Bullz-Eye: First of all, in case you haven’t heard, I should let you know that we put you into our Director’s Hall of Fame last year.

John Landis: Oh, thank you very much!

BE: Our pleasure. After all, we’re a guy-centric site, and it would be fair to say that you’ve made a few movies that have been appreciated by many a man over the years…including, of course, “¡Three Amigos!”

JL: [Laughs.] So did you get a chance to watch the Blu-ray, then?

BE: I did. It looks fantastic.

JL: Yeah, I was able to restore it to the way it’s supposed to be seen. I’m very pleased with the way it looks.

BE: I was actually going to ask you about that process. I presume there’s at least a little bit of difference when it comes to restoring a comedy for Blu-ray versus, say, a full-on special effects extravaganza.

JL: Actually, no. [Laughs.] That would be an untrue presumption. I mean, every picture’s individual, and it depends on the look you were going for with that particular movie. When they made the Blu-ray for “Animal House,” I was upset. I thought they made it much too bright and clean. “Animal House” is supposed to look dirty and funky. [Laughs.] I remember the technician, when I had to check it, he kept writing on his chart, “Image degraded per director.” But every movie you make, you try – or at least I do, anyway – for a different kind of look. On “¡Three Amigos!” I was really trying to go for those beautiful westerns that Hollywood used to make in the ‘50s. The Technicolor pictures. We wanted the colors to be incredibly vibrant. You know, the old DVD wasn’t even the correct aspect ratio. So I’m happy that I got the chance to restore it.

BE: Well, as I say, it looks fantastic. And sounds great, too.

JL: Yeah, it’s a great score. It’s a unique situation where Elmer Bernstein, I asked him…I said, “Listen, I want you to satirize yourself.” And that’s what he did. [Laughs.] He’s doing his wacky version of “The Magnificent Seven,” and I was just so pleased with that. And the songs by Randy Newman…I mean, the movie’s got incredible music.

BE: And the Singing Bush. I mean, come on…

JL: The Singing Bush is Randy Newman! [Laughs.]

BE: Absolutely. Did you have to prod him at all to play that part?

JL: Yes. [Laughs.] But he did a great job. The role he was born to play!

BE: You and your stars – Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short – reunited for an Empire Magazine article not so long ago.

JL: Right, that was recently. It was only about four months ago, I think.

BE: It was a great article, although as I read it, I couldn’t help but think, “Gee, I’m sure he loved being reminded that ‘¡Three Amigos!’ made less money at the box office than ‘Police Academy 3.’”

JL: Yeah, but ‘Police Academy 3’ was a gigantic hit!

BE: Well, sure. But when you look back on classic films of the ‘80s, ‘¡Three Amigos!’ would seem to rank higher than ‘Police Academy 3.’

JL: Maybe, but…I make a movie that I want to see. When you make a film…Peter Bogdanovich famously said, “The only true test of a movie is time,” and there are movies that were originally failures, like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which was such a failure that it bankrupted the company, but it’s considered a great American film…because it is! [Laughs.]

BE: You’ve been at the helm of quite a few films that continue to be reflected upon both on and between their key anniversaries. Is “¡Three Amigos!” one that surprises you with its endurance?

JL: No. Because it’s very funny. [Laughs.] And I think that the Amigos themselves are very sweet. And…there are not that many movies you can watch with the whole family, other than Disney or Pixar films, where the parents enjoy it as much as the kids.

BE: I discovered this morning that if I go to Google and type in the words “would you say,” it instantly attempts to finish the phrase with “I have a plethora of piñatas”?

JL: [Bursts out laughing.] Is that true?

BE: That is absolutely true.

JL: That’s…odd. [Laughs.]

BE: But it’s also, I think, a testament to the enduring fan base for that film.

JL: Well, that’s also the wonderful Alfonso Arau and Tony Plana. They’re so great.

BE: Are there any lines that stand out for you personally as favorites?

JL: Oh, many. I think my favorite, the one that I quote the most, is when Dusty Bottoms comes to the Mexican village and the peasants feed them and give them lunch, and Chevy says, “Do you have anything besides Mexican food?” [Laughs.] My wife and I were three months in India, and I found myself saying “do you have anything besides…Mexican food?” all the time.

BE: One of the things I noticed in re-watching the film – something I can’t say as I paid attention to before – was that, in the scene where the Amigos meet with the head of their movie studio, you’ve got three guys working together who would go on to be three of the most popular guest voices on The Simpsons: Phil Hartman (Troy McClure), Jon Lovitz (Artie Ziff), and Joe Mantegna (Fat Tony).

JL: Oh, you know, I never thought of that! [Laughs.] That was Joe Mantegna’s first movie. And Jon Loviz and Phil Hartman, they’re in it because I really wanted Lorne (Michaels) to see them, to put them on “Saturday Night Live,” and…he had a prejudice against L.A. at that time, and because they were from a comedy group in L.A. called The Groundlings, he didn’t want to know. So I gave them parts in the movie so he could see how brilliant they were.

BE: If you listen to Joe Mantegna in the scene, he’s essentially doing his Fat Tony voice.

JL: That’s so funny. That never occurred to me. I didn’t even make that connection. Did you watch the cut scenes on the Blu-ray?

