Today! Because he’s not a goodfella, he’s a badfella!
Bee Movie (2007)
Directed by Simon J. Smith, Steve Hickner
Starring Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Patrick Warburton, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Barry Levinson, Larry King, Ray Liotta, Sting, Oprah Winfrey, Larry Miller, Rip Torn, Michael Richards, Megan Mullally, Tom Papa, Carol Leifer, Tress MacNeille, John DiMaggio, Carl Kasell, David Herman
Are you as worried as I am that this list could devolve into late ’00s animated comedies? For the second time in three days, here we are! But for an old Seinfeld fan like me, this one had to make the list. Figure, outside of Curb Your Enthusiasm across that decade, there wasn’t much to throw us ’90s fans back into that Seinfeldian vein of yuks, and then came this to scratch that itch. Thanks, Dreamworks! Sure, the actual driving plot is kinda nothing, and the ending works hard to break the reality they’ve built up, but the premise was solid enough to facilitate a ton of Seinfeld-style jokes, and isn’t that really what we were there for in the first place? I mean, what else did we have, American Express commercials? “That was a wicked googly!” is still a great catchphrase, though.
Packed with comedians, puns, bug jokes, and Ray Liotta Premium Select Honey, it’s a thoroughly entertaining anthropomorphized bee flick. Apparently there will never be a sequel, if Jerry is to be believed, so I guess we have to content ourselves with Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, which is fine.
Repeat list maker (and please refer to our psychotic connection back in #391’s The Lion King) Matthew Broderick is yet to make a live action appearance in a list film, so instead we’re going to spotlight live-and-animated repeat actor, #397 Wonder Boys co-star Rip Torn! He once hit Norman Mailer with a hammer, in a film but for real, and it was glorious! It’s lousy otherwise, but check out Maidstone (1970) – it almost made this list just for that moment.
American hero
Besides its Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Film, Bee Movie didn’t rake down a ton of accolades, but let’s remedy that right now – Best Cocktail Sword goes to the replacement stinger for Matthew Broderick’s Adam and Best Use of Gordon Sumner for the trial’s Sting cameo (suck it, Dune!).
Knowingly Undersold 
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