By all accounts a lovely, decent, but complicated man, the late Chris Farley still to this day represents the concept of Hollywood typecasting. He was seen as a commodity for his physical comedy, and studios kept forcing him into that corner. He was happy to fall through tables and run into walls because it made people happy, and that was his primary goal in life, but it came at a severe emotional cost. He wanted to be more. He knew he was capable of being more. And one of the most heartbreaking aspects of his tragic early demise at the age of 33 was that he was very much on the cusp of breaking out of that typecasting. It absolutely would have happened. For one, he was supposed to be Shrek. He recorded 95% of the dialogue and was said to have been very enthusiastic during his recording sessions. Two, and more importantly, he was on track to star in a Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle biopic, provided he could stay sober for a set period of time (he was basically uninsurable later in his career).
Videos by ComicBook.com
Arbuckle was also deeply unhappy with his weight, but that weight became a moneymaker for others, so to keep working he kept on the weight. It would have been the perfect breakthrough into more dramatic acting for Farley, and one imagines that it could have been the catalyst for him having the confidence to then kick the narcotics and lose the weight (especially given how, towards the end of his life, most of his family members, themselves alcoholics, were kicking booze). But, in the end, all we got from him were 10 movies. Four featured him in a lead role and the rest were either cameos, glorified cameos, or supporting roles. The results varied and we’ve ranked them based on how well utilized (and hilarious) he was in said movies.
10) Wayne’s World
Yes, Wayne’s World is a great movie. In fact, it’s the best movie on this list. But just about anyone could have played Farley’s role here. On the page, it didn’t require any comedic chops, much less chops that were as formidable as his.
But don’t get us wrong, Farley made the most of his one-minute film debut. The way he puffs out his chest when he walks and gesticulates with his hand to signify a plane ride between St. Louis and Detroit (with a detour in Chicago) makes for arguably the funniest minute of a consistently funny film.
Stream Wayne’s World on Paramount+.
9) Airheads
Some people really like Airheads, and it is a fun little movie and ’90s kid timepiece. But as for Farley usage, it’s really just so-so.
He gets about five minutes of screentime here, and as was seen in a movie we’ll get to later, that was more than enough for Farley to make a real impression. But here he’s basically a cop who struts around with false confidence, gets distracted, wash-rinse-repeat.
8) Almost Heroes
Even with Farley in the lead role, Almost Heroes is such an awful film it has to rank towards the low end. It’s also pretty hard to watch because, even though he was sober throughout production, one can just look at him and recognize that the end was near. Not quite to the extent of his cameo on All That or his one SNL hosting gig, but still.
Almost Heroes was such an unfortunate lead role swan song for Farley to go out on. One has to wonder how he would have reacted to it. He didn’t care for Beverly Hills Ninja or Black Sheep at all, and it’s quite likely he would have seen this for what it was: a new low in the quality department. That said, his performance is solid, especially when the film is leaning into Bartholomew Hunt’s adventurous spirit. It’s just unfortunate the movie also has him drunk in a pig pen and in a ridiculous fight with an eagle for one of its eggs. Almost Heroes is the very definition of something (allegedly) working really well on the page but having too many far different comedic voices—Farley, the sarcastic-to-the-max Matthew Perry, and satirist director Christopher Guest—to really stick any landing.
Stream Almost Heroes for free with ads on The Roku Channel.
7) Coneheads
Coneheads was only Farley’s second movie, and it says a lot that he got a full-on supporting role after just a cameo in Wayne’s World. It also says a lot that he’s given a very straight role to play.
Suffice to say, Coneheads is not a good movie. In fact, it’s probably the poster child for the age-old criticism that four-minute SNL sketches typically don’t translate to 90-minute feature films. But it’s so refreshing to see a movie that brought out Farley’s sweetheart side as a romantic interest instead of a punchline for fat jokes or someone who flails at bats in cabins and falls down hills screaming.
Stream Coneheads on Paramount+.
6) Wayne’s World 2
Wayne’s World 2 is an overall underrated follow-up to the classic original film, especially given how it was the product of such a quick turnaround. And, while it may waste Christopher Walken, it makes great use of Farley, who plays Milton an aimless friend of Wayne and Garth’s who tries out to be one of the roadies for Waynestock.
Farley was fifth billed after only returning stars Myers, Carvey, and Carrere as well as Walken, who plays the film’s villain. That’s an impressive bump up from a single minute in the previous movie, and he makes the most of it. The best scene is the roadie tryout, which has the candidates dodging shot tennis balls. Milton bursts onto the stage to pick up the downed mic only to get downed himself by the fast-flying balls. Wayne approaches him and takes on the Louis Gossett Jr. role in An Officer and a Gentleman, berating Milton for his failure. He asks him why he’s still bothering to try and Milton semi-quotes Richard Gere’s Zack Mayo, screaming out “‘Cause I got no place else to go!”
Stream Wayne’s World 2 on Paramount+.