BE: I did, yes.

JL: Okay, so you know there was originally a lot more of them in the film.

BE: Yep. It wasn’t until recently, though, that I learned that Sam Kinison had originally been in the film…not that there’s any trace of his work left, unfortunately.

JL: Yeah, he was this cannibal mountain man. I wish we knew where that footage was. It’s only about four minutes worth, but it’s very funny.

BE: A number of surprising films from the ‘80s have emerged as cult hits. Is there one of your past films – not necessarily limiting yourself to the ‘80s – that you feel is ripe for reevaluation?

JL: Well, I’ve been really lucky, in that most of my films – not all, but most – have had a tremendous life. They’re still showing “Animal House” and “The Blues Brothers” and “An American Werewolf in London” and “Trading Places” and “Coming to America.” They’re all sort of still out there. And, of course, my work with Michael Jackson. All of that stuff is still very relevant.

BE: Speaking of Michael Jackson, I wrote in your entry for our Director’s Hall of Fame, “Kids, ask your parents if they ever made a point of tuning in to MTV at the top of the hour in order to catch an airing of ‘Thriller.’ If they tell you they didn’t, then ask them what it was like to grow up in a cultural vacuum.”

JL: [Laughs.] There was a time where it was, like, all “Thriller,” all the time!

BE: What were your thoughts on tackling that project? I mean, Michael Jackson is obviously someone high-profile enough to find him worth working with, but did you have any trepidation about doing a music video?

JL: Well, I didn’t want to do a music video! [Laughs.] When Michael first called me…he’d seen “An American Werewolf in London” and was very taken with Rick Baker’s work, and he just really wanted to turn into a monster. That’s what he wanted: “I want to turn into a monster onscreen.” And I said, “Instead of doing a video, which is just a three-minute commercial for a record, why don’t we do a short?” And it was meant to be…well, it was, actually, a theatrical short. Disney actually distributed it with “Fantasia” before it was on TV. And that’s why it’s 14 minutes: because it’s the length of a theatrical short. So it ended up being like a little movie, and I had no problem doing it. It was great fun.

BE: Having read your bio, I know you worked at least to some extent on “Once Upon a Time in the West.”

JL: I was on that movie for over a month!

BE: Did you learn any life lessons from Sergio Leone?

JL: No. But he was very sweet and very funny. He had this ridiculous Italian accent – he didn’t speak English very well then – and I enjoyed watching him direct Henry Fonda, who he called Hank, and say, “Hank-a, I want-a you to…” [Starts laughing.] It was really funny. But the guy was brilliant. I love that movie.

BE: Do you have any Robert Shaw stories from working on “A Town Called Hell”?

JL: Just that, boy, that guy could drink unbelievably. [Laughs.] He could consume amounts of alcohol that could kill most people.

BE: I don’t know if you’re familiar with the website Splitsider.com, but they recently did a piece called “The Lost Roles of ‘Animal House.’”

JL: [Laughs.] No, I’m not.

BE: They ran through a list of people who’d either been seriously considered or at least thought about for various roles in the film. I hadn’t known that Meat Loaf was more or less in contention for Bluto.

JL: He was on the list, yeah. If we couldn’t get (John) Belushi. I remember it was Josh Mostel, Meat Loaf, and…there were like five or six guys. But John was the only one we actually offered it to, and he took it.

BE: And I can’t help but smile at the thought of Jack Webb playing Dean Wormer.

JL: Well, now, he was my first choice. I went to Jack Webb, and he thought I was nuts. [Laughs.] I mean, I had long hair, and…he did everything but call me a Jew commie faggot. But he sat there, drinking Scotch, and he listened to me. But he had no interest. The casting that I was always disappointed in was when I made “The Blues Brothers.” For Bob – of Bob’s Country Bunker – I had lunch with Roy Rogers. And Roy was a very nice guy, by the way, but he just couldn’t be in an R-rated film.

BE: Were there any musicians you wanted in “The Blues Brothers” that you couldn’t wrangle?

JL: Little Richard. At the moment, Little Richard…you know, he finds and loses Jesus all the time. Just my luck, he found him at that moment. [Laughs.]

BE: In the case of a film like “The Blues Brothers,” where you had to deliver a shorter cut at the studio’s request, is that something always gnaws at you for the long haul, or have there been occasions when you were, like, “God help me, but it might just be better this way”?

JL: Well, I mean, for “The Blues Brothers,” we trimmed it tremendously and made it a lot shorter, but most of the time came out of various musical numbers and stuff. For the most part, the answer is “no.” The only time I’ve ever had a studio really fuck with me was on the sequel, on “Blues Brothers 2000,” where they really just kind of destroyed that movie. But I’m still proud of the music in the movie, which is incredible, and the people who are in it are extraordinary. I’m happy that we were able to document those artists and put them on film. But that’s the only time I ever had a studio really fuck me. [Laughs.]

BE: Did you have fun working with Paul Mazursky on “Into the Night” both as a director and as an actor?

JL: I did! He’s one of those guys that I don’t think people remember what a big filmmaker he was. He made some very interesting movies.

BE: I’d expect it was a kick to be able to threaten him onscreen as you did.

JL: Did I threaten him? Oh, yeah, I had a gun! [Laughs.] Paul’s actually a very good actor.

