The Funniest Comedies Ever

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
      2006 | USA | Laughs: 5.1 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.6
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This review is in two parts: the day I gave up, and the day I persevered. Part 1. Will Ferrell is often too loud for my taste, and in this movie he breaks all records. He plays a star race car driver. I hung on for as long as I could because of the Southern accents, but after 23 minutes of ear-busting chaos (and not a single laugh), I had to give up. Firmly in the unwatchable category. Part 2. After reading some glowing reviews, I gave it another shot. It turns out I had stopped at the low point of the movie (the bar scene). After that, the story twists, and the characters become more attaching. Perhaps worth watching once if you can handle loud acting. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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Big Stan
      2007 | USA | Laughs: 8.4 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.2
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Convicted of fraud, a wealthy scammer trains in the martial arts to prepare for his time in jail, where he becomes "Big Stan". If you can tolerate a moderate dose of adult themes, this movie will be a welcome surprise, not least because it reinvents the dynamics of situations often seen in movies, such as life in prison. The cast is excellent. The lead actor (Rob Schneider), who directed the movie, comes highly recommended via 50 First Dates, where he was the brilliant Ula. (Last viewed: June 2012)

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My Blue Heaven
      1990 | USA | Laughs: 4.8 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.3
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A New York mobster (Steve Martin) lands in a California town where he must live under the FBI's protection until he appears as a witness at a mob trial. In his new community, our mobster is a round peg in a square hole, and gives lots of work to the assistant district attorney and to the FBI agent charged with his protection. I laughed once and smiled a lot, but overall the rewards are too low to bother watching this instantly forgettable movie. (Last viewed: June 2012)

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Moonstruck
      1987 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.1
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Sure, this romantic flick is instantly forgettable. Yet it's a touch more watchable that the average, thanks to a decent plot and decent acting which nearly overcome the boring backdrop—yet another intimate window into an Italian-American family. Enough of that already! I was pleasantly surprised to find Nicholas Cage in one of his better roles, which made me realize that he should have stayed in the 1980s. (So should I, for that matter.) But don't get your hopes up too high, this is no Birdy or Wild at Heart. (Last viewed: June 2012)

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Johnny English Reborn
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 7.8 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.3
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This is one of the rare occasions when the sequel far surpasses the original—easy to do when the original was the atrocious Johnny English. Roy Atkinson is back as a comic James Bond, a role that suits him well. This time there's enough of a script, and the movie made me laugh a few times. In creating the main character, the writers found a fine balance between hero and anti-hero. Johnny English is sometimes succesful on his own merits, and that makes the movie much more enjoyable than parodies where the "hero" is a complete goof. (Last viewed: May 2012)

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Cedar Rapids
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.3
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A naive insurance salesman who has never left his hometown finds himself having to swim with the sharks at a conference in the big smoke—Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This movie is more of a light-hearted take on middle-class working life in middle America than a "proper comedy" in the laugh-out-loud sense. It did not really make us laugh, but we enjoyed it. (Last viewed: May 2012)

