Comedies of Violence
by jzappa | created - 15 Jul 2011 | updated - 19 Aug 2011 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Votes: 74,920
2. The Trouble with Harry (1955)
PG | 99 min | Comedy, Mystery
Harry's dead and, while no one really minds, everyone feels responsible. After Harry's body is found in the woods, several locals must determine not only how and why he was killed but what to do with the body.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Edmund Gwenn, Mildred Natwick
Votes: 41,227
3. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Passed | 121 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft
Votes: 283,194 | Gross: $25.00M
4. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, War
An unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 517,416 | Gross: $0.28M
5. Catch-22 (1970)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, War
A man is trying desperately to be certified insane during World War II, so he can stop flying missions.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel
Votes: 26,474 | Gross: $24.91M
6. Little Murders (1971)
PG | 108 min | Comedy, Crime
Pitch black comedy about a young nihilistic New Yorker coping with pervasive urban violence, obscene phone calls, rusty water pipes, electrical blackouts, paranoia and ethnic-racial conflict during a typical summer of the 1970s.
Director: Alan Arkin | Stars: Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Vincent Gardenia, Elizabeth Wilson
Votes: 3,559 | Gross: $0.26M
7. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
PG | 102 min | Comedy
A surreal, virtually plotless series of dreams centered around six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Paul Frankeur, Bulle Ogier
Votes: 46,763 | Gross: $0.20M
8. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
PG | 91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.
Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 569,615 | Gross: $1.23M
9. 1941 (1979)
PG | 118 min | Action, Comedy, War
Hysterical Californians prepare for a Japanese invasion in the days after Pearl Harbor.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Treat Williams, Nancy Allen
Votes: 36,224 | Gross: $31.76M
10. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Horror
Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.
Director: John Landis | Stars: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Joe Belcher, Griffin Dunne
Votes: 120,273 | Gross: $30.57M
11. Deathtrap (1982)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's play.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon, Irene Worth
Votes: 15,413 | Gross: $19.28M
12. After Hours (I) (1985)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
An ordinary word processor has the worst night of his life after he agrees to visit a girl in Soho he met that evening at a coffee shop.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Tommy Chong
Votes: 81,059 | Gross: $10.60M
13. Prizzi's Honor (1985)
R | 130 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two professional assassins fall in love.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia, John Randolph
Votes: 26,359 | Gross: $26.70M
14. Raising Arizona (1987)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Crime
When a childless couple--an ex-con and an ex-cop--decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintuplets, their lives become more complicated than they anticipated.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson, John Goodman
Votes: 150,132 | Gross: $22.85M
15. Throw Momma from the Train (1987)
PG-13 | 88 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A bitter ex-husband wants his former spouse dead. A put-upon momma's boy wants his mother dead. Who will pull it off?
Director: Danny DeVito | Stars: Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal, Kim Greist, Anne Ramsey
Votes: 40,591 | Gross: $57.92M
16. Married to the Mob (1988)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
A mobster's wife hates her lifestyle, but gets a chance to change it when her husband is killed - if the Long Island mob and the FBI let her.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, Alec Baldwin, Paul Lazar, Captain Haggerty
Votes: 19,658 | Gross: $21.49M
17. Delicatessen (1991)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Crime
Post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who occasionally prepares a delicacy for his odd tenants.
Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Stars: Marie-Laure Dougnac, Dominique Pinon, Pascal Benezech, Jean-Claude Dreyfus
Votes: 89,968 | Gross: $1.79M
18. Cannibal! The Musical (1993)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Horror, Musical
The sole survivor of an ill-fated mining expedition tells how his taste for gold was replaced by that of human flesh.
