Comedy Movie Reviews Samples For Students

Rob Reiner directed ‘The Princess Bride’ is one of successful Americans movies. This movie is adventurous, comedy and romantic movie that is based on William Goldman written novel of the same name. The movie was released in the year 1987 and considered as a cult movie of the American cinema. This paper intends to discuss the movie and other related aspects of the area under discussion.
The movie begins with a scene where a book is being read by a grandfather (Peter Falk) to his sick grandson (Fred Savage). The grandfather reads the story of a young woman, Buttercup who is very beautiful. ...

Film Studies

1.Yojimbo (1961) and Jidaigeki (Period Drama)
Yojimbo is one of my absolute favorite Kurosawa films; I’m just so impressed by its incredible energy and pep. Toshiro Mifune seems to have a tremendous amount of fun as the ronin who marches into town and quickly ends up solving its problems. He is literally the archetype for Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name, and Yojimbo lends itself well to the Western format. In the space of a few minutes, we are told the stakes of the town, the different factions in it, and Sanjuro chooses to take down both sides ...

Compare and Contrast Two Movies

In the movie, ‘The Terrorizers’, the plot has its focus on the unstable relationships of three different couples. There is the young male photographer and his girlfriend, a delinquent Eurasian girl Wang her boyfriend, a doctor, and his wife. The photographer is obsessed with his hobby such that he forgets his girlfriend in an attempt to chase after Wang An after incidentally snapping a picture of her escaping a crime scene. Wang collaborates with her boyfriend to commit a number of conspiracy frauds on random people including the doctor Li Lizhong and his wife Zhu Youfeng a novelist. The two are struggling to maintain their ...

The 2006 film Stranger Than Fiction, directed by Marc Forster and starring Will Ferrell, tells the tale of a humdrum IRS agent (Will Ferrell) who finds himself learning that he is actually a fictional construct, a character in a story being written by Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson). As he deals with the constant meddling of an authorial force in his life, and making sure he is not insane with the help of a professor (Dustin Hoffman), he soon learns that Eiffel plans to kill him off in her own story, in order to make her writing interesting and cure her writer's block. The film ...

“Bringing Up Baby” is a classic screwball comedy which stars Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. The story revolves around a heiress, Susan Vance (Hepburn), who has a pet leopard and a paleontologist David Huxley (Grant). The major highlights of the movie centers on the search for the missing bone, the upcoming marriage of David with his fiancée Alice, the probable one million dollars donation for David’s project and the search for the leopard. The two characters meet at a golf outing for the possible benefactors of David’s museum. It is in this meeting that Susan gets attracted to David and decides ...

Silent comedy is an acting style that was invented after the development of film technology. Movie writers employed prominence on visual and physical factor to bring out the humor in the movies. They helped entertain the audience. The most common tactics of the great era were sound tracks to match the movements, and sounds emanating from exaggerated violence (DeMain 2012). They were generally recognized as slapstick. Good examples are sounds made after someone was hit with a stick, running water, or being hit with a pie on the face. In addition were the mimes. Here, an actor had to use body ...

Introduction

“Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” is a 2008 comedy film directed by Hurwitz and Schlossberg. The movie presents different ideas about the Asian and American relationships after the 9/11 attacks. It is a captivating comedy with content suitable for adults only. In this paper, the movie is chosen since it presents an opportunity to execute autonomous, creative ideological review that reveals intended messages and structures of a film. It is also suitable due to the concept of “popular cinema.” This review explores the film’s ideology in terms of concepts of negotiated reading, underlying structures, and national ...

The basic premise behind Director Judd Apatow’s comedy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, is obvious from its title: its main character, Andy (Steve Carell), is still a virgin and his friends at work want to help him remedy that “problem” by attempting various schemes to help him lose his virginity. As with other comedies, Andy experiences many pitfalls, embarrassing moments, and humiliating situations before finally marrying an understanding woman, Trish (Catherine Keener), and having his first sexual encounter with her.
A good comedy is difficult to make, but because the directing and acting in the movie is superb, The 40-Year-Old ...

The 2005 film, Constantine explores the ideas of heaven and hell and their impact on the day to day lives of the people on Earth. In terms of its success, the film was, financially, a big one and took a total of $230,884,728 at the box office. However, it was greeted by a mixed reaction from critics and audiences alike – this was largely due to the film being based on a popular comic book series entitled Hellblazer. The film tells the story of John Constantine, a man who is able to see demons and angels at work on Earth and takes on ...

