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From cringe comedies, to rom-coms, to dark comedies, a great comedy movie will have its viewers doubled over in laughter throughout. The best comedy movies have unique characters, creative premises, and memorable quotes. Rightfully so, some of the most popular and regularly-quoted movies of all time are comedies. That said, though, there are so many excellent comedy movies that are not as well-known.
Whether it be cult classics that never got much attention outside their devoted fanbases, or movies that were popular when they first released but haven’t remained so, there are so many amazing comedy movies that are now mostly forgotten. These are the hilarious but forgotten comedy movies that have all aged like fine wine.
‘Rosaline’ (2022)
Based on Rebecca Serle‘s 2012 novel, When You Were Mine, Rosaline is a hilarious Romeo & Juliet retelling centered on Romeo’s jilted first love, Rosaline Capulet (Kaitlyn Dever). Rosaline is in a secret, forbidden relationship with Romeo Montague (Kyle Allen), until he suddenly leaves her for her visiting cousin, Juliet (Isabela Merced). Romeo and Juliet may already have major obstacles working against them, but those are nothing compared to Rosaline, who is determined to sabotage their new relationship.
Rosaline is a clever and laugh-out-loud funny comedy movie about an angry and heartbroken young woman determined to win back her ex and get her cousin out of the picture. Of course, unbeknownst to poor Rosaline, she is trying to break up what has since become widely considered to be the greatest love story of all time. All the while, Rosaline’s parents are trying to marry her off to a suitor named Dario Penza (Sean Teale), who regularly points out the flaws in Rosaline’s plan after she lets him in on it.
‘The Decoy Bride’ (2011)
The Decoy Bride is an outrageously funny and chaotic comedy movie about a celebrity wedding gone horribly wrong. Wildly famous movie star Lara Tyler (Alice Eve) and her fiancé, author James Arber (David Tennant), are trying to find a way to have a private wedding away from the paparazzi. They decide to secretly get married on Hegg, the small Scottish island where James set his latest novel, in the hopes that nobody will find them there.
When the wedding gets invaded by a paparazzo anyway, Lara’s manager (Michael Urie) hires a local woman named Katie (Kelly Macdonald) to go be Lara’s decoy for the ceremony. Of course, nobody tells James, and he and Katie wind up accidentally getting married for real. All the while, Lara is on the run from the paparazzi and the press, on her own for the first time in a very long time.
‘Banana Split’ (2018)
Banana Split follows the unlikely friendship of two recent high school graduates: April (Hannah Marks), who’s reeling from her recent breakup from her high school sweetheart, Nick (Dylan Sprouse) — and Clara (Liana Liberato), who’s now dating Nick. April initially meets Clara while snooping on her at a party, but the two immediately hit it off, and they quickly become best friends in secret. Their only rules? Don’t tell Nick that they’re friends, and don’t talk about Nick with each other.
While trying to make the most of her last summer at home before going away to college, April realizes that all she wants to do is hang out with her new best friend. Unfortunately, there’s only so long the two of them can ignore the elephant in the room, and that they can keep their new close bond a secret. Banana Split is messy, sharply funny, and wildly quotable, but it sadly never gained the attention it deserves.
‘John Tucker Must Die’ (2006)
John Tucker Must Die is one of the early 2000s teen comedy classics, but it sadly didn’t gain the longstanding legacy of its peers like Easy A and Mean Girls. The severely underrated comedy follows new girl Kate Spencer (Brittany Snow), a shy but observant teenager who waits tables at a local restaurant. Kate soon realizes that the most popular boy in school, John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe), is secretly dating three girls at the same time: animal rights activist Beth (Sophia Bush), head cheerleader Heather (Ashanti), and star student Carrie (Arielle Kebbel).
When Carrie, Heather, and Beth all find out about each other, they turn to Kate for help getting revenge on John. The four of them thus concoct a specific and elaborate payback plan to take John Tucker down, starting with wild pranks and slowly escalating to Kate going undercover in order to try to break his heart. John Tucker Must Die is a hilarious and chaotic cult classic that is still the perfect watch, and that deserves more love.
‘Dave’ (1993)
Dave is a political comedy film that follows an ordinary man named Dave Kovic (Kevin Kline) who runs a temp agency. Dave is also an exact lookalike of the corrupt and unkind President of the United States, Bill Mitchell (also Kline), and he does impressions of the president on the side. When the president has a stroke and falls into a coma, Dave is brought in to pretend to be President Mitchell until he recovers.
Dave is supposed to keep a low profile, but he can’t help but try to fix some of the damage that President Mitchell has done — both to the country, and in his marriage to the First Lady, Ellen Mitchell (Sigourney Weaver). Dave is a sweet and charming comedy with a lovely message, and a hilarious fish-out-of-water premise. Dave is a nice, normal person just trying to do the right thing, but in his limited time as the most powerful person in the country, he realizes that the right thing might mean rocking the boat and upsetting those who hired him.
‘D.E.B.S.’ (2004)
Now over two decades since it released, D.E.B.S. is a beloved cult classic, but it is still criminally underrated. The spy comedy follows the D.E.B.S., an elite group of four college-age young women who were recruited to be spies right out of high school. The best of the class, Amy Bradshaw (Sara Foster), is writing her senior thesis on notorious criminal and con-woman Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster). One night, the D.E.B.S. intercept Lucy while she’s on a blind date, and Amy accidentally runs into her on the way out.
Amy soon realizes that Lucy isn’t what she thought, and the two of them strike up an unlikely romance. The only problem is, Amy is the star student of an organization set on taking Lucy down. D.E.B.S. is a laugh-out-loud funny and entertaining comedy that combines action, romance, and a sharp sense of humor to make for a true classic. It also has some of the best and most original quotes ever, and it truly gets better with every rewatch.
‘Accepted’ (2006)
Another comedy that was popular when it was released but has since been mostly forgotten is Accepted. The hilarious college comedy follows Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long), a recent high school graduate who was rejected from every single college to which he applied. Bartleby has a knack for bending the truth, though, so he comes up with a clever plan to convince his father that he’s going to college. All he has to do is invent a fake school: South Harmon Institute of Technology.
Accepted is a clever and wildly funny movie that sees Bartleby getting more entangled in this lie with each scene. Soon, there’s a fake South Harmon campus, there are other students “enrolled” as well, and the whole scheme spirals out of control. Accepted is such a fun and entertaining movie, both for its delightfully bizarre premise, and for its bold and chaotic main character.
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https://collider.com/forgotten-comedy-movies-aged-like-fine-wine/
Jennie Richardson
Almontather Rassoul
