Made on budgets that doubled release on release ($16.5million, $33million and $63million respectively), and directed by Jay Roach (Meet the Parents; Trumbo; Bombshell), the Austin Powers films may have aged somewhat in the 25 years since the release of the first film (International Man of Mystery) in terms of comedic style and representation, but what remains of the movies beyond such cultural touchstones of controversial 90s culture are intelligent comedy hits that are as quotable and worthy of reference as the great films they are themselves referencing.

Inspired by Michael Caine’s The Ipcress File (1965) character Harry Palmer, right down to the iconic glasses, and obviously deconstructing the Sean Connery James Bond films, Austin Powers is a parody that lovingly pokes fun at the silver screen classics it’s mimicking, always has time for supporting characters to get their moments, and feels as on the pulse as great zeitgeist-penetrating hits whilst remaining timeless in its physical comedy and strong undercurrent of empathy and love.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are looking back on Jay Roach and Mike Myers’ Peter Sellers-inspired hit comedy trilogy to judge each in terms of laugh-out-loud comedy, cultural importance, artistic merit and relative achievements in bringing joy to each of us, for this: the Austin Powers Movies Ranked.

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3. Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

Austin Powers goes full meta with the inclusion of A-List cameos for an in-universe Powers movie titled Austinpussy. Meanwhile, Beyoncé ribs on blaxploitation heroines as this movie’s sidekick and Michael Caine debuts as Austin’s father (or “fazher” as titular character Goldmember would pronounce it).

Michael Myers’ favourite Austin Powers movie brings an even stronger focus towards parodying film tropes and in doing so loses some of the heart that proves to be such an important and underrated aspect of the first two trilogy entries.

Whilst certainly the most modern of the Powers films, not only in terms of release date but also in style – it featuring more memorable moments and quotable lines than meaningful characterisation or decisive story beats – Goldmember sits at the foot of this list because the real grit and artistry that tied the comedy together in films one and two is sorely lacking from this more vignette-style entry.

The budget was upped, the influence of Myers had grown as his independent comedy hero had become a mainstream icon, and the result was a less focused “play the hits” barrage of Powersisms; a funny movie for sure, but one without the same empathy or consistent belly laughs.

In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we’re looking at why this early 2000s film has held up for younger viewers, in this: 5 Reasons Elf Is a Gen Z Christmas Classic.

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1. Elf’s Use of Absurd Humor

Popular memes often dabble in some form of absurdist humor, which makes Elf’s use of it more relevant than outdated for a movie that is almost 20 years old. From the claymation animals to Buddy’s first experiences of New York, Elf illustrates the absurdity of the mundane.

On his trek from the North Pole to New York, Buddy encounters a raccoon, which he assumes will be as friendly as the claymation Arctic animals he’s used to. He is instead attacked by it. When he sees a diner with a sign that reads “World’s Best Cup of Coffee,” Buddy doesn’t hesitate to run in and enthusiastically congratulate them for the honor, to the bewilderment of customers and staff. 

From the spaghetti with maple syrup scene to Buddy’s getting drunk and breakdancing in the Empire State Building mail room, Elf is full of absurd moments that make for a hilarious and memorable movie.

2. Elf’s Quotability

In the era of TikTok “acting” and viral fancams of memorable scenes from films and TV shows, quotability is king. In my own town, a local boutique has a sign out front which reads “Six inch ribbon curls, honey. Six. Inches.”

While some films can fall victim to sacrificing plot for quotability, Elf’s plot is instead carried along by quotes like “You smell like beef and cheese. You don’t smell like Santa.” In the aforementioned case, the quote prompts Buddy to rip the fake beard from a mall Santa’s face and proceed to get into a fight with the imposter. This incident gets Buddy “fired” from his job at Gimbels, but drives him to seek out his younger half-brother, Michael (Daniel Tay), who ends up being one of Buddy’s biggest advocates through the film, especially to their dad Walter (James Caan) and Jovie. 

Recommended for you: 10 Best Home Alone Moments

Elf (2003)
Director: Jon Favreau
Screenwriter: David Berenbaum
Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Zooey Deschanel, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen

Heart-warming, joyful and kind, Elf has become a timeless Christmas classic. The premise of a fully grown man dressed as an elf wandering around New York City in search of his birth father is one that could have made for a grotesque film, and yet thanks to the shared vision and unbridled devotion of its creators, this 2003 film remains as identifiable and rewatchable as ever. 

