The Five Worst Films Based on Comedy Sketches

Five picks that won't make Lorne Michaels happy.

“Superstar” (1999)

Molly Shannon is funny. So too is Will Ferrell. “Superstar,” however, is most certainly not. Based on Shannon’s spastic, anxious, made-for-TV movie-loving Catholic school student Mary Katherine Gallagher, the film (helmed by “Kids in the Hall”’s Bruce McCulloch) follows Gallagher as she attempts to become a sensation via her school’s talent show. Having the ungainly, unsettling character find herself inadvertently stuck in a Special Education class is a reasonably inspired idea, but the execution is consistently off, with virtually every pratfall and one-liner landing with a dull thud, including those delivered by Ferrell in dual roles as the studly hunk whom Gallagher pines for and God, who periodically counsels her. Imagine the sights of Gallagher crashing into furniture and smelling her fingers immediately after they’ve been in her armpits, and you’ve already seen “Superstar,” albeit at far less cost to your wallet and time.

“The Ladies Man” (2000)

Tim Meadows’s “SNL” career is unique, insofar as he can boast the show’s second-longest tenure (10 years) and yet never became a star (like Sandler or Ferrell) or a jack-of-all-trades utility man (like Phil Hartman or Darrell Hammond). Instead, he was always just, kinda, there, save for his one recurring character: radio call-in host Leon Phelps, a smooth talker prone to giving sexually outrageous advice and promoting Courvoisier. Leon’s suave ‘70s-era confidence and charm were never good for more than a chuckle on TV, and here, they’re barely good for that, even when paired with a pretty amusing cameo by Julianne Moore in full-on clown makeup. Leon eventually finds love while being hunted by a group of men whose wives have fallen victim to the lothario’s irresistible charms, with this latter thread (a black man hunted by white men because of his carnal knowledge of their wives) primed for social comedy that never materializes. A lack of depth, however, is ultimately less troublesome than simply an absence of any good reason for this one trick pony to have his own movie in the first place.

[Additional Photos: Kathy Griffin and Julia Sweeney in "It's Pat: The Movie," Touchstone Pictures, 1995; "Good Burger," Paramount Pictures, 1997; Julianne Moore and Tim Meadows in "The Ladies Man," Paramount Pictures, 2000]

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