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comedy

Knight and Day – James Mangold (2010)

Apparently for a long time I made an effort to avoid popular Hollywood productions so much that I sometimes run into titles that I am wholly unfamiliar with. So here we have a Mangold with Tom Cruise Cameron Diaz.

Cruise plays Roy Miller whom his employer, the CIA, sees as a rogue agent that needs to be apprehended. Of course Miller is an uncatchable supersoldier. During his operation he runs into car mechanic June Havens (Diaz) and the two are forced to stay together.

Cruise is actually pretty funny and pokerface hitman and Diaz basically only has to look pretty. The result is a highly amusing action film. The story is a bit… well… though.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – Guy Ritchie (2024)

Can it be done? Making a comedy about World War II? Based on the diaries of Winston Churchill even? Well yes, Ritchie pulled it off.

Germany is rapidly conquering Europe and they control both the land and the sea. Their submarines are a manace to allied forces who have no answer to the U-boots. Then a daring plan develops.

The Germans appear to transport almost of their supplies with one ship and an elaborate plan involving ‘difficult people’ is forged to sink that very ship in its African port, in order to take out the U-boots for a considerable time.

With amusing dialogues, a lot of fighting and shooting, a story that appears have been true, we get a peak into the development of the James Bond stories (!). Indeed, a WWII story can be told with humour!

Get Shorty – Barry Sonnenfeld (1995)

  • comedy

A year after “Pulp Fiction”, John Travolta is again a hip criminal. He is a fast talking gun for hire who lets himself being hired by his victims. In that chain he meets film producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman).

An amusing chain of events, funny dialogues, weird situations. “Get Shorty” is perhaps not the classic that “Pulp Fiction” became, but it is an amusing crime comedy.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die – El Arbi & Fallah (2024)

Only picked because I felt like watching an action comedy. I do not think I even saw the previous “Bad Boys” (1995, 2003, 2020) films.

Smith and Lawrence make an amusing couple, a bit screwball hero cops. After an amusing opening scene, a fairly weak story unfolds in which the Bad Boys’ deceased boss is accused of working with the enemy. Mike and Marcus set out to prove everybody wrong.

So your usual car chases, action scenes, shootouts, evil bad guys, drama and of course witty dialogues. The results is a somewhat amusing film.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – Tim Burton (2024)

Another revamp of a ‘modern classic’. Fortunately it was made by Burton himself. Burton got a part of the old cast together. Michael Keaton plays Beetlejuice, just as in 1988. Also Winona Ryder returns in the same role (Lydia Deetz), but then 30 years older and Catherine O’Hara as her mother. New actors are Monica Belluci as the evil ex; Willem Dafoe as a dead cop; Justin Theroux as Lydia’s husband-to-be and an amusing Dani deVito.

Burtons opens with the introduction of old and new story lines. Delores comes back from the (un)dead and Lydia Deetz is the hostess of a ghost TV show who has to travel back to the house where the first movie played. Her daughter wants as little as possible to have to do with her mother and grand mother, but she has to join the family at the villa.

There are no big surprises in the film. Needless to say that Beetlejuice has returned after 30 years with his gruely humour. The family has to travel through the ghastly world of the (un)dead and the world of the living in order to prevent things from going awry. Burton came up with a descent level of ‘joke density’ often referring to the first film. The film is still very much “Beetlejuice” and very much Burton, but -of course- more ‘contemporary’.

Quite amusing.

They Cloned Tyrone – Juel Taylor (2023)

Like “Dolomite Is My Name” (2019), this is (basically) a modern day “blaxploitation”. All actors are black, except an occasional bad guy (Kiefer Sutherland), the film plays in a black, American community, addressing the problems of that community (also being critical towards itself). The characters are stereotypical and there is a lot of humor.

A drugdealer, a prostitute and her employer investigate the death of the drug dealer. No, I did not make a typo there. The three run into a massive and shady conspiracy, created to keep the black community in check.

The film is not as funny as the info has it, but “They Cloned Tyrone” is an amusing ‘thriller comedy’.

Deadpool – Tim Miller (2016)

Because I knew neither character from the new Marvel blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine” I decided to watch the first “Deadpool”.

The movie is on the screwball side filled with boring (usually sex) jokes. It does not help that I am not particularly fond of Ryan Reynolds. A good point is that his girl is the beautiful Morena Baccarin whom we know from “Gotham“.

Deadpool is an antihero. He is an annoying murderer for hire, but when he gets cancer, he is transformed into a superhero. The side effects of the procedure turn this into a revenge movie though.

So we have an invincible, smart talking guy, going after the people who wrecked his life. Nothing very interesting or even enjoying.

The Fall Guy – David Leitch (2024)

When I saw the trailer, I thought (hoped) “The Fall Guy” would be a bit of a “Bullet Train“. Now I see both are from the same director.

“The Fall Guy” is more of an action romcom though, too romcom for my liking. The movie is an ode to the stunt people of Hollywood too. Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is the stunt double for Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), rapidly rising Hollywood star.

Seavers has a crush on Jody (Emily Blunt), formerly camera woman, nowadays director. This makes a large and not too interesting part of the story.

Ryder goes missing from the set and Seavers is sent out to find him, but Ryder does not want to be found and so you get a lot of action scenes and a descent ‘whodunnit’ story.

Not boring, but it seems to me that Leitch aimed for a larger and more general audience with his latest film.

Shaft – Tim Story (2019)

There are different movies with the same name. Some are with Samuel L. Jackson. They are not called 1, 2 or 3, so you have to tell them apart by year of launch and director.

In a way the main character in this version is the son of “Shaft”, Samuel L. Jackson. Shaft is a former police officer who became a private detective with a reputation. Junior’s highschool friend is found dead and when he wants to find out what happened, he turns to his estranged father.

Shaft mostly sees a white boy, spoiled by his mother. Also in his son’s request he sees an opportunity to right an old wrong. So the fast talking menace of the New York criminal milieu sets out on a mission.

Some action some humour, somewhat amusing.

Kingsman: Secret Service – Matthew Vaughn (2014)

I wanted to watch an action comedy with the intensity of “Bullet Train” or “The Hitman’s Bodyguard“. ” The Mexican” was amusing, but it does not have the amount of action that I was after. The first “Kingsman” does neither.

“Kingsman” is a bit of an adolescent 007. The Kingsmen is a private secret service, they have a vacancy and some youngsters are tested to see who fits. Samuel L. Jackson is a somewhat childish bad guy.

The film is not too great. There are a few funny scenes, but the target audience appears to be a wee bit younger than myself.