By request, an interruption of the ordinary alphabetical order of things for a “dumb comedy week of the Neverending Film Festival” — three comedies recommended by readers. None are really dumb, all were fun watching, and there’ll be more, soon.

Burn After Reading (2008)

Osborn Cox (John Malkovich) is a CIA analyst, working the Bosnia desk at Langley. He’s not as brilliant as he thinks it is, and quits in a conceited rage when he’s accused of alcoholism and reassigned to a less important desk.

Unemployed, he decides to write his memoirs. This worries nobody at the Agency and would probably interest no publishers, but in a moment I must’ve missed, his manuscript is misplaced, and soon discovered by Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt, a/k/a “the League of Morons.” They have no grasp of what they’re reading, but recognize it as espionage, so of course they take it to the Russian embassy, hoping to make their fortune by selling out America.

With George Clooney, Tilda Swinton. Richard Jenkins, J.K. Simmons, and the expert writing of Ethan & Joel Coen, every scene and line of dialogue seems so plausible you could take it at face value as a thriller and be thrilled. I saw it in first release, and remembered it as a drama, but tonight I was laughing. It’s subtly slapstick and subversive, and becomes winningly ludicrous as the clockwork plot circles around on itself.

There’s a message to it, too, handled so lightly you might miss it — the CIA’s ordinary office flow of immorality, deaths dismissed and lives ruined with a shrug by Agency higher-ups, is seriously evil. And funny too, because it’s true.

Verdict: BIG YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Inspector Ike (2020)

Here’s a satire of 1970s made-for-TV murder mysteries — Columbo, mostly, but it was a genre for years. Most of the familiar tropes get the once- and twiceover, and the murder happens in New York City’s Theater District (on Avant-Garde Alley, specifically) so it’s also a satire of bad acting in local theater.

With a literal twinkle, Ikechukwu Ufomadu stars as Inspector Ike, the low-key know-it-all detective who interrupts the proceedings to make chili and share the recipe. A key Q&A scene takes place on stage, while actors rehearse or improv hilariously in the background. And every line is delivered slightly askew, intentionally amateur, on sets expensively crafted to look cheap.

Inspector Ike is amusing, not laugh-out-loud funny, but it might be my favorite flick on this page, because it’s the strangest, the smallest, the most D-I-Y and zine-ish. It looks and feels and might actually be just a bunch of people having fun, making it up as they go. Plus it expertly evokes that Mystery Movie vibe from shows I grew up watching.

Like the Inspector’s chili, this is comfort food.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Tropic Thunder (2008)

As small as Inspector Ike is, Tropic Thunder is huge — a ginormous comedy with explosions and an all-star cast, mocking Vietnam war movies, Hollywood movie-making, and movie stardom. Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, and Jack Black, each playing fictional movie stars, are introduced via hilarious trailers for their upcoming movies that sadly don’t exist. Toss in Tom Cruise as Harvey Weinstein, and it’s a blockbuster movie poking fun at blockbuster movies.

And it does all this while dancing on the border of what’s offensive, with blackface, retard jokes, hilariously overwrought violence, and the most flatulent fart jokes ever smelt. Not many movies are boycotted by the Special Olympics, but here’s one. Be offended if you’d like, but it only makes you the butt of the movie’s jokes.

Tropic Thunder loses some of its lightning toward the end, but it’s never not funny. Despite juggling a high concept and big budget, it’s made with heart, delivers a thousand laughs, and even offers a few moments of near-gravitas and meaning… but nah, it’s just another joke. The laughs are the point.

The movie’s most famous line is, “Never go full retard,” crucial to one of its funniest scenes, but my favorite quote is, “I’ll cradle the balls, stroke the shaft, work the pipe, and swallow the gravy. Get it over here, buddy. Let’s do this.”

Definitely, do this. Stiller directed and co-wrote, and it might be his best work.

Verdict: YES.

7/29/2026

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer.
— — —
If you can’t find a movie I’ve reviewed, or if you have recommendations, please drop me a note.
— — —
No talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff.