America loves crime. In reality, Americans are intrigued by people who’ll do whatever it takes to achieve the American dream. This fascination with watching people willing to go outside the law to get what they want is also applied to movie-going audiences. Viewers have long found the serious and massively violent crime films that comment on the darkness of human nature too intriguing to resist.
Yet there’s something inherently funny about a person who risks life and limb just to get whatever they want. Most audiences go into these films expecting a break from the vapid silliness of comedies and rom-coms. However, movies like Fargo or Charade can mix these strange bedfellows, usually resulting in cinematic history. The Coen Brothers‘ filmography alone proves that there’s something about the juxtaposition of crime and comedy right next to each other that makes for memorable films.
15
‘Get Shorty’ (1995)
Donna W. Scott, wearing a red dress, standing next to Danny DeVito who is pointing a gun at a person offscreen in Get ShortyImage via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
John Travolta stars in this film about a mobster infiltrating the Hollywood scene, which remained number one at the box office for three consecutive weeks. If there’s one thing audiences learned from the strikes, it’s that Hollywood can be cutthroat. Get Shorty is a satirical movie that comments on the absurdity of Hollywood’s inner workings.
Every plot point represents some exaggerated representation of the entertainment business, including the self-obsessed actor, competing producers willing to kill to make their movie, and people double-crossing each other for the rights to a script. Chili’s use of mob tactics to get his film made shows the similarities between organized crime and Hollywood, making for a scathing criticism of the business.
14
‘Ernest & Celestine’ (2012)
Ernest the bear watching the little mouse Celestine painting in ‘Ernest & Celestine’Image via StudioCanal
While animation is a frequent avenue for many memorable comedy films, much rarer are memorable crime stories in the world of animation, especially those that blend crime and comedy. However, Ernest & Celestine shines brightly as the definitive animated crime comedy experience, acting as a cutesy watercolor story of friendship built through criminal activity and not fitting in with societal standards. While the French animated film gets a lot of praise for its beautiful animation style, the stellar writing and effective comedy have also helped it maintain a dedicated following in the decade-plus since its release.
The film sees a mischievous little mouse named Celestine trying to avoid a dental career and a large bear named Ernest looking for a real artistic outlet. When the duo meets each other, they overcome the natural forces that have kept mice and bears apart for generations, forging a powerful team as they utilize their strengths for a life of crime and friendship. —Robert Lee
Unpredictability and exceptional commitment to the bit are two of the strongest attributes when it comes to Game Night‘s brilliant sense of comedy, a style that has helped it achieve cult classic status as one of the best original comedies of the 2010s. The film has an ingenious premise, following a group of friends coming together for a weekly game night, expecting to play a wild murder mystery party with fake thugs and federal agents. However, when real criminals come in and kidnap the game master, everyone simply believes that this spiral of crime is just a part of the game.
Game Night takes a great premise and makes the absolute most out of it thanks to some top-notch comedy and an all-star comedic cast. Everyone is doing an exceptional job elevating the material, with great line-readings emphasizing the madness and absurdity of it all. Special props go especially to Rachel McAdams and Jesse Plemons, who steal every scene they’re a part of and make the film a laugh riot from start to finish. —Robert Lee
12
‘The Nice Guys’ (2016)
Holland and Jackson tilt their heads and look at the camera curiously in The Nice Guys.Image via Warner Bros.
For some reason, the 1970s just make everything more funny. The Nice Guys is a retro crime comedy that takes full advantage of the decade’s clothing, slang, and obsession with adult content, with hilarious results. The story follows private investigator Holland March (Ryan Gosling) and enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) as they reluctantly team up to investigate the disappearance of a young woman and uncover a much larger conspiracy.
It’s really Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe’s comedic chops that steal the show. Their quick banter, which mixes in lots of physical comedy, is reminiscent of old Hollywood comedy duos. The humor mixed with genuine bad guys and lots of violence makes for an odd blend of crime and comedy that no one’s better at than Shane Black.
11
‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ (1988)
Image via Orion Pictures
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is an underrated gem about two con artists who wager on who can fool an heiress out of $50,000, was almost a very different movie, with Mick Jagger and David Bowie almost cast as leads.
This PG comedy refreshingly doesn’t rely on the typical elements most modern movies need to be funny. Michael Caine‘s humor as he switches accents to fool unsuspecting victims is understated. Still, it brings laughs and a small but profound moment after being brought to tears when meeting a woman he deems pure. Meanwhile, Steve Martin’s physical humor proves he’s a Hollywood legend. However, the best part of the movie is watching their constant battle of one-upmanship over their new victim, Janet. The story has plenty of twists and character turns to keep audiences involved.
