What's a great but uncommon comedy movie we should watch?

TehBamski@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 160 points –
208

Hot Fuzz. One of the best movies of all time.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Alan Tudyk is one of my favorite actors who I feel gets too little credit. He's hilarious and it seems he's always in some funny/weird role in live action but has a surprising list of credits when it comes to animated and especially Disney animated movies. Pretty sure he's been in almost every Disney animated movie of the last 15 years.

I love Tucker and Dale vs Evil

I wonder how many people passed this up just because of the title and/or the cover picture

Definitely one of the most original comedy films ever

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Idiocracy is the funniest comedy I've ever seen, but its becoming like a documentary of our time now.. And that wasn't intended I think.

I fell asleep the first time I watched it. Worked at my corporation for a year and my friend made me rewatch it. Fucking love it now. I also put it's got electrolytes in a lot of power points.

No, it is not "a documentary", and anyone who says that got the wrong message from the film. It is hilarious, though.

Can you expand your point?

It's an old trope that everyone was somehow so smart and wise right up until my generation, then everyone suddenly got stupid and mean.

Socrates complained that the youth in his day were spoiled by having books to rely on so they didn't have to memorize things anymore.

Every generation has the same attitude, and humanity somehow keeps on keeping on. Sure we are finding new and different ways to be stupid, but we're also finding new and different ways to be amazing.

The movie portrays people as mostly being interested in shallow things, such as nudity, sex, entertainment, celebrities.

I think humans are more interested than ever in those things now that we have mobile phones with Facebook and Instagram and tiktok and so on.

Also almost everyone is too tired after work to do something productive with their lives (by system design).

If the TV was bad, the mobile phone is worse. People can't even sit alone for 5 mins anymore.

These apps also make people very adhd and they can't focus on anything without needing stimulation. It's common to no longer be able to watch a movie without wanting to bring up the phone. Or to bring it up in the middle of a conversation.

One could argue it doesn't make people dumber though.... And I guess not. Not dumber, just more unable to be in the moment and feel peaceful.

I don't know which generation you're from, but I never got the idea that it was blaming any particular generation. At the time the movie came out it was referring to a generation that didn't exist yet. They were more commenting on the direction we seemed to be going: the priorities of capitalism, our devaluing of education, and our celebration of ignorance. These were all issues that were systemic starting well before I was born. Which is ironic considering Carl Sagan said the same thing a decade prior, pointing to Beavis and Butthead as an example (Mike Judge made both Idiocracy and Beavis and Butthead).

It's quite easy to come away from the film with the idea that a general "stupidity" of predominantly poor people is to blame for most of society's problems. The film even starts by heavily implying poor people breed too much and are stupid, while smart, educated, wealthy people are too smart to have kids because they've rationally determined it's a bad decision in the economy. It then goes on to outright claim this will make humanity, on average, "stupider".

This is very, very close to eugenecist rhetoric. Eugenecists are all about weeding out "inferior genes" from humanity to increase our iverall "fitness". So tbh, I may have overstated. If you think the film suggests we need to limit dumb or poor people's breeding, then you might actually be reading the film right.

What I should really say is I just hate the film's overall message, whether it's intentional or not. Which is a shame, because I otherwise like the film and find it quite funny.

The point seemed to be that society was deliberately creating a large population of low income, poorly educated people being fed the cheapest slop by companies for short term gain, and that society then reaped what it sowed. The population of Idiocracy aren't the ones being blamed, they're a result of their environment that was created around them.

I don't see the film pointing fingers at capital or the state. It's even stated that research continued, but only to cater to the wants of dumb people.

Poor?

In idiocracy, it's portrayed as stupid people out breeding the smart. And implication of them being poor is you own bias. Trashy, yes. Stupid, yes. Poor? That's on you champ.

I'm sorry that you tainted your own experience of the movie in this way and that you think that the commentary has anything to do with anything other than intelligence. I'm sorry that gave you a very negative outlook on the film.

