Items17The creator’s order
  1. 1Kung Fu Hustle (2004)Kung Fu Hustle (2004) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased Feb 10, 2004Stephen Chow's 2004 Hong Kong action comedy plays like a live-action cartoon, which makes it the easiest first step on this list. A furious landlady chases a would-be gangster at impossible speed, fights turn into slapstick and the villains are drawn in such bold strokes that you can follow almost…0
  2. 2One Cut of the Dead (2017)One Cut of the Dead (2017) 7.6/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 4, 2017A cheap zombie movie opens with an unbroken 37-minute single take, and the fun of Shinichiro Ueda's Japanese comedy is discovering why it looks so strange. Stick with that rough opening: the rest of the movie rewinds and shows everything that went wrong behind the camera, and each awkward pause you…0
  3. 3Extreme Job (2019)Extreme Job (2019) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 23, 2019A squad of hopeless narcotics detectives buys a failing fried chicken joint as a stakeout front, and then their chicken becomes the most popular in town. That one premise explains every scene of this 2019 South Korean action comedy: the cops are too busy frying orders to catch anyone. The humor is…0
  4. 4Amélie (2001)Amélie (2001) 8.2/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 25, 2001Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 2001 Paris fairy tale tells much of its story through pictures: a shy waitress's secret good deeds, close-ups of tiny everyday pleasures and her father's stolen garden gnome posing in snapshots from the Statue of Liberty to the Sphinx. A narrator keeps you oriented, so the…0
  5. 5The Intouchables (2011)The Intouchables (2011) 8.5/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 2, 2011A wealthy Parisian left paralyzed hires a carefree young man from the suburbs as his caregiver, and the odd-couple setup is clear within minutes. François Cluzet plays straight man to Omar Sy's infectious energy, and much of the comedy comes from Sy's reactions, from opera to modern art, rather…0
  6. 6Champions (2018)Champions (2018) 7.2/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 6, 2018Champions (Campeones, Spain, 2018), not the 2023 English-language remake. A hot-headed basketball coach is sentenced to community service training a team of players with intellectual disabilities, and if you know sports movies, you already know the shape. That familiarity is the point for a first…0
  7. 7Instructions Not Included (2013)Instructions Not Included (2013) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased Aug 30, 2013Eugenio Derbez wrote, directed and stars as an Acapulco playboy who is left with a baby and takes her out of Mexico to find her mother in the US. Much of the movie is set across the border, and English and Spanish mix naturally, so it works as a gentle bridge if fully subtitled films still feel…0
  8. 8Perfect Strangers (2016)Perfect Strangers (2016) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased Feb 11, 2016Perfect Strangers (Perfetti sconosciuti, Italy, 2016), the original rather than any of its many remakes. A group of old friends at a dinner party agree to put their phones on the table and share every message and call that arrives. Everyone knows that dread, which is why Paolo Genovese's comedy…0
  9. 9Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased Mar 25, 1988Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 farce is a screwball comedy in candy colors: Carmen Maura plays Pepa, an actress reeling from a breakup, whose Madrid penthouse fills with strangers, police and a batch of gazpacho spiked with sleeping pills. Doors slam, people faint and the bright sets tell you who is in…0
  10. 10Tampopo (1985)Tampopo (1985) 7.9/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 23, 1985Juzo Itami's 1985 Japanese noodle comedy borrows the shape of a Western: a pair of truck drivers ride into town and help a widow turn her shabby ramen shop into the best around. Food does most of the talking, with slurping lessons, kitchen training montages and side sketches about eating that drift…0