Director: Trey Parker | Stars: Trey Parker, Dian Bachar, Stephen Blackpool, Stan Brakhage
Votes: 13,053
19. Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Crime
In New York in 1928, a struggling playwright is forced to cast a mobster's talentless girlfriend in his latest drama in order to get it produced.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly, Chazz Palminteri
Votes: 41,736 | Gross: $13.38M
20. Pulp Fiction (1994)
R | 154 min | Crime, Drama
The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis
Votes: 2,215,581 | Gross: $107.93M
21. Four Rooms (1995)
R | 98 min | Comedy
Four interlocking tales that take place in a fading hotel on New Year's Eve.
Directors: Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Chuck Jones | Stars: Tim Roth, Antonio Banderas, Sammi Davis, Amanda De Cadenet
Votes: 110,995 | Gross: $4.30M
22. To Die For (1995)
R | 106 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A beautiful but naïve aspiring television personality films a documentary on teenagers with a darker ulterior motive.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck
Votes: 52,780 | Gross: $21.28M
23. Mars Attacks! (1996)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Annette Bening
Votes: 243,192 | Gross: $37.77M
24. Jerry and Tom (1998)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Tom and Jerry are two hit men, they work by day at a third-rate second-hand car dealership. Tom is a veteran and Jerry is a novice in their business, and their attitude toward their ... See full summary »
Director: Saul Rubinek | Stars: Joe Mantegna, Sam Rockwell, Maury Chaykin, Ted Danson
Votes: 2,054
25. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
R | 107 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Eddy persuades his three pals to pool money for a vital poker game against a powerful local mobster, Hatchet Harry. Eddy loses, after which Harry gives him a week to pay back 500,000 pounds.
Director: Guy Ritchie | Stars: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jason Statham
Votes: 615,597 | Gross: $3.90M
26. Very Bad Things (1998)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A prostitute is killed during a bachelor party and the attendees turn on each other as the wedding approaches.
Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Christian Slater, Daniel Stern, Cameron Diaz, Jon Favreau
Votes: 48,970 | Gross: $9.80M
27. Fight Club (1999)
R | 139 min | Drama
An insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier
Votes: 2,319,102 | Gross: $37.03M
28. Go (1999)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Crime
The aftermath of a drug deal as told from three different points of view.
Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Sarah Polley, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, Taye Diggs
Votes: 75,076 | Gross: $16.84M
29. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
R | 81 min | Animation, Comedy, Fantasy
When Stan Marsh and his friends go see an R-rated movie, they start cursing and their parents think that Canada is to blame.
Director: Trey Parker | Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Mary Kay Bergman, Isaac Hayes
Votes: 214,783 | Gross: $52.04M
30. Nurse Betty (2000)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Comedy about a widow's post-traumatic obsession with a soap star.
Director: Neil LaBute | Stars: Renée Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear
Votes: 36,176 | Gross: $25.17M
31. Snatch (2000)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Crime
Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.
Director: Guy Ritchie | Stars: Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Stephen Graham, Vinnie Jones
Votes: 909,288 | Gross: $30.33M
32. The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A family moves to the country to run a rustic mountain inn when, to their horror, the customers begin befalling sudden and unlikely fates.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda, Naomi Nishida
Votes: 10,013
33. Death to Smoochy (2002)
R | 109 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A kids' show host, Rainbow Randolph, is fired in disgrace while his replacement, Sheldon Mopes, A.K.A. Smoochy the Rhino, finds himself a rising star. Unfortunately for Sheldon, the business of kids' television isn't all child's play.