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Rocketman
      1997 | USA | Laughs: 5.2 (Watch Once) | imdb: 5.9
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The humor in this movie about an oddball astronaut is mostly on the ten-year-old level, and it's a relaxing watch if you're not expecting more. One gag made me laugh hard enough to feel my abs. Save this for a day when you're not in the mood to hear a lot of foul language. It made me curious to watch more Disney movies. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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The Hangover Part II
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 4.7 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.4
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It's hard to like a movie when you don't find any of the characters likable. I didn't love the first Hangover to start with. Perhaps it's age, but I don't relate to any of the activities depicted in the movie. But if you're a party animal, maybe you'll enjoy this. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Walk Like A Man
      1987 | USA | Laughs: 3.1 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 4.8
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Raised by wolves, Bobo is found and returned back to society, to the worry of his brother who had started spending his inheritance. A well-intentioned movie that will make you smile and might make you laugh once or twice but just doesn't have enough to keep you going—unless you are between the ages of five and eight. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Three Fugitives
      1989 | USA | Laughs: 2.9 (Just Awful) | imdb: 6.2
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A terrible remake of the decent 1986 French comedy The Fugitives for North-American audiences—by the original director, Francis Veber, who has committed the best (The Dinner Game) and worst of comedies. On the very day of his release from a five-year jail term, a hardened bank robber (Nick Nolte) gets taken hostage by an inept amateur. Nick Nolte is a poor replacement for Gérard Depardieu, but at least he has a presence… Whereas in comparison to Pierre Richard (a wonderful "clown"), the amateur robber is a big zero. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Grown Ups
      2010 | USA | Laughs: 2.7 (Just Awful) | imdb: 5.9
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I like Adam Sandler, but this movie is an exercise in self-indulgence—and utter garbage. We're usually pretty generous about watching movies that don't start well (some take a while to develop) but we found this one unwatchable and stopped after 26 minutes. It felt like watching four friends hanging out and cracking mediocre jokes. I'm sure you can find three people to do that with (and actually laugh in the process): you don't need Adam Sandler and his buddies. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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The Hudsucker Proxy
      1994 | USA | Laughs: N/A (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.2
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A good film, just not one that makes you laugh out loud. As often, the Cohen brothers have created a cartoonish world, one that I found visually engaging, though not so pleasant on the ear as several of the characters speak in phoney accents at twice the normal speed. It's New York in the 1950s, and a recent graduate from a small college gets an instant promotion from the mailroom to president of a large corporation, a scheme devised by the board to temporarily drive the stock down to later repurchase it cheaply. Unfortulately for the board members, the presumed dunce invents the hula-hoop. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Couples Retreat
      2009 | USA | Laughs: N/A (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 5.5
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Four couples spend a week in an exotic resort for couple therapy. It felt like watching a lot of therapy, which is uncommon in the movies. A good film from that standpoint, just not a particularly funny one. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Idiocracy
      2006 | U.K. | Laughs: 7.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.6
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Humanity is getting dumber by the day, the opening sequence proposes. A "average man" who takes part in an experiment expects to be frozen for one year. When he wakes up 500 years later, he turns out to be the smartest man alive. The so-called "morons" of the future are frighteningly reminiscent of our contemporaries, of course, so this very funny film may have more of the documentary than of science fiction. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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A Fish Called Wanda
      1988 | U.K. | Laughs: 8.7 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 7.5
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Two robbers scheme to discover where their now imprisoned leader has hidden the diamonds. This film is a timeless classic, and not just for fans of John Cleese (the barister): all four lead actors shine on their own, as do some of the supporting cast. You might remember Wanda as a laugh-a-minute movie, but you may find yourself cringing as much as laughing, not least because of the sadistic brand of humor that animates the relationship between Wanda's "brother" Otto and stammer-afflicted Ken. Unlike many comedies, this film has an engaging plot with plenty of dramatic tension. In 1997, its winning foursome was reunited in Fierce Creatures, which deserves to be watched at least once. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Fierce Creatures
      1997 | U.K. | Laughs: 6.8 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.4
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Nine years after A Fish Called Wanda, the same four lead actors were reunited in this John Cleese movie. It's not a sequel—the plot has to do with the staff of a zoo defending their animals after a media moghul acquires their employer. If you need to compare the film to Wanda, you won't be happy: individually, each of the main characters is less than its 1988 counterpart, apart perhaps from John Cleese, who might be even better as a zookeeper than he was as a barrister. The plot is cute rather than twisted, the humor is straight rather than sadistic. Nevertheless, it's a good effort by a great crew, and if you forget comparisons for a while, you are sure to enjoy the movie and to laugh more than once. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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The Invention of Lying
      2009 | U.K. | Laughs: 4.3 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.4
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I'm not part of the sizable population of viewers who hate Ricky Gervais, so I was prepared to laugh as this movie had a good premise: in a world where everyone always tells the truth, one man discovers lying. Sadly, the execution was poor. For instance, the truth-tellers in Ricky's world feel compelled to blurt out things such as "I hate this job" or "you look awful" without prompting when they meet strangers, which borders on the pathological, and is certainly not the same as not lying. The movie would have worked better if the characters kept their mouths shut a lot more, speaking when asked, like "normal people". From that basis, there was a lot of room for comical situations. Skip unless you're a huge fan of Ricky's. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy
      1996 | Canada | Laughs: 8.8 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.9
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This movie by the Canadian comedy group "Kids in the Hall" was made two years after the end of their TV show. It's one of these rare cases when the movie is even better than the show. The plot: against the advice of its scientists, a pharmaceutical company rushes a "happy drug" to market before properly testing it. For sheer quirkiness this movie belongs on the same shelf as Python movies, but it's much, much funnier. Don't miss it. (Last viewed: April 2012)

