Comedies from the 2010s

The Wedding Ringer
      2015 | USA | Laughs: 4.5 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.6
      wikipedia | who was involved?

A loner under pressure to provide a list of groomsmen for his upcoming wedding hires a company which specializes in providing a best man and fake friends. After a slow set-up, the movie somewhat improves. Although it was chaotic, often weak and sometimes gross, it had enough good moments to warrant watching on a night when you find yourself in a low brain state. (Last viewed: April 2015)

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Welcome to the South (Benvenuti al Sud)
      2010 | Italy | Laughs: 4.1 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.5
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The manager of an Italian post office gets transferred to the south of the country, which he and those around him picture to be a land of criminals and idiots. This is the Italian adaptation of the excellent Welcome to the Sticks. Many of the scenes are nearly identical, but the dialog at key moments has often been cut in half, making the movie about half as funny as the original. But it's still funny. It's also a treat to spend time in a beautiful Italian village without going through the hassle of getting on an airplane. (Last viewed: October 2012)

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Get Him to the Greek
      2010 | USA | Laughs: 4.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 6.4
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A record label employee gets assigned the mission of escorting a particularly difficult rock star from his London home to the Greek theater in Los Angeles for a major concert. This starts out funny but then just turns into a pretty good movie, with strong and attaching characters, so you forget that you started watching because you wanted to laugh. Russell Brand, whom I'm never seen before, impressed me with his excellent, believable performance. Jonah Hill was very good too. Warning: rampant adult themes, recurring crassness and gross-out scenes, presumably to please the 21st century crowd. (Last viewed: Sep 2012 September 2019)

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Material
      2012 | South Africa | Laughs: 4.0 (Broken Comedies) | imdb: 7.3
      who was involved?

When he takes up stand-up comedy, the son of a fabric store owner upsets his touchy father. I thought this movie was a comedy, but it spends more time on the drama side. In fact by the end my ears were hurting from the excessive use of violins. The lead actor and his buddy carry the movie part of the way, but the editing was appalling and I only kept watching out of cultural curiosity. It's a shame as the decent reviews had led me to hope for a good laugh. (Last viewed: October 2015)

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Bad Teacher
      2011 | USA | Laughs: 4.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 5.6
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A high-school teacher does the bare minimum to get by in the classroom until a rich guy marries her, but tries hard to earn the cash to pay for the breast implants that will attract Prince Charming. Cameron Diaz had done a great job in a recent comedy, What Happens in Vegas, and I wondered if she could carry a movie in the main role. She certainly does (with the help of an excellent supporting cast). The first thirty minutes were weak, not by the actors' fault but owing to a deficient script and awful lipstick. The movie's second half was a pleasure to watch, full of smiles and chuckles. Parents, watch out for adult themes. (Last viewed: October 2012)

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Long Live Freedom (Viva la Liberta)
      2013 | Italy | Laughs: 4.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.0
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Under assault, the leader of a political party runs away to the home of an old friend in France. To avoid a scandal, the party substitutes him with his twin brother, whose madness makes him wildly popular. This is less the kind of comedy that makes you laugh out loud than the kind that makes you smile throughout. Four of us watched it and found it thoroughly enjoyable. (Last viewed: March 2016)

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The World's End
      2013 | U.K. | Laughs: 4.0 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 7.0
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Returning to their home town for a pub crawl, five friends realize that it has been taken over by robots. This is a zombie movie in disguise. Zombie movies have never been my cup of tea. The best thing about this movie's zombie factor is that the gore has been minimized—the zombies look good and their blood is blue. But there is a lot of chasing and fighting that distracts from the main reason I sat down to watch the film: comedy. On the comedy side, the film has some good moments, but it is never a roaring laugh. The lead character is overly theatrical for my taste, and the humor is as tepid as the zombie-robots' blue blood. Overall, an easy skip. (Last viewed: December 2013)

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Lion's Heart (a.k.a corazon-de-leon) (Corazón de león)
      2013 | Argentina | Laughs: 4.0 | imdb: 6.7
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A female lawyer falls in love with a powerful man of diminutive stature and must come to grips with ambient prejudice as well as her own desire to fit in.