The movie “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring” starts with showing a small Buddhist temple on the river. In the temple, there were both old and young Buddhist monks. Leafy trees and clear spring weather evoke peaceful background of this movie. To gather medical herbs and to get into land, two monks have to take a small boat. A young monk teases small animals like frogs, snakes, and fish by suspending stones to them with his innocent smile; at the same time, the old monk observes young monk without any comments. That night an old monk suspends rock to young monk ...

I love Lucy is one of the pioneer sitcom comedies shot in front of a live audience in the US. The setting of the sitcom is in New York with the show following the life of Lucy Ricardo and her husband Ricky Ricardo, who is a professional singer. The show also includes the couple's friends, Fred and Ethel Mertz. The show follows the life of Lucy, who is naïve in her ambitions to become a star in the big city. Together, the cast gets into various hilarious situations that are brought about by the actions of Lucy in ...

Interpersonal Critique of Dumb and Dumber

Introduction
The purpose of a comedy film is obviously to make you laugh. However, there are comedies that really make you laugh out loud, put you through suspense, action, and the ultimate result would be a funny thrilling experience; Dumb and Dumber is one of such films. In this 1994 blockbuster, two dim-witted friends accidentally steal a suitcase full of money; it becomes very comical when they try to return the money to the rightful owner. This paper will review the movie Dumb and Dumber and expound on how it is packed with interpersonal communication.
In this comic movie, renowned ...

The 1970s was a decade of the public’s disappointment with the government and its policies, domestic and foreign, social and economic. It was the time of counterculture and various movements and protests that followed the example of the civil rights movement. The most important topics for the American people were the distrust for the government after the long-lasting Vietnam War that weakened not only the United States, whose economic situation was already devastating, but other countries, including Vietnam, Cambodia and their neighbors; the Watergate scandal that made Americans doubt that the county is in fact a democratic one, the state ...

Ernst Lubitsch (1942): To be or not to be
Ernst Lubitsch, a Jewish-German, directed the film to be or not to be in 1942 together with Jack Benny, and Carole Lombard, who act the couple Torra. This is a couple of actors who had led a theatre team in Warsaw and were busy in rehearsing an anti-Nazi play a time when Germans had invaded Poland. In the film, the group becomes an active secretive participant and through their costumes they manage to deceive the Nazis together with their cooperators. The film illustrates the Nazis racism and violence instead of the military ...

Charlie Chaplin directed the silent talkie movie “City Lights”, after working for decades in truly silent movies. The movie was released on 7th March, 1931 at George M Cohan Theater that saw excellent crowd on the initial day of its screening. The genre of the movie can be classified as romance, drama and comedy. Charlie Chaplin has contributed in many departments of the movie as an actor, director, producer, scorer, and screenwriter. The movie was a huge success due to the contribution of many versatile actors like, Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Al Garcia, Harry Myers, Florence Lee, and Hank Mann. ...

The history of American Latino films in the United States is generally considered to begin with Luis Valdez 1981’s Zoot Suit. Since that time, a large number of dedicated screenwriters and directors have embarked on the production of such films, some through Hollywood and others through independent routes.
One distinct characteristic that has been conspicuous in most of the American films has been the use of stereotypes and comedy to explore the culture of different Latino groups and also deal with the issue of immigration from Central and South American nations into the United States (Barrera 45). Most ...

Feminism in Movies: Just Wright

Introduction

Decades after Mary Wollstonecraft began the suffrage movement, women’s liberation is in its third wave and has changed its style with feminists shedding the image of bra-burning activists to one of “the woman on the top” (Britannica Encyclopedia). According to prolific feminist studies writer Susan J. Douglas, as advocated by the British female pop group, Spice Girls, feminism has become a dirty word, and girl power has become the acceptable way to think and speak of strong women (2010). Feminists are no longer women clad in baggy clothes striving for better recognition and respect for their gender. In the ...

The Off-Broadway production of Cactus Flower directed by Michael Bush at the Westside Theatre provides a lovely, bright look at the Sixties while still carrying the more whimsical themes of the farce. There are plenty of laughs to be had as misunderstandings and situations get out of control, and the characters scramble desperately to deal with each new circumstance that arises. In this paper, we will go over the play as a whole and how this particular production conveyed the messages present in the text.

The crux of the play revolves around Julian (Maxwell Caulfield), a philandering dentist, who pretends to have a ...

