History SeriousBusiness / Film

* The movie ''Hatley High'', in which chess is very serious business

* In ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', basketball is serious business. As is drama, at least in the mind of its teacher, if not in anyone else's.

* In Weekend by Creator/JeanLucGodard, anything related to the bourgeois lifestyle is Serious Business. Beware not to dent somebody's car. And for some reason everyone carries around a weapon [[WorldGoneMad or is insane]].

* {{Inverted}} in ''Film/DrStrangelove'', where it seems that only the audience appreciates the seriousness of the issue - namely, a nuclear holocaust putting an end to civilization. The entire cast of characters (with the exception of one or two) [[ComicallyMissingThePoint hilariously miss the point]].
** It's more a case that they take the wrong things seriously. This being a ColdWar movie, the emphasis is on making sure that America doesn't get too far behind in things like MutuallyAssuredDestruction as the USSR. [[note]]For anyone who doesn't remember the Cold War, this was sadly TruthInTelevision[[/note]] By the end of the movie, they're vowing that there won't be a "mine shaft gap" (i.e. that the Russians won't have more fallout survivors huddling in dirty mine shafts eking out shabby existences.)

* Walter in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' has bowling. He's willing to pull a gun over a rules infraction, and he'll even break the Sabbath to prevent a team member from quitting. There's a reason why the picture for Serious Business is a picture of him. Holding Smokey at Gunpoint. For barely stepping over the line. '''Barely'''.

* Walter in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' has bowling. He's willing to pull a gun over a rules infraction, and he'll even break the Sabbath to prevent a team member from quitting.

* The movie ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'', in which White Castle hamburgers are serious business. One other fast-food cook wants to burn down his restaurant for them.
* The movie ''Hatley High'', in which chess is very serious business

* The Creator/DisneyChannel move ''{{Dadnapped}}'' is all about this trope, in which the main character's father is kidnapped by his fans.
* ''Film/TheWizard'' plays with this trope in that in the world of the film, Nintendo is an integral part of the culture. Everyone knows it, everyone plays, and everyone's plugged in, to the point where "Video Armageddon" is greater than the Super Bowl.
* ''TheKingOfKong'' is about all the drama behind ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' world records. "''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' kill screen coming up..." There was even more serious business behind the scenes. Careful editing played up the rivalry and made a less obvious villain out of one of the players.
* Hip hop street dancing is Serious Business in ''Film/StepUp 2: the Streets''. This is cemented from the very beginning with a ridiculously dramatic opening monologue. It gets worse within the first 5 minutes, where a subway prank involving dancing is reported on the news as though it was ''a terrorist attack!'' (right down to the subway being ''closed down'')
* Christopher Guest's line of {{mockumentary}} comedies each deal with a different subject in this trope: community theater in ''Film/WaitingForGuffman'', dog shows in ''BestInShow'', and folk music in ''Film/AMightyWind''.
* We only get brief glimpses of it, but in the ''Film/BillAndTed'' movies, the music of Wyld Stallyns has become the basis for the entire society of the future, curing diseases, fostering world peace, and improving people's bowling and minigolf scores.
* Ballroom dancing is SeriousBusiness for the characters in Baz Luhrman's ''Film/StrictlyBallroom''.
* Music/TheWho's RockOpera ''Music/{{Tommy}}'': Pinball is ''SeriousBusiness''! They even create a new ''religion'' out of it.
* Creator/WillFerrell seems to have built his career around this trope: local newscasting in ''{{Anchorman|TheLegendOfRonBurgundy}}'', the fashion industry in ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'', fraternities in ''Old School'', and figure skating in ''Film/BladesOfGlory''.
* ''Film/SpeedRacer'' has automobile racing, which has become by far the biggest global sport and has a major impact on the prices of the biggest corporations.

