Gone are the days of endlessly searching video stores for some undiscovered gem.
Instead, it's all about endlessly scrolling through Netflix in search of something fresh
and new to watch.
It's hard to tell what's good or not, so here are some overlooked comedies from the past
few decades that are just as good as if not better than all those big, broad blockbusters.
Casa de Mi Padre
Despite being an A-list movie star, Will Ferrell isn't usually one to rest on his laurels and
do the same thing over and over again.
He likes to innovate and make good comedy that interests him, and if other people like
it, great.
This is one of those kinds of movies.
Casa de Mi Padre is an exercise in both comic tenacity and silliness, as it's a parody of
a telenovela and is filmed almost entirely in Spanish.
It should be noted that Ferrell, as a noble rancher in Mexico, doesn't speak Spanish all
that well as he deals with both an untrustworthy brother and a fearsome drug lord.
But that's all part of the comedy.
Goon
Seann William Scott has been largely relegated to bully and sidekick roles, such as Stifler
in the American Pie series and as Chester in Dude, Where's My Car?.
In Goon, he's front, center, and often bloody as the star of this charming hockey comedy.
Scott plays Doug, a dumb but good-natured guy who works as a bouncer but doesn't really
know what to do with his life.
"Doug did not follow in the family vocation, he's.."
"I bounced"
"Like a basketball?"
Then he discovers he has a knack for being a hockey enforcer or "goon," the guy who violently
body-checks opposing players.
Goon was written by Superbad co-writer Evan Goldberg and Knocked Up star Jay Baruchel,
who co-stars as Scott's best friend.
Little Evil
Part light-hearted comedy, part horror movie about the rise of a new antichrist, Little
Evil mashes up elements of The Omen with domestic hijinks about a newly married, sensitive modern
man trying his hardest to bond with his wife's dark and withdrawn young son.
Gary just can't seem to get five-year-old Lucas to open up to him.
"I'm sure it feels like we've been moving really fast but I'm your step-father now"
"Get out."
As it turns out, Lucas's strange ways are nature, not nurture his biological dad is
the actual devil but Gary will do whatever it takes to fend off the forces of evil when
Satan wants Lucas back to trigger the end of the world.
"He's not Satan he's just a portal to Satan and good parenting it's about keeping that
portal shut."
You know, your typical blended family stuff, just with a touch of evil incarnate.
"I'm sorry I buried you in the backyard … That's alright.
I get it."
Masterminds
Usually, movies that are based on a true story are dramas.
But sometimes life is a little more absurd, such as the circumstances that led to the
1997 robbery of millions from cash handling company Loomis Fargo.
As demonstrated by the events of Masterminds, it wasn't exactly the crime of the century.
A petty criminal named Steve convinces his girlfriend Kelly to plan the heist by romancing
David, a mild-mannered Loomis Fargo driver, into being their inside man and point man.
David makes a ton of mistakes in the lead-up to the robbery, the robbery itself, and its
aftermath.
"Gonna put a cap in their ass…
OH OH DAVID!
Oh that burns"
All in all, it's a goofy crime caper where absolutely nothing goes right, which means
it's okay to laugh.
The Trip to Italy
This low-key comedy originated as a BBC series which was later edited into a feature film,
just like the two prequels that preceded it.
The Trip documented Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon taking a restaurant tour of northern England,
while the plots of The Trip to Spain and The Trip to Italy are self-explanatory.
The series peaks with the Italian version.
The British actors and comedians play heightened, more callous versions of themselves.
They make fun of each other, each other's work, and engage in semi-improvised comedy
bits as they scarf down handmade pasta in one tiny roadside eatery after another.
"Steve's having a little sleep have a drink, so ah… at his age he needs a nap after lunch
so ah… he gets confused."
Adding to the comedy and the lost-in-paradise vibe is that neither Coogan or Brydon knows
much of anything about food.
Bachelorette
This indie ensemble comedy might seem like a Bridesmaids knock-off, but while it concerns
a small group of close-knit friends leading up to a wedding, it actually tells an uncomfortable
story about people reckoning with the awful things they did in the past.
Three friends reunite to attend the wedding of their old friend Becky, and they're more
than a little resentful that the one they used to make fun of beat them to the altar.
As the wedding draws closer, many embarrassing secrets are shared, and the main cast also
manages to get up to some cringe-inducing slapstick.
But hey, this is a comedy about going to a wedding, so you can be sure that almost everything
is patched up by the end.
The Polka King
Finally, a movie about a greedy, street-smart hustler that also involves polka!
That's The Polka King, a true story that's so incredibly ridiculous that it could only
be presented as a comedy.
Jack Black is perfectly cast as Jan Lewan...
"So which one is it, Yan or Jan?"
"It's whatever you want."
"Which one is it?"
"I don't know."
a polka band leader and entrepreneur who's
only real crime is a blind adherence to the American Dream…well, that and fraud.
"In Poland everybody do bribes.
Do you do bribes?"
In addition to his band, Lewan runs a gift shop and a record label, only he can't quite
pay the bills.
After a chance meeting with an elderly couple who want to invest in his secretly failing
enterprise, he starts selling securities with an impossibly good rate of return.
But he doesn't stop there, and his antics eventually involve millions of ill-gotten
dollars.
"Ziggy zaggy ziggy zaggy, oy oy oy"