BE: You’re obviously best known for your comedies, but do you ever have an interest in venturing more into drama?

JL: Oh, sure. I mean, you know, there’s this interesting thing, and it’s true not just to critics but in the industry, too, and I’ve never really understood it, but…if you’re a filmmaker and you can tell a story through the juxtaposition of images, which is how movies are made, then genre doesn’t matter. If you can direct a film, you can direct any genre. But directors get typed just like actors, and if you have great success in comedy, then that’s what they want you to do. And it’s frustrating. [Laughs.]

BE: I was talking to Carl Gottlieb recently, and he said the same of screenwriters, suggesting that there was a time when you wouldn’t think twice about having the guy who wrote “The King’s Speech” write “Transformers 3,” or what have you.

JL: That’s absolutely true. But that’s gone. Now, you know, the executives…they’re like Winnie the Pooh: a bear of very little brain. [Laughs.]

BE: I was curious about the experience of working with Bob Hope on “Spies Like Us.”

JL: Well, Bob was literally on his way to the airport. [Laughs.] He was in London, and I called him up and…he was doing a Command Performance, and I asked him if he would be in the film, since the film is clearly my attempt at doing a kind of “Road” picture, a Hope & Crosby kind of picture. He said, “Sure! Give $35,000 to the Boys Club of America, and I’ll do it!” And I said, “Deal!” And he just literally stopped by. I had it lit and ready, and…I’ll tell you, it was an interesting thing. I don’t know if you remember, but in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Bob Hope started making these bad movies, and he became…well, he was not the Bob Hope of the ‘30s and ‘40s, let’s put it that way. And he came in, and he said, “What do you want me to do?” And I told him, and he said, “No, no, show me.” Which, you know, most actors don’t want you to do that kind of thing. But I found myself doing an imitation of Bob Hope from the ‘30s. [Laughs.] I did that, and then Bob…well, basically, he was doing an imitation of me doing an imitation of him from the ‘30s. But being Bob Hope, he was great at it! He just came in and did it. One take. He did it, and he left. And I was honored to have him in the picture.

BE: I just wanted to jump back to the comment I made earlier about unlikely films from the ’80 developing cult followings. I recently wrote a review of the “Clue” miniseries that was done for The Hub, where I made an offhanded comment about how the movie version of “Clue” – which you co-wrote – had a fantastic cast but maybe wasn’t necessarily what you’d call a great movie…though, in fairness, I haven’t seen it in 20 years. But there was a downright vehement reaction from the readership, the general premise of the replies being, “To hell with you! It goddamned well is a great movie!”

JL: [Laughs.] Excellent! Good for those guys! Well, on “Clue,” I wrote the outline, and then I couldn’t solve it. I created this situation I couldn’t solve. I knew the butler goes, “And then this is who did it,” but I couldn’t figure it out! And then Tom Stoppard worked on it for awhile, and then he gave up. And then I was in London, and there was this wonderful TV series called “Yes, Minister” that was written by Tony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. And I met Jonathan and I asked him to write it, and he wrote it. And then…I’ve forgotten what happened, but I was doing another movie, and I said, “Listen, Jon, I’ll try to get you for this, if you’d like to direct it.” And he did!

BE: Do you have a favorite project that you’ve worked on over the years that didn’t get the love you thought it deserved?

JL: Oh, gee, that’s interesting. I don’t know. You know, you make movies, and they sort of have a life of their own. They go out into the world… [Laughs.] …and depending on where I am and who I’m with is the movie they want to talk about. But…yes, I can think of one. My only children’s film was called “The Stupids,” and I’m quite proud of that movie, but it was unfortunate: I made it for a company called Savoy, and they went bankrupt while I was in post-production, so my film, along with a number of movies, went on a shelf. And Mike Eisner and Disney tried to buy it, and that would’ve been great, because it was PG. Maybe it was even G-rated. Captain Kangaroo’s in it, for God’s sake! [Laughs.] It has puppets! It’s a children’s film!

But it sat there for about three years because Victor Kaufman wouldn’t sell it without the other movies. You had to buy the whole slate of Savoy movies. It would’ve been great if Disney had bought it, because it would’ve said, “Walt Disney presents ‘The Stupids.” But it was eventually bought by New Line, and that’s when they were doing the “Freddy’s Nightmare” movie. I’ll never forget it: I went to a screening and…they had never seen the movie. They bought it for a lot of money, but they’d never seen it! [Laughs.] These schmucks, they thought it was a teenage tits-and-ass movie because a girl named Jenny McCarthy, who was a model in Toronto, she had a small part, but in the years that it sat on the shelf, she became Playmate of the Year and a celebrity. So they thought, “Tom Arnold? Jenny McCarthy?!?” They thought it was gonna be a tits-on-the-beach movie! So when they saw it, they went, “This is a children’s film!” I went, “Yeah…?” And they were really upset about it and kind of dumped it. And it always bothered me, because if you show that to the people who it’s aimed for, which is ages 7 to 10, it plays great. [Laughs.] I’m very happy with that picture. So that’s the one I wish had gotten more love.

BE: Lastly, given how many times you’ve turned up in front of the camera, do you have a favorite of your appearances as an actor? And just to clarify, it doesn’t need to have been a role where you actually had to speak.

