Comedies from the 2010s

The Laundromat
      2019 | USA | Laughs: 0.5 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 6.3
      wikipedia | who was involved?

After watching half of this movie, what I think I understood is that it aims to explain in a light-hearted way the intricate ways in which certain legal entities are set up in order to shield their owners from any responsibility. It's neither funny nor clear in its direction — I couldn't get into it. (Last viewed: February 2021)

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Mio fratello rincorre i dinosauri
      2019 | Italy | Laughs: 0.5 | imdb: 6.6
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A cute film about a teenage boy's mixed feelings about his younger brother, who has Down syndrome. Smiles, but no laughs.

I was surprised to see Pedro Almodóvar's fetish actress Rossy De Palma in an Italian film and enjoyed seeing Alessandro Gassman from Io ti cercherò and the female protagonist of Bang Bang Baby.

(Last viewed: May 2022)

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The Other Woman
      2014 | USA | Laughs: 0.5 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 6.0
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A wife and two mistresses team up to punish their unfaithful man. I decided to watch this movie because of an imdb review from someone stating that they couldn't stop laughing. It saddens me, then, to have to report that I couldn't start laughing. The theme is certainly perfect for comedy, and I would love to watch it properly executed. Perhaps that film already exists in the vast repository of world comedies—I hope to hear about it someday from someone writing from a place such as France, Italy or Egypt. (Last viewed: December 2017)

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Negociador
      2014 | Spain | Laughs: 0.5 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.4
      who was involved?

Two men spend weeks holed up in a French hotel to negotiate a cease-fire between the Spanish state and the separatist organization from the Basque country.

I was drawn to this movie because its main actor was a prominent figure in Spanish Affair, one of my favorite Spanish comedies. Also, the movie bears the 'comedy' tag on imdb, although as it turns out, it scores a zero on the laugh-o-meter.

In spite of that, it is an intimate little movie which I thoroughly enjoyed. It must have cost all of twenty dollars to make, but it left me infinitely more satisfied than most of those blockbuster productions from Southern California. (Last viewed: February 2018)

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Carnage (a.k.a Swallowing the Past)
      2017 | U.K. | Laughs: 0.5 (Watch Once) | imdb: 7.8
      who was involved?

Pretending to report from the year 2067, this mockumentary purports to present the history of how all of mankind became strictly plant-eaters and came to regard the use of animal products as a barbarous act. This is not "slap-your-thighs" kind of comedy, but I like what they were trying to do and it is well-executed. The use of irony follows the British tradition and will please those who are as satisfied with a smirk as with a laugh. (Last viewed: July 2018)

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What To Expect When You're Expecting
      2012 | USA | Laughs: 0.5 (Just Awful) | imdb: 5.7
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Several couples plan to have a baby, expect a baby, have a baby. Although there were a few chuckles, this was by far the worst comedy I've watched all year. At an early stage they turned the sappy tap on and never turned it off—it kept dripping, dripping, dripping. The last twenty minutes or so felt like an unending baby-fest. I don't mind indulging my partner in a chick flick sometimes, but gentlemen, do not concede on this one or the hair under your arms will fall out. (Last viewed: November 2015)

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Valentinas Vienas
      2013 | Lithuania | Laughs: 0.3 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 6.3
      who was involved?

I hadn't seen a Lithuanian movie before, and after this I'm still not sure that I have. This is basically an American movie in a foreign language. A bunch of people hook up on Valentine's day. Everybody is attractive, healthy and fairly wealthy. It's well-made, it's eye-pleasing, and it's uninteresting in the exact same way that some American productions can be uninteresting. If the idea was to have a local success and cash up on a remake in the States, then maybe it will work—good luck to all involved. But if you want to laugh, which after all is the focus of this site, you won't want to waste your time. (Last viewed: July 2014)

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The Lobster
      2015 | Ireland | Laughs: 0.2 (Smirk) | imdb: 7.2
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According to the laws of the movie's strange world, people check in to a country hotel where they must promptly find a wife or husband, under penalty of being turned into an animal. I must say that the synopsis I read gave me the impression that the movie was almost too quirky to watch. And yet, once I dove in after months on the line, I quickly fell under the film's spell. Not a "haha" kind of comedy, but a pleasant and original film. (Last viewed: June 2018)

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Doug Stanhope: No Place Like Home
      2016 | USA | Laughs: 0.2 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 7.5
      who was involved?