* ''Franchise/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' is what the writers call "perhaps the first vegetarian horror movie." To keep some kind of tension, given that the monster is no threat to people, it turns out that everyone in town is insanely protective of their vegetables. For them, country fairs are serious business. "We're simple folk! It's all we have!" NB: In real life, competitive growing ''is'' sometimes taken quite seriously, and incidents of sabotage and theft are not unknown.

* In the documentary "Please Vote For Me," a Chinese third grade class gets way too competitive over an election to be class monitor. It includes slander, threats and bribery. For third graders.
* In ''Film/CanadianBacon'', Canadian beer is SeriousBusiness to Canadians. Casually mentioning that it sucks sparks a riot that almost escalates into a war.
* In ''Crossroads'', blues music is apparently serious enough to sell your soul to the devil for, and motivation enough to break self-confessed murderers out of custody. The selling your soul is a ShoutOut to blues legend Robert Johnson who claimed to have sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads to play guitar so well.
* In ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', basketball is serious business. As is drama, at least in the mind of its teacher, if not in anyone else's.
* In ''BandSlam'', band competitions are "Texas high school football big."
* The 2005 documentary ''[[http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0452669/ Pucker Up]]'', about five people travelling to North Carolina to compete in the National Whistling Competition.
* Mildly averted in ''{{Blackball}}''. The film itself is a spoof in which bowling is a very serious business. When the hero sets up a rivalry with the (60 year old) reigning champion and falls in love with his daughter, he wants to show her some of the magic and importance of bowling. Her response: 'I HATE bowling'. He more or less accepts this.

* In ''Mean Machine'' and ''Film/TheLongestYard'', association football and American football are SeriousBusiness to convicted felons. However, their primary motivation is actually to hurt the guards on the opposing team as much as possible.

* School politics and Fraternities in most college movies are played to the hilt, such as in the ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds'' films and ''Film/AnimalHouse''.
* ''Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story'' does this with professional paintball.
* ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'' parodies sports movies by making SeriousBusiness out of a children's ball game played by adults.
* Sometimes futuristic films will be set in a world where a bizarre game has replaced war:
** In the original ''Film/{{Rollerball}}'', wars have been replaced by a brutal form of roller derby.
** In ''Film/RobotJox'', America and the USSR resolve land disputes not by nuclear war, but by gladiatorial combat between giant robots. The trope is almost inverted in the fact that the bouts are televised and treated like sporting events by ordinary citizens.
* Both ''Film/FreeEnterprise'' and ''Trekkies'' [[{{Parody}} believe that]] ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is SeriousBusiness.
* ''Film/{{Fanboys}}'' deals with ''Franchise/StarWars'' fandom.
* Walter in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' has bowling. He's willing to pull a gun over a rules infraction, and he'll even break the Sabbath to prevent a team member from quitting.
* In ''Film/{{Avalon}}'', the eponymous game is so serious Ash makes a living out of playing it.
* ''Celtic Pride'' is about a couple of Celtics fans who kidnap the Utah Jazz star player so their team can win. In the end, all three men learn to just enjoy the game. That is until football season...

* ''Film/BallsOfFury'' does it with [[strike:Ping-Pong]] table tennis... In a ludicrously over-the-top way.
* ''The Ten'' does this in most of its stories. Most of the plots are motivated by people obsessing over fairly ludicrous things. It might just be a statement on people taking religion overboard, but it gets pretty inane. For instance, certain segments hinge entirely on people obsessing over:
** A man half-buried in the ground after a skydiving accident.
** Cat Scan machines.
** A normal ventriloquist dummy.
* ''Film/TheMightyDucks'': The local newspaper not only covers the games of a bunch of 12-year olds, but features them with ''headlines'', one including a dramatic "Face-Off" of the two coaches before the final game. The villain coach tells his team to intentionally hurt a player on the Duck's team due to him being on the Duck's due to re-zoning. Jesus Christ man, it's a game between 12 year olds!
* ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' does this with a number of yuppy affectations, but most especially [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUAExyakpLI&feature=channel business cards]]. There's a serious rivalry in Patrick's firm about how good they look, right down to the subtle shades of white and the font. In fact, they're so serious, Patrick kills the people who have business cards better than him. [[spoiler: [[UnreliableNarrator Or doesn't he??]]]]
* In ''Film/EXistenZ'', people are willing to commit murder over the titular video game. This was partly inspired by the trials and tribulations of [[Creator/DavidCronenberg the director's]] friend, Creator/SalmanRushdie. A major theme of the film is just how fanatically people can react to works of art.
* In ''Film/{{Mash}}'', the priest lets the main character know that one of the others is severely depressed and considering suicide by stating "He said poker is only a game"
* ''{{Duplicity}}'' plays this straight with the main plot; competition between two cosmetics companies is treated as SeriousBusiness. Competition in the microwave pizza industry is dismissed as silly.