JL: Um, I don’t know if you know this, but I’m not really an actor. [Laughs.] Do you remember those commercials that Robert Young used to do, where he said, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV”? I always feel like I should be saying, “I’m not an actor, but I play one in the movies.” Because I’ve been in a shitload of movies. I’ve been in over a hundred films. But…I don’t know, I like my little moment with John Belushi in “1941.” But the film’s not great. [Laughs.] And…I don’t know, I also enjoyed “Into the Night,” because it was kind of slapstick. I enjoyed doing that. I didn’t intend to be in the movie, but I had hired these Persian actors, these Iranian guys, and they were very serious actors and they got the scary, but they couldn’t do the physical comedy. I was trying to do this deadly Keystone Kops slapstick, but they just had trouble with the physical stuff, so I ended up just going, “Fuck it, I look Persian, I’ll do it.” So I’m in there, and, really, the only reason I’m in there – and it worked quite well – was just to get them to be able to do the falling-down stuff like I wanted it. But you’ll notice I don’t speak in that movie. Sorry, I don’t speak Farsi. [Laughs.]

Almost.

Join us now as we take a look back through the mists of time and investigate the 17 motion pictures which made the jump from “SNL” sketch to feature film, in a little piece we like to call…

Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video (1979)

Starring: Michael O’Donoghue
Based on: O’Donoghue’s “Mr. Mike” sketches.
Premise: Rather than use Mr. Mike to teach grueling lessons in life, as was the tendency on “SNL,” O’Donoghue used the character in an ostensible tribute to the 1962 documentary “Mondo Cane,” having her serve as the link between a mixture of strange vignettes (some comedic, some strictly eccentric for eccentricity’s sake), found footage, and performances by some decidedly non-commercial musical artists. “Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video” was originally intended to be a television special that would air on Saturday night when “SNL” was scheduled to be in reruns, but after NBC got skittish about some of the content, New Line Cinema bought the rights and gave it a very brief theatrical run before eventually releasing it onto home video, where it developed a cult following.
Reasons to watch: If you’re a fan of the late 1970s punk and new wave scene, the performances by Klaus Nomi and Root Boy Slim are pretty awesome (Sid Vicious’s performance of “My Way” would be, too, if they hadn’t been refused the right to include the audio), as are Dan Aykroyd’s contributions to the film, both as himself (he shows off his webbed toes) and as the man behind the Mainland Church of the Perfect Wave, where the parishioners worship at the altar of a portrait of Jack Lord. In fact, pretty much any of the bits with “SNL” folks are worth seeing, but the best is a sequence where Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, Debbie Harry, Wendie Malick, and others discuss the merits of creepy men.
Reasons to avoid: The Not Ready for Prime Time Players only appear for a few minutes of the film’s run time. Otherwise, it’s pure, unbridled O’Donoghue, which makes the whole production an acquired taste that will strike the average viewer as being far more odd and disconcerting than funny.

Gilda Live (1980)

Starring: Gilda Radner, Don Novello, Paul Shaffer
Based on: Radner’s most memorable characters, including Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, Candy Slice, Judy Miller, Lisa Loopner, Rhonda Weiss, and more.
Premise: Radner had a relatively successful run on Broadway with her one-woman show, “Gilda Radner: Live from New York,” so it seemed like a reasonable enough plan to film the proceedings – with Mike Nichols at the helm, no less – and release it into theaters.
Reasons to watch: Anyone who lived through the ‘70s knows what a wonderful performer Radner was, but her post-“SNL” work didn’t do her talent justice. “Gilda Live” sent mixed messages at the time, showing both an interest in taking the spotlight but a reticence to step into something completely new, but looking at it now, it serves as an excellent introduction to Radner’s abilities as a comedienne, an actress, and even as a singer. (The songs are great, by the way.) Plus, you get to spend a few minutes here and there with Father Guido Sarducci, who’s always a stitch.
Reasons to avoid: Unless you’re a diehard Radner fan who’s been waiting to hear her using language she couldn’t use on network TV, there’s nothing here that’s significantly funnier than what you can already watch on the “SNL: Best of Gilda Radner” DVD that came out a few years back.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Starring: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Kathleen Freeman, Henry Gibson, Teve Lawrence, Twiggy, Frank Oz, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin
Based on: the duo’s blues-singing alter egos, who performed several times on the show.
Premise: Jake and Elwood Blues (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, respectively) go on a “mission from God” to pay the back taxes on the orphanage in which they were raised. They decide to get the band back together and put on a benefit concert, while dodging the police, neo-Nazis, and the Good Ol’ Boys, a country band that they impersonated for quick cash.
Reasons to watch: Um, because it’s awesome…? Not only is the movie stacked with R&B giants (Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, James Brown, and roughly a dozen others), it contains some side-splittingly funny scenes (the nun and the ruler, a Hell-hath-no-fury Carrie Fisher) and the greatest car chase in movie history. Or at the very least, the greatest car crash in movie history.
Reasons to avoid: There is no reason to avoid this movie, unless you have an aversion to profanity and classic R&B.

