From the Daniels’ multiversal epic Everything Everywhere All at Once to Billy Eichner’s groundbreaking gay romcom Bros, the comedy genre has enjoyed a small resurgence this summer. Unfortunately, the kind of high-concept laugh-out-loud comedies that drew huge crowds to the movies in previous decades rarely get made anymore.
The 1990s was one of the last great decades for comedy movies. Many classic comedies from 1992 are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, like Wayne’s World, Sister Act, White Men Can’t Jump, and A League of Their Own.
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York
Somehow, the McCallisters managed to lose track of their young son Kevin on yet another Christmas vacation in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. While the 1992 sequel isn’t the classic that its predecessor has become, it still wrings plenty of memorable laughs out of Kevin’s adventures in the Big Apple.
The Wet Bandits suffer even more slapstick brutality at Kevin’s hands the second time around. At his uncle’s townhouse, in the midst of extensive renovations, Kevin has plenty of loose bricks and power tools to pelt the robbers with.
Boomerang
Eddie Murphy’s starring vehicle Boomerang is a rare case of a romantic comedy with both a heartwarming love story and a bunch of hysterical gags. Murphy plays a chauvinistic ad executive whose new female boss gives him a taste of his own medicine.
Backed up by such iconic co-stars as Halle Berry, Martin Lawrence, Eartha Kitt, and Chris Rock, Murphy is at the height of his comedic powers in Boomerang.
A League Of Their Own
With its fictionalized retelling of the all-female baseball league that was formed when the athletically gifted men were overseas fighting in the Second World War, A League of Their Own is both one of the funniest sports films ever made and one of the most iconic feminist movies of all time.
Geena Davis headlines a hilarious ensemble of women alongside an early-career Tom Hanks as the cynical, hard-drinking manager: “There’s no crying in baseball!”
Army Of Darkness
Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell reunited to complete the Evil Dead trilogy with the gonzo horror comedy antics of Army of Darkness. Following on from the previous movie’s cliffhanger ending, Ash Williams is stranded in the Middle Ages and has to figure out how to get back to his own time.
Although it wasn’t quite as universally praised as its groundbreaking predecessors, Army of Darkness is about as fun and entertaining as a movie can get.
The Player
One of Robert Altman’s most critically acclaimed movies, The Player is a razor-sharp satire of the ruthlessness of the Hollywood film industry. Tim Robbins stars as a studio executive who starts receiving death threats and murders the aspiring screenwriter that he believes is responsible.
With a whopping 65 celebrity cameos, The Player includes self-effacing appearances by such A-listers as Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts.
White Men Can’t Jump
Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson made for a well-matched comedic duo in White Men Can’t Jump, a zany tale of two basketball hustlers making a killing out on the streets. Snipes and Harrelson’s knowing performances are bolstered by a smart script – and an unforgettable supporting turn by Rosie Perez.
According to Vanity Fair, legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick considered White Men Can’t Jump to be one of his personal favorite movies.
Sister Act
Whoopi Goldberg gave one of the funniest performances of her career in Sister Act. She plays a lounge singer who has to go into the witness protection program under the guise of a nun after tangling with mobsters.
She initially hates her new life, but she ends up finding her groove as she spruces up the nuns’ hymns with some of her musical flair and eventually wins over the Reverend Mother, played by a delightfully deadpan Maggie Smith.
Death Becomes Her
Robert Zemeckis left behind his usual family-friendly sensibility and adopted a pitch-black sense of humor for his twisted supernatural comedy Death Becomes Her. The story concerns two romantic rivals who take a magical potion that grants eternal life with unexpected consequences.
The movie’s A-list stars are all cast against type – Meryl Streep as a devious egomaniac, Goldie Hawn as a lonely spinster, and Bruce Willis as a timid nerd – but they all suit their roles perfectly.
My Cousin Vinny
Joe Pesci and an Oscar-winning Marisa Tomei star in My Cousin Vinny as the titular lawyer and his fiancée, respectively, who travel to a small town in Alabama to defend a couple of college students against charges of a murder they didn’t commit.
The movie gets a ton of laughs from the fish-out-of-water antics of a pair of loudmouthed Italian-American New Yorkers finding themselves surrounded by conservative Southern townspeople.
Wayne’s World
Not only is Wayne’s World one of the few successful feature-length films spun off from a Saturday Night Live sketch; it’s one of the most iconic comedies ever made. Who knew a pair of metalheads and their public-access show would resonate worldwide?
Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s easy chemistry translated beautifully to the big screen, while Wayne’s constant fourth-wall-breaking gives the movie a subversively self-aware edge.