Guaranteed Movies That Will Get You Laughing
Movies That Will Have You Smiling During These Tough Times
For many people, COVID lockdowns are actually quite a busy time, whether it’s through work, homeschooling, university or online courses. For such reasons, as well as the more obvious ones, it can also be a stressful time. With that in mind, here are some movies that are sure to cheer you up and have you laughing to boot.
1. Rush Hour 2 (2001)
This is one of the top movies I go to when I want to watch something that will make me laugh. While the first Rush Hour (released in 1998) is also a great movie, the second installment in the franchise takes all the best bits from the first movie and improves on them. The film stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker as detectives and, as with all Jackie Chan movies, incorporates some incredible (and sometimes hilarious) martial arts. Tucker’s natural comedic streak and Chan’s openness to comedy and humour makes for an explosive combination. They have such an obvious good rapport and friendship that it’s hard to believe that they weren’t too fond of each other in the beginning. However, audiences everywhere are happy that they were able overcome this wobbly beginning and become great friends, as the comedic duo have since made some great movies together.
P.S: When you watch this movie make sure you don’t skip the blooper reel that plays through the end credits! It arguably has some of the funniest footage in the entire film.
2. Hot Fuzz (2007)
Many people who enjoy comedies have probably come across some of Simon Pegg’s movies before, and in Hot Fuzz Pegg once again stars alongside Nick Frost. Hot Fuzz is an action comedy centered around big shot London police officer Nicholas Angel (Pegg). He is sent off to a sleepy village for being too good at his job and consequently making all the other officers look bad. He is partnered with Danny Butterman (Frost) who is fascinated by him and bombards him with questions on a daily basis. All isn’t as it seems in the quaint little town however and soon Angel and Butterman find themselves hunting down a murderer that no one else seems to believe is real, and dismiss the deaths as mere ‘accidents’. Hot Fuzz is widely regarded as an amazing action comedy and takes many clichés, stereotypes and stories from typical cop shows and movies to add to it’s humour. It’s also full of many familiar faces.
3. The Rocker
For some reason not a lot of people are aware of The Rocker, despite it having many big stars in its cast. I do remember that, in my country at least, it was released around the same time as High School Musical 3, which may have had an effect on how many people went to see it when it came out. It’s not one to be missed however! The story centers around Robert Fishman or Fish played by Rain Wilson and his attempts to rise to fame as a drummer in a rock band. The road to stardom isn’t always easy, as Fish soon discovers when he is betrayed my his band mates. When opportunity comes knocking twenty years later in the form of his nephew’s high school band, Fish jumps at the chance. The hilarious mash up of ages in the band, the amazing songs and the star studded cast (Emma Stone, Josh Gad, Christina Applegate, Bradley Cooper and Will Arnett to name a few) results in a funny, feel-good film you should definitely check out.
4. The Mummy (1999)
This may be a controversial choice to add to the list, seeing as it is usually described as an action/horror film, but I still feel like it deserves a spot. Personally, I’m not too fond of horror movies (because they’re scary and I’m a bit of a wuss) but The Mummy is more of an action movie than a horror one and I can watch it with ease — and no nightmares! What grants it it’s place on this list however is the many amazing one liners delivered by the cast. Back then Brendan Fraiser was all over Hollywood — and when you watch some of his films you sometimes wonder why he ever faded out— and his performance in The Mummy is one of my personal favourites. Throw in John Hannah and you’ve got a dynamite comedic duo. Hannah and Fraiser, along with Rachel Weisz, artfully lend this action film some brilliant moments of comedy that just works. Action movies often take themselves a bit too seriously but in The Mummy the actors manage to strike this amazing blend of humour of seriousness that makes this movies stand out, even after all these years.
P.S: The sequel The Mummy Returns (2001) is another great movie that also has some good laughs, though after that the franchise kind of goes downhill.
5. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2017)
Perhaps one of the most recognizable movies on the list, simply because it is also the most recent. Now, while I love love LOVE the original with Robin Williams I have to admit that I really enjoyed the sequel. Whenever Hollywood tries to bring back a beloved film from people’s pasts they have to be very, very careful and even if they do take care the results can sometimes be epic fails. For this reason I was very wary when I heard that Jumanji was coming back to our screens but once the cast was announced a lot of my fears went away… and after I watched it in the cinema I was in love! It doesn’t try to take away from the original but instead brings us further into the world that scared and fascinated us way back in 1995. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle is an action/adventure film but is also most definitely a comedy. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart and Jack Black (just some of the amazing cast) are so good together you find yourself wondering why this fantastic combination of actors wasn’t thrown together sooner! These actors play teenagers stuck in avatar bodies in the video game Jumanji — a difficult task in itself to act out well — but not only do they succeed in this, they also do it with such skill and hilarity that they have us laughing from start to finish. If you somehow missed out on this movie I would highly recommend watching it, and if you’ve already seen it… watch it again — it’s just that good.