Bob Roberts (1992)

Starring: Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Alan Rickman, Ray Wise, Brian Murray, Gore Vidal, Rebecca Jenkins, Harry Lennix, Robert Stanton, Kelly Willis, Tom Atkins, David Strathairn, James Spader
Based on: a short segment Robbins did for “SNL” when he hosted the show in 1986.
Premise: A mockumentary about a Conservative Senatorial candidate who also happens to be a folk singer, the film follows Bob Roberts through the race to the Senate as he is perpetually trailed by reporter Bugs Raplin, a man on a mission to reveal Roberts as a fraud.
Reasons to watch: Fans of the Bob Dylan documentary “Don’t Look Back” will have fun trying to pick out the similarities between the films, while political junkies will enjoy examining the characters and playing “Spot the Real-Life Inspiration,” but this is a biting satire filled with a lot of laughs…and a lot of great songs, too.
Reasons to avoid: If you don’t see anything funny about politics to begin with, then “Bob Roberts” will probably just piss you off.

Mr. Saturday Night (1992)

Starring: Billy Crystal, David Paymer, Julie Warner, Helen Hunt, Mary Mara, Jerry Orbach, Ron Silver, Sage Allen, Jason Marsden
Based on: the character of Buddy Young, Jr., the Las Vegas lounge comedian created by Crystal during his stint at “SNL.”
Premise: The life-story of a once famous, mean-spirited comic from the heyday of old-school lounge comedy, following him through all of his highs and lows.
Reasons to watch: This film very rarely appears on lists of “SNL movies.” That’s not only because Billy Crystal’s schmaltzy-but-vicious comedian character only appeared a few times on the show, but also because it’s not really a comedy. It was, in fact, Crystal’s first stab at film directing in the wake of his massive success with 1989′s “When Harry Met Sally” and 1991′s “City Slickers” and was an out-and-out attempt at being taken seriously as a major filmmaker. Written by Crystal with longtime writing cohorts Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, “Mr. Saturday Night” certainly gets points for boldness in allowing Buddy to mostly be a genuine bastard who, as often as not, deserves his bad luck. It also features a memorable, justly Oscar-nominated, performance by David Paymer as Young’s long-suffering brother, as well as turns by three other terrific actors: Jerry Ohrbach, Ron Silver, and Helen Hunt.
Reasons to avoid: Unfortunately, Crystal’s artistic reach exceeds his grasp here. Playing down humor in favor of an attempt at a moving character study, he instead makes a rather sentimental but strangely bitter comic drama that left critics cool and audiences confused. Also, Crystal’s old-age make-up is a less-than-convincing distraction. For some reason, the aging process proved more believable on the prematurely bald David Paymer.

Wayne’s World (1992)

Starring: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Brian Doyle-Murray, Lara Flynn Boyle, Michael DeLuise, Lee Tergesen, Kurt Fuller, Colleen Camp, Donna Dixon
Based on: the “Wayne’s World” sketches, about two guys from Aurora, Illinois, who film a cable access show in their basement.
Premise: Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) think they’ve hit the big time when sleazy producer Benjamin Kane (Rob Lowe) buys their show, only to discover that it’s been gutted of all its personality. Garth accuses Wayne of selling out, while Wayne is jealous of Benjamin and is convinced that he is only interested in stealing Wayne’s girlfriend Cassandra (Tia Carrere).
Reasons to watch: It’s one of the few “SNL”-related projects that doesn’t have the phrase ‘guilty pleasure’ joined at its hip. Myers, with help from “That ‘70s Show” creators Bonnie and Terry Turner, wrote a script that’s both sweet and faithful to its characters’ naivety. Oh, and there’s this scene set to the tune of “Bohemian Rhapsody” that you may have heard about.
Reasons to avoid: As rocker babes go, Tia Carrere is, well, a heck of a babe.

Coneheads (1993)

Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Michelle Burke, David Spade, Michael McKean, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Jason Alexander, Lisa Jane Persky
Based on: the “Coneheads” sketches, which first debuted in 1977, making this the longest-gestating “SNL” film to date.
Premise: Beldar and Prymatt Conehead (Aykroyd and Curtin) are just another immigrant couple from the planet Remulak out to make their fortune in this very new world while avoiding their actual job, which involves destroying it. Their daughter, Connie (Michelle Burke), is growing up as typical teenage earthling and straining against the quaint traditional customs of her people. There are also some small problems caused by INS officials wondering if “Donald R. and Mary Margaret DeCicco” really are from, you guessed it, France.
Reasons to watch: The Coneheads are arguably the most sweetly silly recurring characters in the history of SNL and it’s just great to see them in any form. Crucially, the most reliable running gags from the bit make a return here, including the truly alien mating and dining habits of the Remulakians (“consume mast quantities”), their robotic speech patterns, and fact that hardly anyone seems to notice the Coneheads have actual cone heads. It also benefits from an extraordinary supporting cast featuring numerous SNL veterans and assorted comedy geniuses, including Phil Hartman, Michael McKean, and original Connie Conehead Laraine Newman. Written by Aykroyd with SNL veteran scribe Tom Davis and the team of Bonnie and Terry Turner, who’d shortly go on to create the not entirely dissimilar TV series, “3rd Rock from the Sun,” there’s a bit of social commentary on the apparently eternal American controversy over immigration here. Much more important, a good portion of the jokes actually work.
Reasons to avoid: More of the jokes kinda don’t work, actually, and the direction by video veteran Steve Barron isn’t anything to be excited about. To be honest, this film may be best suited to catching in small chunks on cable, perhaps while folding clothes or recovering from a minor illness or hangover.

Wayne’s World 2 (1993)

Starring: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Christopher Walken, Tia Carrere, Chris Farley, Ralph Brown, James Hong, Lee Tergesen
Based on: the characters from the original “Wayne’s World” film.
Premise: After meeting Aerosmith backstage at one of their shows, Wayne has a vision where a naked Indian tells him that he needs to organize a massive music festival. Cassandra is out of town working on her debut album, and her producer (Christopher Walken) persuades her into leaving Wayne behind. Garth meets a beautiful older woman (Kim Basinger), though her interest in Garth is less than honorable.
Reasons to watch: While the movie isn’t a complete loss, it is more or less the same as the first, three endings and all. Perhaps sensing this, they stunt-casted the bejeezus out of it, and one of those cameos literally saves the movie when a gas station employee, who only has one scene but a powerful one, is replaced by Charlton Heston, who proceeds to make Wayne cry with his performance. The poorly dubbed martial arts battle between Cassandra’s father and Wayne was also way ahead of the curve in terms of the influence of Asian cinema in America.
Reasons to avoid: The movie is a lot like a “Family Guy” episode: a thin story fleshed out by cut-aways to this or that riff on another pop culture phenomenon, in this case “The Doors,” “The Graduate” and “Thelma & Louise,” to name but a few. Dana Carvey had left “SNL” by the time the movie opened, and the sense of ‘too little, too late’ is hard to shake.

It’s Pat (1994)

Starring: Julia Sweeney, Dave Foley, Charles Rocket, Kathy Griffin, Julie Hayden, Beverly Leech, Kathy Najimy
Based on: the “Pat” sketches, which revolved around a sexually-ambiguous character and others’ attempts to determine her gender.
Premise: Pat Riley (Sweeney) is constantly moving from job to job, looking for a definitive walk of life but failing at every turn. Enter Chris (Foley), who’s just as gender-indeterminate as Pat. The two fall in love…don’t ask who wears the pants in that relationship…but things begin to fall apart when Pat still fails at every attempt at finding a new career. Meanwhile, Pat’s neighbor Kyle (Rocket), is on a quest to figure out whether Pat’s male or female. But will he succeed…?!?
Reasons to watch: I believe it’s universally accepted that the only real reasons to watch “It’s Pat” are to see the segments of the film which feature Camille Paglia and Ween, but there’s also a certain percentage of the population who has watched it in a desperate attempt to pick out any lines which may have come from the pen of Quentin Tarantino. (He reportedly went over the script – uncredited, naturally – as a favor to Sweeney.) Additionally, “Kids in the Hall” fans may feel obliged to check it out because of Foley’s participation. But they really shouldn’t.
Reasons to avoid: Nathan Rabin of The Onion A.V. Club described the film as “simultaneously intriguing and repulsive, a would-be cult curio not even the most indulgent cult could love.” Is that enough of a reason for you?

Stuart Saves His Family (1994)

Starring: Al Franken, Laura San Giacomo, Vincent D’Onfrio, Shirley Knight, Harris Yulin, Lesley Boone, John Link Graney, Marjorie Lovett, Walt Robles, Erik Cord, Denver Mattson
Based on: the “Daily Affirmation With Stuart Smalley” sketches. (Well, technically, it’s based on Franken’s book, which expanded on the sketches, but the sketches came first.)
Premise: Caring nurturer, member of several 12-step programs, and fired cable access host Smalley must deal with his multiply dysfunctional family while struggling with his overeating, codependence, and the “stinkin’ thinkin’” that tells him he really might not be good enough or smart enough.
Reasons to watch: Written by and starring the current junior senator from Minnesota and directed by Harold Ramis (“Groundhog Day”), this broad comedy with very serious overtones is better than you might think for the same reason the SNL sketches work: it’s firmly grounded in reality. Franken is an open member of Al-Anon — a 12-step group for family members of addicts — and has proudly noted that “Stuart Saves his Family” is used in drug and alcohol treatment programs. That’s not to say you have to be immersed in the world of recovery to get the jokes, though it might help. One big plus is a solid supporting cast, including Laura San Giacomo as Stuart’s Al-Anon sponsor, Vincent D’Onofrio as his pothead brother, and Harris Yulin as his verbally abusive alcoholic father. Still, this is Franken’s show. As always, his sincerely nutty performance as the goodhearted but occasionally self-loathing T.V. personality with atrocious taste in sweaters and ambiguous sexual preferences is, by our lights, a creation of comic genius.
Reasons to avoid: Al Franken admits that his “wet dream” is that his political arch-enemy, Rush Limbaugh, was forced to watch “Stuart Saves His Family” during his time in rehab. Indeed, people who despise the senator for his devoutly liberal political activities, or who simply think he’s not funny, may consider it a punishment for past sins. Even if you are a fan, there’s a reason this woolly film failed badly at the box office and bombed with most critics. All in all, if you don’t find the Stuart Smalley sketches completely hilarious, you should probably stay away…unless, of course, you’re a right-wing radio host recovering from an Oxycontin binge.

Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

Starring: Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, Joe Morton, J. Evan Bonifant, Nia Peeples, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Jonny Lang, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, Sam Moore, Erykah Badu
Based on: the characters from the original “Blues Brothers” film.
Premise: Elwood Blues (Aykroyd) gets out of prison and, as he’s now suddenly a solo act, tries to find his place in the world. Inevitably, he ends up deciding to get the band back together, finding a new partner in the form of Mighty Mack (Goodman). There’s also a subplot involving a 10-year-old orphan, along with a somewhat nonsensical storyline about Elwood’s newly discovered semi-brother, Cab (Morton), who turns out to be a Commander in the Illinois State Police.
Reasons to watch: You would be hard pressed to come up with a more perfect…or more depressing…opening for the film, which plays off the opening of the original. This time, however, it’s Elwood Blues who’s finally getting out of prison, and when he steps outside the gates, there is no Jake to pick him up, leaving him to wait in vain for someone to pick him up. It seems no one ever told him that his brother died. Harsh, sure, but talk about your promising beginnings, and while the “we’re getting the band back together” plotline is unabashedly recycled from the first film, it’s still fun to see where the members of the Blues Brothers Band ended up. Lastly, you can’t have a “Blues Brothers” movie without some decent tunes, and Aretha belting out “Respect” certainly qualifies, as do Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett teaming up on “634-5789,” a number which now belongs to…sigh…a phone sex line.
Reasons to avoid: The film doesn’t come anywhere close to maintaining the promise of the opening. For one thing, the desire to make things more appealing to a younger demographic results in such travesties as shoehorning Jonny Lang into the aforementioned performance of “634-5789” and having Elwood cross paths with John Popper of Blues Traveler, who – shocker! – just happens to be a huge Blues Brothers fan. Ultimately, though, the film’s biggest problem is that no one in the cast can capably fill John Belushi’s shoes, which leaves Aykroyd floundering and the audience wanting to just go back and watch the original film instead.

A Night at the Roxbury (1998)

Starring: Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Loni Anderson, Dan Hedaya, Molly Shannon, Dwayne Hickman, Chazz Palminteri, Colin Quinn, Gigi Rice, Elisa Donovan, Lochlyn Munro, Jennifer Coolidge, Richard Grieco
Based on: the “Roxbury Guys” sketches.
Premise: The Butabi brothers – Steve (Ferrell) and Doug (Kattan) – may sell fake plants at their father’s store by day, but when the sun goes down, they dance the night away at the hottest nightclubs in town…provided, of course, that they can get in. Their Holy Grail continues to be the famed Roxbury, but after a chance meeting with former “21 Jump Street” star Richard Grieco, Steve and Doug make it into the club, are introduced to the owner of the Roxbury, Mr. Zadir (Chazz Palminteri), who wants to hear their ideas for their own club. Unfortunately, they make an enemy of Zadir’s driver / bodyguard, Dooey (Colin Quinn), who keeps them away from his boss. Will they ever get the opportunity to pitch their idea, or will they be stuck working for their dad forever?
Reasons to watch: The chemistry between Ferrell and Kattan is solid, and it’s a rare attempt to see Ferrell taking the backseat and letting his co-star take the comedic reigns as often as not. It should come as no surprise that the dance sequences are well choreographed, but i’s also a very interesting ensemble cast, including Dwayne Hickman (“The Many Loves of Dobey Gillis”), Loni Anderson (“WKRP in Cincinnati”), and the aforementioned Mr. Grieco.
Reasons to avoid: If the above premise feels a little thin to hang an entire movie on, go with that feeling. Of all the sketches that could’ve been turned into feature-length films, this is one that invariably leaves people shaking their heads and wondering why they thought it had that kind of potential.

Office Space (1999)

Starring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman, Ajay Nadu, Diedrich Bader, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, Richard Riehle, Alexandra Wentworth, Joe Bays, John C. McGinley, Paul Wilson, Greg Pitts
Based on: the animated “Milton” shorts, created by Mike Judge and aired on “SNL” in the mid-1990s.
Premise: Peter Gibbons (Livingston) is a programmer at Initech, and he’s bored both at the office and in his romantic relationship. After an ill-begotten attempt at hypnotherapy with his fiancee, however, Peter finds himself locked into a state of total relaxation, which leads him to tell the truth at every opportunity. His co-workers Samir (Nadu) and Michael (Herman) are concerned at his change in personality, but they’re also a little envious of it, too. Less thrilled is their boss, Bill Lumberg (Cole), but a pair of visiting efficiency experts – played by McGinley and Wilson – are impressed by Peter’s frankness and promote him. Unfortunately, Samir and Michael end up being downsized, leading to a revenge plot against the company. Oh, hey, we forgot to talk about Milton (Root)…but, then, that stands to reason: no one ever remembers Milton.
Reasons to watch: It’s a full-fledged comedy classic, the kind where, should you happen upon it while you’re flipping channels, you’ll be stuck watching the rest of it. With a storyline you can relate to and dialogue you can’t help but quote back ad nauseum, it’s one of the best comedies of the 1990s, possibly of all time.
Reasons to avoid: Are there any? Even if you’ve never worked in a traditional office environment, you can still appreciate the concepts of an obnoxious boss and sketchy co-workers. Maybe the romantic angle of the film isn’t as compelling as it could be, but even then, you still get to look at Jennifer Aniston, so it’s hard to complain too much.

