Action comedy

Action comedy (often listed with a hyphen as action-comedy) is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy.

Film

AllMovie describes action comedy films as those with "fast and furious" action yet being "mostly lighthearted", rarely having death or serious injury.[1] The Script Lab wrote, "[The genre] relies on the characters to bring out the humor, while the action scenes tend to be less intense than in the traditional action movie."[2]

Action comedies often have "fish out of water" themes; for example, using a starring actor's celebrity to contrast the setting, such as how comedian and actor Eddie Murphy's "streetwise, sarcastic persona clashes with conventional police procedures in the Beverly Hills Cop films" in the late twentieth century.[3]

The 1926 film The General starring Buster Keaton may be the first action comedy film.[4] Other early forms of action comedy films were swashbuckler films from the 1930s. Allmovie wrote that its "stars combined wit and one-liners with a thrilling plot and daring stunts". In the 1980s, the genre became commonplace, and buddy cop films emerged as an extension of action comedy films such as Midnight Run (1988) and the Lethal Weapon film series.[1] Other action comedies from the decade included The Blues Brothers (1980) and the films of actor and martial artist Jackie Chan.[5]

In the 1990s, action comedy films "became more violent, with fiery deaths and emphatic shootings increasingly used as punchlines".[1] Rotten Tomatoes wrote that Rush Hour (1998) revitalized the genre's formula and that Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) was a highlight from the decade. In the first two decades of the 21st century, the films Kung Fu Hustle (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), Tropic Thunder (2008), 21 Jump Street (2012), and Bad Boys for Life (2020) were among numerous instances of the genre.[5]

List of action comedy films
Film Year Ref.
21 Jump Street 2012 [5]
22 Jump Street 2014 [5]
48 Hrs. 1982 [5]
American Made 2017 [5]
Ant-Man 2015 [5]
Ant-Man and the Wasp 2018 [5]
Bad Boys 1995 [6]
Bad Boys for Life 2020 [5]
Big Trouble in Little China 1986 [5]
Big Momma's House 2000 [6]
Beverly Hills Cop 1984 [5]
Birds of Prey 2020 [5]
Black Dynamite 2009 [5]
The Blues Brothers 1980 [5]
Deadpool 2016 [5]
Deadpool 2 2018 [5]
Despicable Me 2 2013 [5]
Drunken Master II 1994 [5]
Free Guy 2021 [5]
Game Night 2018 [5]
Get Smart 2008 [6]
The General 1926 [5]
The Gentlemen 2019 [5]
Guardians of the Galaxy 2014 [5]
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 2017 [5]
The Heat 2013 [6]
Hobbs & Shaw 2019 [7]
Hot Fuzz 2007 [5]
If Looks Could Kill 1991 [8]
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka 1988 [9]
The Interview 2014 [6]
Johnny English 2003 [6]
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle 2017 [6]
Keanu 2016 [5]
Kick-Ass 2010 [5]
Kingsman: The Secret Service 2014 [5]
Kingsman: The Golden Circle 2014 [5]
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2005 [5]
Kung Fu Hustle 2004 [5]
Lethal Weapon 1987 [5]
Lethal Weapon 2 1989 [5]
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998 [5]
Men in Black 1997 [5]
Midnight Run 1988 [5]
The Nice Guys 2016 [5]
The Other Guys 2010 [5]
The Paper Tigers 2020 [5]
Red 2010 [5]
Ride Along 2014 [6]
Romancing the Stone 1984 [5]
Rumble in the Bronx 1995 [5]
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World 2010 [5]
Shanghai Noon 2000 [5]
Shaolin Soccer 2001 [5]
Shaun of the Dead 2004 [6]
Shazam! 2019 [5]
Something Wild 1986 [5]
Spy 2015 [5]
The Suicide Squad 2021 [5]
Supercop 1992 [5]
Team America: World Police 2004 [5]
Thor: Ragnarok 2017 [5]
Three Kings 1999 [5]
Tropic Thunder 2008 [5]

TV series

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Staff. "Action >> Action Comedy". allmovie.com. Allmovie. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  2. ^ Buffam, Noelle (March 12, 2011). "Action". The Script Lab. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
  3. ^ Gallagher, Mark (2006). "Restaging Heroic Masculinity". Action Figures: Men, Action Films, and Contemporary Adventure Narratives. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 163. ISBN 978-1-4039-7723-6.
  4. ^ St. James, Emily (December 9, 2009). "The General". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb Vo, Alex (August 10, 2021). "The 50 Best Action-Comedy Movies, Ranked By Tomatometer". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Calderon, Jenna (September 28, 2020). "The Best Action Comedy Movies of All Time". Men's Health. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbfc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Baldwin, Daniel (July 29, 2016). "From Grieco With Love: Remembering 'If Looks Could Kill'". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 27, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  9. ^ "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) - Keenen Ivory Wayans | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie".
  10. ^ a b c Beard, Matthew (October 23, 2003). "'A-Team' is viewers' most-wanted oldie for prime-time revival". The Independent. Archived from the original on December 15, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  11. ^ Staff (March 14, 2010). "Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  12. ^ Proulx, Mike; Shepatin, Stacey (2012). Social TV: How Marketers Can Reach and Engage Audiences by Connecting Television to the Web, Social Media, and Mobile. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-23965-0.
  13. ^ Butler, Karen (October 10, 2022). "Season 4 of 'Doom Patrol' to premiere on Dec. 8". upi.com. UPI. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  14. ^ a b Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-0374-6.
  15. ^ a b "Action Comedy". hulu.com. Hulu. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  16. ^ Shachat, Sarah (March 12, 2022). "How 'Our Flag Means Death' Built a Realistic but Farcical Pirate Ship". IndieWire. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  17. ^ Truitt, Brian (January 13, 2022). "How HBO Max's 'Peacemaker' became a hair metal superhero spin on the ensemble comedy". USA Today. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  18. ^ Taylor, Larry (2018). "Nomads". John McTiernan: The Rise and Fall of an Action Movie Icon. McFarland. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-4766-3233-9.
  19. ^ Swift, Andy (September 30, 2014). "Rush Hour TV Series In the Works for CBS from Bill Lawrence, Brett Ratner". TVLine. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  20. ^ Nemetz, Dave (July 30, 2020). "Teenage Bounty Hunters Trailer: High School Girls Kick Ass After Class in Netflix's Edgy Action Comedy". TVLine. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  21. ^ "Breaking News - J.R. Villarreal Cast in Disney Channel's Superhero Action Comedy, Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion". www.thefutoncritic.com. Retrieved December 5, 2023.

Further reading

  • King, Cynthia M. (2009). "Comedy in Action". In Kendrick, James (ed.). A Companion to the Action Film. Wiley. pp. 140–164. ISBN 978-1-119-10076-8.