In tough times like these, any excitement for a healthy laugh is welcome, but for once, let’s deviate from the usual romantic comedies to look at some movies in the dirty world of crime.
Stealing what you want is undoubtedly easier than earning it, as the evil protagonists of today’s stories know well.
Yet even in their lack of conscience, hiding the good soul of a lost person searching for his or her place in the world.
We all seek this magical secret door leading to existential Nirvana, to which the most straightforward key to open always seems to be dirty, dirty money.
Indeed, money talks and bullshit walks as said one of Jesus’ acolytes who wisely left the group before the Last Supper.
So put on your favorite bandit hat and find a couple of trusted sidekicks because in these movies, it’s easy to get fooled, and the last to laugh is always right, as the rules of any crime comedy dictate.
Table of contents
Analyze This (1999)
We begin with a hilarious whirlwind of misunderstandings led by Harold Ramis, who we will never forget as the actor playing the weird, eyeglass scientist in the legendary 1980s Ghostbusters.
Starring prominently in this movie that seamlessly blends crime and comedy is the great Billy Crystal, a bored psychologist who accidentally rear-ends the car of a dangerous gangster’s henchmen one night.
The incident immediately comes to a close, except the boss later shows up at his office arrogantly demanding a private consultation.
Indeed, behind his unscrupulous tough guy facade, the man hides a profound existential crisis that causes him to have panic attacks or burst into tears for no reason.
Although frightened, the psychologist is touched by the boss’s emotional fragility and eventually decides to help him.
Unfortunately, his presence will be noticed by the FBI, which wants to use him as a spy to uncover the gang’s dealings.
In addition, one of the rivals wants to eliminate the competition ahead of a summit that will bring together the most giant bosses in the United States for the first time in 50 years.
It is refreshing to watch a comedy relying not only on vulgarity or sleazy sexual innuendo and instead on a good script and excellent acting performances.
Needless to point out, Billy Crystal‘s brilliance, who has always been an unerring comedian, is here alongside Robert De Niro, ironically playing the criminal roles that made him famous in movies such as Casino or GoodFellas.
Equally funny is Joe Viterelli, a funny Italian-American smiley face who pairs up with the blond and ditzy Lisa Kudrow, a familiar figure from the popular Friends series.
The ingredients are all there, and Harold Ramis‘ expert hand picks the perfect comedic timing in a movie already a cult among crime comedies.
The Whole Nine Yards (2000)
After the previous movie starring Lisa Kudrow, let’s talk about a crime comedy with another of Friends‘ funny stars, Matthew Perry.
The actor plays a harmless dentist in exile in a small Canadian town after his father-in-law ruins their American clinic by losing all the money gambling.
Although he is slowly trying to restart his business, his wife nonetheless hates him so much she seeks a hitman to kill him.
At the same time, a new face arrives in the neighborhood, initially seeming friendly and open toward his neighbors.
Watching more closely, however, the dentist recognizes a notorious criminal who made headlines in his Chicago days.
He was once a ruthless contract killer, but after betraying his gang, he now lives anonymously to escape revenge.
Of course, his evil wife thinks of nothing but bounty money, convincing her husband to betray his new friend and sell him out to his cronies.
Jonathan Lynn directs this crime comedy of equivocal misunderstandings at a good pace, fresh from the brilliant Clue of the 1980s, where he brought the famous game to the movies.
Besides the brilliant Matthew Perry (who was already my favorite as Chandler in Friends), we have the excellent action star Bruce Willis.
Although known for his tough-guy roles in Die Hard, the actor has always shown excellent charisma in comic characters as well, mindful of his television beginnings in the comedy/romantic series Moonlighting.
Rounding out the circle, we have the wonderful actresses Amanda Peet and Rosanna Arquette, who add that feminine touch of sensuality and humor that never hurts.
We, therefore, recommend watching it to anyone looking for a lot of cheerfulness and a bit of wholesome criminal naughtiness, here mixed in the proper measure without exaggeration one way or the other.
Get Hard (2015)
If there’s one thing we can always rely on, it’s laugh-out-loud movies starring Will Ferrell, like this comedy where he enrolls in a hilarious and spectacular school of crime.
