Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #19 There's Something About Mary

Box Office: $176.5 Million

Oscar Nominations: None

Oscar Wins: None

MovieRankings.Net: 75/100

Available To Stream: Starz

I feel like I've spent a lot of time in these reviews talking about how the mid-budget dramas like Sleepers, Rounders, Ransom or The People Vs. Larry Flynt just wouldn't be made today. So often, it's tentpole big budget action movie or nothing. Horror movies do still get made as well but so many of the kinds of movies that you saw released in the 1990's just wouldn't be made today.

That's especially true with comedies. From 2010 on, it's tough to find a very funny comedy. A lot of that is because we shifted as a culture (for good and for bad) and studios determined it wasn't worth the risk when they could invest in a movie with an established IP that is a better guarantee to make money.

There's Something About Mary cost about $23 million dollars to make. It brought in over $360 million if you count worldwide box office. That's before cable or video rental revenue. It would also never be made today.

The Judd Apatow comedies like Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up stopped being made and were deemed as "frat boy" movies. I think that's bullshit but that became the narrative. Apatow also seemed to want to focus on other projects and no one picked up the torch. But why can't movies like this or Kingpin or Dumb & Dumber get made? The Farrelly Brothers movies could be kinda gross (I guess?) but they aren't mean spirited. Why can't this be done today? Why isn't it?

This movie is so funny. Ben Stiller is perfect as Ted and you can see why he parlayed that success as a nice, awkward guy in the Meet The Parents movies. Cameron Diaz is so perfect in this and because she's so pretty, it's easy to forget how funny she is. I love that she took risks in a dark comedy like Very Bad Things and then in smaller parts in interesting movies like (#86) Being John Malkovitch and (#98) Any Given Sunday. She got stuck in rom-com after rom-com after around 2005, but she did some really cool stuff before that.

Matt Dillon should have been nominated for an Oscar for his role as Pat Healy. It's such a weird part and just about everything his does in this movie is hysterical. This scene of Mary and Pat talking at the driving range might be the funniest scene in movie history. 

There's Something About Mary isn't trying to offend or make a political statement. It just wants to be funny. There is something wonderful about that. It's also something we just don't see as much. Now, everything feels like a teaching moment. It's almost like we have to pay a price for laughing at something. Or it's through a political lens. Something can just be funny. 

That went away sometime and I really wish we could get it back. We see it with stand-up comedy. That's become one of your last true art forms because it hasn't been inundated with notes from studios or focus groups. Their only job is to be funny and make you laugh. 

I saw There's Something About Mary in the theaters in 1998. I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes. There's been movies since then like Borat or The Hangover or Role Models or Superbad where I was laughing that hard as well. But I haven't done that in a movie theater in 15 years. I'd love to have that feeling again.

I'm starting to doubt that I ever will.

19. There's Something About Mary

20. Sleepers

21. Schindler's List

22. Rushmore

23. Fight Club

24. Saving Private Ryan

25. True Romance

26. Dumb & Dumber

27. Kingpin

28. Donnie Brasco

29. Heat 

30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

31. Rounders

32. Unforgiven

33. Trainspotting

34. The Game

35. Out Of Sight

36. Carlito's Way

37. Seven

38. L.A. Confidential

39. Speed

40. Gattaca

41. Misery

42. Tombstone

43. Ransom

44. Wayne's World

45. The Insider

46. Back To The Future Part III

47. A Bronx Tale

48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt

49. Eyes Wide Shut

50. The Sandlot

51. Happy Gilmore

52. Contact

53. The Green Mile

54. Man On The Moon

55. Boyz N The Hood

56. Grosse Pointe Blank

57. Independence Day

58. The Rainmaker

59. Go

60. The Firm

61. Magnolia

62. The Talented Mr. Ripley

63. Tommy Boy

64. The Usual Suspects

65. In The Line Of Fire

66. My Cousin Vinny

67. Awakenings

68. JFK

69. Toy Story

70. Home Alone

71. Jerry Maguire

72. Titanic

73. Billy Madison

74. Apollo 13

75. Braveheart

76. Edward Scissorhands

77. Cape Fear

78. The River Wild

79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

80. 12 Monkeys

81. Stir Of Echoes

82. Mission: Impossible

83. Total Recall

84. Quiz Show

85. For Love Of The Game

86. Being John Malkovich

87. Men In Black

88. Scream

89. Alive

90. Three Kings

91. Glengarry Glen Ross

92. Die Hard With A Vengeance

93. The Blair Witch Project

94. Twister

95. Dirty Work

96. Election

97. Tremors

98. Any Given Sunday

99. The Wedding Singer

100. Clerks