Simon Pegg/Nick Frost
Shared Filmography: “Shaun Of The Dead” (2004), “Grindhouse” (“Don’t” segment) (2007), “Hot Fuzz” (2007), “Paul” (2011), “The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn” (2011), “The World’s End” (2013), “Cuban Fury” (2014), “The Boxtrolls” (2014)
Appropriately for a pair who have a certain Laurel & Hardy-ish quality to their silhouettes, British duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have become one of the most acclaimed comedy pairings of recent times. Friends since Pegg was a struggling actor and Frost worked as a waiter in a Mexican restaurant, they came up together after Pegg wrote a part specially for his pal in TV show “Spaced,” the series that launched their careers, along with those of Edgar Wright and Jessica Hynes (nee Stephenson). And when they moved into movies, with the brilliant zom-rom-com “Shaun Of The Dead,” their pairing remained at the centre, via the friendship between slacker Shaun and his weed-dealing, vaguely parasitic, totally lovable mate Ed at the heart of the film. “Hot Fuzz,” the second film in Wright’s Cornetto trilogy (Frost and Pegg being the main constants) was even more of a bromance, while they wrote and starred in “Paul” together, played Thompson & Thompson for Steven Spielberg in mo-cap form, and closed off their trilogy with the stranger, sadder “The World’s End” (which perhaps suffered a little for making Frost the straight man). Their very real love for each other is always palpable on screen, their comic skills are always entirely in sync, and even in lesser projects, it’s a pleasure to see them together.
Best Film Together: Picking a favorite Cornetto movie often comes down to your mood: we’d perhaps pick “Hot Fuzz” today, if only because it’s the one that gives Pegg and Frost their best buddy-buddy showcase, and also because it’s essentially perfect.
Typical Quote:
Nicholas Angel (Pegg): “It’s Frank! He’s appointed himself Judge, Jury and Executioner.”
Danny Butterman (Frost): “He is not Judge Judy and Executioner.”
Jennifer Lawrence/Bradley Cooper
Shared Filmography: “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012), “American Hustle” (2013), “Serena” (2014), “Joy” (upcoming 2015)
With the December release (and a possible festival berth prior to that) of David O. Russell’s “Joy,” Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence come back for their third film with the director, and their fourth overall. While they have worked together under another director, Susanne Bier‘s “Serena” was hardly their finest hour, so it seems like the lightly acid comedy vibe of Russell’s recent work is best suited to the pair. Indeed, it’s hard to tell if it’s Russell who has defined the couple’s onscreen appeal, or if it is J-Law and B-Coops who have given his last few outings their success: ‘Silver Linings’ especially feels like it would have been very ordinary with any other actors in those lead roles. Separately, they are both very strong, likeable actors, with each pursuing smaller independent films even while Lawrence participates in two major franchises (Cooper is an unusual leading man in that, aside from his excellent voice work in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” he remains relatively unencumbered with comic book and/or young adult series). And so there’s a kind of parity to their onscreen personalities, a synchronicity that works well and comes across as a kind of understanding between them —the only major difference in their profiles is that while each has three Oscar nominations to their name (two each from Russell films), Lawrence is the only one to have so far managed a win.
Best Film Together: ‘Silver Linings’ obviously won Lawrence her Best Actress statue and is much more focused on those two characters, but performance-wise, the pair were so much fun in “American Hustle” that it may be our favorite of their collaborations so far.
Typical Quote (from “Silver Linings Playbook”):
Tiffany (Lawrence): You let me lie to you for a week?
Pat (Cooper): I was trying to be romantic.
Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau
Shared Filmography: “The Fortune Cookie” (1966), “The Odd Couple” (1968), “The Front Page” (1974), “Buddy Buddy” (1981) “JFK” (1991), “Grumpy Old Men” (1993), “The Grass Harp” (1995), “Grumpier Old Men” (1995), “Out to Sea” (1997), “The Odd Couple II” (1998)
“All my life I’ve been miserable, because I’ve wanted women to jump on me the way they jump on pretty men like Jack Lemmon” quipped Walter Matthau in an interview, complaining about how Billy Wilder would only ever cast him as the “lovable rogue… who should never under any circumstances play the love interest.” But while that hints at the kind of dynamic established between Lemmon and Matthau in their ten onscreen collaborations, it doesn’t quite get to the bottom of it. Because Lemmon was much more than just the “straight man,” and the crackle between the two was so much more compelling than any of the romances they enjoyed in their movies. “The Odd Couple” is the prototype: while their films would get more obvious and less endearing, their relationship always felt like a marriage, one dating back to happier times before the word “bromance” existed. Indeed, it’s the resolute bitterness and misanthropy at the core of their mutually reliant partnership that makes the sparring between the two so deeply funny. Other buddy dynamics can easily fall prey to sentimentality, but even in their sappier late films, there’s a riskiness to their interactions: it is never clear that they actually like one another, so their eternal dance takes on this element of timeless, very human absurdity.
Best Film Together: We could watch these two eternally, and “The Fortune Cookie” is much underrated, but we’re going to have to go with “The Odd Couple.” Of course.
Typical Quote:
Oscar (Matthau): Now kindly remove that spaghetti from my poker table…The hell’s so funny?
Felix (Lemmon): It’s not spaghetti, it’s linguini.
Oscar: [Throws linguini] Now it’s garbage.
Honorable Mentions: We couldn’t include every single memorable partnership and tried to keep a varied list, but there are definitely a few recurring team-ups that deserve a brief nod. Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland made eight films together, including the stone-cold classic “The Adventures Of Robin Hood,” while Bob Hope and Bing Crosby starred in the successful “Road To…” series, and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had a profitable comic partnership as well. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were obviously a legendary pair, backwards-and-in-heels.
More recently, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi would have done more great work were it not for the latter’s untimely passing, while Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and Julia Roberts and Richard Gere each have a couple of iconic rom-coms under their belts. We’d love to see a third outing for Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson at some point, while more recently, James Franco and Seth Rogen have had some memorable outings. And though they’ve mostly been confined to the “Ocean’s” movies, Brad Pitt and George Clooney are always good value on screen. Any favorite screen pairings of yours we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments.