Reely Bernie Faves: So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

For me, So I Married an Axe Murderer is everything wonderfully 1990s. It is the self-conscious Mike Myers schtick from Saturday Night Live, it is a younger (and much safer) San Francisco celebrated, and it is the best darn soundtrack for lifting your spirits. Most noteworthy: this is the rom-com that came out before the raunch and shock we see streaming everywhere today. They don’t make them like this anymore.

Truth be told, SIMaAM was not received well in ’93. The late, great film critic, Roger Ebert, called it “a mediocre movie with a good one trapped inside.” Mike Myers was always hit or miss with fans (except when paired with Dana Carvey to create “Wayne” and “Garth”), and the overall product is sloppily edited with montages that prove more awkward than endearing.

I remember my middle brother telling me that he and his friend were the only people in the theatre when So I Married an Axe Murderer came out. “I’ll wait until it’s out on rent.”

A couple months later, after a visit to Video Plus on the left side of the King Soopers grocery store, I popped in the VHS tape and was immediately hooked when The Boo Radleys sang “There She Goes” to the opening helicopter shot that somehow ends up on a cappuccino mug. Despite some Mike Myers blunderings and dated comedic oddities, the movie works on a blundering, odd level.

The thing is, back then, and even today, SIMaAM jumps feet first into an unbridled optimism for life, the romantic comedy genre, “The City by the Bay,” and the butterflies in your stomach when you like someone. The comedy is in the title, and, yes, the title is a one-trick-pony that keeps you guessing and hoping it’s not true despite how much Charlie (Myers) wants things to work out with Harriet (Nancy Travis).

For me, So I Married an Axe Murderer is an innocent, funny, 93-minute rom-com escape that gleams of ’90s nostalgia. Call it a remedy for the vulgar-for-the-sake-of-vulgar banalities of today.

Reely Bernie Faves:

1. Amadeus (1984)

2. Magnolia (1999)

3. Poltergeist (1982)

4. Pulp Fiction (1994)

5. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

6. The Godfather Part II (1974)

7. Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)

8. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

9. Goodfellas (1990)

10. Nosferatu (1922)

11. Pollock (2000)

12. Kicking and Screaming (1995)

13. Jaws (1975)

14. Fargo (1996)

15. Citizen Kane (1941)

16. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

17. The Endless Summer (1966)

18. Back to the Future (1985)

19. Angel Heart (1987)

20. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

21. The Goonies (1985)

22. Trainspotting (1996)

23. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

24. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

25. Bambi (1942)

26. The Paradise Lost Trilogy (1996-2011)

27. Psycho (1960)

28. Parenthood (1989)

29. Swingers (1996)

30. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

31. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

32. Smoke (1995)

33. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

34. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

35. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

36. City of God (2002)

37. 1917 (2019)

38. Black Swan (2010)

39. School of Rock (2003)

40. Mulholland Drive (2001)

41. Groundhog Day (1993)

42. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

43. The Greatest Showman (2017)

44. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

45. The Florida Project (2017)

46. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

47. So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

48. Shadowlands (1993)

49. Steve Jobs (2015)

50. ¡Three Amigos! (1986)