Sure, call it "my own bias" if you want. It's called coding. Characters can be coded poor, by giving them accents conventional of poor people, situating them in houses common of poor people, dressing them in ways that stand out as stereotypically poor, etc. And like I said, it might not even be intentional. But coding can happen even unintentionally.

I understand where you get the bias from, don't get me wrong.

There's "coding" (as you put it) in media and TV that people who are stupid, are lower stationed economically, working dead end jobs, living in squalor, etc. The stereotypical image of the idiot during the first section of the film loosely fits a number of those stereotypes, like living in a trailer.

Media and TV have made intelligence almost synonymous with success and financial gains. Certainly that sequence doesn't help. The two "intelligent" people examples are all put together in their upper-middle, or upper-class home and apparel, speaking of their careers and "the market" or whatever. Here are the smart people being very closely aligned with two successful professionals, with plenty of money to live on the more luxurious side of life....

That portrayal is a strong example of the point, whether you want to call it bias or coding or whatever, either the people who created the scene, or the audience watching the scene, have conflated the idiot, with someone who is poor, and intelligent people with those that are wealthy.

But the way it's portrayed, and what you may think it's trying to portray, isn't what the focus is for that scene. If you listen to the narrator, and focus on the literal story telling provided, while the idiot may look "poor" to you, they're not set as an example of someone who is poor, but as someone who is stupid.

Could they have done a better job to ensure the audience doesn't conflate stupid with poor? Probably.

I would argue that if your main take away from the first act of idiocracy, is that it's not about the idiots, but rather has some connotations about the poor, then the idiot in that scene is the observer.

You still haven't explained what bias you believe I had. Or acknowledged that I've already mentioned they probably didn't do it on purpose. Or that I generally actually like the film and that these little points don't get in the way of that.

It seems like you have some sort of idea in your head about what I must be, and are ignoring evidence to the contrary. That you perhaps... have a bias. Unlike you I'll be specific. A bias against acknowledgements that otherwise good media can, intentionally or not, express harmful ideas. A bias against recognising prejudices, about being... awakened to discrimination. A bias against being... "woke", if you will.

I will fully admit I had to stretch for that, but I'm still confident in it.

Inspired by another answer in this thread, Kung Fu Hustle. It's also a pretty good Kung Fu movie, similar to how Shawn of the Dead manages to be both a comedy and a pretty good zombie movie.

Clue. One of Tim Curry's finest performances. Madeline Kahn's, too.

One of Tim Curry's finest performances

That's like saying one of the Beatles best songs. He is outstanding in everything, so all of his performances are one of his best.

Oscar is also excellent. Dr. Poole is one of his best characters.

What We Do in the Shadows (the movie, not the series). For something more obscure, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn. Yes, both feature Jemaine Clement

The film is considerably better than the show.

That really did go down hill after they replaced all the Kiwi writers with Americans. It basically lost its heart after the first season, you can tell when things start winning American TV awards.

Mystery Men!

The TERRIBLY mysterious Sphinx. The Shoveller, who shovels VERY well. You can't go wrong with Mystery Men, absolutely rewatching this asap!

"I'm the Blue Rajah! Not knifey boy!"

"I shovel better than anyone!"

"When you're invisible, you can feel it!"

Edit'?: "I was saving these for you wedding but... That seems... Well..."

Death to Smoochy is criminally underrated. Robin Williams and Ed Norton are so good in it.

"Sir! Are you ok?" "I'm kinda fucked up in general, so it's hard to judge"

One of my favorite movie lines ever

Top Secret! (1984), a WW2 parody featuring Val Kilmer. From the same guys who made Airplane!.

If everyone hasn't watched Hot Tub Time Machine, everyone should watch Hot Tub Time Machine.

Is it fair to say that Mel Brooks movies are uncommon now? Have they gotten old enough that people today are generally ignorant of them? If so, "Blazing Saddles", "History of the World: Part 1", "Young Frankenstein", and "Spaceballs" are incredibly worthy of a watch.