Written by David Berenbaum and directed by Jon Favreau, Elf earned $223.3million from a $33million budget, making it a certifiable box office hit. It is now considered one of the best Christmas films ever made. There are several reasons for this.

First and foremost, its star… 

Buddy was Will Ferrell’s breakout role and remains one of his most iconic performances. This was a star-making turn and led to Ferrell going from being an SNL cast member to one of the most beloved comedy actors in Hollywood. Vitally, to both Ferrell and 21st century comedy, Buddy has proven to be an outstanding and lasting protagonist. 

Without any context regarding his comedy background, Will Ferrell could easily look like any businessman. He looks average in the best way possible, and at first glance is the last person who would seem suited to playing an elf. And this makes sense: the whole point of the film, and his character’s reason for travelling to NYC, is that he doesn’t fit in with other elves and wants to find his biological family. Even when he loses the costume, Buddy the elf never disappears – he shines brightly against deeply cynical backgrounds such as grimy cafes and depressing offices. Ferrell never falters, he is equally as entertaining in a suit as he is in an elf costume.

Elf is, at its heart, about rediscovering your inner child to find happiness, and this starts with Will Ferrell treating New York like his own personal playground. From interacting with clueless people in the street (yes, the guy in the white beard and red track suit Buddy refers to as Santa was not an actor), to playing with a revolving door until he throws up, Buddy’s energy is immediately contagious.

While Will Ferrell’s star power makes the film, Jon Favreau’s visionary direction is responsible for the film’s timeless quality. Favreau had the hindsight to avoid relying on computer effects, instead employing the use of forced perspective to make Buddy appear bigger than the rest of the elves for each scene set in the North Pole. While CGI continuously improves and gets more realistic, to the point that films that are only five years old already look dated, forced perspective will always remain effective – practical effects that tricked the eye almost twenty years ago cannot age. The strength of this vision and effectiveness of this technique is even more impressive considering that this is Favreau’s sophomore film as a director (following Made). To this day, Jon Favreau’s talents as a filmmaker continue to shape the history of blockbuster cinema, with 2008’s Iron Man launching the MCU, a multi-billion-dollar franchise, and his recent work on Disney live-action remakes altering big studio release slates forever.

From costumes to set design, Elf is instantly recognisable. Favreau and Berenbaum both cite Rankin/Bass’ animated specials as a leading influence: while the writer was inspired by the animation’s innocence in his childhood, the director decided that this would also influence the look of the film. The most obvious influence comes in Elf’s stop motion animation scenes, each of which serve a vital purpose regarding Buddy’s characterisation, setting the tone for him being a memorable, charming and unusual protagonist. Leading strongly with this influence also smartly taps into the nostalgia of older audience members. Films are, after all, a communal art. Whenever a film can play on the nostalgia of a generation while being creative, it yields great results.

The heart of this film lies beyond the quality of its lead performance and the creativity of those behind the scenes however, instead settling squarely on the father and son journey – one inspired by Berenbaum’s own grief. In Elf as in life, the idea of a parent rejecting a child is a powerful one, especially when facing a character as innocent as Buddy. Yet Buddy is not jaded by the rejection of his father; he embraces him and continues to love him unconditionally throughout the film. While this, of course, leads to some hilarious scenes, it also causes heart-breaking confrontations. Much of the effectiveness of this narrative strand comes from actor James Caan, best known for his role as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, who plays to his strengths by offering a jaded and importantly intimidating presence. He is both a stand-in for the more cynical members of the audience and a noteworthy oppositional force for Buddy to bounce off. As a result of this passion, talented writing and overall quality of performance, Buddy’s father’s final acceptance of his son remains stirring to this day.

The supporting roles were also impeccably cast. Zooey Deschanel is able to strike a chord as a disenchanted worker who slowly rediscovers the magic of Christmas, while Bob Newhart brings his trademark dry humour to the character Papa Elf, balancing Buddy’s instincts as his level-headed father figure. Perhaps most crucially Ed Asner, who played Santa Claus a total of eight times in his career, is a wonderfully comforting presence in the film, radiating the same warmth we all expect of a globe-trotting gift giver.

Thanks to the shared vision of its creators and a star-making lead performance, Elf is a modern classic. Against many a stumbling block in the creative process, this strange premise for a Christmas story has ultimately made for one of the most perfect examples of a timeless Christmas favourite.