* ''Film/AChristmasStory'': Told from the perspective of a child, everything is serious business. When Schwartz issues a "double dog dare," then skips the "triple dare" to go straight to the "triple dog dare," the crowd of boys are suitably impressed by the gravity of the situation. In another vignette, Ralphie decodes Annie's secret message like it's a matter of national security.

* Gently parodied and lampshaded in ''WhipIt''; the protagonist thinks rollerderby is a huge deal, but it's mostly because she lives in a small town that she hates and has nothing else going well for her. Her team's coach is obsessed with winning, but the rest of the skaters have a more relaxed view, and [[spoiler:when they lose the final, they still celebrate because hey! They made it from ''last place'' to the ''final!'']]
* ''[[Film/GrindHouse Planet Terror]]'': JT, the steakhouse owner, has a falling out with his brother, the sheriff, over his barbeque sauce recipe. Whenever they talk on the phone, the conversation turns to the barbeque sauce in under a minute. [[spoiler: After they've both been shot, JT finally tells his brother the recipe, and the sheriff uses his dying breath to promise never to tell anybody the recipe.]]
* In the DCOM movie ''CampRock 2'' there's a song called "Don't back down," which makes a rivalry between summer-camps out to be incredibly serious business. It's hilarious until you realize it's not meant as a parody.
** Made even better by the lines:
-->We can't back down,
-->There's too much at stake.
-->This is serious
-->Don't walk away.
* Wrist-cutting and being a ganguro in ''Film/VampireGirlVsFrankensteinGirl'' is treated like this.
* ''Film/GodOfCookery'' is a film about a disgraced chef battling to regain his honour.
* ''AkeelahAndTheBee'' has a character named Dylan, whose father ''insists'' that he be AsianAndNerdy and beat the titular character in the national spelling bee by saying that if he comes in second place in anything, he'll be second place for life.
* The sport Film/{{BASEketball}} from the film of the same name becomes serious business to many people very quickly, becoming one of the most popular sports in America only a few years after being invented by two drunk guys. And then the plot of the film is based around one of the team owners trying to make it ''Serious'' Business, trying to get the rules changed so making serious money is more possible.
* The zombie film ''HideAndCreep'' has a precious moment of this toward the beginning, where one of the main characters enters a diner and orders Coke, only to find out that they only serve Pepsi. He then goes into a massive pro-Coke/anti-Pepsi rant, finally summing up that the diner was "like red China" for not giving the diners their choice of cola.
* Creator/JackBlack's character puts it in exactly these terms in ''Film/SchoolOfRock'': "Now, this is serious business here. We've got a mission. Putting on a great rock show is the most important thing. One great rock show can change the world."
* Another Disney Channel example would be AlleyCatsStrike. however, despite first guess, the SeriousBusiness isn't so much bowling itself, but rather the rivalry between the city's two schools. Though in this case the TrueCompanions are as bewildered by their schools behavior as anyone else would be.
* The third ''Otto'' movie (from Germany). Two eco-freaks arguing whether a used teabag belongs into normal garbage or natural garbage. Otto solves the problem solomonically: The content of the teabag is natural, the teabag itself is non-natural, [[UpToEleven but then there's the question about what to do with the string, the attached paper and the metal clamp]].

