Entertainment
15 Comedy Movies That Will Make You LOL In 2018
2017 was a pretty disappointing year for comedy movies. Apart from The Big Sick and Girls Trip, which were awesome and hilarious, we had the disappointment of The House, Fist Fight, Father Figures, Baywatch, Rough Night, Going in Style, Snatched, CHiPs, Table 19 – even Pitch Perfect 3. These movies all sucked! The comedy film genre seemed dead in the water. It was once arguably the greatest genre of them all, because who doesn’t love to laugh? You go in, switch off your brain, watch some wacky hijinks, fall in love with some crazy characters, follow a relatively simplistic plot from start to finish, laugh your ass off, and if you’re lucky, maybe even come out of it enlightened about a social issue or made a better person (it’s a stretch, but it has happened before with the best). But none of that happened in 2017. The best ones raised the occasional smile and the worst ones made you want to gouge your eyeballs out. Comedy died a painful death in 2017. However, in 2018, there’s a lot of exciting new comedy movies coming out that could be the phoenix that rises from the ashes of the comedy genre. 2018 could be the year that turns it all around! Here are the 15 most exciting comedy movies coming out in 2018!
15. Life of the Party
Melissa McCarthy is never not funny. She’s like the female Will Ferrell. The movie she’s in might not be that great, but she is always totally on point with her comic delivery. And that’s why Life of the Party will definitely be worth watching. The story of a woman who is unexpectedly dumped by her husband and then goes back to college to party her ass off may be a great movie or maybe it won’t be so great – but you can guarantee it will make you laugh, because Melissa McCarthy is starring in it, she’s tailored it to her shtick with a screenplay she’s co-written with her real life husband Ben Falcone, and Falcone is directing, so he’ll definitely give her to chance to shine.
14. Overboard
This remake of the ‘80s Goldie Hawn/Kurt Russell comedy of the same name looks to be the wackiest comedy of the year. The plot sees a wealthy Mexican playboy (swapping out the white guy for some good ol’ representation of racial minorities in this woke era) fall off his yacht and get amnesia. When he wakes up without his memories, a working class single mom – a disgruntled employee of his, out for retribution – convinces him they are married, so she can get at his wealth. This can only end poorly, but it’ll certainly be a fun and exciting ride while it lasts. How I Met Your Mother regular director Rob Greenberg will be helming the movie, giving it his all as his first high profile Hollywood feature.
13. Game Over, Man!
If you enjoyed Workaholics on Comedy Central, then watch out for Game Over, Man! on Netflix later this year. It stars the key trio behind that show – Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson, and Anders Holm – as three guys who have been working on a video game, desperately trying to get someone to finance it. Finally, they do get someone – and then that someone is kidnapped by terrorists. It’s an action comedy that has been described as “Die Hard in a hotel,” which is certainly an exciting prospect for a funny flick. Kyle Newacheck, a director of many episodes of Workaholics, is directing the movie, so he clearly has a good working relationship with the guys and knows how to move the camera and edit film in a funny way, so this should definitely be a very fun movie.
12. Tag
This wacky little comedy movie, coming out this June, has been in development since sometime in 2013, when it was initially being developed as a vehicle to star Will Ferrell and Jack Black. Last year, it finally started shooting. Ferrell and Black were out, but a terrific consolation cast took their place: Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner, Hannibal Buress, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher, and Rashida Jones. The movie will tell the story of some childhood friends who get back together for a game of tag that has them traveling across the country to escape each other – and this is a true story! It’s adapted from the Wall Street Journal article that told the true story of these friends and their cross-country game of tag.
11. Tully
This comedy drama movie will reunite Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody, the director and writer of the brilliant Juno, respectively, as well as reuniting the pair with the star of their other greatest movie, Young Adult, the great Charlize Theron (who has since become known as Imperator Furiosa). According to the premise outlined on IMDb, the plot of Tully is this: “The film is about Marlo, a mother of three including a newborn, who is gifted a night nanny by her brother. Hesitant to the extravagance at first, Marlo comes to form a unique bond with the thoughtful, surprising, and sometimes challenging young nanny named Tully.” It looks as though it will see Diablo Cody writing yet another bunch of strong female characters in real, relatable situations – hopefully it’ll be another Juno and not another Paradise.
10. Action Point
Action Point is the true story of the New Jersey amusement park Action Park, which gained notoriety as one of the deadliest and most dangerous theme parks in the United States. The park was infamous for being poorly designed, having unsafe rides, and employing staff members that were underaged, undertrained, and more often than not, drunk and/or high. The movie is coming from director Tim Kirkby, who has helmed episodes of terrific comedy series like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Veep, and Grace and Frankie, and it will star Jackass front man Johnny Knoxville. The actual story of the movie will see Knoxville as the danger-crazed madman who decides to design and operate his own theme park with his buddies, which sounds right up Knoxville’s alley.
9. Super Troopers 2
Finally, fans of the absurdist cult classic Super Troopers are getting the sequel they’ve been dying to see for almost two decades. The comedy troupe Broken Lizard behind the first movie started a crowdfunding campaign to raise the production budget for a sequel, and they reached their $2 million goal in a little over 24 hours – and reaching the goal didn’t stop fans from continuing to donate, so Super Troopers 2 ended up getting way more of a budget than the filmmakers ever expected. The story will involve a border dispute with Canada, and Jim Gaffigan, Brian Cox, and Lynda Carter are back from the first one, with Rob Lowe and Tyler Labine joining the original cast. If they can craft a sequel that lives up to the legacy of the first one, this could truly be something special.
