Was Rob Reiner the Greatest Comedy Director of the 1980s?
From Caddyshack to Beverly Hills Cop to Back to the Future, the 1980s was a golden decade for movie comedy. And few directors contributed to the laughs more than the late Rob Reiner, who tragically died yesterday. While Reiner transitioned into more dramatic projects in the 1990s, his 1980s run was an all-timer, delivering The Sure Thing (better-than-average teen comedy introducing the world to John Cusack), This Is Spinal Tap (influencing decades of big-screen and TV comedy), The Princess Bride (the oft-quoted classic that endures today) and When Harry Met Sally (which reignited the rom/com and made Billy Crystal a movie star).
Can anyone touch Reiner’s 1980s comedy reign? Crowning a king isn’t an easy exercise, considering there are at least four other worthy candidates:
The ZAZ team
For sheer laughs, it’s hard to beat the partnership of Jim Abrahams and the brothers Zucker, David and Jerry. 1980’s Airplane! is a masterclass in laughs-per-minute lunacy and 1988’s The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is still spawning sequels. In between, ZAZ turned out the underrated Top Secret! (the guys loved their exclamation points) and the forgotten but funny Danny DeVito vehicle, Ruthless People.
Ivan Reitman
If we’re measuring box-office spectacle, Reitman could be the champ. His 1980s comedy resume includes Bill Murray’s Stripes (1981), mega-smash Ghostbusters (1984), 1988’s Twins and 1989’s Ghostbusters II. The movies got more bloated with special effects as they went along, but you can’t deny that Reitman gave the people what they wanted.
John Landis
Reitman’s spiritual brother was Landis, collaborators on National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). Like Reitman, Landis specialized in comedies that featured ex-Saturday Night Live stars and plenty of blow-’em-up special effects, including The Blues Brothers (1980), Trading Places (1983), Spies Like Us (1985), ¡Three Amigos! (1986) and Coming to America (1988). Those comedies haven’t aged as well as others on this list, but give Landis his props — he put butts in theater seats and delivered the laughs.
John Hughes
For heartfelt comedies that stand the test of time, Hughes is Reiner’s strongest competition. Check out Hughes’ 1980s output: Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), She’s Having a Baby (1988) and Uncle Buck (1989). No one can challenge Hughes based on volume — and in his spare time, he wrote Mr. Mom, National Lampoon’s Vacation, National Lampoon’s European Vacation, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Pretty in Pink, and The Great Outdoors. Sheesh, did the guy ever sleep?
Who’s the champ in this misshapen Mount Rushmore of 1980s movie comedy? It all depends on how you like your laughs. Comparing The Naked Gun to The Princess Bride, for example, is a thankless exercise, since each delivers on its own, altogether different terms. Give all five directors credit for shaping one of the funniest decades in movie history.