Director: Danny DeVito | Stars: Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, Danny DeVito
Votes: 42,580 | Gross: $8.36M
34. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
R | 129 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A recently laid off factory worker kidnaps his former boss' friend's daughter, hoping to use the ransom money to pay for his sister's kidney transplant.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Song Kang-ho, Shin Ha-kyun, Bae Doona, Lim Ji-eun
Votes: 75,026 | Gross: $0.05M
35. Izo (2004)
Not Rated | 128 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
An executed samurai takes an existential journey throughout time, space and eternity in search of bloody vengeance.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Kazuya Nakayama, Kaori Momoi, Ryûhei Matsuda, Ryôsuke Miki
Votes: 4,746
36. The Ladykillers (2004)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
An eccentric, if not charming Southern professor and his crew pose as a classical ensemble in order to rob a casino, all under the nose of his unsuspecting but sharp old landlady.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Tom Hanks, Marlon Wayans, Irma P. Hall, J.K. Simmons
Votes: 108,864 | Gross: $39.80M
37. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Horror
The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesman and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis
Votes: 593,183 | Gross: $13.54M
38. Team America: World Police (2004)
R | 98 min | Action, Comedy
Popular Broadway actor Gary Johnston is recruited by the elite counter-terrorism organization Team America: World Police. As the world begins to crumble around him, he must battle with terrorists, celebrities and falling in love.
Director: Trey Parker | Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Elle Russ, Kristen Miller
Votes: 178,421 | Gross: $32.79M
39. The Ice Harvest (2005)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A shady lawyer attempts a Christmas Eve crime, hoping to swindle the local mob out of some money. But his partner, a strip club owner, might have different plans for the cash.
Director: Harold Ramis | Stars: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen, Lara Phillips
Votes: 24,994 | Gross: $8.82M
40. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
After being mistaken for an actor, a New York thief is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a potential movie role, but the duo are thrown together with a struggling actress into a murder mystery.
Director: Shane Black | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen
Votes: 237,202 | Gross: $4.24M
41. Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A case of mistaken identity lands Slevin into the middle of a war being plotted by two of the city's most rival crime bosses. Under constant surveillance by Detective Brikowski and assassin Goodkat, he must get them before they get him.
Director: Paul McGuigan | Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu
Votes: 325,426 | Gross: $22.50M
42. South Park: Imaginationland (2008 Video)
Not Rated | 67 min | Animation, Comedy, Fantasy
In this never-before-seen Director's Cut, the doors of the world's imagination are thrown wide open and the boys of South Park are transported to a magical realm in their greatest odyssey ever.
Director: Trey Parker | Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Adrien Beard, Kathryn Howell
Votes: 10,406
43. You Kill Me (2007)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
While drying out on the West Coast, an alcoholic hitman befriends a tart-tongued woman who might just come in handy when it's time for him to return to Buffalo and settle some old scores.
Director: John Dahl | Stars: Ben Kingsley, Téa Leoni, Luke Wilson, Dennis Farina
Votes: 18,967 | Gross: $2.43M
44. Burn After Reading (2008)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A disk containing mysterious information from a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous and daft gym employees who attempt to sell it.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich
Votes: 352,837 | Gross: $60.36M
45. In Bruges (2008)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
After a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ciarán Hinds, Elizabeth Berrington
Votes: 460,973 | Gross: $7.76M
46. RocknRolla (2008)
R | 114 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
When a Russian mobster orchestrates a crooked land deal, millions of dollars are up for grabs, drawing in the entire London underworld into a feeding frenzy at a time when the old criminal regime is losing turf to a wealthy foreign mob.
Director: Guy Ritchie | Stars: Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Idris Elba, Thandiwe Newton
Votes: 264,761 | Gross: $5.69M
47. Bronson (2008)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A young man who was sentenced to seven years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending three decades in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter-ego, Charles Bronson.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Tom Hardy, Kelly Adams, Luing Andrews, Katy Barker
Votes: 140,739 | Gross: $0.10M
48. Observe and Report (2009)
R | 86 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Bi-polar mall security guard Ronnie Barnhardt is called into action to stop a flasher from turning shopper's paradise into his personal peep show. But when Barnhardt can't bring the culprit to justice, a surly police detective is recruited to close the case.
Director: Jody Hill | Stars: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, Michael Peña
Votes: 65,226 | Gross: $23.99M
49. Kick-Ass (2010)
R | 117 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a superhero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so.
Director: Matthew Vaughn | Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloë Grace Moretz, Garrett M. Brown
Votes: 592,714 | Gross: $48.07M
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