So let’s see if that’s correct. Here are the best comedy movies of 2010.
Cop Out
Starring: Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Seann William Scott
Director: Kevin Smith
Release Date: 26th February 2010
Formally titled ‘A Couple Of Dicks’ this is director Kevin Smith breaking from his safe zone to direct a Bruce Willis buddy cop comedy from someone else’s script. The plot has two veteran officers (Willis and Tracey Morgan) tracking down a stolen vintage baseball card via the world of gangsters and money laundering. Seann William Scott is involved too, playing some dumbass I’d imagine. Smith has often been criticised for his lack of visual style. It’s nice to see the studio trusted him with this. …Oh wait they made him storyboard the entire movie two months in advance
Our Family Wedding
Starring: Forest Whitaker, America Ferrera, Carlos Mencia, Regina King
Director: Rick Famuyiwa
Release Date: 12th March 2010
This clash-of-cultures comedy (African-American vs Latino) sees two overbearing dads (Forest Whitaker, Carlos Mencia) trying to put aside their differences to plan the wedding of their son and daughter. The trailer features much knocking-over-of-the-cake-un-hilarity and fails to get a laugh out of a Mexican goat eating viagra.
Greenberg
Starring: Ben Stiller, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Director: Noah Baumbach
Release Date: 12th March 2010
Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) is a New Yorker out of a job and determined to do nothing. He agrees to housesit for his more successful brother in LA to get a free place to stay. Reconnecting with old friends (Rhys Ifans) doesn’t go so well but he soon sparks with his brother’s assistant (Greta Gerwig). This is a subdued Stiller in an indie down-to-earth role similar to those he had early in his career. Director Noah Baumbach made The Squid And The Whale, so don’t expect Dodgeball 2.
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid
Starring: Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, Steve Zahn, Chloe Moretz
Director: Thor Freudenthal
Release Date: 19th March 2010
Live-action adaptation of the illustrated novel about a wise-cracking junior high school student. Its story chronicles the adventures of middle school students Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) and Rowley Jefferson (Robert Capron) over the course of an academic year, as told through Greg’s diary and hand-drawn cartoons. Judging from the trailer this is basically a big screen version of The Wonder Years. From the director of Hotel For Dogs.
Hot Tub Time Machine
Starring: John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Chevy Chase
Director: Steve Pink
Release Date: 26th March 2010
A group of unsatisfied men return to the ski resort where they once used to party, hop unwittingly into a time-travelling jacuzzi, and get thrown back in time to their younger days in 1986. With a strong marketing campaign, good buzz, and shades of last year’s biggest comedy hit The Hangover, expect this to do well. Chevy Chase plays the Hot Tub maintenance man.
I Love You, Phillip Morris
Starring: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann
Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Release Date: 26th March 2010 (UK) / 3rd December 2010 (US)
Comedy-drama based on a real life con artist, impostor, and multiple prison escapee. A car accident provokes married man Steven (Jim Carrey) to realise he’s gay and live life to the fullest – even if it means breaking the law. He soon ends up in prison for fraud where he falls for Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) and starts dreaming up elaborate cons to reunited them on the outside. The movie has had problems finding a distributor (still doesn’t have one in the UK) thanks to its man-on-man content. A re-edit has apparantly toned down the explicit side of things. The trailer was tonally uneven and it’s hard to say how this will all play with audiences.
Date Night
Starring: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Ray Liotta, James Franco, Mila Kunis
Director: Shawn Levy
Release Date: 9th April 2010
Claire and Phil Foster (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) are a bored suburban couple. Even their “date nights” of dinner and a movie have become routine. To reignite the marital spark, they visit a trendy Manhattan bistro, where a dangerous case of mistaken identity hurtles them through the city into non-stop adventure. From the director of Night At The Museum, Date Night has assembled just about the most ‘in’ comedy ensemble you can get, so expect something decent.
Death At A Funeral
Starring: Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Zoe Saldana
Director: Neil LaBute
Release Date: 16th April 2010
So here they’re remaking an English language movie, that was shot in Britain by an American director, had several American actors in it (including Peter Dinklage, who’s in the remake too) and had a release in the US just 3 years ago. Where it flopped. The only thing all that different in the remake is it’s being aimed squarely at an African-American audience. And it’s directed by the guy who did The Wicker Man remake. Bizarre. Anyway, it’s about shenanigans at a funeral.
MacGruber
Starring: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Val Kilmer, Ryan Phillippe, Jason Bateman
Director: Jorma Taccone
Release Date: 23rd April 2010
Recurring sketch on SNL ‘MacGruber’ is a MacGyver spoof that sees Will Forte trying to defuse a ticking bomb while being distracted by personal issues. The movie version has done well to cast Ryan Philippe (what happened to his career?) and Val Kilmer as the villain. But the record of SNL cinema is extremely patchy. The creator of MacGyver is kicking up a legal fuss as he feels he’s being cheated out of a payday. But it’ll take more than that to stop MaaacGruuubberrr.
Killers
Starring: Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Catherine O’Hara, Tom Selleck
Director: Robert Luketic
Release Date: 4th June 2010
From the director of The Ugly Truth, 21 and Monster In Law comes this action-comedy-thriller. Ashton Kutcher stars as an
Get Him To The Greek
Starring: Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Rose Byrne, Sean Combs, Elisabeth Moss
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Release Date: 4th June 2010
Russell Brand reprises his role as Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall in this story of a record company intern (Jonah Hill) with two days to drag an uncooperative rock legend to Hollywood for a comeback concert. It’s a spin-off, and is directed by the man behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but Jonah Hill is not reprising his role from that movie. Make sense? No.
