I love a good funny movie, I mean who doesn’t? I am going to list ten of my all time favorite comedies.
10. Spaceballs – This movie classic was released in 1987 and was written, directed, and starred in by Mel Brooks whom plays the character of President Skroob. It also stars Bill Pullman as Lone Starr, Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa, Dick Van Patten as King Roland father to Princess Vespa, John Candy as Lone Starr’s pal “Barf”, Joan Rivers voiced “Dot Matrix” which is servant to Princess Vespa, and Rick Moranis stars as “Dark Helmet” which is one of the villains of this movie. When Planet Spaceball is on the brink of completely running out of air, President Skroob and Dark Helmet devise a plan to steal all the air from Planet Druidia and use it to continue life on Planet Spaceball. On Planet Druidia King Roland has arranged for his daughter Princess Vespa to marry the last available Prince in the galaxy whom the Princess despises. The Princess runs out of the wedding ceremony with her faithful servant right behind her. With her father worried about his daughter’s safety he begs Lone Starr and Barf to rescue the Princess and bring her back to Druidia. They agree after the King promises to pay them one million Spacebucks so that Lone Starr and Barf can pay off an outstanding debt to an ugly lone shark name “Pizza the Hut”. Lone Starr and Barf succeed in rescuing the Princess and bringing her back to Planet Druidia and they also eliminate all the “bad guys”. In the end Lone Starr and Princess Vespa end up getting married and hopefully living happily ever after.
9. Meet The Parents – Great comedy about meeting your loved one’s family for the first time which came out in 2000. Ben Stiller stars as Greg Focker, Teri Polo as Pam Byrnes, Robert De Niro as Jack Byrnes, and Blythe Danner as Dina Byrnes. Greg Focker has the perfect girlfriend (Pam Byrnes) and wants to marry her, but first he has to ask her father’s permission, a man he has yet to meet. Greg and Pam travel to Pam’s family home to be a part of Pam’s sister’s wedding. Everything that is imaginable goes wrong for Greg as he tries to work up the courage to ask Jack for permission to marry his daughter, he loses Jack’s beloved cat, sets fire to the arch that Pam’s sister is to be married under, gives the bride a black eye, etc. You just have to watch this hilarious movie you won’t regret it.
8. Uncle Buck – 1989 comedy starring John Candy as Buck Russell. Other main characters in this delightful film is Elaine Bromka as Cindy Russell, Garret M. Brown as Bob Russell, Jean Louise Kelly as Tia Russell, Macaulay Culkin as Miles Russell, Gaby Hoffmann as Maizy Russell, Amy Madigan as Chanice Kobolowski, and Jay Underwood as “Bug” Tia’s boyfriend. When Cindy Russell’s dad has a heart attack, she and her husband Bob frantically try to find someone who can watch their 3 children so that Cindy can be with her dad while he recovers. They are forced to ask the one person Cindy does not trust, Bob’s brother Buck. Buck cannot hold down a job, and is on the brink of losing his long time girlfriend Chanice because he refuses to marry her. Buck drives to his brother’s house and learns by trial and a lot of error how to care for three children, one of them being a defiant teenager with a boyfriend named “Bug” whose only concern is getting Tia to sleep with him. Everything turns out great in the end of course but it’s a very funny journey.
7. Bruce Almighty – Jim Carrey stars as Bruce Nolan in this outlandishly funny comedy. Also starring is Morgan Freeman as GOD, Jennifer Aniston as Grace Connolly, and Steve Carell as Evan Baxter. Bruce Nolan is constantly complaining about GOD, why has GOD done this to me, why won’t GOD help me get an anchor position instead of giving it to Evan Baxter, and so on. Bruce has pushed GOD to his breaking point, so GOD has decided to take a vacation and gives Bruce all of his powers and tells him that since Bruce thinks he could do a better job than him, put your money where your mouth is to paraphrase. First Bruce gives his girlfriend Grace bigger boobs, then using GOD’s powers he does all sorts of things that are news worthy so that he can be the first one to break the story and be that much closer to becoming an anchor on a news show. Bruce however finds out it is a lot harder to be GOD than he originally thought and ends up making thing worse. The movie is very funny and touching.
6. The Nutty Professor – This remake of the 1963 classic came out in 1996 with Eddie Murphy starring as not 1 but 7 characters. Jada Pinkett Smith stars as Carla Purty and Larry Miller stars as Dean Richmand. Sherman Klump(Murphy) is an enormously overweight science genius whom is a professor at a University and is about to have a major breakthrough with a DNA restructuring formula. Unfortunately for Professor Klump when he becomes Buddy Love he turns into a self-centered, obnoxious ego-maniac. This film is hilarious largely due to the antics of Sherman Klump’s happily fat family.
