Over the five decades that “Saturday Night Live” has been on television, 11 of its recurring popular sketches were rebirthed as feature films. The best of these movies are hilarious classics that gave us fully fleshed out characters and put them in funny situations that made for memorable movies. Others were more forgettable — and arguably shouldn’t have been made at all. So relive and rediscover these sketch or character-based movies, from best to worst.
1. Blues Brothers (1980)
The undisputed godfather of “SNL” films wasn’t based on a sketch at all, but it did spring from the show. The Blues Brothers, Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd), debuted as the musical guest on a 1978 episode. For their feature film, the first “SNL” spinoff, the duo go on a “mission from God” to put their band back together. They rack up enemies along the way, including a spurned fiancée (played memorably by Carrie Fisher), Nazis, the Chicago police, SWAT teams, and more. Legendary R&B music trailblazers James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Cab Calloway also star and give standout music performances. Directed by John Landis, the movie is layered in timeless, quirky deadpan humor (the brothers rarely smile and wear sunglasses constantly). The film also remains a historical cinematic homage to R&B music in American culture and the legendary architects who made it possible.
2. Coneheads (1993)
Our favorite “SNL” extraterrestrial family was a natural fit for feature film treatment. Beldar, Prymaat, and Connie Conehead (Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, and Michelle Burke) come to Earth and live out a pre-9/11 undocumented immigrant experience in America. Beldar works as a repair man and a taxi driver before starting his own driving lesson business, allowing the family to move to the NJ suburbs. Trouble comes when the INS pursues them and they get summoned back to planet Remulak, and pure laughter ensues in each scene. “SNL” stars Michael McKean and David Spade stand out as the perfect government pair foil. And Chris Farley goes for guffaw laughs as Connie’s boyfriend.
3. Wayne’s World 2 (1993)
The follow-up to the hit film original goes bigger and beyond the original premise of Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth’s (Dana Carvey) public access show. They still break the fourth wall and the wordplay jokes and sight gags are nonstop, but now Aerosmith are the rockers featured. This time out a Native American [politically incorrectly described as a “weird naked Indian” in the movie] and the ghost of Jim Morrison serve as spiritual guides for Wayne, leading him to his true destiny: putting on a concert called Waynestock. Christopher Walken turns up the cringe as a shady record producer.
4. Wayne’s World (1992)
The first feature film version of this “SNL” sketch was an instant classic — and with good reason. True to its TV origins, the movie introduces Wayne Campbell (Myers) as he breaks the fourth wall to introduce himself, his life in Aurora, Illinois, and the public access TV show he cohosts with best friend Garth Algar (Carvey). Sight gags and wordplay keep the film in constant funny mode, Alice Cooper is the movie’s featured rocker, and the headbanging lip sync to “Bohemian Rhapsody” rebooted Queen’s classic ‘70s hit a second time in the ‘90s. Rob Lowe shines as a sleazy TV exec and we get a fully fleshed out Wayne’s World theme song in the closing credits. Excellent!
5. A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
The head-bobbing Butabi brothers Doug (Chris Kattan) and Steve (Will Ferrell) take us way beyond the popular sketch fueled by Haddaway’s earworm clubbanger, “Baby Don’t Hurt Me.” The clueless clubgoing loser brothers still live at home and battle dad and insecurity issues, but dream of getting into the hottest club in LA and opening their own nightclub. Produced by Amy Heckerling (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Clueless”), this so so comedy aged better with time, and now serves as a ‘90s chuckle time capsule. And, its nostalgic dance soundtrack keeps your own head bobbing till the end. Chazz Palminteri steals scenes as a past-his-prime successful club impresario.
6. The Ladies Man (2000)
This sometimes funny, raunchy big screen Leon Phelps tale starring Tim Meadows dives much deeper than the one dimensional skit popularized on “SNL.” In a saga that goes from birth to present day, you find out why Leon has been dubbed “The Ladies Man.” The self-proclaimed sex addict (who’s always inappropriate, but still loveable) has gotten busy with nearly every woman he’s ever met and it’s cost him his radio career. But while searching for his sugar mommy and being pursued by an angry mob of husbands, he realizes what he’s really been looking for is love. The film dances dangerously close to racial stereotypes about Black men, but Billy Dee Williams helps to save it from itself with his turn as an old school sexy and cool griot bartender.
7. Blues Brothers 2000 (2000)
The Blues Brothers sequel begins by acknowledging Jake’s death in prison (in real life, Belushi died in 1982). Soon after, Elwood (Aykroyd) embarks on a whole new adventure of putting the band back together. To fill the void left by Jake, we get extra Blues Brothers (Joe Morton, John Goodman), plus a young boy. There are more spirited, enjoyable R&B performances from music icons (Franklin and Brown return, joined by BB King, Wilson Pickett, plus Erykah Badu), but with too many car chases and crashes. Truthfully, only the jubilant songs keeps this mission afloat. It’s a bloated return that proves bigger doesn’t always mean better.
8. MacGruber (2010)
The MacGruber (Will Forte) character spoofed MacGyver on the small screen, gets reimagined as an R-rated “Naked Gun”/”Hot Shots” inspired-comedy for the big screen. It’s an extra raunchy, disjointed “SNL” comedy romp packed with sexual innuendos and poorly aged sex jokes. “SNL” stars Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph appear in this tale of a former Special Ops agent confronts his arch-enemy. The movie has reached cult classic status and boasts star Val Kilmer, who is deliciously fun as its main villain. Kilmer was also honest about MacGruber’s weaknesses. “I’m proud of how bad this film is,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “In fact, I can’t believe I just called it a film.”
9. Superstar (1999)
Molly Shannon brings her Catholic schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher character to the big screen with “Superstar.” Despite being a social outcast, her feature film goals are to kiss a boy and become a star. Shannon is a spirited, talented, and charming comedic actress, but does a character whose personality isn’t very likeable to begin with deserve the big screen treatment? Even with the movie’s visitations from Jesus and a co-starring performance from “SNL” star Will Ferrell, the answer might still be “no.”
10. Stuart Saves His Family (1995)
With veteran writer and “SNL” star Al Franken as the star of this movie directed by Harold Ramis, one would hope it would be a lot funnier. But perhaps that wasn’t the point? The film incarnation of the Stuart Smalley sketch explains he’s severely addicted to 12-step rehabilitation programs because of his highly dysfunctional family. The clan codependently scrambles because of their father, who continually bleeds negatively into Stuart’s professional and personal life. With that premise, hilarity doesn’t exactly ensue. This cringe dramedy, with emphasis on the drama, is heavy on the sprinkles of stark realities. It also stars “SNL” performer Julia Sweeney, whose own “SNL” vehicle has a less than storied history.
11. It’s Pat (1994)
During the ‘90s, the It’s Pat (Julia Sweeney) sketch’s “time for androgyny” theme song always inspired audience laughter. Pat was never the butt of the joke; instead, it was the befuddlement of those who surrounded Pat. This premise worked best in a 4-6 minute format, because it definitely feels tacked on in this laughless film version. Here, Pat meets and falls in love with the equally enigmatically gendered Chris (Dave Foley), but their relationship suffers because of Pat’s directionless life path. A side story involves Pat’s stalker neighbor becoming obsessed with Pat’s ambiguous sexuality. Sweeney initially had reservations about being able to stretch the joke into a full length movie. The end result is proof she had good reason to be concerned.
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