"A Gun in Each Hand" is a film directed by Cesc Gay, who is one of the sharpest chroniclers of the urban middle class of the Catalan. He was born in 1967 in Barcelona and studied in New York and Barcelona. He produced the film "A Gun in Each Hand” in 2012 in Barcelona using the Spanish language. Gay portrays women and eight modern men in their messy lives. Bipolar J. is turned into the perfect psychoanalytic subject. E is living with his mother because he prefers his cat over his wife. In addition, S who is an adulterer ...

Introduction

Not so long time ago, I had an opportunity to see and enjoy the play named “Little Shop of Horrors” based on on of the most beloved horror comedy movies of 90s. “Little Shop of Horrors” is the play staged in the local theatre of the University of Toledo by the Department of Theatre and Film.
When I saw the advertisement of the play for the first time, I was really terrified, wondering whether it is just a coincidence that the story has the same title as the movie, but the poster is very scary unlike the movie that ...

Ancient Rome has often been depicted in film through sprawling epics, mining historical accounts and Biblical scripture for sweeping stories of love, governments, religion and war. As the environment they depict is one of slaves, imperialism and hedonism, many of these stories fall into the traditional historical epic of a slave freeing themselves (and others) from tyranny. The 1960 film Spartacus is most certainly one of those films, a powerful and expansive work by Stanley Kubrick, depicting the slave Spartacus' rebellion against the Roman aristocracy who enslaved them. However, this same self-serious scope can often be mined for comedy, as in ...

Broculture and The Hangover

Abstract
The concept of broculture and bromance in the movie, The Hangover provides a new understanding into the changing conception of masculinity in the modern man as depicted in popular culture. It is both a celebration of uber-masculinity and the liberation of the individual, in particular, the male from traditional conventions through the experimentation with drugs and alcohol.This paper seeks to examine the treatment of broculture in by Phillips in The Hangover. The first part provides a short synopsis of the movie and explores the choice and treatment of the setting of Las Vegas. The second part looks at ...

David Lindsay-Abaire is known for being the playwright behind the play ‘Good People.’ This is one that got a lot of publicity. The play was aired in a number of theaters including Noel Coward Theatre, Marine Theatre Company (which was where I saw the play) and Vermont Stage Company. The play can be characterized as a drama with a bit of comedy. This play mostly revolves around the life of Margaret, who was commonly referred to as Maggie (hard ‘g)’. Maggie has spent a significant part of her life in the South end of Boston or ‘Southie’ as most ...

Introduction

Were one to attempt and define the general element in all films by Yasujiro Ozu, he/she would realize that this star had an eye for the human tales about everyday life. In deciding to capture this quality, he used various genres and their dialogues to highlight the specific points that he was trying to put across. Although perceived by some as being a filmmaker with a weakness for slow moving, conservatively lensed films, the certainty proves to be far dissimilar. Whereas it is true that he has mainly made dramas, in the “Good Morning” film, Ozu demonstrates that he is a skilled ...

Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010), Divine Comedy of Dante
It is a common knowledge that this movie is adapted from Dante Aligheri’ called The Divine Comedy. This movie is animated from the country of Japan. The story is really simple. Dante had apparently gone to the Crusades for spiritual nourishment. However, when he came back, he found that his wife, Beatrice had been slaughtered. The Dark One, the name Dante gives to grim the reaper, was nonetheless present to take to hell, the girl’s soul. Dante did not know the reason for this. He therefore followed the ...

The movie “V for Vendetta,” directed by James McTeigue, follows the actions of a freedom fighter who operates under the alias “V” and uses guerrilla tactics to oppose the totalitarian regime established in England. When he rescues Evey Hammond from the secret police, he also gains an accomplice.
James McTeigue, the director of “V for Vendetta,” entered the film industry during the 1980s, and he became an assistant director in 1991. He was an assistant director known for participating in the creation of “The Matrix” series and “Star Wars Episode II.” The movie “V for Vendetta” was his debut ...

The movie i.e. Deadpool targeted a lucrative market as the movie focused on the two groups like comic-book cognoscenti and hormonal teenage boys. The movie on one hand includes humor content and on the other hand, it contains violence. The sense of humor in the movie at the same time is appalling and immature. The positive point of the movie is that the main character i.e. Deadpool was well-aware of his fictitious status, which is referred to USP of character. It can be ascertained by the fact that he was aware of the presence of camera and constantly communicated ...

