EDITORIAL: The best movie Fridays
(photo: www.imdb.com)
In honor of Friday the 13th today, I thought I would throw together a quick list of the best movie Fridays. We're spraying this notion to all field of Friday references, either in title, settings, events, or characters. If that inescapable Rebecca Black YouTube song wasn't already in your head, let TV hosts Jimmy Fallon, Steven Colbert, the Roots, and some surprise guests sing it for you to get you in the mood (give them a break, it was for charity). Alright, that hit the spot! Here we go! Here are the best movie titles, characters, events, settings, and happenings that go down on Fridays. (Word of warning: many embedded clips have profanity and/or violence)
1) The Friday movie series-- Watch any of the really bad sequels to the Friday the 13th horror series and you'll know why Ice Cube and the boys pulled off the upset for the top spot. The first one from 1995 is a fun and quotable comedy classic and, while the sequels drop off quite a bit, they are still more fun on many more levels than a bad horror movie. Watching this first movie, now 16 years later, makes me miss the fun and young Chris Tucker before the Rush Hour series turned him into a prima donna. (best lines montage) (trailer)
2) The Friday the 13th movie series-- Other than the great first one, this series lives (and got rebooted recently) on reputation and name recognition alone. Guilty pleasure or not, there are some terrible films here, but its tie to best movie Friday reference is undeniable. (best moments tribute)
3) Friday Night Lights-- High school football games are an American institution on fall Friday nights. The Peter Berg movie that spanned the much-beloved TV series, shows the religious drama and dedication that small towns put on big time high school sports. It made the #4 spot on my top all-time football movies list last fall. Honorable mention goes out to the other great movies about Friday night high school football like Remember the Titans, Varsity Blues, The Blindside, Facing the Giants, Everybody's All-American, Lucas, and Wildcats. (trailer)
4) Dazed and Confused-- Many great movies that take place on Fridays are shaped as those "one wild night" kind of movies. I've got four in a row on this list, starting right here with the epic last day of school of 1976 in Austin, Texas. While more current audiences may prefer the movie that comes after at #5, this one is still the best of the bunch. (trailer)
5) Superbad-- Neck and neck with Dazed and Confused, the antics of Evan (Michael Cera), Seth (Jonah Hill) and Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) after school are downright hilarious and the kind of Friday night we probably all wish we had in high school. (trailer)
6) Adventures in Babysitting-- Another excellent and comedic "one wild night" movie is what goes down after school when a babysitter (Elizabeth Shue) with kids in tow has to try and rescue a desperate friend on the mean streets of Chicago. It's an 80's classic! (trailer)
7) Go-- The last of the one night Fridays is director Doug Liman's (Swingers, The Bourne Identity) multiple points of view of a Christmas Eve drug deal amidst parties in L.A. and Las Vegas. (trailer)
8) Laura-- Ranked at #73 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills, #7 on their 100 Years of Film Scores, and their #4 mystery of all time, this Otto Preminger-directed mystery starring Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, Dana Andrews, and Vincent Price features a murder investigation that all starts on a dark Friday night. (trailer)
9) His Girl Friday-- In a classic entry to the list, Howard Hawk's 1940 screwball comedy earns points for its title to make this list, but also for the rapid-fire repartee and fun provided by Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. His Girl Friday is ranked at #19 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Years... 100 Laughs. (10 minute trailer)
10) Friday Foster-- Well, if we're referencing movies with Friday in the title, I'll throw some love to the blaxploitation films of the 1970's, instead of Lindsay Lohan's Freaky Friday. The classically tough Pam Grier is the title character photographer who witnesses both a murder and an assassination attempt and teams up with Yaphet Kotto's detective to set it all straight. If you've never seen a blaxploitation film, treat yourself to a different dynamic of a movie crime story with this or other classics like Shaft, Super Fly, Dolemite, Foxy Brown, or even modern homages/spoofs like 2002's Undercover Brother or 2009's Black Dynamite. (trailer)
HONORABLE MENTION #1: Wayne's World-- Quick reference here, but all of Wayne and Garth community cable shows originating from Aurora, Illinois are filmed on Friday nights. If you're not a football person, this would be the cool couch to be at on Friday nights. (trailer)
HONORABLE MENTION #2: "Friday" from Robinson Crusoe-- For those of you that know the story and have seen some of the many movie and TV interpretations of Daniel Defoe's classic novel, you know that Crusoe's island friend and sidekick is named Friday. Hey, it's a better number ten than including Lindsay Lohan.
