The Funniest American Comedies

What Women Want
      2000 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.4
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

After an electric shock, a macho ad executive acquires the gift of hearing the thoughts of all the women he comes across. He goes through the predictable phases: horror at his predicament, glee in light of its potential benefits, reform from macho-man into sensitive guy, loss of the gift. Highly recommended if you're desperate to see a lot of Mel Gibson without a shirt and you really wish men would change. Otherwise, I wouldn't rush to the video store, but if someone wants to make you watch it, it's not a bad piece of entertainment. If only they had cast Paul Hogan—another Australian, not much seen outside of Crocodile Dundee. (Last viewed: July 2012)

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The Sitter
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 5.7
      wikipedia | who was involved?

To get his mother out of a bind, a young man agrees to babysit her friend's three children. Soon the situation goes from merely bad to being chased by a gang of drug dealers. There was plenty of potential for laughter, but the opportunity was missed. Still, the movie is entertaining enough to watch once if you've got nothing better around. (Last viewed: July 2015)

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Trainwreck
      2015 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.2
      wikipedia | who was involved?

After dating an endless string of unchallenging men, a young woman breaks the pattern when she becomes involved with a star surgeon. The movie had many funny moments and probably made me laugh a couple of times. But I grew up in times when if a movie was longer than two hours there had to be a good reason for it—so for me 124 minutes seemed like too much time to tell this simple story. I'm also not fond of the approach of trying to draw the audience by shocking them in the opening scenes. With that said, this is a decent little movie if you're awake enough to last the distance and if you don't mind a strong focus below the belt. (Last viewed: April 2016)

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The In-Laws
      1979 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 7.3
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

Days before his daughter's wedding, a dentist makes the acquaintance of the groom's father, who asks him a favor that leads to a chain of events which shakes the roots of the dentist's conservative life. Peter Falk was delightful as the groom's father, and so was Alan Arkin, his counterpart. No big laughs, but an entertaining movie that has aged well. Please steer clear of the 2003 remake. (Last viewed: August 2015)

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The Wedding Singer
      1998 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.8
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

For his entire life, a young man who sings at weddings has been dreaming of getting married, but his fiancee walks out on him on his big day. Meanwhile, a young woman who waits tables at the weddings he sings at is about to marry the wrong guy. This movie belongs more in the romance genre than with romantic comedies, but it has a few chuckles and it's extremely cute. The soundtrack is a bit of a 1980s best-of, which I am never sad about. It's also a treat to see Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore together "again" after 50 First Dates—which in fact won't be made for another six years. (Last viewed: Apr 2007 October 2012)

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This Is the End
      2013 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 6.6
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A group of Hollywood celebrities barricade themselves in a house on the day of the Apocalypse. Apart from a few good lines from Jonah Hill, much of the humor in this film stems from the grotesque nature of the plot and situation. Usually, when a movie is bad that is because it fails at what it sets out to do, but that is far from the case here. In essence, it seems to me that the producers tried to make a "cult movie" (something that is so bad that it becomes good for a certain audience), and they achieved that goal to perfection. If you're into cult movies you will probably enjoy this. I'm not, hence the low rating. (Last viewed: October 2013)

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Black Sheep
      1996 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.3
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A candidate for the job of Governor of Washington State would be doing really well if it weren't for one huge liability: his younger brother, who is a human wrecking ball. The idea had potential, but I couldn't get past the first half hour. Just not my kind of humor, I guess. (Last viewed: October 2012)

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Top Secret!
      1984 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Smirk) | imdb: 7.2
      wikipedia | who was involved?

I'm no fan of the absurd as a sub-genre of comedy movies (the only thing I hate more than a bad Monty Python skit is a Mel Brooks film) but somehow found this production surprisingly tolerable. It didn't make me laugh, but I was entertained enough to watch it all the way through.

Why is it that this patently absurdist movie didn't repel me, what was the difference? I think the difference was that they knew when to stop — which is right away. Instead of laying it on thick after a gag, the camera and the action swiftly moves on to the next thing. Even though this still isn't my favorite kind of comedy, at least I found the restraint admirable.

Oh, the plot. Does it matter? Something about an American rock singer in an oppressive East Germany. (Last viewed: May 2019)

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Long Shot
      2019 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Chuckle) | imdb: 6.8
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A progressive journalist needs to fit into the square world in order to write speeches for the Secretary of State, his former babysitter with whom a romance soon blossoms.

