Comedies from the 1980s

Go for Broke (Vabank)
      1981 | Poland | Laughs: 2.5 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.9
      wikipedia | who was involved?

In Polish, by the same director as Kiler. I don't usually go for period movies, but thanks to its strong plot and acting, this turned into one of the best heist movies I've seen. It's always nice to see unpleasant characters come undone. Smiled a lot, and laughed a few times towards the end. (Last viewed: January 2012)

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Un Chien Dans Un Jeu de Quilles
      1983 | France | Laughs: 2.2 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 5.2
      who was involved?

A Parisian psychologist travels to his native Brittany to help his half-brother fight the rich landowner who is trying to expel them from their family farm. A decent lighthearted movie with a bit of local texture and a few chuckles. (Last viewed: July 2014)

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Santa Claus is a Stinker (Le Père Noël est une Ordure)
      1982 | France | Laughs: 2.2 (Just Awful) | imdb: 7.6
      wikipedia | who was involved?

French. The few laughs are not worth the ninety minutes of crass dialogue. Happily skip. (Last viewed: July 2009)

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Throw Momma from the Train
      1987 | USA | Laughs: 2.1 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 6.3
      wikipedia | who was involved?

You know these self-absorbed movies about people making a movie? This movie is not about making movies, but it's written by a writer who seems more interested in writing about writers than about making people laugh. A writing instructor wants to get rid of his ex-wife, one of his students wants to get rid of his mother. The actors are well-intentioned, but what can they do without a script? I picked this up because I realized the site didn't have anything with Danny DeVito, who is supposed to be funny. (Get Shorty might be fun, but it's not a laugh-out-loud comedy.) I will persevere. (Last viewed: September 2012)

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The Reefer Brothers (Les Freres Pétard)
      1986 | France | Laughs: 2.1 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 5.2
      who was involved?

I hunted this movie down because I was desperate for another chance to see Jacques Villeret, the main actor of The Dinner Game. The price was too high. This movie has very little in the way of the witty dialogue often found in French comedies. Indeed, you can barely hear the actors speak under the loud and awful rock music that blares throughout the movie. The sound editing may very well have been done on a Walkman. I watched this movie so you wouldn't have to: unless you're masochistic, give it wide berth. (Last viewed: September 2012)

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Three Amigos
      1986 | USA | Laughs: 2.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.5
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

Three actors known as the "three amigos" in a series of Western movies are naively called in by a Mexican village facing trouble with real bandits. They misunderstand the telegram and travel to Mexico assuming they have been hired to put on a well-paid show. Cute, but probably not worth watching unless you're about eight years old. (Last viewed: September 2012)

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Amanece, Que No Es Poco
      1989 | Spain | Laughs: 2.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.6
      wikipedia | who was involved?

This movie is certainly a work of art, but as a comedy it wasn't all that effective for me.

It presents life in a village whose inhabitants have unusual behaviors, such as going to mass everyday. The absurd nature of the situations places it somewhere between Mel Brooks and Monty Python. At first, I found the movie delightful and very funny. However, by the halfway point, my brain had tired from the constant flow of nonsense situations, and I had to pause the viewing. The next evening, I enjoyed the rest.

High marks for originality. That's just not what I'm after when I sit down to watch a comedy. (Last viewed: February 2017)

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The Toy
      1982 | USA | Laughs: 2.0 (Chuckle) | imdb: 5.9
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A magnate's son convinces his father to hire a grown man to be his toy for a week. The movie is light-hearted but a bit chaotic for my taste, a trademark of John Landis, whose comedies don't tend to be my cup of tea.

It's a long while since I've seen the original after which this movie was made, the 1976 French film Le Jouet, and even though it didn't leave me with lasting impressions, given that it featured Pierre Richard in his golden years I'm fairly certain it was superior to the remake on most counts, especially the one that matters the most: laughs.

