Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo is a living, breathing example of the comedy principle discussed in The Aristocrats. That documentary reveals obscenity can be funny in the right hands – it features nearly 100 comedians telling the same crude joke – but in the wrong hands it’s simply obscene. Suffice it to say Rob Schneider, who

This independent comedy is far more ambitious than necessary, with computer-animation, slick special effects and an ensemble cast all in service of a sitcom script. David DeLuise (son of Dom) stars as Ted, an unrepentant ladies’ man who meets his match when he falls for his new neighbor (Missi Pyle). The ensuing comedy mostly consists

A stoner comedy with a clear-headed sense of wit, this follows a pair of pot-loving roommates who spend an evening chasing sliders. Korean-American Harold (John Cho) and Indian-American Kumar (Kal Penn) have both a genial camaraderie and a subversive minority status, which turns this mindless pot trip into a new declaration of American independence. George

A spoof of the auteur theory – the idea that a movie’s director is its primary author – by Woody Allen, one of America’s true auteurs. Here Allen writes, directs and stars as a once-lauded, two-time Oscar-winner who gets a chance to make a comeback when his ex-wife (Tea Leoni) convinces her studio-head husband (Treat

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