Comedy

Diner

Fries with gravy, a cherry cola. Friendship, bragging rights...and does Sinatra or Mathis croon the best makeout music? Before there was a counterculture of the '60s, there was a counter culture. From his Oscar-nominated script, Barry Levinson makes his directing debut with this endearing study of pals in transition. Film-debuting Ellen Barkin plays a neglected wife.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

A connoisseur of conning, Lawrence Jamison is running the ultimate royal scam on the Riviera--he's posing as a deposed prince raising funds for the freedom fighters of his stricken homeland. But his "hustling highness" gets royally flushed when a pretender to his throne turns up. He's Freddy Benson, a small-time scam artist who has enough on Jamison to make a mess of the monarchy. So the rivals make a wager--the first to extract $50,000 from the next woman they see, wins. And the loser goes into exile.

Crocodile Dundee II

Mick and Sue continue where they left off in "Crocodile Dundee." New York gangsters are pursuing Sue, so for her safety, Mick takes her back to "Oz." When the gangsters follow them, Mick demonstrates his outback skills once more. Hogan's natural charm keeps the movie afloat and easy to stick with.

Crocodile Dundee

This 1986 comedy out of Australia is so old-fashioned in its romantic charm that one can't help but wonder what it would have looked like with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard in the leads. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine anyone besides Paul Hogan as the title character, a laid-back Aussie tracker who shows an American reporter (Linda Kozlowski) around bush country, then accompanies her to New York City.

Deathtrap

The trap is set...for a wickedly funny who'll-do-it. If you were a famed mystery playwright with a devastating string of recent flops, what would you do for a can't-miss thriller script? Beg for it? Pay for it? Pray for it? Kill for it?

Down And Out In Beverly Hills

This hilarious Hollywood retelling of the classic Jean Renoir French farce Boudu Saved from Drowning emerges as a wry commentary on society's excess and has distinguished itself as an instant classic. Paul Mazursky (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice) directs and Nick Nolte (Cape Fear, The Prince of Tides) stars as a vagrant who decides to kill himself by jumping into the swimming pool of rich wire-hanger magnate Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, The Goodbye Girl).

Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star

David Spade embodies Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star with the snide, glib, and bored attitude for which he is loved by his fans. Dickie, whose mother abandoned him in his youth when his TV show was canceled, yearns to regain the spotlight. But he can't get a promising role because the director believes that Dickie isn't a real person; so, to find his real self, Dickie hires a family to give him the childhood he never had.

Caddyshack

Greenskeeper Carl Spackler is about to start World War III - against a gopher. Pompous Judge Smails plays to win, but his nubile niece, Lacey Underall wants to score her own way. Playboy Ty Webb shoots perfect golf by becoming the ball. And country club loudmouth Al Czervik just doubled a $20,000 bet on a 10-foot putt. Insanity? No. Caddyshack. Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray and Ted Knight tee-off for a side-splitting round of fairway foolishness that does for golf what National Lampoon's Animal House did for fraternities and Police Academy did for law enforcement.

Continental Divide

Ernie Souchak (John Belushi), a tough Chicago reporter, gets a little too close to the Mob, and his apartment is blown up. To take the heat off of him, his editor sends him to Colorado to investigate an eagle researcher (Blair Brown). Sparring partners at first, the pair eventually fall in love, but Souchak must return to Chicago when one of his sources is mysteriously killed. This is one of those movies that required repeated viewing to get all of the nuances.

Cannonball Run II

Thirty big-name stars, 300-horsepower horseplay and 3,000 breakneck miles: that's the revved-up sequel Cannonball Run II. A real-life race inspired both The Cannonball Run and this follow-up. Director Hal Needham drove in a good-natured yet admittedly illegal race called The Cannonball Sea-to-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. To elude the law, Needham and his pals disguised their entry as an ambulance.

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