Comedy
Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb? A: The fish. Much like that joke, comedy comes down to personal taste and what one finds funny or not. Some like their humour light and frothy and very generalised, while others like it to have an edge and go for a more twisted, darker humour. The motherlode of this genre can be scrolled below. Either way, we're sure there will be something for everybody in the subsections on the left.
Right: There's Something About Mary's hairdo...
The Princess Bride (1987)
8.1/10
Director: Rob Reiner
Starring: Cary Elwes, Christopher Guest, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon, Wal...
A very special, engaging fairy-tale comedy which mixes romance, magic and swashbuckling action as told to a young boy by his grandfather (Peter Falk).... Read more
The Great Dictator (1940)
8.5/10
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Jack Oakie, Paulette Goddard
Chaplin's first talkie stands as one of his greatest achievements. In this touching and often hilarious political spoof on the Third Reich, Chaplin pl... Read more
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963)
8.4/10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: George C Scott, James Earl Jones, Keenan Wynn, Peter Bull, Peter Sellers, Slim P...
A commie-hating, paranoid American general launches a flight of B-52 bombers at the Soviet Union with nuclear annihilation in mind. Since he is the on... Read more
The Pink Panther (1963)
7.2/10
Director: Blake Edwards
Starring: Peter Sellers, David Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner
This film established director Blake Edwards' slightly subversive point of view and heightened the diversity of Peter Sellers. Sellers is Inspector Cl... Read more
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
7.9/10
Director: Taika Waititi
Starring: Rima Te Wiata, Sam Neill, Oscar Kightley, Rhys Darby, Rachel House, Julian Denni...
Set in the New Zealand bush, the screenplay (based on Barry Crumps novel) begins on country folk Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and Hec (Neill) taking custody... Read more
Modern Times (1936)
8.5/10
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Charlie Chaplin
Chaplin's silent homage to the human spirit in which Charlie Chaplin is the victim of industrial boom. Chaplin plays the factory worker gone looney by... Read more
The Frighteners (1996)
7.1/10
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Michael J Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson
Peter Jackson's wild horror-comedy principally filmed in Lyttelton, and starring Michael J. Fox as a psychic con-artist who uses a trio of ghosts he's... Read more
The Gold Rush (1925)
8.2/10
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray
Considered by many to be Chaplin's finest comedy: Charlie is the gold prospector in the Yukon near starvation and treacherous villains. Many great sce... Read more
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
7.3/10
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Go...
Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and his crew - Team Zissou - set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, el... Read more
Clockwise (1985)
6.6/10
Director: Christopher Morahan
Starring: John Cleese, Penelope Wilton, Alison Steadman
John Cleese's ultra-meticulous teacher attempts to reach a head teacher's conference where he, as it's new president, is delivering the keynote speech... Read more