8 Great Comedies That Brilliantly Deconstruct The Action Movie Genre

We love natural action picture , the tropes , the commonplace , all of it and roll with it well . But in some case , we get to see film or the occasional boob tube show that wonderfully deconstruct the action movie . They ’re not true - out parodies like Naked Gun — but here are eight comedies that act with the motif in a direction that illuminates them .

1. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Shane Black much invented the modern Hollywood action mechanism moving picture with his script for Lethal Weapon . So it ’s only fitting he can wondrously spit that in this 2005 comedy with Robert Downey Jr as a small - meter crook who ’s pull into acting and Val Kilmer as the cop who yanks him into a slaying case . It ’s obvious how Black is terrifically sending up the very tropes he avail make from the rapid - fire dialogue to how guns really work and Downey Jr. aid with the tale take note everything from a shooting of a minor fibre who will become significant to how it all drags ( “ I saw Lord of the Rings , I ’m not going to terminate this 17 fourth dimension . ” ) . A delightful package that showcases how nuts the genre really is .

2. Big Trouble in Little China

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HEitZ06oRY

On the audio comment for this film , John Carpenter and Kurt Russell share how first - fourth dimension viewers do n’t get what they thought was obvious : Russell ’s Jack Burton is not reckon to be the Hero of Alexandria of the narration , he ’s the brother who thinks he ’s the hero . It ’s his crony Wang who ’s truly the hero , leading the quest to rescue his love , Jack ’s along for the drive . It ’s Wang who ’s the kung fu master and swordsman while Jack botch up along . Sure , he kills the bad cat in the last but clearly just a fluke , he ’s the side player in all this . But it works as you get the feeling Jack ’s been in lots of scrapes before and thus when this wild thing unfolds , he naturally assumes he ’s the star again .

3. The Man Who Knew Too Little

Seriously underrated , this 1997 comedy has Bill Murray as an American in London whose brother gets him into a role - represent game where he acts out a undercover agent adventure . But thanks to a telephone premix - up , he ends up being false for a real hit Isle of Man , and gets involved in a distinguished dodge by former KGB agents to blow up a big encounter and restart the Cold War — while he go along to cogitate it ’s all a secret plan . It ’s a one - prank assumption , but it works thanks to Murray ’s fun performance , go along with the raging stuff and to its credit , the celluloid avoids the cliche of having him find out the Sojourner Truth . alternatively , it intrude fun at the “ ace - spy ” approximation by showing how Murray conk into all these billet , from torture to beating on cops , crack jokes easily because he believe he ’s in no danger whatsoever . Meanwhile , those around him slip his bumbling for the actions of an unbeatable superintendent - undercover agent , because of that attitude . It works well to show how so much of an action hero ’s supposed standing lies a lot in perceptual experience .

4. Hot Fuzz

The good picture show of the Cornetto Trilogy , this funniness classic beautifully sends up activity movie tropes even as it celebrate them . Simon Pegg is a super - cop so majuscule at his job that his Lake Superior are sick and tired of him steal all the gloriole — so they shift him to a small-scale quiet village . Pegg is brilliant in the character , going all intense and looking for conspiracies everywhere as we get stuff like a building that ’s seeming ready to explode … then does n’t . The rest of the casting is fun as hell and the story is fantastic in how it looks like they ’re work for a legitimate explanation of the “ accident ” around … then go whole over the top for an mad revelation that coif up a blistering hysteric gunplay . Wonderful on every level to show the adept of Pegg and Nick Frost at their good .

5. The Good Guys

Yet another entry in the endless list of “ with child evidence Fox axe too too soon , ” this 2010 series starred Colin Hanks as a cop so by - the - Holy Scripture no one can stand him , who ’s coerce to work minor crime with Bradley Whitford , a super - cop who still act like it ’s the 1980 ’s . The two are enceinte together as Whitford ’s Dan Stark is a brainiac world : He suppose CSI stuff is “ black trick , ” infect everyone with a frigidness because he does n’t “ believe ” in grippe injection , sees nothing wrong with shooting a suspect or log Z’s with a witness , and is 100 per centum vivid on every case . The joke is that these two do cease up coming across major offense and ending them — but never get the respect for it . From the dialogue to the situations , the show wonderfully plays with copper and action moving-picture show conventions , the best being when Hanks bursts into a room , open fire two shooting iron off at once … and not a single bullet train so much as grazes his target ( “ Really ? Not one ? ” ) . I ’ve been wait years for that . Well deserving tracking down , for a hell of a good joke at the genre .

6. Shoot ‘Em Up

This is that uncommon beast : A sarcasm so utterly pitch - thoroughgoing that it ’s almost indistinguishable from the very affair it ’s parodying . Clive Owen is the near - mute piece who somehow puzzle postulate in an adventure of a gaga hitman ( Paul Giamatti ) who ’s out to snatch a newborn baby . What follows is complete insane action , from a merry - go - round shoot - out , to Owen blowing guys aside while having sex with Monica Bellucci , to a skydiving gunfight . It ’s utterly insane in every way , complete with fantastic one - liners that Owen sell with utter serious-mindedness and a ridiculously tragic origin for his fictional character . But it all comes together to a fun time that point out how damn ridiculous these movies are .

7. Last Action Hero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPOCk-MDwtk

Yes , this 1993 movie is a notorious dud — but it does have its strength and that let in how well it function as an action at law parody . It helps that it star the human race who helped tug the intact genre , Arnold Schwarzengger who play both himself and Jack Slater , crack - cop star of the movies of a young male child ( Austin O’Brien ) idolize . A magic ticket sends the kid into the movie world and there ’s great playfulness to be had : bull measuredly partnered up as full opposites , everyone being way too attractive for real life jobs , guns never running out of bullets , and more . It hurts a spot as the kid tries too hard to win over Slater he ’s in a flick rather than having play with things . But it takes a turn when the motion picture ’s bad guy cable ( Charles Dance ) enters our earth where “ the uncollectible guys can succeed . ” So now woodlouse misses his target , find infliction from punches and more as he hunts the guy wire down . Arnie does seem to be having a good meter and shows that he ’s in on the jocularity , pull in the film work better than its reputation suggest .

8. The Other Guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg-6Aje-vtM

This 2010 comedy works thanks to its great cast . We open with Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson as your typical moving picture superintendent - cops who do n’t really wish they caused millions of dollars of terms chasing crook for steal a few thousand buck . Their ending is hysteric , as they just leap off a twenty - tarradiddle construction right onto paving as if they honestly think they would survive . We then move to Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell as the pencil pushers who take their place as the top cops . Wahlberg is risible as hell as his type want to be that type of superintendent - copper but is frightening at it . Ferrell is of course screaming as his partner with the genius touch of how he ’s the one person who does n’t sympathize how insanely favorable he is to have Eva Mendes for a wife . It nicely jokes about the banality of action movies ( the two guys stray in pain from an explosion nearby . “ Hollywood lie down ! ” ) and the termination brings it all together for a fun conclusion .

Thanks to Charlie Jane Anders and Cheryl Eddy for editing .