Admittedly, it's a terrible movie, but it did do one thing well. It captured the dream of millions of 5-13 year old boys whose years revolve around October 31. It took Shaq, the man they saw on TV dunking and missing free throws, turned him into a genie, and had him "make it rain" long before the downfall of Pacman Jones.
Honorable-mention junk food scenes: Groundhog Day
Bill Murray as Phil Connors realizes that he is reliving the same day over and over. Phil embraces this by punching out his annoying high school classmate Ned Ryerson and then heading to the diner to take up smoking and eat all the sweets he can find.
Willy Wonka (1971)
"...the snozzberries taste like snozzberries."
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
"I've never actually been in a snowball fight...Is there like a point system, or is it to the death?"
9. Best Food-As-Aphrodisiac Scene: When Harry Met Sally
One of the best scenes in one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time, When Harry Met Sally. Sally, upset with Harry's claim that he knows no woman has ever faked an orgasm with him because he can tell the difference, fakes an orgasm in the middle of Katz's Deli. This prompts the response from actress Estelle Reiner, "I'll have what she's having." Estelle, who is listed as "Older Woman Customer" in the credits, is also the mother of the film's director Rob Reiner.
The Frenchman gives a lesson on causality by making (or "writing" in the Matrix) a very tasty piece of cake.
8. Best Food-As-Costume Scene: Mrs. Doubtfire
In 1993 Robin Williams played Daniel Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire, a movie in which Daniel disguises himself as a housekeeper in order to see his kids after losing custody. It was undeniably funny but at the time it made some audience-members squirm as Daniel struggled to pull off the deception. Then, in 1999, Matt Damon played Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley and audiences across the world realized how much more uncomfortable a movie can make you feel than did Mrs. Doubtfire. This particular scene in the movie takes place when Daniel is trying to keep up the ruse with the inspector Mrs. Sellner.
In a trilogy where any time the viewer sees an orange he should brace himself for someone to die, Don Corleone did not pick up on the fruity Godfather pattern. Instead, he makes fangs out of an orange peel to scare his godson in an endearing scene right before, big surprise, he drops dead from a heart attack. The story goes that Marlon Brando improvised the orange peel fangs. The reason the young actor looks so scared in the scene is that, well, he probably was.
7. Best Food Imagination Scene: Hook
We're back with Robin Williams for #7. This time he's playing a grown up Peter Pan in Hook who needs to remember how to be Peter Pan again to save his children. In this scene he makes a big step as he remembers how to imagine food and then, apparently, how to imagine a sort of bizarrely colored paste, and then finally remembers how to slice coconuts in half with swords after a colored paste food fight.
Honorable-mention food imagination scene: A Christmas Story
Thanks, in part, to 24-hour marathons courtesy of TNT and TBS A Christmas Story seems to be slowly taking over for previous favorites Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life as America's Christmas movie. The other part is due to a clever story and some very funny scenes. In one of the best Randy, Ralphie's little brother, is convinced by his mother to eat his food by telling Randy to "show me how the piggies eat." The best part of the scene is the father's face of disapproval at his son's display.
6. Best Food for Alternative Means Scene: American Pie
The movie that launched a thousand sequels, had everyone saying, "this one time, at band camp..." and contained the scene that gave the movie its name.
Honorable-mention alternative means scene: Weeds
Though it's not a movie, the second season of Weeds replaces the warm pie with a microwaved banana and, well, you get the picture. A lot more lighthearted than the Oedipean onanism in Shane Botwin's future (the true Weeds fans will get this).
5. Best Food as Metaphor Scene: Kramer vs. Kramer
Though many movies have used ability to prepare food as a metaphor for general parenting ability, none did it better than Kramer vs. Kramer. In the first scene Dustin Hoffman as Ted Kramer struggles to make French toast for his son Billy the morning after his wife (Meryl Streep as Joanna Kramer) leaves. In the second cooking scene at the end of the movie, the morning before Billy is about to leave Ted to live with Joanna the two make French toast again but this time they are a well oiled machine.
Honorable-mention food as metaphor scene: Punch-Drunk Love
Little Miss Sunshine
4. Best Food to Die For: American Psycho
One of the cleverest opening credits of any horror film is in American Psycho: food preparation that looks like the scene of a crime. We are sure someone's blood is dripping to start the movie and then we are relieved when we see that it is actually raspberry sauce. It's the first but not the last time in the movie we are unsure whether or not something horrible is about to happen or for that matter happened.
Honorable-mention food to die for scene: Dexter
For the second time I have included a TV show but it seems wrong to mention American Pyscho's opening credits and not Dexter's.
3. Best Gross Scene: Animal House
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, but it's a great way to go through a movie. So proved John Belushi as John "Bluto" Blutarsky in Animal House. He's at his best in this encounter with Delta House rivals in the dining hall.
Honorable-mention gross scene: Dumb and Dumber
In this scene Harry and Lloyd act dumb and well, you get the idea.
Stand by Me
This scene is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, and takes me to my next category...
2. Best Eating Contest: Cool Hand Luke
In a scene that would make Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut proud Paul Newman, playing the title character Luke, eats 50 eggs in an hour. The accomplishment wins all the money in the prison, the adoration of his fellow inmates, and leaves Luke with an impressive paunch.
Honorable-mention eating contest: Matilda
"Bruce, Bruce, Bruce!"
Super Troopers
"I'm sorry, Bruce. These boys get that syrup in 'em, they get all antsy in their pantsy."
1. Best Actual Playing with Your Food Scene: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Two years after Jaws, Spielberg and Dreyfuss got together again to make Close Encounters of the Third Kind and created the most dramatic playing with your mashed potatoes scene in cinema history as Roy Neary constructs a model of Devil's Tower at the dinner table.
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