5. Shanghai Noon – Released in 2000, it stars Jackie Chan as Chon Wang, Owen Wilson as Roy O’Bannon, and Lucy Liu as Princess Pei Pei. When the Princess is kidnapped from the Forbidden City in China, a bumbling Imperial Guard (Chon Wang) feels it’s his duty alone to bring her safely back. His journey takes him to Nevada in the United States where he meets a small time train robber (Roy O’Bannon) whom is in a compromised position. They meet again a little later on in the movie and Chon Wang decides it’s in his best interest to team up with Roy O’Bannon who tries to teach Chon how to be a Wild West Cowboy. Clumsy all by themselves they are doubly worse together. You can’t miss this funny movie, it’s awesome.
4. Tommy Boy – Chris Farley stars as Tommy Callahan III, David Spade plays Richard Hayden, Brian Dennehy stars as Big Tom Callahan Jr., Bo Derek play Beverly Barish-Burns, Rob Lowe is Paul Barish, and Julie Warner is Michelle Brock. Big Tom is the owner of an auto parts plant. He gives his son Tommy, who has never been known for his intelligence, a position at the plant as an executive. Big Tom has just married his beautiful bride Beverly and has become a proud step-father to her son Paul when he dies at the wedding reception of a heart attack. Tommy’s family business is about to be closed because of being too much in the red when he hatches the idea to travel cross country with his father’s former assistant Richard to find a buyer for half a million brake pads and gives the bank his inheritance from his father’s death as collateral. Michelle Brock is Tommy’s new girlfriend whom also works at the auto parts plant as a sales manager with an unorganized filing system. Paul, Beverly’s son, takes advantage of that and messes up the orders for some of the brake pads that have already been ordered in a scheme to sell the plant out from under Tommy for as much cash as they can get. Michelle happens upon Beverly and Paul Barish making out. Michelle does some research and finds out that Paul is not Beverly’s son, but Beverly’s husband and that they have outstanding arrest warrants for previous acts of being con artists. Rent or buy this movie today, you won’t be sorry.
3. Happy Gilmore – A wannabe professional hockey player played by Adam Sandler as Happy Gilmore has to come up with over $200,000 in a very short period of time or the bank is going to sell his grandmother’s house to someone else at an auction. He’s forced to admit his grandmother to a retirement home where the manager play by Ben Stiller insists the elderly clients take naps when he instructs them to and forces them to hand craft beautiful quilts to be sold and to have the profits go solely in his own pocket. Happy comes across former pro golfer played by Carl Peterson who sees how far Happy can hit a golf ball and convinces Happy to enter a professional golf tournament to make the money he needs. While Happy can hit the ball really hard when his eye-hand coordination is at its best, he has a hard time when it comes to putting the ball into the tiny hole, which makes for extremely funny movie watching as Happy has a horrible temper and has tendency to throw his golf clubs and strangle his caddie.
2. Liar Liar – Jim Carrey stars as a lawyer (Fletcher Reede) who wants to become a partner in the law firm he works at. Maura Tierney plays his ex wife Audrey, Justin Cooper stars as Fletcher’s son Max, and Cary Elwes plays Jerry, Audrey’s boyfriend whom wants Audrey and Max to move to Boston with him and become his wife. Fletcher Reede is a pathological liar who uses his ability to lie in any situation to help him win cases in court, and help him avoid doing things any good father would do like attending his son’s 5th birthday party at his ex wife’s home. When Max blows out the candles on his birthday cake his only wish is that for just one day his dad cannot tell a lie. That is when the movie gets to be really funny. Fletcher has to tell the truth no matter what the question is. He has to say what he really thinks of his boss and other partners in the law firm he works at, he tells a big breasted new employee of the law firm the real reason why all the men have been so nice to her, and so on. The movie is truly comedic genius.
And my all time favorite comedy is:
1. Grumpy Old Men – 1993 comedy that stars Jack Lemmon as John Gustafson, Walter Matthau as Max Goldman, Ann-Margret as Ariel Truax, Burgess Meredith as Grandpa Gustafson, Darryl Hannah as Melanie(John’s daughter), and Kevin Pollak as Jacob (Max’s son). John and Max were childhood friends at one time, they are now both retired and have been neighbors for many years, but old grudges have caused them to hilariously throw insults and play dirty tricks on each other. Grandpa Gustafson is John’s elderly perverted father. Melanie is having marital problems and Jacob has had a crush on Melanie since grade school. Enter Ariel who has just moved into a house in John’s and Max’s neighborhood and is a very beautiful widow. Both John and Max start making plays for Ariel but she starts to favor John. John and Max start fighting and bringing up old grievances, so John tells Ariel that he doesn’t want to see her anymore, but soon after, John suffers a heart attack. Max decides to let bygones be bygones and financially helps John out and then encourages John’s romance with Ariel. The movie is incredibly funny all by itself, but they have a hugely hilarious blooper reel.
Well that’s it for my top ten best comedy movies of all time, so go to your local movie rental store, then buy lots of microwave popcorn, and sit down for tons of side splitting laughs.