10
‘No Other Choice’ (2025)
Lee Byung-hun as Yoo Man-soo pointing a gun surrounded by oven mitts at Lee Sung-min as Gu Bum-mo who is pointing a finger at the oven mitts in ‘No Other Choice’Image via CJ Entertainment
While legendary South Korean director Park Chan-wook is more commonly recognized for his legendary thrillers like The Handmaiden or Oldboy, No Other Choice seamlessly blends his signature crime thriller style with exceptional satirical comedy to create one of his absolute greatest movies. The film follows a former paper mill manager (Lee Byung-hun) who, after being laid off, embarks on a journey of desperate crime, killing off his competition so that he can secure himself a job and reclaim his dignity.
The film does an exceptional job of bringing a lighthearted sense of comedy to the crippling pain and difficulty of an uncaring job market, made all the more hilarious by the wild lengths that the character goes through to pull off his amateur murders. It’s a story of crime out of desperation, where the act of murder is simply the means to an end if it means returning to a place of normalcy, a message both powerful and hilarious in its execution. —Robert Lee
9
‘Raising Arizona’ (1987)
Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage get domestic in Raising Arizona.Image via 20th Century studios
Nicolas Cage stars in Raising Arizona, an outlandish comedy about a criminal and his ex-cop wife, who kidnaps a child from a successful furniture salesman. The film puts a microscope on small-town America, feeling both over the top and familiar.
This screwball comedy is full of exaggerated blue-collar Southern personalities and dialogue reminiscent of a live-action cartoon. This ensemble personifies their characters instead of seemingly playing a caricature or trying to make viewers laugh, which makes them even funnier. Despite these characters’ absurd criminal and sometimes fantastical behavior, they have real desires, like wanting a family and a better life for their child, which makes the film oddly relatable.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
8
‘A Fish Called Wanda’ (1988)
Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, and Tom Georgeson in A Fish Called Wanda sitting at the table and having a conversation.Image via MGM/UA Communications Co.
A Fish Called Wanda is a 1980s hit about a criminal trying to seduce a lawyer into telling her where his client has hidden stolen jewels. Thanks to director Charles Crichton‘s skill, it made $188 million on a $7.5 million budget, which is ironic considering the studio didn’t want to hire him because he was 77.
Whether it’s an animal-loving hitman accidentally assassinating multiple dogs or people violently tortured with vegetables, this movie finds humor in the darkest places. It accepts that most of its characters are evil criminals and leans into it. Even its protagonists are a man cheating on his wife and a woman trying to manipulate him. In fact, Jamie Lee Curtis‘ mysterious and captivating femme fatale ran away with the jewels in the original ending. However, test audiences wanted a happy romantic ending instead. This movie is also a masterclass in comedic performances. It ranges from the completely wacky Oscar-winning performance of Kevin Kline to the more subtle John Cleese, showing both can be highly effective when left in the right hands.
7
‘In Bruges’ (2008)
Ken (Brendan Gleeson) points his gun at Ray (Colin Farrell) who is holding a gun to his own head in In BrugesImage via Focus Features
A movie about a hitman who falls into depression after accidentally killing a child doesn’t sound like a laugh-out-loud movie. However, the first collaboration between the now-classic duo, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, fully commits to being as funny as it is depressing.
In Bruges is a heavy dramedy that balances farce with tragedy. Often, both are used interchangeably, like in the scene where Ken stops Ray from killing himself, only for Ray to realize Ken is about to kill him. Whether it’s assassins Ray and Ken or thief Chloë, the characters are all looking for redemption, wanting to believe they can be better people. However, they find it almost impossible to do, making the film hilariously sad.
6
‘What’s Up Doc’ (1972)
Barbra Streisand pushing Ryan O’Neal on a cart down the street in What’s Up, Doc?Image via Warner Bros.
There really is nothing quite like a well-made screwball comedy, where all of the different moving pieces and wild situations come together to create the perfect mixture of romance, comedy, and memorable setpieces. Adding a layer of accidental crime and confusion into the mix for good measure, few screwball comedies have proven to be so timeless and exceptional in their craft as What’s Up Doc, an absolute masterclass that manages to get more hilarious and impressive with each passing year.
This screwball comedy homage largely pays tribute to the subgenre of comedy in the best ways possible, creating an unrestrained and unpredictable experience that is constantly finding new ways to catch the audience off guard and get them to laugh. With each joke and additional layer to the larger situation at hand, it manages to get more absurd and hilarious, all coming to a head for one of the absolute best climaxes in any comedy film. —Robert Lee