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Very uncommon. Arguably one of the most disturbing comedy's ever made.

Meet the Feebles is a 1989 musical comedy produced and directed by The Lord of the Rings mastermind Peter Jackson. The film is set behind the scenes at a Muppet Show-like theatrical company, and it nods to The Muppet Movie with its story about raggedy puppet entertainers dreaming of making it big. Except in Meet the Feebles, most of the puppets are diseased, drug-addicted, and / or sexually perverse. Jackson, his partner Fran Walsh, and fellow New Zealand weirdos Danny Mulheron and Stephen Sinclair collaborated on a screenplay that weaves together about half a dozen subplots; the most prominent involves the talented hippopotamus Heidi, whose lover (and the troupe’s impresario) Bletch is cruelly dismissive and adulterous. As the Feebles prepare for the show that could be their big break, their personal problems start to spill over onstage.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/24/17778026/happytime-murders-peter-jackson-meet-the-feebles-perverted-puppets-streaming-recommendation

Yes! Truly a unique movie. The paparazzo fly eating literal shit will stick with me for the rest of my life!

'My cousin Vinny' seems relatively uncommon, and is a beautiful courtroom comedy drama.

Uncommon to the young folks. Pretty much everyone over the age of 35 has seen my cousin Vinny. It was also super popular and well known and is still definitely a great movie.

Amazing all around

Cast, writing, and a lot of memorable scenes

I feel like "The Man Who Knew Too Little" is pretty uncommon even though it's a Bill Murray movie. One of my favourite comedies of all time!

Yeah. That is such a great film, and you almost never hear people talk about it.

Hercules returns

Grandma's boy

Fat pizza

Hudson hawk

True lies

The Kentucky fried movie

People would have liked watching Grandma's Boy more if they had robot eyes.

Yes to Hercules Returns. I let people know that if they're going to watch it to stick through the first 20 minutes. It's pretty terrible at the start.

Absolutely. I tell people the first 20 mins is the time to drink

Hercules returns is a hidden gem

"He looks like a condom full of walnuts!" "He wouldn't notice if someone was up him with an arm full of deck chairs

Yes!

There are far too few people who have seen it.

I remember the first time I watched it, I had no idea what I was getting into. Then I worked out what was about to happen.

And it was magic.

Kentucky Fried Movie is highly influential, routinely sampled, and yet I think mostly unseen. Like, everyone's seen Airplane. They've probably seen Naked Gun and heard of Police Squad. But this and Amazon Women On The Moon are those writers... doing Rick & Morty's interdimensional cable, basically. Freeform skits lasting however long they need to. The dumbest ideas you've ever heard, going in bizarre directions, and working far better than you expect. One of them stops the movie to have a panel discussion of the stereotypes present in the previous skit, and it is masterful.

I wouldn't say either is better than the straight spoofs. But they're what skit shows have been chasing for fifty years, and they're not gonna waste your time.

Hudson Hawk is an amazing slapstick comedy that was marketed as an action movie because of Bruce Willis.

Although the "shall I r**e them?" line is completely out of left field, unfunny, and unneeded.

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My personal favorite tucker and dale vs evil.

Edit: also Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

tucker and dale vs evil

I came looking for this in the comments. So unexpectedly good!

Black Dynamite

I have never laughed harder in my life than to this scene: https://youtu.be/VdLq68m2G_o?si=_DS1WZp8GPjrn7dL

“I threw that shit before I even walked in the room!” One of my other favourites is the pool hall fight, where the pump actually smacks the actor he’s fighting, and the guy loses his cool. Then there’s a swift, unplanned cut, and suddenly he’s fighting someone else entirely. It’s all those little pastiches of shoddy movie-making that you can miss, such a good movie!

The Death of Stalin

Four Lions

Death of Stalin is great, especially any scene with Zhukov.

Four lions is an absolute classic. Roz Ahmed's career really took off a few years after the film and it always throws me straight back to it when I see him. It actually broke Venom for me, seeing him as the villain, as for me he is only Omar.

I don't know about outside the UK, but I think it's quite a well known and loved movie amongst people in their late twenties onward.

Freddie Got Fingered is a masterpiece that, when released, was one of the worst rated movies ever.

It’s so incredibly ahead of its time, coming out before all the Adult Swim absurdist stuff that we all know and love.

Bless Tom Green.

Also Adam's Apples (Adams æbler) and if you like that also The Green Butchers.

Oscar.

https://youtu.be/QbfVZBsgC4s

Directed by John Landis (Animal House, Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Coming to America)

Starring:

Sylvester Stallone
Don Ameche
Tim Curry
Marisa Tomei
Linda Gray
Chazz Palminteri
Kurtwood Smith
Yvonne De Carlo
Martin Ferrero
Harry Shearer
Arleen Sorkin
Kirk Douglas

Oscar is so fun. It's funny that it seems like people either adore it or despise it.

The Intouchables (SIC). The original French film with Omar Sy. Not the pointless Hollywood remake. Its my favourite comedy of all time.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Early Steve Martin love letter to classic film noir. Everything is played super straight and it just works

Drop dead gorgeous Muppet treasure island Muppets from space

muppets from space is both one of my favorites, and contains the travesty that is whatever happened to Fozzie's writing.

Idle Hands.

2000-era disaffected teen horror-comedy. Not shy about the horror elements. Absolutely bombed. Basically a forgotten stoner comedy that you reeeally shouldn't watch high.

Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Henson, Jessica Alba, Vivica Fox.

A Night at The Opera has some of the funniest physical gags I've seen in a movie. It is from 1935, but I found it very entertaining.

Dirty Work: Norm MacDonald in his element. An extended sequence of him and his friend staring blankly ahead holding dead fish while a chainsaw massacre unfolds offscreen is amazing.

The Trouble with Harry: Alfred Hitchcock does madcap comedy. The trouble with Harry is that he's dead, and although no one really minds, everyone thinks it's their fault. Probably the biggest starring role for a corpse until Weekend at Bernie's.

I'm really surprised I don't see "Big Trouble in Little China" on here yet.

I might catch some flack by saying this was a very respectful movie to Chinese culture for its time. This is an early Kurt Russel film, when he was pushing towards being an action star. It drifts from the classic "white guy hero in strange culture" trope and melds into a fun story where the audience-stand-in hero accepts he's out of his league and goes with it. Also, this is Victor Wong and James Hong's equivalent of Heat, where they get well developed characters and face off with each other in a grand arc. My brother and I used to quote it to each other all the time... if you ever hear someone say "Now this really pisses me off to no end," you'll get it by the end of the movie.

Spies like us - Dan Akroyd / Chevy Chase - little seen 80s comedy which has some hilarious bits , great cameos and whip fast dialogue.

If I recall, that was a huge hit when it came out. I wouldn’t call it an uncommon film.

That's nice. I'd still consider it more of a cult film for anyone not of that generation compared to the other films by these two.

Yeah, but half the people here weren't even born when it came out.

So for that matter, one could respond with Cleopatra, or Ben Hur?

Huh. I’ve never really thought of Ben Hur as a comedy.

What type of movie it is is irrelevant. The point remains that old and outdated, doesn’t mean uncommon.

Oooo...yeahhhh, ummm...I'm gonna have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there. Yeah, uh, this is a thread about comedies, and I'm just not sure that this is the caliber movie that we would want for an uncommon comedy.

Replace Ben Hur with ANY Jerry Lewis film then. The point remains.

Common if you grew up with HBO in the 80s and 90s, otherwise maybe not so much.

Ah hang on, how many communities did you post this in?

Submarine.

I won tickets to an advanced screening of Submarine with a Q&A with Richard Ayoade afterwards.

I got to ask the final question and made Ayoade and the audience laugh, which is a minor high point in my life.