The movie “Birdman”, filmed by the Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu in 2014, created a furor in the cinematography. This film uses a lot of unusual cinematic techniques, which we are going to analyze in our paper.
     Let us start with the camera work done by Emmanuel Lubezki, who used quite interesting techniques when shooting. First of all, you need to say about the angles of the shots. Emmanuel Lubezki filmed shots from low angles. These pictures give the impression that the subject is of great importance, and has certain strength. These shots make the viewers feel ...

The Influence of Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound on Film Viewing

Introduction
Sounds are important elements of a movie because it enhances the conventions through which people understand the movie they watch and give them the ability to appreciate the concepts inputted in the movie they view. Sound, nevertheless, is being used at differing variations in every movie. There are two types of sound used in films: diegetic and non-diegetic. A diegetic sound is a sound that is complemented by the visuals shown in the film such as the movement of the objects, the voices of the characters, background music. Non-diegetic sound, on the other hand, is a sound that both cannot ...

This is the most captivating romantic movie I have watched so far. The movie will take your adrenaline fast leaving you asking for more since it ends in suspense when the two people who have been in hatred ultimately fall for each other. This marks a new beginning for two newly lover birds. This new beginning is marked by Mark giving Bridget a new diary so that she can write nice things about him not the old unspeakable words about his character. This is the climax of the movie that the audience will wish to continue. The movie is full of ...

Introduction

The film Last Vegas, directed by Jon Turteltaub, was released in 2013. It stars cinematic heavyweights like Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline. Some of these actors, like Kline and Douglas, have faded into general obscurity in recent years, but still have managed to maintain relative clout with their reputations, making this film seem like it was going to be one to remember. Unfortunately, most will probably remember it as one they wish they could forget. The storyline is boring, the jokes are stale, and the material is dull. There are a few redeeming qualities about ...

Recently opening in cinemas of North America and all over the world, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, directed by Mark Webb, follows the events of 2012 reboot as Peter Parker, played by Andrew Garfield, struggles to combine a life of soon-to-be school graduate and sharp-tongued friendly neighbor/city protector Spider-Man. But that is not it – Peter begins to waver about the relationships with his girlfriend Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone; Peter had sworn to her dying father they would stop seeing each other to avoid putting her into danger. As Peter’s old friend Harry Osborn (played by Dane DeHaan) returns ...

ABSTRACT

During the last decade, Asian horror cinema has seen a surge in popularity throughout the world, especially in western countries. Traditionally, Japan has dominated the Asian horror cinema, but recently Hong Kong and South Korea have emerged as major powerhouses in the genre. Majority of these movies have enjoyed international success. Moreover, many of these movies have been adapted and remade by Hollywood. As the genre continues to grow, there is a need to understand the social conditions, cultural values, and cinematic traditions which influence the horror movies from Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore. In particular, ...

Movie review: ‘what time is it there’ and ‘pushing hands’

The two movies, ‘What time is it there’ and pushing hands are similar and also different in a number of ways. In both movies, we find at least two contrasting situations, for instance, in what time is it there, we realize that the two sittings we have totally different situations. They are Taipei, Taiwan and Paris, France. Chen Shiang-Chyi who goes to Paris finds totally different conditions there and she feels out of place, lonely and bored too. She misses sex and has to find another woman to help her ease it.
On the other hand in ‘pushing hands’, ...

Movie making began long time ago. However, radical cinema came up in the early 1960s. Within the time given, there have been distinct ways to determine the creation of a movie. Most people who came to radical film making had little knowledge. Due to their poor level of knowledge, the film makers developed the already existing cinematic techniques. The cinematic techniques include; first, the shots, improvisation, close-ups, camera location and type of lighting. Among other cinematic techniques include the use of jump cuts. They are the edits made in a continuous scene of footage, without having to transit hence gives the ...

Film Review: “Fried Green Tomatoes”

Directed by John Avnet, Fried Green Tomatoes is a sensational comic video nominated for two academic video awards. The film tells a story of an era of depression in the friendship of two women, coupled with another friendship in the 1980s. The reception of the movie among the people offered the film an opportunity of attracting global intention. However, the movie attracted criticism especially from the people opposed to the idea of lesbian content in the film. This paper analyzes the film by pointing out areas that the author and director failed to bring out clearly to the viewers.
The ...

Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman is a play written by Arthur Miller in the year 1949. The play tells of man’s disillusionment and despair. The author narrates the story through the mindset of Willy – the main character in the play. Willy, an ordinary salesman residing together with his family in New York, is obsessed with the American dream and making as much money as possible. However, his big dreams fail to materialize and he ends up a depressed man. As a result, he starts to speak alone. He also rants at his sons for failing to follow his vision for them. A critical ...