24/24

Written by Elisabetta Pulcini

You can support the author of this article, Elisabetta Pulcini, by following them and visiting their website:

Twitter – @ElisabettaPul
Website – elisabettapulcini

In this edition of Ranked, we’re going to spotlight his work behind the camera, delving deep into his repertoire as a filmmaker to judge which of his six feature releases are the worst and which, of course, are the best, all the while acknowledging how “there’s way more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking”.

Let us know your order in the comments, and be sure to follow us on Twitter. 

6. Zoolander 2 (2016)

Fifteen years too late and lacking in inspiration or even a reason for being, Zoolander 2 felt like Ben Stiller being contractually forced to resurrect a much beloved IP for the good of a studio’s profit margins, and it told – the screenwriter, director, producer and star couldn’t even be bothered to maintain his iconic Derek Zoolander voice half the time.

The opening moments of Zoolander 2 act as a warning shot, the overly long prologue writing an entirely new movie in of itself to flesh out the reasons why half of the beloved cast won’t be returning, Stiller creating reasons for the character to dive back into the world of super model espionage that are more wafer thin than the reasons Stiller himself found for returning to the project at all – and not in an intelligent fourth-wall breaking way, but through such uninspired means that the lack of creativity simply radiates from each scene.

With much less super-modeling and a new specificity to parodying Daniel Craig era James Bond and recent Mission: Impossible movies, Zoolander 2 felt like a below average action-comedy of the Men in Black: International variety, only with less aliens and more cameos. The aesthetics were bland, the script so generic that the film could have been about anybody, the dialogue utterly trash (in stark contrast to the original), and the cameos felt forced and opportunistic rather than a part of the fabric of what Stiller was trying to say.

While the first Zoolander was sharp as a tack with regard to its parody of super model culture and wider consumerism, and was genuinely offering something worthwhile as both a throwaway comedy and something distinctly more intellectual, Zoolander 2 only earned meaning through its relation to those wonderful aspects of the first movie and was, overall, absolute garbage; by far the worst film of Stiller’s directorial career.

Variety have today (7th March) reported that Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin will direct the film that will be produced by Ferrell alongside Gary Sanchez Productions partners Jessica Elbaum and Chris Henchy. Oscar nominated director Adam McKay, hot off his critical success with Vice, will act as an executive producer on the project.

Ferrell will also co-write the picture with regular ‘Funny Or Die’ scribe Andrew Steele.

Though details are currently scarce as regards content or a release date, the movie currently titled Eurovision has a rich history of elaborate characters, cheesy events, international glitz and memorable songs to mine for nuggets of comedy, The Eurovision Song Contest being one of the longest running annually televised events in Europe.

Star, producer and writer Ferrell has a long-standing working relationship with recently hired director Dobkin, the pair working on Wedding Crashers together back in 2005. Dobkin has also worked alongside distributors Netflix on a number of projects including ‘Iron Fist’. Rumours persist that Dobkin could also helm a long gestating Wedding Crashers sequel, though details have yet to be confirmed.

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Aided heavily by the release of a new Disney animated short about Frozen favourite Olaf, the re-release of Frozen has surpassed £1million this week, placing its overall earnings, across its 3 year stint, at around £43million. While it does look set to be for only one week, its presence in the chart is indicative of the cult phenomenon the film has become and may, along with the success of Paddington 2, indicate a desire from audiences to experience more wholesome, family fun during the holiday period. It seems, then, that Disney’s somewhat controversial choice to delay the release of Coco – a record setting film in Mexico and the winner of this past weekend’s Thanksgiving weekend box office in the United States – which has been paired with the Frozen short in those regions, may have been a good one, with the reemergence of Frozen likely to be act 1 in a 2 act money-making story from Disney’s animated realm.

Debuting at the top of the chart and placing itself in contention for a strong run in the UK given the coming weeks’ lack of big releases is Daddy’s Home 2, which seems to have capitalised on the coming Christmas fever and some good will from fans of the original to sledge its way to a £4,919,051 opening, some £3.3million higher than the original’s debut in 2015.

The movie, which stars a slew of household names including stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg was, however, pushed heavily by previews that equated to just over half of its weekend earnings and ultimately gave the film a 5-day opening total as opposed to a traditional 3-day (Friday to Sunday) total. If we were to take Daddy’s Home 2 on the basis that it only ran Friday to Sunday, the film would be sitting at no. 3 in the chart behind Paddington 2 and Justice League at £2.3million.