Nice. What was the question?

It only makes sense in the context of the movie, but it was "how deep is the ocean?"

Just Visiting. (US version) honestly love that movie, of course it's gonna be cheesy, but it's a fun, funny movie that has heart.

It's about a 12th century knight and his peasant servant that gets sent to the 21st century, and it's so good.

Big Nothing (2006) with Simon Pegg, Alice Eve, David Schwimmer...a train wreck of events that always makes me laugh when I watch it.

Sex Drive! But it has to be the unrated uncut version. I'm grinning so hard just thinking about some scenes, especially those with Seth Green. "That's great cock, John!"

Instructions not included, Safety not guaranteed. That's two separate movies in case the name pattern is confusing

The cast for Safety Not Guaranteed looks amazing.

Big Trouble

The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human

Interstate 60

I think you're the only person I've ever seen reference Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human. Glad to see I'm not alone!

Its common in nz but maybe not in the rest of the world. Boy is pretty a pretty good comedy-drama.

Just watched this last week. The acting is atrocious but it doesn't detract from the film in any way whatsoever

Absolutely brilliant and a must-watch, just for the story and scenery

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Noises Off is a great film, but i'm not sure if it's obscure enough

Seems utterly forgotten, in terms of mainstream presence. I only saw it because we had it on VHS. Never seen it on TV, never had it recommended on streaming, never even noticed a torrent available.

It follows a theater production of some screwball comedy, but mostly focuses on backstage tensions. Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, John Ritter... Carol Burnett. Just a perfect cross-section of early-80s actors for complete chaos.

The Court Jester (starring Danny Kaye)

Old school movie from the 50s era. Still screamingly hilarious today.

Happy Texas (1999). Haven't seen in in decades so not sure how it holds up, but I've got memories of it being hilarious.

I don’t know how many people watched or loved this movie but I absolutely loved Hot Shots when I was a kid.

Part Duex is great aw well.

"I just can't believe that Dead Meat is dead, and Washout couldn't cut it. It's just so shocking."

The House of 72 Tenants, 1973 Hong Kong film directed by Chor Yuen.

Guest House Paradiso.

Batshit insane English humor. Got to love the style, but if you do, it's fantastic.

Hey, it's Vivian and Rick of The Young Ones!

Cold Pursuit

I saw it in theatres and I remember people weren’t laughing and some were walking out because they were bored. I can guarantee that all of them saw Liam Neeson was the lead and were expecting another action packed Taken type movie. What we got instead was a movie reminiscent of Fargo or The Big Lebowski. It’s absolutely hilarious, I’ve watched it many times and I’ve shown friends this one and they’ve all loved it. Highly recommend!

I feel like not enough people have seen "Secondhand Lions".

Five Year Engagement. Mediocre reviews, but a really grounded and funny story.

High Strung, not sure its an actual comedy but I thought it was pretty funny. has early Jim Carrey

Fandango. 1985 with Kevin Costner and Judd Nelson. It was Costner and Kevin Reynolds' first project together. It's not a straight up comedy but it's a very funny movie IMHO.

The Do-Over. Yes I can’t stand Adam Sandler either but it’s such a fun movie.

Does Tropic Thunder qualify? The scenes with Tom Cruise had me dying.

Is a huge blockbuster with some of the biggest names in the industry what you would describe as "uncommon"?

It's not by definition, but personally, I'm not sure I ever hear anyone talk about it. It feels like it flew under the radar of classic comedies from that time period.

Edit: It doesn't even show up on this list from IMDb of 50 comedies between 2000 and 2009

https://m.imdb.com/list/ls002482848/

Okay, but that random list maker did also include "White Chicks" in that top 50 list.

Yeah, I realized that it was by some random user, but I couldn't find a better list of comedies in that time period because Google has been god-awful lately.

It definitely flew under the radar. I would say most people have never seen it.

Is Airplane common?

What about Naked Gun series?