Ideological Film Theory in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Movies by definition, toy with us, but few films actually admit this. Movies frequently propose stories as real, and subsequently we are obliged to take them seriously. Some films genre’s can break these rules, comedies for instance, most of Luis Bunuel’s films are more or less comedies which I imagine is so that he can get around and/or play with film structure and essentially do whatever he wants. On the other hand his comedy is not wet; it’s very dry and stark. In The ...

Ideological Film Theory in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Movies by definition, toy with us, but few films actually admit this. Movies frequently propose stories as real, and subsequently we are obliged to take them seriously. Some films genre’s can break these rules, comedies for instance, most of Luis Bunuel’s films are more or less comedies which I imagine is so that he can get around and/or play with film structure and essentially do whatever he wants. On the other hand his comedy is not wet; it’s very dry and stark.
In ...

Asian horror, as a genre, carries with it a generous mix of scathing subtext and grotesque images. Whether witnessing the wrath of an uncanny ghost girl, seeing people murdered in mountains of gore, or the many subtle avenues in between, many of the best Asian horror films combine shocking sights with potent messages in order to convey an anxiety present in that society at the time. "Setting aside the moral ramifications of such manifest extremities, we can identify the current boom enjoyed by Asian horror and extreme cinema and discern a complex nexus of local, regional and global relationships in play" (Choi ...

Introduction:

Film noir can be seen from several aspects principally a portrayal of a certain aspect as well as a creation of a particular atmosphere. The Dark Night is perhaps no more film noire than other more descriptive films but it certainly has elements which are typical film noire. The argument that a woman has to be present to make a film noire has already been argued extensively before especially in the appraisal of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ which has been described as being a precursor of the genre but not the actual genre. The Dark Night contains several aspects which classify it as film noire and amongst ...

Moonchildren

The play moonchildren are a comic play in two acts by Michael Weller. The play is produced by Zelda Fichandler and directed by Alan Schneider. The play is acted in the Royal Court theatre. The play qualifies to be a successful movie as evident in its stage production; Marjorie selection of costumes is excellent, and the play lighting done by Vance Sorrells is appropriate and is used in an appropriate manner which makes the play more comical. The work of Weller is perceived to be “seminal work” it is an attractive work which have stood the test of time. Although, the ...

This review of the movie shall take a different treatment to the cinema. We shall be analyzing the movie on the whole with the social problem or issue associated with it, which was prevalent at that time and might be still relevant today. There is a variety of social issues that the movie highlights. Those are the divide between the rich and the poor, the humanism, and the conscience of the mankind, both from the perspectives of the rich and the poor. There is an inherent link between all the three issues that our review shall also try to establish. Our ...

The Film: The Proposal (Lieberman et al., 2009)

The Proposal is a 2009 romantic comedy directed by Anne Fletcher for the California-based film production and distribution house, Touchstone Pictures. The story revolves around a talented book publisher, named Margaret Tate (portrayed by Sandra Bullock), who heads the fictional publishing firm Ruick & Hunt. Margaret is depicted as an emotionally distant person from the start. Around five minutes into the movie, for instance, employees at Ruick & Hunt are seen running frantically around the offices as soon as one of them sends an internal message stating, “It is here.” This clearly shows just how much she is both feared and detested.
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Introduction

A great script full with twists and unpredictability influences the success of a film to a great extent. The 2003 award-winning film adaptation, a comedy drama written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze exemplifies creativity in filmmaking. It is wickedly playful in construction and records the torments of a screenwriter who is not adept at writing a movie about orchids. Ironically, the film manages to have the story effectively told in a captivating and exceptionally creative manner by incorporating two lines of stories into one. The film narrates the true story of Charlie Kaufman and his struggles to adapt the book The Orchid ...

Genre and ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’.

The 2004 film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind raises the question of ‘if you could erase the memories of your ex-lover, would you?’ As a film, its genre is seemingly quite ambiguous: it switches back and forth between memories and reality; love and un-love in a non-linear fashion that also skips between romance and science fiction. The genre of a film is traditionally seen as being a form of classification; it refers to a number of factors that go some way to defining it: “type of presentation (epic/lyric/dramatic), relation to reality (fiction/non-fiction), level of style (epic/novel), kind of plot (comedy/tragedy), nature of content ( ...