Action movies have the potential to combine their thrills with moments of comedy, which means that a fun action movie can be extremely rewatchable. There will always be a place for darker action movies, but sometimes people prefer something light and entertaining. Fortunately, the action genre is diverse enough to have both heavy-hitting dramas and feel-good comedies. Not all great action movies need to be as serious as Aliens, Hard Boiled or John Wick.
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Action comedies include everything from sci-fi parodies to buddy cop movies, and they usually have plenty of rewatch value. These movies can become great comfort movies because they’re proudly silly, which means that their entire focus can be on providing entertainment. Of course, it’s still important that the characters and the plot are compelling, but the most important things are the jokes and the exciting action sequences.
Related 10 Action Movie Franchises That Totally Went Off The Rails
These action movie franchises went completely off the rails when each new movie tried to be a bigger spectacle than the last one, with weird results.
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10 Rush Hour (1998)
Jackie Chan And Chris Tucker Make An Unlikely Duo
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7/10 10/10 Rush Hour
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*Availability in US Director Brett Ratner Release Date September 18, 1998 Cast Ken Leung , Chris Tucker , Tzi Ma , Tom Wilkinson , Jackie Chan , Mark Rolston , Rex Linn , Elizabeth Peña
Most of Jackie Chan’s action movies have a lot of humor. He excels at the rare kind of physical comedy that comes from seeing someone doing something difficult and impressive, rather than falling over. Chan constantly tries to one-up himself with his stunts and his creative fight scenes. His characters often get injured during fights, but they’re always worth rooting for, and they tend to find ingenious ways of escaping trouble.
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After a series of hits in Hong Kong, Rush Hour proved that Chan could be just as popular in the United States. The buddy cop comedy pairs him with Chris Tucker, a decidedly worse fit for the mold of an action hero. Tucker and Chan develop a hilarious culture-clash dynamic between action scenes. Tucker plays a brash and arrogant American, while Chan plays a more reserved and calculated cop. Rush Hour‘s script gives both actors plenty of good punch lines.
9 Last Action Hero (1993)
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Self-Parody Is An Underrated Gem
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Last Action Hero
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*Availability in US Director John McTiernan Release Date June 18, 1993 Cast Arnold Schwarzenegger , F. Murray Abraham , Art Carney , Charles Dance , Frank McRae , Tom Noonan , Robert Prosky , Anthony Quinn
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Last Action Hero makes fun of schlocky, over-the-top action movies; the kinds of action movies which Arnold Schwarzenegger built his career off of. Having Schwarzenegger in the lead role therefore turns Last Action Hero into a hilarious self-parody. The script bounces from one explosive trope-laden action sequence to the next, poking holes in the bizarre physics, cheesy one-liners and dispensable goons of the genre as it goes.
While Last Action Hero is a risible spoof of action movies, the presence of Schwarzenegger and Die Hard director John McTiernan means that it’s also just as exciting as many action classics. Last Action Hero can satirize the genre because it makes its love for the excess and violence clear from the start. Using the perspective of a child reflects the way that action can make anyone regress to a state of childish glee if it’s executed well.
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8 The Other Guys (2010)
Will Ferrell And Mark Wahlberg Step In As Makeshift Action Heroes
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6/10 9/10 The Other Guys
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*Availability in US Director Adam McKay Release Date August 5, 2010 Cast Will Ferrell , Mark Wahlberg , Adam McKay , Eva Mendes , Samuel L. Jackson , Michael Keaton
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have made a few great comedies together. In The Other Guys, Ferrell shares the spotlight with Mark Wahlberg as the two actors play a pair of cops who suddenly get thrown into the spotlight. The Other Guys opens with a hilarious sequence showing Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson as two hero cops. These are the real action heroes who Wahlberg and Ferrell’s characters are forced to sub in for.
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The Other Guys has plenty of entertaining banter between the two leads, but it’s more creative than most buddy cop movies. There are a lot of great jokes which have nothing to do with the reliable old tropes of the genre, like the fact that Michael Keaton’s character keeps inadvertently referencing TLC lyrics, or that Ferrell’s desk-bound dork is married to Eva Mendes, and that he seems to detest her for some reason.
