Undermined by a misleading advertising campaign (this isn’t a live-action farce for the Rugrats set) and attacked in countless cranky reviews, Monkeybone was the most underrated movie of 2001. Yes, there’s way too much plot – something about a cartoonist (Brendan Fraser) who does battle with his own creation – but this amalgamation of live

Don’t worry about the plot – Renee Zellweger’s waitress thinks she’s living within a soap opera, all while hit men Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock track her down – and instead enjoy the loopy amiability with which the movie skips along. Zellweger’s rarely been better, Rock and Freeman make a clever comic team and director

There’s a plot – in which a restless entrepreneur (Ice Cube) regrettably sells his late father’s title business – but Barbershop doesn’t really need one. Its best moments are those spent eavesdropping on the conversations, arguments and debates the barbers have with their customers and with each other. The result is a feel-good glimpse at

Pedro Almodovar broke onto the international scene with this vibrant sex farce, which whirls about like a brightly painted spinning top. With its skewed camera angles, brash colors and outrageous characters, the movie is as much a live-action cartoon as its fellow 1988 release, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Women gets off to a slow start,

Dennis Quaid stars as Dan Foreman, an ad salesman whose new, 26-year-old boss (Topher Grace) takes an interest in his daughter (Scarlett Johansson). This may sound like a wacky farce, but the sly twist of this knowing comedy from director Paul Weitz (About a Boy) is the way Dan’s practical, workmanlike personality guides him through

Historical drama becomes the stuff of farce in this breezy, cheeky ensemble piece set during the Nazi occupation of France. Gregori Derangere headlines the cast as a young writer whose devotion to a conniving actress (Isabelle Adjani) gets him into trouble with the French police, then the Nazis and eventually lands him in the middle

Human Nature is only funny if you’re willing to see human nature as funny – in other words, if you’re willing to poke fun of yourself. A bizarre comedy that spoofs the clash between our animal instincts and our refined social order, the movie follows a love triangle involving a sweet young woman (Patricia Arquette)

Envy, about best friends (Ben Stiller and Jack Black) torn apart when one becomes rich, is like one of those cliffhanger rides at an amusement park: It starts out nice and smooth, then the bottom drops out. The movie’s release date was repeatedly delayed, and it seems to have seen the light of day not