As regards the hugely controversial Justice League, there was an expectation that the picture would fall below Paddington 2 for this past weekend and that has come to pass. The superhero franchise film, with the financial mite of Warner Bros behind it, seems to have suffered from a mix of bad timing – being released between Thor: Ragnarok (still in cinemas) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (set for cinemas December 14th) – as well as general audience dismay at the direction of the universe, making for a poor financial return that may see the production actually lose money once outside factors, including fees to advertise the film, are factored in. The picture made £2,990,473 at the UK box office this weekend, bumping its total up to £12,917,287 ($17,251,036) in the region so far, but with an estimated total cost of $480million to cover, and subsidiaries for multiple parties expected to be paid, seeing Justice League teeter at the $480million mark as regards worldwide takings and therefore covering only its cost to this date, means that this superhero team-up may be the first major studio superhero failure since Green Lantern in 2011.

In stark contrast, the Studiocanal distributed British independent Paddington 2 has been outperforming every expectation thus far, holding onto its audiences with a bear-like grip [pun intended] throughout its 3 week run, hitting £4,545,218 in weekend no.3, a figure higher than many top earning superhero movies tend to earn in weekend no. 2 of their runs – Thor: Ragnarok was £4.5million for its 2nd week and£3.1million for its 3rd week, for example, and that picture looks set to be a top 5 film of the year once all is said and done. Somewhat incredibly, Paddington 2 is all but guaranteed to out-gross Justice League and may, given the current trends towards both films, actually reach double the box office takings than its much more expensive competition. Surely it too cannot penetrate the top 5 for the year? Well, it’s £8million off, but we do have some quiet weeks ahead…

Here are the actuals for the entire top 15:

1. Daddy’s Home 2 – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £4,919,051 – total: £4,919,051
2. Paddington 2 – 3 – £4,545,218 – £22,990,836
3. Justice League – 2 – £2,990,473 – £12,917,287
4. Murder on the Orient Express – 4 – £1,373,756 – £20,442,641
5. Frozen – 156 – £1,115,689 – £42,996,289
6. Thor: Ragnarok – 5 – £596,034 – £29,306,199
7. Battle of the Sexes – 1 – £552,521 – £552,521
8. A Bad Moms Christmas – 4 – £398,450 – £6,756,130
9. Listy do M. 3 – 1 – £397,737 – £397,737
10. Suburbicon – 1 – £231,412 – £231,412
11. The Star – 1 – £204,497 – £204,497
12. Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool – 2 – £108,411 – £585,204
13. The Death of Stalin – 6 – £74,659 – £4,736,799
14. The Florida Project – 3 – £64,196 – £605,735
15. Blade Runner 2049 – 8 – £51,451 – £18,918,361

Debuting at number 9, Listy do M. 3 is significant as it seems to have further established the power of the Polish-speaking communities in the United Kingdom as regards the current box office landscape.

Following in the footsteps of the unbridled success of Polish-produced Botoks in mid-October, which made £792,957 in its opening weekend and even broke into the chart’s top 5, the third instalment of the country’s star-studded Christmas film series Listy do M has outperformed George Clooney’s Suburbicon – starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore – which debuted some £146,000 lower than the Polish language film, and seems to have solidified the picture’s success. Listy do M, much like Botoks, will therefore likely be considered as an important release for Polish language cinema in the UK moving forward as it could prove to be one of the catalysts for an influx of distributors to the country, each investing in the film industry and looking to sell the products to the UK market.

The seasonal Polish film was only the 2nd highest debuting picture of the weekend however, with the star-studded Battle of the Sexes hitting £552,521 and sitting in 7th. The film, which features 2017 Oscar winner Emma Stone and comedy powerhouse Steve Carell in the lead roles, perhaps suffered from being too much of an American tale to truly translate. The true story upon which the film is based was reportedly big news in the country, and has become something of a cult phenomenon, whereas the knowledge and understanding of the event in the UK is far from being at the same level, and clearly this was too much of an obstacle for even A-List stars to overcome with wider audiences – this is a problem that may also face I, Tonya, the tale of disgraced US skating champion Tonya Harding that is set to star Margot Robbie. With a debut weekend of over £500,000 and a 2nd weekend likely to remain relatively strong courtesy of a lack of major competition, expect Battle of the Sexes to surpass £1million by the end of next weekend; a tidy amount for a relatively small film that likely didn’t expect to perform in the region anyway.

And finally, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool dropped off as it was outlined to do in last week’s chart breakdown, earning £108,411 over the weekend to take its total to £585,204. There is a December release date for the film in the US, and it may have traction given that it’s a true story about a beloved American star, but the likelihood of the Annette Bening and Jamie Bell starring picture turning a profit seems more and more bleak by the week.

