Top 5 Comedies Since 2000

I almost went with "Top 5 Movies Since 2000," but after checking my list and seeing that they were all comedies, I figured I'd give myself a chance of being in line with normal movie-going folk.

I only ever watch comedies--given, some darker than others--now, it seems.

Ryan's Top 5:

1. Hot Fuzz - OK, this one may be a bit premature...but it just feels more complete than Shaun of the Dead, what can I say. This is a tie, really.

2. Shaun of the Dead - See above. These guys are immensely talented comedians. The scripts are so intricately woven...I really don't know how 1 or 2 could be better.

3. High Fidelity - Great book, great movie. Nick Hornby writes books that just beg to be made into movies that don't involve baseball.

4. Snatch - I forgot to include what used to be my favorite movie. Really funny, and the soundtrack kicks ass.

5. Wonder Boys - Great book, great movie. Katie Holmes doesn't ruin it, and Robert Downey, Jr., actually creates a better character in the movie than the novel's counterpart, in my mind. I know this isn't a book-movie comparison, but the movie is certainly more light-hearted--and more directly concerned with comedy, albeit the dark variety.

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*6. Sideways - My impulse is not to include this, but then I think about Thomas Haden Church...every line he says is funny.

Honorable mentions/I wasn't sure how much "comedy" they actually were, in no order:

About Schmidt
Love Actually
The Royal Tenenbaums (comedy?)
About a Boy
Life Aquatic (comedy? I still stand by my assertion that I've had since it came out: this movie is like Wes Anderson made a feature-length Max Fischer play)
Wallace and Gromit

Tim's Top 5

My list is relatively unpredictable precisely because three of the five on the list aren’t really comedic in the ha ha sense.

1) Catch Me If You Can – There’s not a joke in the film, but it’s lighthearted enough that it’s really hard to call it anything but a comedy. I think it’s undoubtedly Spielberg’s best effort at filmmaking. He’s made more significant films, but he actually made this one what it was.

2) About a Boy – It’d have to be #1, if it weren’t for the weak ending. That said, the book upon which it was based suffered from the same deficiency…and the ending of the book, like all of Hornby’s novels, is just flat out mediocre.

3) Wonder Boys – A movie I really didn’t care much for the first time I saw it, but it’s grown on me and become one of my favorite movies, and one of the few that I watch with any regularity.

4) Team America: World Police – I took ages to see it, but it was well worth the wait. It has its shortcomings – it’s overly crude and targets too many people, but Kim Jong Il’s panthers, “Matt Damon!”, The End of An Act and freedom costing a buck o’five work magic for me.

5) Stranger Than Fiction – Again, it’s not a pure comedy, but it’s one of the most literary films in ages and just seems pitch perfect from start to finish. Will Ferrell’s performance really warranted a film that more than a dozen people would see, but it was rightly 2006’s Best Picture. And yet it's only fifth on this list...which tells you a lot about 2006.

Here’s four more that could have made the list, only the first three are really comedies in their pure form.
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Meet the Parents
Thank You For Smoking
Big Fish
Love Actually

For the record, I've seen neither Hot Fuzz nor Shaun of the Dead.

Dan's Top 5:

1. Snatch - Probably the best use of plot ever, full of hilarious situations.

2. High Fidelity - The film that supplements my music addiction.

3. Hot Fuzz - I loved this film even better than Shaun of the Dead, and that's saying something.

4. Sideways - A good film that reminds me I'm never as depressed as I could be.

5. For Your Consideration - Christopher Guest and crew are hilarious in this unscripted parody of modern moviemaking.

Tory's Top 5:

1. Sideways - The best movie ever made.

2. Amelie - Beautiful in every way. It is hilarious and brilliantly made. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a genius.

3. High Fidelity - I don't need to explain as it's on every other list here.

4. Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny - Let's face it. Despite it not being number one on my list (that is because it didn't have Alexander Payne, Jean-Pierre or Stephen Frears at the helm in favor of Liam Lynch) it is still the funniest movie ever made (for Ryan's sake I'll say tied with Office Space.)

5. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - You all put it in honorable mentions, but I think that it is hilarious, and of course extremely well done since Wes Anderson directed it.