There are recent American movies that make me laugh, but they tend be either (1) not really in the comedy genre (e.g. some superhero movies are basically comedies, and sometimes they're funny) or (2) animated, e.g. the Lego Movie and its sequel. Other comedies I like tend to be either older (e.g. the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker movies, Mel Brooks, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin) or not American (e.g. Edgar Wright's Cornetto trilogy).
There are plenty of American sitcoms I think are pretty good. Comedy relies on good writing, and sitcoms tend to be very writer-driven. But for some reason, when Hollywood makes comedy movies, they think the way to make the movie funny is to have the actors improvise instead of having actual structured jokes.
One of the few capital-C Comedy movies I saw and enjoyed in the last few years was Extreme Job, from South Korea. The premise is, a team of bumbling cops buy a failing chicken restaurant in order to spy on an international drug gang. But they have run the restaurant during the day in order not to blow their cover, and when business picks up, they accidentally find themselves busy running a successful chicken restaurant. I don't think it's a lifechangingly great movie, but it has a decent script, some decent performances, and some actual structured jokes. I really don't think I'm a snob about movies -- I just think that I'm used to seeing such bad comedy movies that Extreme Job excelled simply by reaching the bare minimum of what a comedy should be.
There are recent American movies that make me laugh, but they tend be either (1) not really in the comedy genre (e.g. some superhero movies are basically comedies, and sometimes they're funny) or (2) animated, e.g. the Lego Movie and its sequel. Other comedies I like tend to be either older (e.g. the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker movies, Mel Brooks, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin) or not American (e.g. Edgar Wright's Cornetto trilogy).
There are plenty of American sitcoms I think are pretty good. Comedy relies on good writing, and sitcoms tend to be very writer-driven. But for some reason, when Hollywood makes comedy movies, they think the way to make the movie funny is to have the actors improvise instead of having actual structured jokes.
One of the few capital-C Comedy movies I saw and enjoyed in the last few years was Extreme Job, from South Korea. The premise is, a team of bumbling cops buy a failing chicken restaurant in order to spy on an international drug gang. But they have run the restaurant during the day in order not to blow their cover, and when business picks up, they accidentally find themselves busy running a successful chicken restaurant. I don't think it's a lifechangingly great movie, but it has a decent script, some decent performances, and some actual structured jokes. I really don't think I'm a snob about movies -- I just think that I'm used to seeing such bad comedy movies that Extreme Job excelled simply by reaching the bare minimum of what a comedy should be.