* In ''DeathToSmoochy'', children's television seems like SeriousBusiness, until you find out that it pales in comparison to the importance of ice shows.
* In ''Film/{{Tampopo}}'', most of the characters treat the preparation, serving and consumption of food as serious business.
** Even narrower that than. Not simply food, but noodle soup!
* [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029342/ Morris: a Life With Bells On]]; Morris is very serious business...
* Creator/IngridBergman's marriage to RobertoRosellini was so badly received that she was slammed on the floor of the ''U.S. Senate''.
* In ''Film/AVeryHaroldAndKumar3DChristmas'', Harold's father-in-law (played by Creator/DannyTrejo) takes Christmas and especially Christmas trees very seriously. Naturally the tree he brought is destroyed by Kumar and the title characters have to go out and find a replacement.
* ''Film/FurryVengeance'' would have the animals tormenting Brendan Fraser's character because they aren't going to take well of his plans of tearing down their forest for a development.

* Played first for comedy and then for horror in ''Film/TheWildHunt'', in which a group of [=LARPers=] take the game far too seriously.
* In ''Film/KillBill'', Hattori Hanzo invokes this trope by name while discussing Japanese pronunciation with the Bride.
* In ''Film/TheFP'' is built around the inherent comedy of the gangs of Frazier Park dueling by playing "[[VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution Beat Beat Revelation]]." For some reason this is abandoned in the final act, when a duel escalates into standard gunfights and fisticuffs.
* In ''Film/{{Rad}}'', the entire culture of a town is built around BMX. This is cited in ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s "[[http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-4-weirdest-lessons-80s-movies-really-wanted-to-teach-us/ The 4 Weirdest Lessons '80s Movies Really Wanted to Teach Us]]" as the most ridiculous example of a hobby that saves the world.
* In the little-known Lisa Whelchel film ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083243/ Twirl]]'', ''baton-twirling'', of all things, is treated as this.
* In ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'' the ''entire trailer-park'' drops what they're doing runs over when they hear Alex is about to break the record score on the Starfighter video game. They are all elated when he does, and Alex later tells his mother that this day will be remembered forever in the trailer-park. Possibly justified, as there doesn't seem to be much else ''to do'' there, and it's implied they have all played it at some point.

* In ''Film/PitchPerfect'' everyone takes Acapella far too seriously. Especially Aubrey, though Becca considers it a useless diversion at first.
* ''Film/InAWorld...'': Voice-over work, specifically for movie trailers, which is treated as far more prestigious than other jobs that use the same skill set like advertising for products other than movies, voice coaching, narrating audiobooks, or voice acting for animation.

* The Movie Hatley High, in which chess is very serious business

* In Film/PitchPerfect everyone takes Acapella far too seriously. Especially Aubrey, though Becca considers it a useless diversion at first.

* In ''TheFP'' is built around the inherent comedy of the gangs of Frazier Park dueling by playing "[[VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution Beat Beat Revelation]]." For some reason this is abandoned in the final act, when a duel escalates into standard gunfights and fisticuffs.

* IngridBergman's marriage to RobertoRosellini was so badly received that she was slammed on the floor of the ''U.S. Senate''.

* WillFerrell seems to have built his career around this trope: local newscasting in ''{{Anchorman|TheLegendOfRonBurgundy}}'', the fashion industry in ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'', fraternities in ''Old School'', and figure skating in ''Film/BladesOfGlory''.

* In ''Film/AVeryHaroldAndKumar3DChristmas'', Harold's father-in-law (played by DannyTrejo) takes Christmas and especially Christmas trees very seriously. Naturally the tree he brought is destroyed by Kumar and the title characters have to go out and find a replacement.

* ''TheKingOfKong'' is about all the drama behind ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' world records. "''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' kill screen coming up..." There was even more serious business behind the scenes. Careful editing played up the rivalry and made a more obvious villain out of one of the players.

