1096 Best Comedy Movies to Watch (Page 67)

The set starts off rather harmless, as Koy puts over New York as a racially diverse island, and other wholesome sentiments marinated with cussing. He makes a genuine effort to directly connect with his audience, like he’s really lubing them up for something big, but nothing ever comes of it. He just corners his audience into laughing and tells them that laughing is good, and in fairness it kind of works. After a cult-y opening salvo, we get the rest of the Jo Koy staples: the cartoon voices, the patronizing, some questionable stuff. He settles nicely into age-related topics like chronic pains and back-in-the-day diatribes, where his timing and material really come together, and see the performance through to an admittedly abrupt end.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Jo Koy

Director: Shannon Hartman

Rating: R

In Love and Deep Water is torn between multiple concepts. There’s a murder, sure, and a butler trying to figure out who’s the killer, but there also happens to be a romance plot where the same butler falls in love with the passenger that informs him of their partners’ infidelity. The film also tries to squeeze in comedy with the way the killers try to hide the dead body, the ridiculousness of some passengers, and cheeky but contextless commentary. While the romance is lovely, In Love and Deep Water isn’t the fun and chaotic murder mystery promised, as it drowns itself with interesting ideas that never really fully pans out.

Genre: Comedy, Mystery, Romance, Thriller

Actor: Airi Matsui, Aju Makita, Amane Okayama, Aoi Miyazaki, Hatsunori Hasegawa, Hidekazu Mashima, Ken Mitsuishi, Ken Yasuda, Kento Nagayama, Michiko Tomura, Miyu Hayashida, Nahana, Rinko Kikuchi, Ryo Yoshizawa, Saki Takaoka, Takashi Okabe, Tomu Miyazaki, Yasuomi Sano, Yoh Yoshida, Yoshimasa Kondô, Yuki Izumisawa, Yunho

Director: Yusuke Taki

Rating: R, TV-MA

There’s little to like in Hidden Strike, a shoddy action thriller riddled with dodgy CGI, melodramatic performances, and ultra-predictable plotlines. You could even play a drinking game spotting all the action cliches present in the film (take a shot every time the patriotic hero dedicates a killing to his countrymen). Mostly, it’s laughable and complex for all the wrong reasons, but there are rare moments when Chan and Cena’s partnership works. They’re pockets of humor that feel like actual breathers, a respite in a film that’s ultimately tiresome to watch. 

Genre: Action, Action & Adventure, Adventure, Comedy, Thriller

Actor: Amadeus Serafini, Diego Dati, Gong Jun, Hani Adel, Hou Minghao, Jackie Chan, Jiang Wenli, John Cena, Kefas Brand, Laila Ezz El Arab, Lee Huang, Li Ma, Ma Chunrui, Ma Xinrui, Max Huang, Michael Koltes, Neo Hou, Pilou Asbæk, Rachael Holoway, Rima Zeidan, Tazito Garcia, Temur Mamisashvili, Tim Man, Xu Jia

Director: Scott Waugh

Rating: TV-14

The film certainly catches you by surprise within its opening minutes, setting the bounds for its humor. That, plus the very straightforward web of characters on this island just makes everything funnier by default. On the romcom end, every new wrinkle to the John Allman lore adds all sorts of tension and twists to the romance story we root for. The role of romance almost seems secondary to John’s reclusivenes, which ties into the story’s interesting primary location on the edge of a cliff. It’s still a cheesy and ridiculous romcom, but also self-aware and accountable, showing you that love isn’t stupid, just willing to look it.

Genre: Comedy, Music, Romance

Actor: Agni Scott, Ali Fumiko Whitney, Antonis Katsaris, Athina Roditou, Clarence Smith, Harry Connick Jr.

Director: Stelana Kliris

In the grand scheme of streamer romcoms, A Family Affair is not too bad. Like The Idea of You before it, the film explores what it means to find love as a woman late in life while proving that it can be just as exciting and steamy as any other affair. The film is even occasionally funny, with Efron’s vain character banging out punchlines like “It’s one of a kind! I only have two of these!” But there are too many lapses that are hard to ignore, such as the glaring lack of chemistry between Efron and Kidman, and the sheer unlikeability of King’s Zara. Yes, they acknowledge her narcissism multiple times, but it doesn’t change how exhausting she can be, and how rushed her growth was. In fact, none of them seem to really develop, except Brooke, who is the most realized character in the film. A Family Affair is at its best when it's parodying the franchise-hungry film industry and when it’s discussing the passions and pleasures of late womanhood. Unfortunately, they often feel like two separate films, and the filler in between feels exactly like that: filler, with nothing new, important, or forgivably funny to say.