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Orange County
      2002 | USA | Laughs: 6.5 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.2
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When his college counselor sends in the wrong transcript, the straight-A class president of a preppy Orange County high school gets turned down by Stanford University. As he tries to reclaim what is rightfully his, it seems to him that neither his drama-loving mom nor his authoritarian dad, surfer buddies, sweet girlfriend and stoner brother really want him to get in. For a movie involving high-school characters, this one is refereshingly low on vulgarity but features a cute story and good laughs. (Last viewed: March 2012)

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The Man with Two Brains
      1983 | USA | Laughs: 6.3 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.4
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This movie has one foot in the "watch once" category, the other in the "don't bother". The main reason I placed it on the "watch once" page is that it is the first movie I've seen where Steve Martin manages to make me laugh a few times. Martin plays a brilliant brain surgeon who grieves for his ex-wife and falls prey to an alluring gold-digger (Kathleen Turner). Despite the alarming title, Martin is neither annoyingly goofy (in fact there is no man with two brains in this film), nor does he draw on the hopelessly "white square American male" humor niche I also associate him with. Save this for a time when you are hung-over. (Last viewed: March 2012)

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Kabluey
      2007 | USA | Laughs: 3.2 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.6
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This movie missed the "unwatchable" category by a hair: after about twenty minutes, right when we were about to give up, it took a turn for the better. Still not laugh-out-loud, but a cute tender story about a man regarded by his family as a loser (he hands out flyers in a blue alien suit on a low-traffic road) and who turns out to be a calming influence on his sister-in-law and her two frantic boys. (Last viewed: March 2012)

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The Princess Bride
      1987 | USA | Laughs: N/A (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 8.1
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I waited 25 years to watch The Princess Bride, certain that with such a title, this had to be a "girly movie". Ironically, in the opening scene, that is the very fear of the present-era kid whose grandpa offers to read him the story. Cringe no more, this is no romantic fairy tale, but an adventure comedy loaded with humor if not hard laughs and with with interesting character—except for the pricess, of course. A sweet and entertaining film for a rainy Sunday afternoon. (Last viewed: March 2012)

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Saving Grace
      2000 | U.K. | Laughs: 4.4 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.9
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If you have never left your house and nor watched a comedy before, you might laugh. Otherwise, this is just another cute feel good movie—a fairly weak and boring one, despite everyone's good intentions. Two saving graces: the brief appearances of Tcheky Karyo (who was Bob in the original Nikita) and Bill Bailey (who was Bob in Black Books). (Last viewed: March 2012)

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Just Go With It
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 8.9 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.4
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When a plastic surgeon's new girlfriend finds a wedding ring in his pocket (a ring he uses as a "pick-up instrument"), he panics and tells her he's about to divorce. To convince her, he asks his assistant to play the role of his ex-wife. As the web of lies grows, the surgeon acquires "fake children", and the whole party finds itself on a "get to know one another" trip to Hawaii. The movie starts slow, but the comic power steadily builds up, so that by the halfway point you're really laughing. It's great to see Adam Sandler back in Hawaii (hello 50 First Dates). Sandler does not have a writing credit on this film, but it contains many sandlerisms, so he must have contributed his share of material. Some critics say that the movie is a weak remake of Cactus Flower (1969), but these are snobs in search of ways to flaunt their cinematographic knowledge. Don't believe them: Just Go with It is marvelously funny, Cactus Flower is not. (Last viewed: February 2012)