So that about does it for this week’s box office breakdown. Next week we’ll likely welcome Wonder to the chart, though it will be interesting to see whether the Julia Roberts starring movie can out-perform Paddington 2. We’ll be back next Wednesday with a full box office report, but to gain access to the top 5 before anyone else, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube. You can also stay up to date with the latest news, reviews and features we have to offer by bookmarking our home page, following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.

The world waited nearly a decade for the follow up to the hugely successful pop culture phenomenon that was Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), yet even with a reunited cast of comedy legends Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues left a distinctly bitter taste on the tongue courtesy of a recipe filled with unintelligent and borderline insulting low-brow humour that was unbecoming of its cast, crew, and most importantly its original incarnation.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues suffers from an incredibly unfunny script that couldn’t even come to replicate the ridiculousness of its predecessor. A ‘lady-killer’ pun regarding OJ Simpson is just one of many low-brow jokes, and the inclusion of a Seaworld product placement was poorly timed to say the least. Throughout the movie, jokes are made about suicide and rape, too, which seems way below the belt for any film in the modern age, especially when presented in such a juvenile and a seemingly ill-informed manner. The social commentary the movie offers, specifically about women of colour in the 80s news room, fails to raise the film from its depths courtesy of the controversial jokes under which such themes are explored. One particular example that comes to mind is Ferrell’s character Burgundy impersonating his racist fantasy version of Black people around a dinner table filled with Black guests. It’s not offering an interesting commentary at this point, and it’s not at all funny. Even the movie’s attempted commentary on contemporary network news, which does seem like an interesting idea and anchors much of the story’s second act, is flattened under the weight of the above mentioned stupidity. Ultimately, this all comes together to present a central character in Burgundy that you don’t want to see succeed, especially not when his character is used to make ‘jokes’ regarding suicide, race and disability (in this case blindness). In fact, the only part of the story that survived the poor quality of the jokes was the mini-love-story between Steve Carell’s Brick Tamland and Kristen Wiig’s Chani Lastname, a strand that actually managed to be borderline sweet and adorable courtesy of each character’s innocent lack of intelligence.

Perhaps the saving grace of an otherwise almost un-watchable movie was the revisiting of the famed battle scene from Anchorman 1, this time with even more significant cameos and even more over-the-top action. The scene, which featured the likes of Will Smith, Harrison Ford, Tina Fey and Kanye West, was perhaps the only example the film had of going above and beyond the original in any way, and was clearly the most laugh out loud of all of the movie’s sequences. It was evidence of Ferrell’s drawing power among his peers in Hollywood and the amazing work of a casting director who managed to fill every scene with an influential star name. Removed from that particularly popular list of names was Meagan Good who, despite playing a prominent role, was not as well known as the rest of the cast nor of the level of many of her contemporaries, with particular sequences of fits of rage and anger seemingly cut from between laughing fits or otherwise less aggressive circumstances behind the scenes that made her character less believable and the movie seem even more ridiculous in a less purposeful way. It was a poor performance that worked to prove the talents of the rest of the movie’s undoubtedly talented cast but also worked to worsen the reception of the movie.

Generally, this Anchorman 2 felt like a Will Ferrell mesh-up, with the so-called ‘best bits’ from his career amplified in this film with significantly less funny results; he sang as he did in Step Brothers and ice skated like in Blades of Glory, for example. Therefore, unlike in the original Anchorman, both Ferrell and the movie as a whole felt old and unoriginal. Even with the Oscar nominated and hugely talented comedy director Adam McKay at the helm, the movie felt like an ode to Ferrell, which may not have been such a bad thing with a different script or under different circumstances, but seemed to present the legendary comedic actor as being a one trick pony at best and ultimately damaged the film.

The biggest task Anchorman 2 had to overcome was the huge expectations of its audience who had waited nearly 10 years for the movie’s release, and despite a great cast and a revisiting of some of the original’s jokes and beloved characters, it simply failed to surpass what was created in 2004 and was a disappointment when considered a stand-alone too. In fact, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was so bad that it’d probably be best to place this sequel in the pile of terrible franchise entries alongside the likes of ‘Star Wars: Attack of the Clones’, and I’d even go so far as to claim that this made The Hangover Part III look like a masterpiece. Ranking with a score only because of its funny battle scene, Brick Tamland story-strand and its relatively okay technical accomplishments, Anchorman 2 gets a…

5/24