* Bowling seems to be pretty popular for this trope, as ''{{Kingpin}}'' also did it, what with BillMurray's character getting his young, upstart rival's hand shoved into a ball return through a "misunderstanding" with some gangsters... who also bowl.

* Ballroom dancing is SeriousBusiness for the characters in Baz Luhrman's ''StrictlyBallroom''.

* ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' does this with a number of yuppy affectations, but most especially [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUAExyakpLI&feature=channel business cards]]. There's a serious rivalry in Patrick's firm about how good they look, right down to the subtle shades of white and the font. In fact, they're so serious, Patrick kills the people who have business cards better than him.

** It's more a case that they take the wrong things seriously. This being a ColdWar movie, the emphasis is on making sure that America doesn't get too far behind in things like MutuallyAssuredDestruction as the USSR. By the end of the movie, they're vowing that there won't be a "mine shaft gap" (i.e. that the Russians won't have more fallout survivors huddling in dirty mine shafts eking out shabby existences.)

* In ''{{Avalon}}'', the game is so serious Ash makes a living out of playing it.

** Justified in the case of the main character, as it's his only way to support himself (and later his son).

* In ''Film/EXistenZ'', people are willing to commit murder over the titular video game. This was partly inspired by the trials and tribulations of [[Creator/DavidCronenberg the director's]] friend, SalmanRushdie. A major theme of the film is just how fanatically people can react to works of art.

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* The new Disney Channel move ''{{Dadnapped}}'' is all about this trope, in which the main character's father is kidnapped by his fans.
* ''TheWizard'' plays with this trope in that in the world of the film, Nintendo is an integral part of the culture. Everyone knows it, everyone plays, and everyone's plugged in, to the point where "Video Armageddon" is greater than the Super Bowl.
* ''KingOfKong'' is about all the drama behind ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' world records. "''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' kill screen coming up..." There was even more serious business behind the scenes. Careful editing played up the rivalry and made a more obvious villain out of one of the players.
* Hip hop street dancing is Serious Business in the film ''StepUp 2: the Streets''. This is cemented from the very beginning with a ridiculously dramatic opening monologue. It gets worse within the first 5 minutes, where a subway prank involving dancing is reported on the news as though it was ''a terrorist attack!'' (right down to the subway being ''closed down'')
* Christopher Guest's line of {{mockumentary}} comedies each deal with a different subject in this trope: community theater in ''WaitingForGuffman'', dog shows in ''BestInShow'', and folk music in ''Film/AMightyWind''.
* We only get brief glimpses of it, but in the ''[[BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure Bill & Ted]]'' movies, the music of Wyld Stallyns has become the basis for the entire society of the future, curing diseases, fostering world peace, and improving people's bowling and minigolf scores.

* TheWho's RockOpera ''{{Tommy}}'': Pinball is ''SeriousBusiness''! They even create a new ''religion'' out of it.
* Will Ferell seems to have built his career around this trope: local newscasting in ''{{Anchorman}}'', the fashion industry in ''{{Zoolander}}'', fraternities in ''Old School'', figure skating in ''BladesOfGlory''.

* In ''CanadianBacon'', Canadian beer is SeriousBusiness to Canadians. Casually mentioning that it sucks sparks a riot that almost escalates into a war.

* In ''HighSchoolMusical'', basketball is serious business. As is drama, at least in the mind of its teacher, if not in anyone else's.

* In ''GreenStreet'' (or ''Green Street Hooligans'' for Americans), a visiting American learns that association football appreciation is SeriousBusiness in the UK, falling into a circle where it leads to brutal gang brawls, mutilation, and outright murder.
* In ''Mean Machine'' and ''TheLongestYard'', association football and American football are SeriousBusiness to convicted felons. However, their primary motivation is actually to hurt the guards on the opposing team as much as possible.
* In ''HotFuzz'', everyone's obsessed with Sandford winning the Village of the Year contest, [[spoiler: taking it to homicidal extremes.]]
* School politics and Fraternities in most college movies are played to the hilt, such as in the ''RevengeOfTheNerds'' films and ''AnimalHouse''.

