Poll

What's your favorite film by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and/or Jerry Zucker?

Airplane! (ZAZ, 1980)
18 (56.3%)
Top Secret! (ZAZ, 1984)
3 (9.4%)
Ruthless People (ZAZ, 1986)
0 (0%)
The Naked Gun (D. Zucker, 1988)
2 (6.3%)
Big Business (Abrahams, 1988)
0 (0%)
Ghost (J. Zucker, 1990)
0 (0%)
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (Abrahams, 1990)
0 (0%)
Hot Shots! (Abrahams, 1991)
0 (0%)
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (D. Zucker, 1991)
2 (6.3%)
Hot Shots! Part Deux (Abrahams, 1993)
1 (3.1%)
First Knight (J. Zucker, 1995)
1 (3.1%)
...First Do No Harm (Abrahams, 1997)
0 (0%)
BASEketball (D. Zucker, 1998)
2 (6.3%)
Jane Austen's Mafia! (Abrahams, 1998)
0 (0%)
Rat Race (J. Zucker, 2001)
0 (0%)
My Boss's Daughter (D. Zucker, 2003)
0 (0%)
Scary Movie 3 (D. Zucker, 2003)
0 (0%)
Scary Movie 4 (D. Zucker, 2006)
0 (0%)
An American Carol (D. Zucker, 2008)
0 (0%)
haven't seen any
3 (9.4%)
don't like any
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 31

Author Topic: ZAZ: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and/or Jerry Zucker  (Read 2984 times)

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: ZAZ - Director's Best
« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2010, 03:03:58 AM »
Flying High (aka Airplane!)

Antares

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Re: ZAZ - Director's Best
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2011, 09:37:43 PM »
Airplane!

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

Top Secret!
Ghost
Hot Shots!
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
Ruthless People


Naked Gun 33 1/3
Hot Shots! Part Deux
BASEketball
Big Business
Masterpiece (100-91) | Classic (90-80) | Entertaining (79-69) | Mediocre (68-58) | Cinemuck (57-21) | Crap (20-0)

smirnoff

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Re: ZAZ - Director's Best
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2011, 09:45:58 PM »
Oh dear, Part Deux in the red zone.

The Basic Instinct sex scene parody!!! I laugh my ass off

DarkeningHumour

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Re: ZAZ: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and/or Jerry Zucker
« Reply #13 on: August 29, 2015, 04:42:57 AM »
Airplane
Scary Movie 3
Scary Movie 4
« Society is dumb. Art is everything. » - Junior

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Corndog

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Re: ZAZ: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and/or Jerry Zucker
« Reply #14 on: March 30, 2016, 12:22:48 PM »
1. First Knight (3) [Jerry]
2. Airplane! (2.5)
3. Hot Shots! Part Deux (2.5) [Abrahams]
4. BASEketball (2) [David]
5. Hot Shots! (2) [Abrahams]
6. Rat Race (2) [Jerry]
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

1SO

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Re: ZAZ: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and/or Jerry Zucker
« Reply #15 on: April 27, 2020, 12:49:27 AM »
1. Airplane!
2. Ghost
3. Ruthless People

4. Hot Shots! Part Deux
5. Hot Shots!
6. Top Secret!
7. The Naked Gun
8. First Knight
9. Big Business
10. Scary Movie 4

11. BASEketball
12. Scary Movie 3
13. Mafia
14. ...First Do No Harm

15. An American Carol
16. Rat Race
17. The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
« Last Edit: April 30, 2020, 01:42:24 AM by 1SO »

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: ZAZ: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and/or Jerry Zucker
« Reply #16 on: April 28, 2020, 03:18:35 AM »
The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad! 20°
Extraordinary (81-100˚) | Very good (61-80˚) | Good (41-60˚) | Fair (21-40˚) | Poor (0-20˚)

1SO

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Re: ZAZ: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and/or Jerry Zucker
« Reply #17 on: April 28, 2020, 10:24:24 PM »

An American Carol (2008)
"It is getting harder and harder to find suicide bombers.
And all the really good ones are gone."


This is a wild trainwreck of a movie from every angle. I don't even need to post an opinion, just some facts about what the film is about and who is in it and you'll understand exactly what I experienced. The big question is who went into this thinking it would be just another ZAZ parody film, one that sets out to skewer both liberals and conservatives. I can see that being what's on the page, but the end result isn't just patriotic pro-USA but a slanted piece of the FOX News mind. It's a film where James Woods shows up early for a cameo, and it's one of writer/director David Zucker's more forgettable choices.

The lead is Kevin Farley, brother of Chris. Physically a great choice to play Michael Moore as played by Chris Farley, he's just a willing accomplice, but what about Kelsey Grammer as the first ghost, Gen. George Patton? (The other three ghosts are Jon Voight as George Washington (Past), Bill O'Reilly (Present) and Trace Adkins (Future), but this doesn't stick very close to the simple blueprint of the Christmas Carol story.) In the usual parade of (sub-)celebrity cameos, the most successful is Dennis Hopper as a judge facing off against ACLU lawyers like it's a zombie invasion. Robert Davi is also surprisingly above average as the main terrorist.

Leslie Nielsen is contractually obligated to be in these films, but I don't get why he's Grandpa the Narrator and then shows up later as Leslie Nielsen. Possible reshoots to paper over the tons of material that wasn't even good enough to make the final cut. What's there isn't as bad as Friedberg and Seltzer, you can definitely see the ZAZ touch in many of the jokes, but the modern conservative viewpoint is a bias that makes it easy to hate and hypnotic to watch.
★ ½

1SO

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Re: ZAZ: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and/or Jerry Zucker
« Reply #18 on: April 30, 2020, 01:48:16 AM »
Looks like I lost this round.

…First Do No Harm (1997)
★ ★
Meryl Streep has a few odd choices in her filmography. This may be her most bland, a personal project for her and director Jim Abrahams based on the true treatment of childrens’ epilepsy with a special diet. No TV Movie cliché gets left behind, with the treatment given only brief brushstrokes towards the end. It’s mostly difficult scenes of a kid having seizures or being subjected to the inhumane medical system. There’s nothing for Streep to dig into, just glances of a mother wishing she could do more. Allison Janney plays the constantly negative doctor. As a movie, it’s the exact opposite of Lorenzo’s Oil.


Rat Race (2001)
★ ½
Not written by a usual member of the ZAZ extended family, director Jerry Zucker didn't have the smarts to know what to cut when nearly all of it doesn't work. I say 'nearly' because some of the Nazi humor with Jon Lovitz is funny and there are a couple of nicely exaggerated bits involving animals caught up in the mayhem.