hoping to see both "Whitney" and "Won't You Be My Neighbor," so I will more than likely dip my toe into this year's Oscar race...but don't worry. I'll be back to the Best Films Rewatch this upcoming weekend. Also...for some reason I had "Secrets & Lies" being released in 2005, so things are a bit wonky with the order of the list. It's now in its current year of 1996.

Vertigo 1958
Funny Girl - 1968
West Side Story 1961
The Godfather Part II 1972
Empire Strikes Back 1980
Clue - 1985
Shag 1989
Silence of the Lambs 1991
The Crying Game - 1992
Pulp Fiction - 1994
Doom Generation - 1995
Secrets & Lies - 1996Drop Dead Gorgeous 1999
Psycho Beach Party 2000
Billy Elliot 2000
Donnie Darko - 2001
Mulholland Drive - 2001
Lost in Translation - 2003
Mysterious Skin - 2005Romy and Michele's High School Reunion - 2005
Zodiac - 2007
Where the Wild Things Are - 2009
Black Swan - 2010
La La Land - 2016
Call Me By Your Name - 2017