In this set Doug had a few good points. I do appreciate good points, but there's a whole world of non-fiction writing that can supply enough of those. The main reason I watch stand-up is to laugh, and the set didn't make me laugh—not once—which saddened me as I thought Doug had done a surprisingly good job of staying in funny shape on the last tape that I'd watched, Beer Putsch Hall. I hope he bounces back as I would hate to lose him as the lone star that he is on the stand-up skyscape. (Last viewed: June 2017)

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A Beginner's Guide to Endings
      2010 | USA | Laughs: 0.2 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 6.4
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Although this movie is tagged as a comedy, it is one in the long series that have been trying (and failing) to emulate the style of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It might have a lot of edge, but it doesn't cut. Skip. (Last viewed: March 2015)

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Destination Wedding
      2018 | USA | Laughs: 0.2 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 6.0
      wikipedia | who was involved?

Two strangers who are equally cynical and unpleasant find themselves spending a lot of time together at a wedding, to the point of breaking through the point of repulsion. Not unpleasant but not very funny either, just a bit pointless, like the lives of the characters the movie is meant to depict. (Last viewed: December 2018)

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Underdogs (Metegol)
      2013 | Argentina | Laughs: 0.2 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 6.5
      wikipedia | who was involved?

The lead figures of a foosball game come to life and need to be rescued by the game's champion. Although I wasted months of my life playing foosball and therefore have some interest for the theme, I gave up on this animated film before the halfway mark — finding the voices loud, the animation crude and the plot uninteresting. (Last viewed: December 2018)

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Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle (Muchos hijos, un mono y un castillo)
      2017 | Spain | Laughs: 0.1 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 7.5
      who was involved?

This movie wasn't on my radar until I heard an interview of the director, who said that theater owners had been telling him that this was the movie that had the most people laughing that year, so much so that the laughter was covering some of the lines. That did sound like a bit of self-indulgent promotion, but I thought heck, movies that make you laugh are my hobby, I have to give this a try.

I don't think I'm a comedy snob, but I'm starting to wonder if my standards might be a touch higher than those of the people who exploded with laughter during this movie — if they indeed exist. I realize that YouTube has made home movies ubiquitous, but sitting through 90 minutes of someone's video tapes is not my idea of fun.

The meat of the movie is the family having to vacate its castle to get out of a ten million dollar mortgage. An unusual story, to be sure, but maybe not enough to deserve this long treatment. One can have kilometers of films and videotape stored in boxes, but that doesn't necessarily add up to a story.

The director did an excellent job building a monument to his mother. I'm not sure that her being a legend within her own family necessarily makes her a character of general interest for comedy fans.

Overall, I feel that this movie was oversold, and that's probably my main complaint. Sure, it wasn't worth my time as a movie meant to make me laugh, but on the other hand I watch so many worse movies than this year-round that it really didn't matter.

(Last viewed: January 2019)

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Hot Tub Time Machine
      2010 | USA | Laughs: 0.1 (Just Awful) | imdb: 6.4
      wikipedia | who was involved?

With a fun title and a few good actors among the cast, I expected this movie to be entertaining. The first joke I understood was when someone got sprayed by excrement. The second was when someone got sprayed by urine. The third was when someone got sprayed by vomit. That was about twenty minutes into the movie. If you think that's terrible, I do too—but the bits in between were even worse, mostly owing to one loud obnoxious character. I carried on to somewhere around the thirty-minute mark then gave up. Not only is the writing appalling, they weren't even able to get the 1980s soundtrack right—unless they were going for mostly bad 80s music. This is one for the dumpster. (Last viewed: November 2012)

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Odd Job (Un Petit Boulot)
      2016 | France | Laughs: 0.1 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.4
      wikipedia | who was involved?

After being out of a job for two years, a man agrees to kill a woman for money, then reluctantly starts making a career out of it. This movie didn't make me laugh, but it was entertaining enough to stay with for the duration—perhaps only because I like Romain Duris, who was effective in comedies such as Heartbreaker and Populaire. (Last viewed: May 2017)

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