5) Dirty Work
For one, Dirty Work is an underrated movie. Unless you’re put off by the late Norm Macdonald’s particular drawn-out comedic stylings, there’s plenty to love here. It’s not high art, but it has energy.
Even still, it’s a movie that finds its true strength in two supporting performances. One is Chevy Chase’s part as a doctor who is in gambling debt to some very dangerous people. Each time we see him he has a fresh, increasingly grievous injury. The other, of course, is Farley’s. His five-minute role as Jimmy No-Nose is so enthusiastic and hilarious that it proved to be what his final feature length role couldn’t be: a fitting farewell. The way he screams at some skunks he thinks he’s trained, the way he yells “B! Se-eh-ven!,” his line “That’s the Saigon wh**e who bit my nose off!” It’s all hilarious.
Stream Dirty Work for free with ads on The Roku Channel.
4) Beverly Hills Ninja
Anybody who was around when Blockbuster Video was a thing almost certainly remembers seeing the VHS cover for Beverly Hills Ninja, with Farley’s Haru doing the splits above the rising sun. It’s a good cover image, and quite a bit better than the movie itself.
Beverly Hills Ninja is a tough one to unpack. On one hand it actually manages to capture some of that fish out of water feeling that was carried so effortlessly by Beverly Hills Cop. On the other, it’s just more of the same when it comes to what was expected out of a Farley vehicle. But, while it’s at best an average movie, it’s pretty important in the Farley filmography. For one, Farley plays Haru with a charming level of curiosity. He’s just a big kid in a gi with a smile on his face. And, while Farley himself cried after watching the movie (and not out of pride) he is fully responsible for what works about it.
And that leads us to the aspects that make it important. For one, it was Farley’s only sole leading man vehicle, and he proved he could carry an entire film. Two, his budding influence pushed it towards family friendly territory, and it absolutely is a movie a lot of kids grew up with and loved. Farley may have felt it was a step in the wrong direction at the time, but he loved making kids happy, so it would have been great to see his reaction to the younger audience members’ (and Christian Bale’s, as it turns out) love for it.
Stream Beverly Hills Ninja on Starz.
3) Black Sheep
Black Sheep was notoriously dashed together to cash-in on the success of Tommy Boy. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near as solid as that movie, and a big part of the problem is that it takes every ounce of that film’s narrative structure and concocts a slightly different story to go around the structure. Farley plays an accident-prone man who is afraid of disappointing someone he loves, and Spade comes in to act as a snarky barrier between him and society. It’s just, instead of selling brake pads to keep a deceased father’s company afloat, it’s now a brother who is running for office.
We also don’t get to see Farley’s character share a dynamic with a female lead, as we did in Tommy Boy. It’s just so focused on going from pratfall to pratfall that it forgoes all of the things that really made its spiritual predecessor work so well. Even still, Black Sheep is the second and final Farley-Spade movie, and that alone makes it important enough to rank fairly high for the purposes of our list. Unfortunately, it was also the movie that really started to shake its star’s confidence in himself, and fear that all he would ever be expected to do is fall down.
Stream Black Sheep on Prime Video.
2) Billy Madison
Even with his fifth film, Adam Sandler star vehicle Billy Madison, Farley was still relegated to either bit roles or supporting roles. This is a five-minute bit role…but it’s absolutely his funniest chunk of screentime. He delivers every role perfectly.
The scene where his angry bus driver is smacked in the back of the head by a thrown sandwich is pure ’90s comedy gold. He sits at the wheel fuming, his face beet red with tears nearly rolling from his eyes. At full volume he growls out “I’ll turn this damn bus around. That’ll end your precious field trip pretty damn quick” and begins to seethe. It’s great, and proof that he could take an aggressive, almost scary character, and find the exact right tone to make him a sad sack laugh riot.
Stream Billy Madison on YouTube TV.
1)Tommy Boy
Without a doubt Tommy Boy is the most important film to watch for anyone trying to understand Farley. His sweet nature is right there and its depiction of the title character as a hard partier in college comes from a place of truth. But the big throughline between film and life is Tommy’s relationship with his father, “Big Tom” Callahan II (played with the perfect amount of heart by the late Brian Dennehy).
There was no one’s opinion Farley valued more than his father, and that ended up being something of a double-edged sword. Farley told friends that he felt the need to remain heavyset so as not to make his father feel alienated. The same went for drinking. When we see Tommy’s devastation at the loss of his father, which is what kicks the movie’s narrative into gear, we are very much seeing Chris’ fear of losing his own dad (who was named Tom, hence the name of the movie). As it turned out, Chris died a year before his dad. It was enough to make his father stop drinking, but the damage to his liver had already been done. Tommy Boy is one of the definitive Saturday afternoon feel-good movies, but it’s also the one that most makes us wish we had seen what more Farley could have done were he not so immediately typecast.
Stream Tommy Boy on Paramount+.
Most Viewed
-
Warner Bros -
Image Courtesy of Ufotable -
Image via New Line Cinema -
Image Courtesy of Studio Pierrot