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Actor: Brooks Ashmanskas, Carrie Solomon, Gissette E. Valentin, Ian Gregg, Irene Kim, Joey King, Kathy Bates, Liza Koshy, Nicole Kidman, Olivia Macklin, Sarah Baskin, Sean Evans, Sherry Cola, Vince Pisani, Wes Jetton, Zac Efron, Zele Avradopoulos

Director: Richard LaGravenese

Rating: PG-13

In terms of the quality of the material delivered in Son I Never Had, this special is really just okay at best. Heather McMahan has charisma and personality, but she has a tendency to run directly into the set-ups for her jokes, without the kind of build-up between segments that would make the whole hour flow better. And the comedy here is pretty standard, lightly raunchy fare that's often amusing but never really cuts deep into the various topics McMahan brings up. Where she's really successful, instead, is in the way she uses humor to contrast the lingering but gentle grief she feels over her father's passing. Son I Never Had, in its own roundabout way, becomes a sort of extended eulogy, emphasizing how our loved ones remain with us in our every memory.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Heather McMahan

Director: Jen Zaborowski

Rating: R

Hallmark is the last place you'd expect to find a low-budget movie that decries excessive automation and advocates for local businesses, but for some reason this is the setting against which Love & Jane's story is told. And the movie doesn't come across as insincere either, as it uses a familiar romcom template to actually encourage its protagonist to grow beyond the romance novels she loves and to engage with her own experiences and emotions. Unfortunately, the rest of the film feels oddly obligatory, including a bland love interest and his half-baked chemistry with the heroine, and the inclusion of Jane Austen herself, who really has nothing to do here.

Genre: Comedy, Romance, TV Movie

Actor: Aadila Dosani, Alison Sweeney, Benjamin Ayres, Corina Bizim, Debbie Podowski, Dreyden Free, Eduardo Britto, John Prowse, Kehli O'Byrne, Kendra Anderson, Lynn Whyte, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Nevin Burkholder, Vivin Oommen, William Vaughan

Director: David Weaver

Rating: G

With a boring wedding, attended by a guarded woman and a spontaneous man, starting a series of shared recollections of past heartbreak, Which Brings Me to You has all the elements needed for an early aughts romcom, releasing at a time when Y2K is trending. The original novel’s epistolary format is interestingly translated into flashbacks told in one whole day, with Will and Jane visually popping within the sequences as the two get to know each other through their past heartbreaks. It’s a unique idea, but the execution feels lackluster, with the dialogue and direction that can’t be saved through Lucy Hale’s or Nat Wolff’s efforts. There’s certainly something here about romance being a possible avenue to open up, but Which Brings Me to You doesn’t build the chemistry to get there.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Alexander Hodge, Avery Cole, Britne Oldford, Chase Liefeld, Genevieve Angelson, Jamie McRae, John Gallagher Jr., Laura Kai Chen, Lucy Hale, Marceline Hugot, Michael Mulheren, Mitzi Akaha, Nat Wolff, Reilly Walters, Ward Horton

Director: Peter Hutchings

Rating: PG-13

Not many teenagers experience the life of a celebrity singer, so it’s easy to fantasize over how that life would go. It’s precisely the appeal of Violetta, one of the few forays Disney Channel made outside of America, which somewhat plays out like Hannah Montana without the double life shenanigans. Tini: The New Life of Violetta is the final film to cap off the show, and like plenty of teenybopper series, it has the cheesy miscommunications and cliche conflicts hastily strung together with aesthetic music videos and randomly arranged dance numbers supposedly in the name of finding yourself and living your life, etc. etc. But, while it isn’t the most original or romantic summer teen movie, Tini: The New Life of Violetta still manages to be a sweet send-off for the Latino fans that grew up watching the show, and one that gently eases Tini’s move from cute teenybopper sitcom lead to Argentinian pop star.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music

Actor: Adrián Salzedo, Ángela Molina, Beatrice Arnera, Clara Alonso, Diego Ramos, Georgina Amorós, Jorge Blanco, Leonardo Cecchi, Mercedes Lambre, Sofia Carson, TINI

Director: Juan Pablo Buscarini

To The Hottest Summer's credit, it doesn't shy away from its title; as an erotic romcom, it gives us more sexual content than you'd expect, while still keeping away from anything too explicit. There's an undeniably exciting quality to how much the film is willing to show in its forbidden romance, and lead actors Nicole Damiani and Gianmarco Saurino have chemistry to spare. But while the film can be refreshing in how undaunted it is by the supposed taboo at the center of its story, its desire for simple, carnal thrills means the characters are much flatter than they probably deserve to be. Deacon Nicola's complicated relationship to his faith is never quite explored until it's too late, and Lucia's friendship with Valentina (played by Alice Angelica) seems to be of little consequence, even as the story tries to create drama between their competing affections for the young priest-to-be.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Alberto Rossi, Alice Angelica, Antonio Conte, Balkissa Souley Maiga, Barbara Tabita, Gianmarco Saurino, Giuseppe Giofre, Giuseppe Paternò Raddusa, Luca Capuano, Mehdi Meskar, Michela Giraud, Monica Guazzini, Nicole Damiani, Nino Frassica, Stefania Sandrelli

Director: Matteo Pilati

There's a very clear target audience for Steve Treviño's comedy, and for that particular group it's easy to see his appeal: he says what a lot of married couples probably have on their minds during moments of conflict, but he still doesn't take any of it too seriously. However, to an outsider, Treviño's comedy can't help but come off as one-sided complaining, lacking the willingness to make himself look just as silly as the people he rants about. Not that there's anything too mean about the things he says—the jokes as they're written just aren't particularly clever and don't really say much about married life that can't just be resolved through a little more basic empathy.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Steve Trevino

Director: Renae Trevino

Rating: R