7 Game Night (2018)
There Have Been Vanishingly Few Comedies Like Game Night In Recent Years
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7/10 Game Night
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*Availability in US Director Jonathan Goldstein , John Francis Daley , Billy Magnussen Release Date February 23, 2018 Cast Sharon Horgan , Rachel McAdams , Danny Huston , Kyle Chandler , Chelsea Pereti , Jason Bateman , Lamorne Morris , Jesse Plemons , Kylie Bunbury , Michael C. Hall
Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams lead a fun ensemble cast in Game Night, an action comedy about a group of friends who believe that they’re in an immersive murder mystery game until one of them actually gets kidnapped. It has the kind of wrong-man premise that has been all but worn out by the action-comedy genre, but Game Night continually finds new ways to make it feel fresh.
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One thing that helps Game Night shine is the impeccable chemistry shared between Bateman and McAdams. Their playful back-and-forth is partly why there have been so many calls for a sequel. Jesse Plemons is the best of the rest as a socially awkward cop who doesn’t seem to grasp the basics of human interaction. Game Night backs up its comedic core with some surprising action, including some thrilling car chases. Its style is a throwback to an earlier generation of comedy movies which prioritize humor over all else.
6 The Nice Guys (2016)
Shane Black’s Comedy Deserved A Sequel
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7/10 9/10 The Nice Guys
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*Availability in US Director Shane Black Release Date May 20, 2016 Cast Ryan Gosling , Ty Simpkins , Rachele Brooke Smith , Russell Crowe , Yaya DaCosta , Margaret Qualley , Kim Basinger , Keith David , Matt Bomer , Yvonne Zima
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The Nice Guys was a notorious box office flop, but it has steadily been growing a dedicated fan base ever since. Although eight years have passed, there are still some calls for a Nice Guys sequel. The ending seems to tease another movie, with Holland March and Jackson Healy deciding to go into business together. Unfortunately, it looks unlikely that Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe will ever get the chance to rekindle their surprisingly enjoyable dynamic.
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The Nice Guys is seeped in retro charm, with a shaggy dog detective story unfolding in 1970s Los Angeles. Director Shane Black previously worked on the Lethal Weapon movies and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and he brings his distinct flair for the buddy cop genre to The Nice Guys. Gosling and Crowe bounce off one another wonderfully, and their characters are tailor-made to annoy each other in the funniest possible way.
5 Men In Black (1997)
Men In Black Is An Endlessly Entertaining Cocktail Of Different Genres
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9/10 Men In Black
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*Availability in US Director Barry Sonnenfeld Release Date July 2, 1997 Cast Tommy Lee Jones , Rip Torn , Linda Fiorentino , Will Smith , Vincent D’Onofrio
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Men in Black is one of the best sci-fi comedies ever made. It’s a buddy cop movie of sorts, but Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones star as two agents of an organization tasked with keeping New York City’s extraterrestrial population in line. Beyond this sci-fi premise, Men in Black uses a few buddy cop archetypes. Agent J is the younger of the two, a brash rookie with a whole galaxy of experience that he has yet to experience, while his partner is the grizzled old hand who must show him the ropes.
Smith and Jones are delightful company as the two stars. Smith is usually at his funniest when he has a deadpan partner to counter his expressive antics, and few actors do deadpan as well as Jones. Men in Black builds their dynamic around an exciting apocalyptic narrative. The race to find the Bug and avert the annihilation of Earth works as an effective ticking clock, and it provides the basis for some action sequences, like the final showdown beneath the towers of the New York State Pavillion.
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4 Hot Fuzz (2008)
Edgar Wright Is A Master Of Genre Parodies
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10/10 9/10 Hot Fuzz
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*Availability in US Director Edgar Wright Release Date February 14, 2007 Cast Simon Pegg , Martin Freeman , Bill Nighy , Robert Popper , Joe Cornish , Chris Waitt
Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy parodies three different genres. Shaun of the Dead spoofs zombie horror, The World’s End is a comedic take on an alien invasion movie, and Hot Fuzz pokes fun at the action genre. It name-drops Bad Boys II and Point Break, but there are also allusions to movies like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and True Lies. These references all work because Wright is clearly a fan, and they’re intended as loving homages without being too distracting.