It felt like a long time since I'd watched a Seth Rogen movie so seeing him act again was a delight. There were some funny moments — none of them of the laugh-out-loud kind for me, but enough smiles and chuckles to keep me going.

More importantly, whoever made that movie didn't lose the plot and steered that boat safely to port. In its handling of politics in this partly disillusioned world, for me this movie will be a milestone: the first romantic comedy of the Trump-Sanders era.

(Last viewed: July 2019)

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Revenge of the Nerds
      1984 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.7
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

A group of freshman college nerds try to overpower the fraternity jocks who have been persecuting them. It's a cute underdog story that might make you smile, but don't expect lots of laughs. For me it was worth a watch because I'd heard the title a thousand times and wondered what the movie was all about, but if you don't care about keeping up with popular culture you can easily give it a miss. (Last viewed: November 2012)

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Dirty Grandpa
      2016 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 5.9
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Shortly after his wife's funeral, a man coerces his preppy grandson to act as wingman at a sleazy Florida resort. It's actually crasser than it sounds. If you're a fan of the growing subgenre of movies where Robert De Niro says the F word a hundred times, this one might be for you, and this website probably isn't.

Now that we got that out of the way, the real problem with this film is that it's the wrong message. What's the message? That it's okay for seventy-year-old men to lust after college girls. It wouldn't surprise me if I learned that the maker of Viagra had financed the film. Who else benefits from that message? The promoters of that decaying world. Relax, by "world" I didn't mean the United States as a whole, but the film industry, as a start.

And what's the right message? That ageing men who see their potency decline should be grateful to be freed from the shackles of their biology—that's a benediction. Now someone please go make that film. It actually has a chance of being funny, like anything that presents an uncomfortable truth. (Last viewed: August 2018)

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Easy A
      2010 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 7.0
      wikipedia | who was involved?

To get noticed among her peers, a high-school girl let it be believed that she sleeps around. Strong characters, a truckload of good actors: this movie had lots of potential, but it fails to deliver in the one area this site is concerned with: laughter. I classified it among broken comedies because throughout the movie I wanted to laugh and couldn't, but if you started with low expectations on that side I suppose you could enjoy it as a light-hearted flick, as many of the characters (from the hero's dad to her arch-conservative nemesis) are delightful. (Last viewed: October 2012)

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A.C.O.D. (a.k.a Adult Children of Divorce)
      2013 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 5.7
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A man who has had to mediate the incendiary relationship between his divorced mother and father for most of his life discovers that as a nine-year-old he had been one of the subjects of a best-selling book about the Children of Divorce, whose author now proposes to write an equally intrusive follow-up. It is hard to say exactly why this movie doesn't work. The actors are competent, the plot makes more sense than most Hollywood comedies, yet toward the second half one becomes imbued with an overwhelming sense of "so what". Perhaps it is because in some sense the movie has the same whiny voice as these horrendous white boy bands of the 1990s—some of their main flag bearers, if I recall, were Hootie & the Blowfish, Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows, Gin Blossoms and Barenaked Ladies. Just as it was hard to care when some rich kid frantically strummed his guitar while lamenting that his parents hadn't bought him new wheels for his skateboard, it's hard to care about an adult character's parents' divorce of twenty years back. There are worse problems in this world. (Last viewed: January 2014)

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Last Vegas
      2013 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.6
      wikipedia | who was involved?

When Billy announces that he is about to get married in Las Vegas, his three friends of sixty years meet him there to throw him a bachelor party. This is a harmless Hollywood film that lets itself watch on a day when you're not feeling demanding. It has plenty of star power (Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas), and the stars have no trouble carrying the movie. It has plenty of smiles, but if you're looking for laughs… look elsewhere. (Last viewed: February 2014)

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Bad Moms
      2016 | USA | Laughs: 3.0 (Chuckle) | imdb: 6.2
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Three women who've come to realize that the expectations placed on contemporary mothers are way too high decide to relax their standards. I'd read a number of bad reviews but found this comedy surprisingly decent. Given the number of comedies focused on the same tired mens' themes, it's a nice to hear about some women's issues for a change. The plot has nothing spectacular, but the cast did a great job with what they had. I was entertained.

Wanda Sykes' short appearance was a fun bonus.

(Last viewed: October 2019)

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