Superstar (1999)

Starring: Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell, Elaine Hendrix, Harland Williams, Mark McKinney, Glynis Johns, Jackson Blicker, Gerry Bamman, Emmy Laybourne, Jennifer Irwin, Tom Green, Chuck Campbell
Based on: the Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches, about a hyperactive Catholic schoolgirl prone to mood swings.
Premise: Mary Katherine Gallagher (Shannon) longs to be a superstar, so that she might get the chance to kiss the elusive Sky Corrigan (Ferrell), and just to make sure she’s ready when the time comes, she practices on any inanimate object that’s handy…like, say, a tree. To try to get in Sky’s good graces, Mary decides to try out for the school talent show, against the wishes of her grandmother (Glynis Johns). Will Grandma come around? Will Mary finally get to kiss Sky?
Reasons to watch: There’s a reason why Molly Shannon has been likened to Gilda Radner on countless occasions: she’s a gifted physical comedienne, and she gets the opportunity to demonstrate her fearlessness on several occasions during the film. There are also quite a few funny jabs at Catholicism…but, then, if you’re Catholic, that probably wouldn’t be in the “pro” column.
Reasons to avoid: Mary Katherine is a strange, creepy character who isn’t nearly funny enough to sustain a film. Even an 81-minute run time filled with an excess of Catholic schoolgirl uniforms can’t make this worth watching.

The Ladies Man (2000)

Starring: Tim Meadows, Karyn Parsons, Billy Dee Williams, John Witherspoon, Jill Talley, Lee Evans, Will Ferrell, Sofia Milos, Eugene Levy, Ken Hudson Campbell, Kevin McDonald, Tamala Jones, Julianne Moore
Based on: the “Ladies Man” sketches, about the sex therapy call-in show hosted by Leon Phelps.
Premise: When Leon Phelps (Meadows) is fired from his radio talk show, his dedicated producer, Julie (Parsons), quits in protest, and the two go on a quest to find new jobs. At the same time, however, there grows a large group of disgruntled husbands and boyfriends whose significant others have fallen prey to Leon’s charms, if you take my meaning. Will Leon find a new job before he’s strung up for his crimes against fidelity? And how long will it take for him to realize that he and Julie would make a cute couple?
Reasons to watch: First and foremost, the film’s framing device involves Leon pouring his heart out to a kindly bartender played by the one and only Billy Dee Williams. Also, though they may be easy jokes, you still can’t help but laugh at gags like Leon’s place of residence (the Skank-tuary) and his decidedly retro fashion sense. And dig that classic R&B soundtrack. Mmmm-mmmm, that sure sounds sweet to me…
Reasons to avoid: It tends toward being just as lowbrow as you’d expect from a film about an amateur sex therapist, occasionally going even lower than that. And, seriously, how the hell did Julianne Moore end up in here? Bloopie the Clown, indeed.

Harold (2008)

Starring: Spencer Breslin, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ally Sheedy, Stella Maeve, Nikki Blonsky, Rachel Dratch, Elizabeth Gillies, Nicola Peltz, Fred Willard
Based on: a one-off sketch about a teenage boy who suffers from early-onset male pattern baldness.
Premise: Harold (Spencer Breslin), the aforementioned teenage boy, has managed not only to survive in his hometown of Douglasville but, indeed, to thrive amongst the populace. Unfortunately, his mother (Ally Sheedy) has gotten a new job which necessitates a move to the city of Fredericksburg, and…well, let’s just say that the folks there aren’t nearly as used to the sight of a 14-year-old with the hairline (and temperament) of a man in his early 50s. Although he finds himself somewhat of an outcast in school, banished to the table in the lunchroom inhabited by nerds, fat kids, and foreign students, Harold finds that Fredericksburg’s unfamiliarity with his appearance can help him to win friends – at least temporarily, anyway – by buying them beer. With a little additional assistance from a kindly janitor (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), Harold attempts to take the school by storm and win the hearts of his classmates…and if that doesn’t work, then he can always try to win the upcoming go-kart race.
Reasons to watch: Sure, it’s ridiculous, but it’s sweet at heart, and the occasional knowing wink at the audience makes it go down more smoothly. Cuba Gooding, Jr. is actually pretty funny (sometimes you almost forget that he’s got it in him), and Elizabeth Gillies – now starring in Nickelodeon’s “Victorious” – will remind every guy of an ill-advised crush of their own: you know it’s never going to work out, but her complete cuteness shorts out your common sense.
Reasons to avoid: Like so many of the “SNL” films that have preceded it, the one-joke premise – he’s young, but he looks and acts like he’s old! – is pretty thin when stretched to the length of a feature film. There’s also the fact that, even with male-pattern baldness, only the dumbest person alive would think that Harold was a middle-aged man. While that might let out the convenience store cashier who sells him beer, there ain’t enough suspension of disbelief on the planet to accept that a doctor would ever reach the point of performing a prostate exam on him. No, not even one played by Fred Willard.