Cinematheraphy: Twenty films for laughing like Julia Roberts

In a week ruled by the timetable, controlled by alarm, by ticking, and by sirens, weekend offers the oasis for enjoying spare time without agendas and expiry dates. Films always offer a productive way to relax, overall if it’s comedy. Experts say we should laugh more frequently to prevent depression.

• Meet The Parents (2000)
  Meeting the parents of your girlfriend can be a terrifying experience, mostly if your father-in-law it’s obsessively protective (Robert De Niro).


• Analyze This (1999)
  A depressive gangster who can’t do his job properly anymore (Robert De Niro) and a psychologist that has to cure him or … die (Billy Crystal).


• Wilt (1989)
  Henry Wilt it’s a teacher who is dissatisfied with his life. Walking the dog fantasises with assassinating his wife Eva. When they meet an extravagant American couple and his wife disappears, he finds it hard to prove to police he hadn’t killed her.
  As in the book, that’s an acid critic of the stereotype o the educated British class. Moreover it’s starred by the humorists Griff Rhys Jones (Henry Wilt) and Mel Smith (Inspector Flint), famous from Alas Smith and Jones (broadcasted from 1982 to 1998 on the BBC).


• Groundhog Day (1993)
  What would happen if you were impelled to live the same day forever? And would happen if you were a character played by Bill Murray?


• Something About Mary (1998)
  Mary (Cameron Diaz) is the dream girl of everyone, beautiful and charming. He (Ben Stiller) was to go to the ball with her but something embarrassing came in the middle. Years later, he hires a private eye (Matt Dillon) to find her, and when he finally does, everybody start a race for winning Mary’s heart, which ends in all kind of twisted situations.



• A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
  After a robbery, the jewel it’s hidden in a fish called Wanda. None of the burglars trust each other, and then no trick it’s too good to fool each other and get the prize.
  Deadly funny, it’s played by Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and John Cleese.


• Bowfinger (1999)
  When a producer (Steve Martin) fails to get for his low budget film the star he wants (Eddie Murphy), he shots the film including him without telling.
  One of the most hilarious films of Steve Martin.


• The Banger Sisters (2002)
  When the best friend of youth (Goldie Hawn) comes back, everything can happen, mostly when she keeps the same and the other (Susan Sarandon) is a respected rich housewife who wouldn’t like her husband know about her past.

• Coming To America (1988)
  An African king (Eddie Murphy) comes to North America searching for the perfect wife, but as she has to love him for himself, he dresses up and starts working in a fast food chain.

• Bad Boys I (1995)
  Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are two policemen in Miami Vice stylesque that are as good in their job as paranoid about each other.


• The Visitors (1993)
  A knight of the 11 th century (Jean Reno) and his loyal servant (Christian Clavier) travel in time to Paris in the present day and face situations they can’t handle.
  
• The Sweetest Thing (2002)
  Three man eaters (Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate, and Selma Blair) hang out for comforting Jane (Selma Blair) that has broken down with her boyfriend. But that night Christina (Cameron Diaz) knows the man of her life, but she doesn’t want to look anxious, until she knows his brother it’s getting married.
  Unforgettable the scene starring the song of Aerosmith and the one based on the song of Right Said Fred was banned for the US release (but available on Europe).
  
  
• See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989).
  They are friends but he (Richard Pryor) it’s blind and he (Gene Wilder) it’s deaf so when a crime happens and police don’t believe they witness it, they have to collaborate for coming across.


• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
  A spy so skilled at his job as with women, a celebrity in 60s (Mike Myers), frozen himself as his enemy, Dr Evil, does, to fight him. When Dr Evil comes back in 1997, Ministry of Defence decides to defrost Austin Powers.
  A freaky über James Bond looking like a geek and classless.



• Bedazzled (2001)
  Elliott Richards (Brendan Fraser) is secretly in love with Allison (Frances O’Connor), but he would never have a chance. His co-workers can’t stand him and he’s the closest to a freak. But the devil (Elizabeth Hurley) hears his prays and offers him her love in the exchange of his soul. Though the devil doesn’t advise it wouldn’t be easy.


• As Good As It Gets (1997)
  A fussy writer (Jack Nicholson), misogynist, homophobic, outspoken, and unbearable meets a waitress in trouble (Helen Hunt) who turns him into a better person, not without its ups and downs.


• Mars Attacks (1996)
  When extraterrestrials attack Earth, the weaknesses of human kind are revealed, and there’s only left to survive, anyway possible.


• In&Out (1997)
  A teacher of a town where never happens something out of common (Kevin Klein) and ready to marry his fiancée (Joan Cusack), awaits moved for the moment when one of his pupils (Matt Dillon) is nominated to an Oscar for playing a gay soldier. But his life changes when the pupil dedicates the Oscar to this teacher, saying that is also gay and the teacher has to prove hardly he’s not.

• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
  The classic history of the Holy Grail reinterpreted by Monty Python: acid, irreverent, and absurd humour.


• The Whole Nine Yards (2000)
  Oz (Matthew Perry) is a dentist who lives with a wife that wants him dead (Rosanna Arquette) and sees his life change when a gangster (Bruce Willis) becomes his neighbour.
  
  

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