* ''DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'' parodies sports movies by making SeriousBusiness out of a children's ball game played by adults.

** In ''RobotJox'', America and the USSR resolve land disputes not by nuclear war, but by gladiatorial combat between giant robots. The trope is almost inverted in the fact that the bouts are televised and treated like sporting events by ordinary citizens.
* Both ''FreeEnterprise'' and ''Trekkies'' [[{{Parody}} believe that]] ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is SeriousBusiness.
* ''Film/{{Fanboys}}'' deals with ''StarWars'' fandom.
* Walter in ''TheBigLebowski'' has bowling. He's willing to pull a gun over a rules infraction, and he'll even break the sabbath to prevent a team member from quitting.

* The film ''Celtic Pride'' about a couple of Celtics fans who kidnap the Utah Jazz star player so their team can win. In the end, all three men learn to just enjoy the game. That is until football season...
* Bowling seems to be pretty popular for this trope, as ''Kingpin'' also did it, what with BillMurray's character getting his young, upstart rival's hand shoved into a ball return through a "misunderstanding" with some gangsters... who also bowl.
* ''BallsOfFury'' does it with [[strike:Ping-Pong]] table tennis... In a ludicrously over-the-top way.

* ''AmericanPsycho'' does this with a number of yuppy affectations, but most especially [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUAExyakpLI&feature=channel business cards]]. There's a serious rivalry in Patrick's firm about how good they look, right down to the subtle shades of white and the font. In fact, they're so serious, Patrick kills the people who have business cards better than him.
* In ''EXistenZ'', people are willing to commit murder over the titular video game. This was partly inspired by the trials and tribulations of [[DavidCronenberg the director's]] friend, SalmanRushdie. A major theme of the film is just how fanatically people can react to works of art.

* ''AChristmasStory'': Told from the perspective of a child, everything is serious business. When Schwartz issues a "double dog dare," then skips the "triple dare" to go straight to the "triple dog dare," the crowd of boys are suitably impressed by the gravity of the situation. In another vignette, Ralphie decodes Annie's secret message like it's a matter of national security.

* ''[[GrindHouse Planet Terror]]'': JT, the steakhouse owner, has a falling out with his brother, the sheriff, over his barbeque sauce recipe. Whenever they talk on the phone, the conversation turns to the barbeque sauce in under a minute. [[spoiler: After they've both been shot, JT finally tells his brother the recipe, and the sheriff uses his dying breath to promise never to tell anybody the recipe.]]

* The film ''AkeelahAndTheBee'' has a character named Dylan, whose father ''insists'' that he be AsianAndNerdy and beat the titular character in the national spelling bee by saying that if he comes in second place in anything, he'll be second place for life.
* The sport Baseketball from the film {{Baseketball}} becomes serious business to many people very quickly, becoming one of the most popular sports in America only a few years after being invented by two drunk guys. And then the plot of the film is based around one of the team owners trying to make it ''Serious'' Business, trying to get the rules changed so making serious money is more possible.

* Jack Black's character puts it in exactly these terms in ''SchoolOfRock'': "Now, this is serious business here. We've got a mission. Putting on a great rock show is the most important thing. One great rock show can change the world."

* In ''MysteryTeam'' [[spoiler: Duncan]]'s use of the word "fuck" is considered more distressing than two double homicides.

* In ''{{Tampopo}}'', most of the characters treat the preparation, serving and consumption of food as serious business.

* In ''KillBill'', Hattori Hanzo invokes this trope by name while discussing Japanese pronounciation with the Bride.

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* Christopher Guest's line of {{mockumentary}} comedies each deal with a different subject in this trope: community theater in ''WaitingForGuffman'', dog shows in ''BestInShow'', and folk music in ''AMightyWind''.