Top 10 Frat Pack Films of the Decade (Rick’s Opinion)

Frat Pack Tribute Senior Editor Rick Duran provides his list of the Top 10 Frat Pack Films of the Decade.

Channel 4 News Team: Rudd, Ferrell, Koechner, Carell

1. Anchorman
The best comedy of the decade, period. The best ensemble, the best cameos, immortal catch phrases. There are just too many reasons why Anchorman is the best Frat Pack film. Will Ferrell will never be better. The fact that it also launched Steve Carell and Paul Rudd onto their current paths is itself legendary. I’d go into further detail, but I’m in a glass case of emotion.

2. Zoolander
By all rights, this should be #1 (the same could be said for Old School.) Ben Stiller took a sharp left turn and embraced his Ben Stiller Show side, perhaps setting the tone for all broad comedies to follow. With strong supporting roles from Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell, all principal cast members were given their moment to shine, and set by high standards early in the decade that their future roles would be held comparison to.

3. Old School
Making R-Rated comedy work was tough early in the decade. While American Pie and the Farrelly Bros films found a way, others struggled. Until Old School came around, modern adult comedies were afraid to embrace their love for the Ivan Reitman/Harold Ramis/John Landis films of the 80s. But Todd Phillips’ embrace of grown men chasing booze and women (in some cases, their own wives) brought the sex back to adults, when Hollywood was trying to milk the teen comedy for its last dime. Old School set the bar that films like Wedding Crashers, 40 Year-Old Virgin, Superbad and Phillips’ The Hangover would go on to perfect. And it still ranks supreme amongst all of them.

4. The 40 Year-Old Virgin
By all means, each film from the Apatow wing have improved over his first solo film venture, but like Steve Carell’s Andy Stitzer learned, the first time is the most memorable. Its the sole reason debate on Frat Pack comedy is even allowed to expand outside the clique’s core members. Its comedic set pieces (the drunk drive home, the chest waxing, ‘Aquarious’) are some of the funniest moments of the decade, period. And as the core Frat Pack members’ salaries rose and made co-headlining films impossible, Virgin showed us that any strong pair of comedians (Rudd, Rogen, even that curly-haired kid from the eBay store buying the boots) are worth experimenting in a lead role.

5. The Royal Tenenbaums
Tonally, this film doesn’t belong on the list. But if we’re talking about best of the decade, it’d be a cinematic disservice to ignore it. The best film this decade from Wes Anderson, and the best performance of Luke Wilson’s career, it was the rare dramedy ensemble featuring Frat Pack actors that fans and critics wish they’d embrace more. Anderson’s following three films were held in comparison (in my opinion, The Life Aquatic deserved better public consensus), it’s also the film all comedians going dramatic/existentially pensive are held up to.

6. Knocked Up
While not a “Frat Pack” film by definition, it still earns its place on the list because… well it just does, damn it. Apatow’s 2nd “Team Apatow” effort after Virgin had high expectations, and by all means could have faltered due to its unbeliveable premise: Heigl fucks the stoner from Virgin? Yeah right. So it’s shocking that Apatow actually managed to take a more vile protagonist than his first film, and manage to make a more heartfelt film the second time around. It’s the best of the non-Carell era Team Apatow films and perhaps set too high a bar that future efforts (Zack and Miri, Funny People) fell short of.

7. Wedding Crashers
Wilson and Vaughn, the comedic duo that should have been on their 3rd or 4th venture by now. Pitch perfect match for each other, this was the first Frat Pack comedy that truly earned the comparisons to the SNL/SCTV crew of the 80s (Belushi, Aykroyd, Chase, Murray.) A strong supporting team (McAdams, Fisher, Cooper, Seymour) and an over the top Will Ferrell cameo all make this perhaps the best buddy-film of the decade.

8. Tropic Thunder
One of the most impressive ensembles, pulling from both the Frat Pack and Team Apatow circles, Stiller’s return to directing seven years after Zoolander did not disappoint. However, while we finally had a full length Ben Stiller/Jack Black movie that wasn’t Envy, the entire ensemble is shown up by two stars not known for their comedic turns: Robert Downey Jr and Tom Cruise.

9. Meet the Parents
The decade kicked off with Ben Stiller scoring his first post-Something About Mary hit with what would become one of his two typecast roles: the Greg Focker (the other being the Zoolander.) Miles above its sequel, its easily among Stiller’s finest roles. Owen Wilson is decent in his small supporting role, but truthfully, DeNiro is the only supporting role that matters in this one.

10. Dodgeball
Many of the broader Frat Pack comedies show gray hairs over the years (I’m looking at you Starsky. Pick of Destiny and Blades of Glory, you’re also on notice), and while some moments also wane in Dodgeball, it probably has better legs than the others.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Ben Stiller, Frat Pack, Judd Apatow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Steve Carell, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.