Grown Ups
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade
Director: Dennis Dugan
Release Date: 25th June 2010
Adam Sandler has got the whole Happy Madison crew together for this ensemble comedy about five childhood friends / basketball teammates who reunite to honour their late coach at the lake house where they spent their younger days. Now they’re middle-aged, and have wives and kids in tow. All the jokes in the trailer have been done before. For Sandler fans only.
Knight & Day
Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Grace, Paul Dano
Director: Lee Unkrich
Release Date: 2nd July 2010
His Tropic Thunder cameo showed Tom Cruise do comedy, so now with his career still reeling after the Scientology madness, feature comedy seems a sensible direction to try out. Hence Knight & Day, which centers on a lonely woman (Cameron Diaz) whose seemingly harmless blind date suddenly turns her life upside-down when a super spy (Cruise) takes her on a violent worldwide journey to protect a powerful battery that holds the key to an infinite power source. The title sounds like it belongs to an 80s sitcom, but I like the madcap energy of the trailer.
Dinner For Schmucks
Starring: Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis
Director: Jay Roach
Release Date: 23rd July 2010
From the director of Austin Powers and Meet The Parents comes the tale of ‘an extraordinarily stupid man who possesses the ability to ruin the life of anyone who spends more than a few minutes in his company’. It’s a remake of the 1998 France black comedy The Dinner Game, which was about friends finding the most pathetic guests possible for their weekly dinner party.
The Other Guys
Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Eva Mendes
Director: Adam McKay
Release Date: 6th August 2010
Ferrell and Wahlberg play NYPD detectives working in the forensic accounting department who rarely see any action. They idolise the city’s top cops (Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson), but when an opportunity arises for them to step up, things do not quite go as expected. Previous Adam McKay-directed Ferrell movies Anchorman and Step Brothers worked well and I expect Ferrell’s manchild will play nicely off Wahlberg’s macho aggression.
Lottery Ticket
Starring: Bow Wow, Ice Cube, Brandon T. Jackson, Natari Naughton
Director: Erik White
Release Date: 27th August 2010
A young man living in the projects (Bow Wow) wins $350 million in a nationwide lottery, then has to survive a three-day weekend after his opportunistic neighbours find out he’s holding the ticket. Yes it’s one of those movies where you’re going to sit in the theater for 2 hours feeling jealous of the main character. It Could Happen To You and Lucky Numbers show that lottery movies are v.forgettable.
You Again
Starring: Kristen Bell, Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Andy Fickman
Release Date: 24th September 2010
Ellen Ripley and Laurie Strode team up to …oh damn it’s another movie about a wedding. Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis play two moms. When Marni (Kristen Bell) realises her brother is about to marry the girl who bullied her in high school, she sets out to expose the fiancée’s true colors. Chick flick comedy that will struggle to be any better than bland.
Jackass 3-D
Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Chris Pontius, Steve-O, etc
Director: Jeff Tremaine
Release Date: 15th October 2010
Johnny Knoxville’s acting career hasn’t gone so well. Thankfully the Jackass series is one of the most bankable in Hollywood (both previous Jackass moves made $80m worldwide from a budget of $5m and $11m respectively) so he’s back, along with the entire gang. This time they’re doing it in three dimensions. Wee Man in 3-D? I’m there.
Due Date
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Jamie Foxx
Director: Todd Phillips
Release Date: 5th November 2010
Director Todd Phillips follows up The Hangover with this story of an expectant first-time father (Downey) who finds himself on a cross-country road trip with a mismatched traveling companion (Galifianakis), as he races to get home before his wife (Monaghan) gives birth. Think Planes, Trains And Automobiles.
Morning Glory
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rachel McAdams, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Diane Keaton
Director: Roger Michell
Release Date: 12th November 2010
Rachel McAdams plays an aspiring news producer trying to save a failing morning show by getting control of its feuding anchors (Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton). Ford has been picking poor projects ever since Air Force One in 1997. This comedy-drama doesn’t sound much more inspiring. The movie is basically trying to be The Devil Wears Prada in the TV industry, with a young woman looking to make a name for herself by winning over the old dragon.
How Do You Know
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Jack Nicholson, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson
Director: James L. Brooks
Release Date: 17th December 2010
Ol’ Jack is back on the big screen for a supporting role in James L. Brooks new comedy-drama. Their previous collaborations, As Good as It Gets and Terms Of Endearment, netted Nicholson two Oscars, but this doesn’t look meaty enough to repeat that success. The story is about a former athlete (Reese Witherspoon) in the middle of a love triangle between a corporate guy in crisis (Paul Rudd) and her current, baseball-playing boyfriend (Owen Wilson). Expect it to be entertaining and well-observed.
Little Fockers
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Owen Wilson
Director: Paul Weitz
Release Date: 22nd December 2010
Gaylord Focker is now struggling to raise five-year old twins with his wife, the daughter of a retired CIA agent. The screenwriter says it’ll also deal with “themes of death and divorce and all these real things that as we get older, we start to think about, but in a really comical way.” Dustin Hoffman is reportedly out after arguing with the studio over the size of his part and the schedule. Harvey Keitel and Jessica Alba join the cast. Paul Weitz (American Dreamz, About A Boy) takes over from series director Jay Roach.
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