(Last viewed: April 2020)

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Brewster's Millions
      1985 | USA | Laughs: 2.0 (Chuckle) | imdb: 6.6
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A man is the beneficiary of a huge inheritance that comes with a caveat: to keep it, he must spend thirty million dollars over the course of thirty days. This premise leads to extravagant expenses that are inherently funny, but I can't help but feel that more could have been made of the situation. Although likeable in the role, Richard Pryor gave the worst performance of his that I've seen on film.

Watchable, but with low expectations.

(Last viewed: April 2020)

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Gregory's Girl
      1980 | U.K. | Laughs: 2.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.1
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A high-school senior becomes infatuated with the young woman who replaces him on the football team. This Scottish movie is just delightful. It is full of humor, but with a light touch—so even though we didn't laugh, we chuckled and smiled a lot. (Last viewed: May 2017)

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Café Express
      1980 | Italy | Laughs: 2.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.2
      wikipedia | who was involved?

This lighthearted movie lies in the tradition of Italian movies that depict the plight of "the common people", and the lead role is a shoe-in for Nino Manfredi six years after Bread and Chocolate. The railroad authorities have decided to nab a man who sells coffee on trains without a license, and we meet all kinds of characters over the course of an overnight journey. No real laughs as that's not the movie's genre, but it's a pleasant watch, often funny and sometimes touching. (Last viewed: July 2014)

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Nailcruncher (Mangeclous)
      1988 | France | Laughs: 2.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 5.0
      wikipedia | who was involved?

As a young man, I read Albert Cohen's Solal series of novels, in which Nailcruncher belongs. Translating the rich, intimate texture of Cohen's novels for the screen is always going to be a challenge. The director made it that much harder when he picked five actors who are not Jewish, let alone Sephardic Jews, to play the group of friends from a small Jewish community in Greece. It's not that the actors were bad—Pierre Richard and Jacques Villeret may in fact be my two favorite French comic actors. It's that there is an enormous cultural gap between a Catholic from cold Normandy (say) and a Jew from sunny Macedonia. Asking one to play the other is similar to asking Kevin Costner to play an Afro-American mechanic from Mississippi. Jacques Villeret would have had a chance (thanks to his Algerian ancestry) but he was in the wrong role. Apart from this major casting fumble, the movie is not without charm, but that charm is necessarily of a kitsch nature. I did laugh once in a scene involving pistachios—and none of the main actors. (Last viewed: August 2013)

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Arthur
      1981 | USA | Laughs: 2.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.9
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A young man from a blue-blood New York family drinks way too much, partly because his family wants him to marry a woman he doesn't love. When he sees a woman steal a necktie in front of his eyes, he falls in love. A very enjoyable movie, but certainly not a laugh-out-loud comedy. The 2011 remake is a definite skip. (Last viewed: September 2012)

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Beverly Hills Cop II & III
      1987 | USA | Laughs: 2.0 (Just Awful) | imdb: 6.5
      wikipedia | dmoz | who was involved?

BHC2: A typical sequel. More money, less juice. Idiotic plot, you only watch because of the actors. BHC3: better than number two, but still weak, though Alex Fowler and Serge give you plenty reason to smile. Lots of blood, not many laughs. (Last viewed: September 2009)

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Sexmission (Seksmisja)
      1984 | Poland | Laughs: 1.7 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 7.7
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Frozen for three years for a scientific experiment, two men wake up half a century later as the only males in a highly hierarchical world four hundred yards below the Earth's surface.

Out of this provocative premise come no great laugh, no great insight, but some chaotic or nonsensical situations that reminded me of Mel Brooks, perhaps my least favorite comedy director of all times.

Juliusz Machulski directed some fairly decent comedies (The Hitman comes to mind) but this is not one of them.

When you run out of ideas for a comedy, show some firm human female mammary glands.

(laughdb's eighth law of comedy)

That is the ancient formula the Polish director decided to follow. If that happens to be your vice, in this day and age, you probably have better ways to get your fix.

It's a long movie, so be warned: don't waste your time unless you want to watch "ironically", as fans of "cult" flicks like to do.

(Last viewed: December 2016)

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