Although not particularly rich in laughs, this is a watchable rom-com as long as you approach it with low expectations.

(Last viewed: July 2020)

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The Inbetweeners Movie
      2011 | U.K. | Laughs: 4.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.7
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Four English boys who just graduated from high school head out to Crete in pursuit of the one thing most boys that age are likely to pursue. Despite the expected crass moments, the movie has its load of funny situations and can provide a fairly entertaining watch if you're in a forgiving mood. (Last viewed: September 2014)

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Party Town (El Pregón)
      2016 | Spain | Laughs: 4.0 (Watch Once) | imdb: 5.1
      who was involved?

Two brothers who had a hit song in the 1990s have fallen on harder times and must accept a lucrative offer to deliver a speech in the childhood village they had worked so hard to escape.

As you would expect, this "fish out of water" comedy is often predictable, but I enjoyed it. It was a particular treat for me to see Berto Romero and Andreu Buenafuente together on screen, a pair I had listened to countless times on their podcast Nadie Sabe Nada while trying to improve my Spanish. (Last viewed: May 2018)

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The Great Vazquez (El Gran Vázquez)
      2010 | Spain | Laughs: 4.0 (Chuckle) | imdb: 6.2
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A talented cartoonist who is also a con artist drives his publisher mad, not to mention his immediate family. This biographical movie was a pleasant watch, both because of the man's antics, which made me chuckle a few times, and because of the colorful texture.

It seemed to me, but I may be wrong, that I had read parts of the story in Paco Roca's graphic novel El Invierno del Dibujante ('The Winter of the Cartoonist').

Often in Spanish comedy I find the stroke a little thick. With this film, perhaps because of his expertise in the subject matter as a script writer for comics, the director managed something balanced: cartooney but not overly cartoonish, if that makes sense.

(Last viewed: January 2019)

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Stromberg The Movie (Stromberg Der Film)
      2014 | Germany | Laughs: 4.0 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 7.3
      who was involved?

This is a movie made after a television series that is the German version of The Office. The manager of an insurance company's regional office brings his crew to headquarters for the company's 50th birthday celebration. There are funny moments, but if you've seen Office Space, The Office and The Office UK there is nothing new here. I like German movies but in my view this one can safely be skipped. (Last viewed: September 2014)

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Dumb and Dumber To
      2014 | USA | Laughs: 4.0 (Don't Bother) | imdb: 5.6
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The first half-hour of this sequel (twenty years later) to the original Dumb and Dumber is barely watchable. I persevered because I vaguely remembered that the original also started weakly. This time, our couple of likeable losers embark on a mission to track down a long-lost daughter in the hope she will donate a kidney. The movie does improve slightly after a while, but it does feature the worst performance by Jim Carrey I have ever seen. Don't waste your time: this "comedy" will make you sad. (Last viewed: February 2015)

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Mission London
      2010 | Bulgaria | Laughs: 4.0 (Light-Hearted) | imdb: 7.2
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On a whim of the Bulgarian president's wife, the country's ambassador in London is asked to organize a cultural event with the Queen of England in attendance. I enjoyed the Eastern European languages and culture in this movie. It didn't make me laugh, but it was well put together (if a bit long) and a pleasant watch with lots of smiles. (Last viewed: October 2012)

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Johnny English Strikes Again
      2018 | U.K. | Laughs: 3.9 (Watch Once) | imdb: 6.2
      wikipedia | who was involved?

As a Silicon Valley data moghul performs multiple hacks into Britain's national security systems and exposes the identity of all active secret agents, the British secret service bring former agent Johnny English out of retirement.

This was not the funniest comedy I'd ever watched, but I was glad to see Rowan Atkinson and the film entertained me more than the vast majority of that year's other comedies. (Last viewed: December 2018)

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