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Bridesmaids
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 8.8 (Laugh and Smile) | imdb: 6.8
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Now well past thirty, Annie has been struggling to find a footing in love, business and life at large. Chosen to be the maid of honor at her best friend's wedding, she now has a hard time dealing with the plans for an expensive event that symbolizes success for her woman friends. Most of all, she struggles with another bridesmaid who seems to have it all. This movie made me laugh a lot. Despite the laughs, I can't say that I loved Bridesmaids. Why? Many of the situations reminded me of one of the things I dislike in the States—the horrendous fakeness of social interactions in certain contexts. The least real part of the movie was the young policeman with an Irish accent, played by the same actor as Roy from The IT Crowd, whom it was a pleasure to see again. (Last viewed: Oct 2011 February 2012)

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Superbad
      2007 | USA | Laughs: 6.5 (Watch Once) | imdb: 7.6
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I tend not to enjoy films where grown-up males spend their time talking dirty about women, such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But when the dirty talkers are youngsters who have not yet experienced adult activities, as in Superbad, I tend to chuckle. Two kids who were dreaming of their high-school graduation party somehow find themselves at a party with 25-year-olds, and in other situations in the "grown-up world". For what it is, this movie is well put together. If you have a stomach for adult themes and foul language, you will laugh at least once and smile a lot. (Last viewed: February 2012)

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles
      1987 | USA | Laughs: 4.8 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 7.6
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This is one of those movies that is probably not as funny as you remember it—perhaps you felt good when you first saw it because it is sweet. I like John Candy, and I have nothing against Steve Martin, though a strange pathology makes me unable to laugh at his act, so in a way for me this is only half a movie. The plot? A study in the "unlikely pair" genre: two strangers get stuck together trying to get back to Chicago from New York City in time for Thanksgiving. (Last viewed: February 2012)

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Cactus Flower
      1969 | USA | Laughs: 3.9 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 7.2
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When a dentist decides to marry his girlfriend, the girlfriend wants to meet the wife he's supposed to divorce… but he had lied about being married, so he recruits his assistant to play the "fake wife". I'm sure this was a funny movie in 1969, but times change, and in 2012 it is not easy to identify to some of the characters. You may enjoy a bit of sharp dialogue and a few clever lines, but overall this is an easy movie to skip. The modern version with Adam Sandler (Just Go with It) is about twenty times funnier. (Last viewed: February 2012)

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The 40-Year-Old Virgin
      2005 | USA | Laughs: 3.5 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 7.1
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I like Steve Carell, and if anyone can pull off the role of a 40-year-old who is still a virgin, it is he, but this movie doesn't really make me laugh. In some ways, this is a cute story. In other ways, it's another boring excuse to show a group of men talking dirty. If you're stuck at home with the flu and run out of things to watch, this film will help you kill a couple of hours. Otherwise, skip it. (Last viewed: February 2012)

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The Delicate Art of Parking
      2003 | Canada | Laughs: 1.8 (Just Awful) | imdb: 6.3
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This mockumentary / satire about parking enforcement officers took a bit of work to watch. The main reason we went through with it was to see some of the crew of Corner Gas. To start with, the camera work was awful. To convey a sense of filming on the streets, the image is jumpy to the point of making you want to throw up. This is a stupid technique, guys, please grow up and lose that. Each of the actors performs well. Yet the overall performance is only a couple notches above that of a student film. That's because the film suffers from the mixed-genre syndrome—the producers didn't seem to have decided whether the movie was meant to be a believable mockumentary like Kenny or an all-out satire. On the mockumentary side, the tow truck driver is excellent and gives you a feel for his job. On the satire side, most of the characters are geeky caricatures. You don't feel a sense of compassion or love for the subject, unlike in Kenny, where you walk out with a lot of respect for portable toilet installers. Here, you can't help but feel that in the director's mind parking enforcers are a topic of ridicule. All that being said, there's a lot to enjoy in the film—starting with the actors' individual performances—but the overall product gets low marks. (Last viewed: February 2012)

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