Comedy Movies 2019 – Guide
1.01.19 # Comedy Movies # No Comment
Let’s take a look at the biggest and best comedy movies of 2019. Funny this year comes in the form of Robert Downey Jr as a Mexican, Jumanji round three, a Big Lebowski spinoff (really), Pikacho voiced by Deadpool, Zombieland reopening, Matthew McConaughey as a beach bum, and Chris Morris following up ‘Four Lions’. That and so much more.
Let us know in the comments what you think will be the best comedy movies 2019 has to offer. Here’s the rundown of every significant theatrical release, good and bad:
Starring: Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston, Nicole Kidman, Amara Karan
Director: Neil Burger
Out: January 11, 2019 (U.S. Release Dates)
A comedic look at the relationship between a wealthy paraplegic (Cranston, ‘Breaking Bad’) and an unemployed man with a criminal record (Hart) who’s hired to help him… Remake of the 2011 French hit comedy-drama ‘Untouchable’. Strange that producers The Weinstein Company didn’t like the original title? From the solid director of ‘Limitless’ and ‘The Illusionist’. Critics say Kevin Hart’s move toward drama doesn’t quite work, despite his best effort. He and Cranston build an affectionate bromance chemistry but the narrative loses something in the (almost scene-for-scene) translation for American audiences: its design is obvious, its sentimentality is by-the-numbers.
Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma
Director: Christopher Landon
Out: February 14, 2019
Student Tree Gelbman (Rothe) unexpectedly re-enters the time loop and finds her friends are now in their own. Unless she allows herself to be killed by the end of each repeated day, their deaths will be permanent. Since the original killer is eliminated, Tree must unmask the new killer to break everyone free once and for all. Perhaps discovering why these loops even exist along the way… Slasher-comedy ‘Happy Death Day’ was one of the pleasant surprises of recent years, lifting ideas from ‘Groundhog Day’ but remixing them in a likeable and watchable way (and claiming $55 million domestic from a $5m budget). Here the same director returns (this time taking over writing duties), as do all the principle cast with a couple of nerdy additions. Judging by the trailer’s tone this one’s moving a little further away from black comedy to more zany comedy. Which means it’ll have to be pretty clever to keep things from devolving into a low stakes, low threat incoherent messaround. But ‘Death Day’ has exceeded expectations before.
Starring: Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Jack Lowden, Vince Vaughn
Director: Stephen Merchant
Out: February 14, 2019
The Bevis family of Norwich, who all are professional wrestlers, try to work through the issues that arise when daughter Saraya (who will be known as “Paige”) receives a contract to work with WWE in the USA… Comedy-drama based off the life of WWE wrestler Paige and the documentary ‘The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family’… Florence Pugh of ‘Lady MacBeth’ plays the lead. Lena Headey is the mother coming to the end of her own wrestling career. Nick Frost is the father, a professional wrestling trainer. Vince Vaughn (fresh from kicking ass in ‘Cell Block 99’) plays Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Writer-director Stephen Merchant (‘The Office’) has a small role, while exec-producer Dwayne Johnson plays himself. Merchant is a great writer (Ricky Gervais’ material has been mediocre since they stopped cooperating) and although this is an official WWE-produced film, it should appeal beyond wrestling fans.
Starring: Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam DeVine, Priyanka Chopra
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Out: February 14, 2019
An average-looking architect (Wilson, ‘Pitch Perfect’) who’s disenchanted with love, bangs her head during a mugging and wakes in hospital to find she’s trapped inside a rom-com. New York now has a beauty-filter on it, her apartment is unrealistically big and full of shoes, she has a flamboyant gay best friend and an impossibly handsome man (Hemsworth, ‘Hunger Games’) after her attention. Initially sensing she’ll have to win his heart to escape, she discovers this is really a romantic comedy about falling in love with yourself… The director is well-suited having made ‘The Final Girls’, another “I’m inside a movie genre” comedy, which also co-starred Adam Devine. That effort was pretty amusing and well observed. Being inside a film is nothing new (also see ‘Last Action Hero’ or Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler’s rom-com ‘They Came Together’), but it’s worth updating once in a while. The trailer is witty and energetic. This is one of the few rom-coms in history to have a plus-sized woman as the lead.
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg, Martin Lawrence
Director: Harmony Korine
Out: March 22, 2019
The misadventures of a rebellious stoner named Moondog (McConaughey), a lovable rogue who lives large by his own rules… The entertaining supporting cast includes Isla Fisher as Moondog’s wife, Zac Efron, Jonah Hill, Snoop Dogg as “Lingerie”, Jimmy Buffett as himself, and Martin Lawrence as “Captain Wack” (a welcome big screen return). This comes from the writer-director of ‘Spring Breakers’. It’s not a studio comedy, or even a comedy in the traditional sense, but it is part-inspired by the bong-smoking surfer-dude side of McConaughey’s real personality that is itself funny (he was once arrested while playing the bongos naked). Like ‘Spring Breakers’ it’ll be more about creating a mood than coherent forward-driving narrative, embracing the craziness of the ott male lead (as he did with Franco’s in ‘Spring Breakers’) in an indie-film way. In other words, it’ll be a good one to get stoned to, if that’s what you’re into.
Starring: Justice Smith, (voice) Ryan Reynolds, Kathryn Newton, Ken Watanabe, Bill Nighy
Director: Rob Letterman
Out: May 10, 2019
A 21-year-old former Pokémon Trainer (Justice Smith, ‘Jurassic World’) travels to Ryme City after his detective father disappears in a car crash. There he meets wise-cracking Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds), who was his father’s partner. He’s somehow uniquely able to understand what Pikachu is saying (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), so they reluctantly team up to find father and uncover the mystery surrounding his disappearance. Chasing clues through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City (a modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side), the dynamic duo encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe… From the director of ‘Goosebumps’ and ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. There have been animated pokémon movies, but this is the first to put CG pokémon into (hyper-realistic) live-action. The pokémon themselves look fantastic, with Pikacho’s fur texture alone making him one of the most adorable on-screen creatures ever. (Having sunk hours into Smash Bros, I never thought I’d see Jiggly Puff in such a glorious rendition.) Such a recognisable celebrity voice will deprive Pikacho of his own character, but there isn’t a more “in” comedy voice right now that Ryan Reynolds. The combination of his brand with Pokémon should be box office gold. Nintendo could well give other franchises the movie treatment if this does as projected.
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