8. The Spy Who Dumped Me
We’re living in a great time for comedy, because women are finally being given the opportunities they deserve. The Spy Who Dumped Me (great title, by the way, derived from the classic Bond movie) is being directed and co-written by a woman, and it stars two fiercely talented women: the great Mila Kunis and Saturday Night Live standout Kate McKinnon. According to Deadline.com, this action comedy tells the high octane story of “friends Audrey (Kunis) and Morgan (McKinnon), who get involved in an undercover mission after Audrey’s unassuming ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail.” In the ensuing chaos, Audrey and Morgan get swept up into a deadly adventure involving espionage and assassins and intrigue and thrills. Well, gee, that sounds exciting!
7. Night School
Night School is based on a screenplay by comedy superstar Kevin Hart (along with four other writers: Harry Ratchford, Joey Wells, Matt Kellard, and Nicholas Stoller), who is also starring in the movie alongside greats like Rob Riggle, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Romany Malco, Keith David (who plays Hart’s character’s dad), and Taran Killam. It tells the story of a bunch of slackers who never graduated from high school and have to attend night school before taking the GED exam. Night School will also be a special one in that, with African American producers Kevin Hart and Will Packer calling the shots, it will provide black people (specifically women, too) with wider, stronger, and more accurate representation than they usually get in Hollywood movies, with black actresses Tiffany Haddish and Yvonne Orji taking center stage alongside Hart.
6. Dear Dictator
This nifty, dark little satire written and directed by Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl who somehow becomes pen pals with a ruthless foreign dictator. Following a coup, the dictator comes to stay with her and her family, where he begins to draw parallels between his own political rise and the power structure of the girl’s high school. He gives her some of his tips and tactics to help her rise through the ranks and become the most popular girl in school. The movie has a heck of a cast in it, including Michael Caine, Seth Green, Katie Holmes, Odeya Rush, and Jason Biggs. The early reviews have been very positive. The Hollywood Reporter’s critic wrote, “If only every international political crisis were this amusing.”
5. I Feel Pretty
Amy Schumer has always been empowering women and promoting positive body image through her standup comedy, and now, she’s taking that message to the big screen. She was initially developing a similar premise as a movie adaptation of Barbie dolls, but after she dropped out of that project, she got on board I Feel Pretty, which has the same sort of concept, but without the brand recognition. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this movie will follow “an ordinary woman (Schumer) who struggles with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy on a daily basis. One day, she wakes from a fall believing she is the most beautiful and capable woman in the world. With this newfound confidence, she is empowered to live her life fearlessly and flawlessly, but what will happen when she realizes her appearance never changed?” Sounds great, right?
4. Deadpool 2
Deadpool came out of nowhere in 2016 to gross almost $800 million worldwide and capture audiences across the globe. Ryan Reynolds and his pair of writers, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, struggled to get an R-rated superhero movie filled with graphic violence, excessive profanity, and tongue-in-cheek fourth wall-breaking made. When the first one became a blockbuster, they didn’t have any trouble getting the sequel made. Deadpool 2 sees Deadpool, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Colossus, Vanessa, and Weasel all back for a second time around, with one very special new addition: Josh Brolin in the iconic role of time traveling mutant cybersoldier Cable, who has been described as “in many ways, the opposite of Deadpool.” Plus, the sequel managed to market itself during the Super Bowl without having to pay for that pesky, hugely expensive trailer airtime – they had the lead character live-tweet the game instead!
3. Game Night
Game Night stars a hell of a cast: Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Sharon Horgan, Jesse Plemons, Michael C. Hall, Kyle Chandler, and Chelsea Peretti, to name just a few. This crazy little movie will see a bunch of suburban couples endure one wild night. It’s a thriller in the vein of Liam Neeson’s Run All Night – but it’s not a thriller, it’s a comedy. How is it a comedy, you might ask? Gangsters are beating people up, criminals sucked into airplane turbines, and kidnappings are going down? Is that funny? Well, since it’s all taking place on the couples’ game night, they all think it’s an elaborate game being taken up a notch. And hey, it just might be, ending with a mad plot twist, a la the Michael Douglas movie The Game. Who knows? That’ll be the excitement of watching it when it’s released in theaters later this year.
2. Blockers
Pitch Perfect writer Kay Cannon will be making her directorial debut with this movie, which tells the story of three parents who spend their daughters’ prom night desperately trying to prevent them from losing their virginities. It’s an interesting take on the teen sex comedy – rather than the teens’ desire to have sex, it’s the parents’ desire to stop them. The trailer makes it look delightfully silly, and there’s a wonderful comedy cast making up the line-up. The central three parents are being played by Leslie Mann, John Cena, and Ike Barinholtz – a combination which doesn’t seem to add up on paper, but they’re each great in their own right separately, and the casting team surely knew what they were doing. Plus, the supporting cast includes the great Hannibal Buress, and Superbad’s Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are on board as producers.
1. Holmes and Watson
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are reteaming for a comedic reimagining of the Sherlock Holmes stories, with Ferrell as Holmes and Reilly as Watson. The pair showed that they have undeniably great comic chemistry in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and then again in Step Brothers, and they both hold up as timeless comedy classics. Let’s hope that, with this one, they’ll be able to catch lightning in a bottle a third time and Holmes and Watson can continue that legacy of Ferrell/Reilly hits. Etan Cohen, who directed Ferrell in Get Hard, is reuniting with the actor to helm this one. Hopefully, with the combination of Ferrell and Reilly, Holmes and Watson will be funnier than that juvenile prison comedy (no pun intended).