Indeed, the actor plays a businessman whose life is running high, engaged to the sexy daughter of his boss whose financial corporation business he successfully runs.
Until, like a bolt out of the blue, a tax investigation falls on him, and overnight he is in danger of spending ten years in a maximum-security prison.
Panicking about what might happen to him in prison, he convinces a young washerman to teach him how to be tough against other inmates.
Unfortunately, he chose a boy who has never been in trouble with the law in his life, believing he was a criminal just because he was a young black man.
However, even if he is not a criminal, this boy is certainly no sucker, so he gladly accepts the rich man’s money beginning an absurd prison survival training.
At the helm of this goliardic revenge of the poor, we have honest Etan Cohen, already the screenplay author of the demented and prophetic Idiocracy.
The director recycles all the stereotypes of American funny cinema, showcasing the prejudices of rich whites who indifferently see all poor blacks as criminals.
Will Ferrell starts out as a cocky badass becoming an irrepressible walking idiotic volcano, provoked and led by the equally hilarious prison couch Kevin Hart.
There’s not much to add for those who know these two comedians; you’ll find the best of their performances enhanced by a no-holds-barred story.
Everyone else, however, gets to experience an off-the-wall crime comedy for one of the most underrated movies of recent years.
Café Society (2016)
Another name that cannot be missed when it comes to comedies is Woody Allen, whom I have probably already made in previous movie recommendations and will talk about each time with great pleasure, at least until it becomes a crime.
Even more, pleasure gives me that the protagonist of this story is the young and talented Jesse Eisenberg, who leaves his troubled family in New York to fly to Los Angeles, where his uncle is a wealthy movie producer.
To stay in the movie industry, the boy accepts every kind of odd job he can by being a bellhop for the production company that sends him back and forth to cater to the whims of vain stars.
However, amidst the phony golden sheen of Hollywood, he falls in love with a humble secretary; unfortunately, her heart is already taken.
Indeed, the young girl is in love with his uncle, who constantly promises that he will someday leave his wife to be with her, lying day after day to continue the secret affair.
The beautiful dream ends when the boy must return to New York, where his brother has gone to jail, and he will have to take care of his strange family’s businesses, licit and not.
Jesse Eisenberg is a histrionic star as he explores the strange world of his uncle Steve Carell, in an unusually calm and quiet role for him.
Simply dreamy are the beautiful Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart, naive princesses who make the grave mistake of trusting men.
In short, like it or not, no one packs comedies like Woody Allen, needless to say.
His elegance and brilliance go hand in hand with his delicate yet scratchy writing style, humorously ripping apart the early days of the Hollywood dream industry.
Pixie (2020)
After four movies with a purely American soul, we conclude today’s recommendations with a crime comedy set in a small Irish village.
The protagonist is the promising young Olivia Cooke, whose fame would later explode for good thanks to Steven Spielberg, casting her in the terrific ultra-pop sci-fi Ready Player One.
Here the actress plays a controversial girl living on her own in the house she inherited from her mother on the edge of town.
Everyone speaks ill of her, boys and girls alike, calling her a lowlife with dark criminal connections.
But equally, everyone envies her beauty, intelligence, and strong independent spirit.
Made brave by alcohol, two boys knock on her door to see if luck assists them in beating the strange girl’s heart.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t have picked a worse time because that evening, some criminals were prowling around looking for rich loot that the beautiful Pixie may know more about than she’s telling.
Behind this strange and funny crime comedy, we have Barnaby Thompson, a name that may say little to many of you, but he has been in the film industry since way back in the 1980s, both as director and producer.
The story and characters are over the top; take, for example, the crazed gun-toting priest played by Alec Baldwin.
Initially, the pace quietly lulls everybody but then degenerates into no-holds-barred all against all, always remaining ironic and light in the narrative.
However, the dominatrix of the scene is Olivia Cooke, a mattress harboring naive wayfarers by seducing them like a modern siren and subduing them to her criminal plans.
Anyone who loves pulp must catch this gem, which, not surprisingly, begins with the words Once upon a time in the west of Ireland, like a fairy tale from another time.