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Simon Pegg and Nick Frost star as the two cops uncovering a murderous small-town conspiracy. Just like in the other Cornetto trilogy movies, their chemistry is a joy to watch. Hot Fuzz also delivers enough action to stand up tall next to the action classics which it so frequently references. A lot of the movie’s humor is derived from the contrast between such high-octane actioners and the mundane setting of a pedestrian English village, but when it counts, Hot Fuzz is genuinely thrilling.
3 The Incredibles (2004)
The Pixar Classic Is Always Worth Watching
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8/10 15 8.5/10 The Incredibles
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*Availability in US Director Brad Bird Release Date November 5, 2004 Cast Sarah Vowell , Samuel L. Jackson , Craig T. Nelson , Spencer Fox , Holly Hunter , Jason Lee
Animated action movies often lack the gut-punch intensity of their live-action counterparts, but the best ones can make up for this discrepancy in many ways. The Incredibles has a sense of style, an intriguing mystery and endlessly creative action sequences. At its heart, it’s a family comedy about fatherhood tailored toward a younger audience. The superheroes may be the perfect kid-friendly dressing, but the emotional core of the story focuses on Bob’s reluctance to abandon his old life.
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The Incredibles is one of a few Pixar movies that become even more rewarding when they are rewatched at an older age. Brad Bird’s eye for cinematic action and the clever jokes peppered throughout the dialogue can please audiences of any age, but the characters are complex and realistic enough to entertain more mature audiences. Above all, The Incredibles stands out for its confident vision. The design of the heroes and the wider world seem to take inspiration from old comic books and Saturday morning cartoons.
2 Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Matthew Vaughn’s Spy Thriller Is A More Joyous Bond
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8/10 6.4/10 Kingsman: The Secret Service
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*Availability in US Director Matthew Vaughn Release Date February 13, 2015 Cast Michael Caine , Taron Egerton , Colin Firth , Mark Hamill , Samuel L. Jackson , Mark Strong
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The franchise may have faltered a little with its two subsequent entries, but the first Kingsman movie remains a fun spy parody with plenty of inventive action. It’s impressive to see the sheer number of creative action sequences Matthew Vaughn can pack into Kingsman: The Secret Service. There’s a car chase in reverse gear, a fight with a woman with blades for feet, and a scene in which Eggsy and his fellow trainees have to escape a locked room as it fills with water.
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Kingsman is a more working-class James Bond parody. In an era when James Bond has become grittier and more serious, Kingsman presents a more lighthearted alternative. However, it’s also plotted with enough original ideas to stand on its own two feet, broadening its appeal beyond fans of 007. The Kingsman franchise seems to be in limbo currently, but Taron Egerton and Colin Firth’s super-spies definitely have at least one more adventure in them.
1 Tropic Thunder (2008)
Ben Stiller Directs And Leads A Great Ensemble Cast
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8/10 10 8.3/10 Tropic Thunder
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*Availability in US Director Ben Stiller Release Date August 13, 2008 Cast Ben Stiller , Robert Downey Jr. , Matthew McConaughey , Tom Cruise , Jack Black
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Tropic Thunder parodies war movies, but it’s also a broader satire of the Hollywood machine. The joke isn’t on the soldiers or the war itself, but rather the way that movie studios sensationalize real life to maximize its entertainment value. Each of the pampered actors in the cast of the movie-within-a-movie have their own massive egos to contend with. What they sorely lack is any kind of understanding of the subject matter.
Ben Stiller is Tropic Thunder‘s director and star. He is supported by a great cast which includes Jack Black, Steve Coogan and a satirically blacked-up Robert Downey Jr. The real surprise in the cast is Tom Cruise, however. In a movie with plenty of thrilling action scenes, the biggest action star in the world is confined to a boardroom. His foul-mouthed studio executive is a reminder that Cruise is an underrated comedic actor.
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