Sade Green with five alternate viewing suggestions for Valentine’s Day…
It’s Valentine’s Day. But for a fairly large percentage of the population, this means NOTHING! Perhaps you and your partner don’t celebrate it. Maybe you’ve just been through a big break up. Or perhaps you just despise the commercial aspect of it all. Regardless of your reasons, here are five comedies that are completely devoid of romance (although there may be the occasional bromance).
SEE ALSO: Top Ten Best Romances and Rom-Coms to watch this Valentine’s Day
1. Hot Fuzz (2007)
Director: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent
Genre: Action Comedy
Hot Fuzz is the second film in the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ and arguably, the most underrated. Pegg stars as Nicholas Angel, a London police officer who is so good, he is demoted to policing a small country village so he stops making the Metropolitan Police look bad. There he meets his new partner, Frost’s Danny Butterman and hijinks ensue. Hot Fuzz has some brilliant actions scenes, violent deaths and support from an absolutely hilarious supporting cast. It also has a genuinely good storyline that will keep you guessing until the very end.
2. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Director: Trey Parker
Starring: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Isaac Hayes
Genre: Animated Musical Comedy
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is the movie released on the back of the success of the television series. The four boys, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny sneak into the new Terrance and Phillip film and as a result start swearing incessantly. In an effort to place the blame somewhere, their mothers start waging a war against Canada. Yes, this film really is as silly as it sounds, but it’s bloody hilarious in equal measure. The songs are catchy and quite frankly, unforgettable (I still sing them at people almost 20 years later) with scenes that will be etched, not necessarily in a good way, in your memory forever.
3. This is the End (2013)
Director: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Starring: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson
Genre: Black Comedy Horror
This is the End is side-splittingly funny. The cast is a whos-who of Hollywood comedy playing fictionalised versions of themselves, trying to navigate the apocalypse whilst being total dicks to one another. They eventually realise that to get to heaven and not to be eaten by the demons lurking outside, they’ve got to do something truly good in order to be beamed up. This is the End doesn’t take itself seriously at all and is a satirical look at the culture of LA celebrity. Worth a watch if you want something silly, mindless but actually quite clever.
4. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Director: Martin Brest
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton
Genre: Action Comedy
Featuring a killer 80’s soundtrack, Beverly Hills Cop is the story of Axel Rose (Eddie Murphy); a fast talking, wise cracking, brilliant but reckless Detroit cop, who is in on the case of the his friend’s murderer in Beverly Hills. Assisted by two local detectives, they end up uncovering a major drug trafficking ring using the LA art scene as a front. The contracts between the Detroit and LA police departments is a lot of fun, as is the way they poke fun at the 1980’s Beverly Hills lifestyle. The action is fast and the dialogue hilarious. And of course, you must for Axel Rose’s iconic laugh.
5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Director: Terry Gilliam
Starring: Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro
Genre: Black Comedy
If you’ve ever been intrigued by hallucinogenic drugs, but have never been brave enough to take them, then this is the perfect Valentine’s Day treat. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has become a cult classic, adapted from the Hunter S. Thompson novel of the same name. It’s hard to explain what the film is about because it’s such a mind-fuck, that you’ll definitely need some paracetamol and a dark room afterwards. Suffice to say, Depp’s Raoul Duke and Del Toro’s Dr. Gonzo, are two of the most hilarious characters in movie history. As you follow them on their trek across Las Vegas, they take a multitude of drugs, frequently black out, and hallucinate anything and everything. If anything, Fear and Loathing is an advert as to why you should never take drugs!
Sade Green
