The Top 10 Buddy Action Comedies

By Terris Ko · November 24, 2014

Generally, the buddy film is ultimately all about showing the buddies that no matter how much they might hate each other when we first meet them, no matter what might come between them (members of the opposite sex, fame, power, money–marriage), at the end of the day, they need each other. Add in some gunplay, a few car chases and the occasional snarky one-liner, and you have the Top 10 Buddy Action Comedies of All Time.

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10. Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)

Samuel L. Jackson is at his apoplectic best as Zeus Carver, a well-read innocent bystander who is roped into a cat-and-game of revenge against Bruce Willis’ John McClane. Although this last part of the first trilogy met with mixed reviews when it was released, it’s aged well, now considered by many as the best sequel to date.

Willis and Jackson made such an impression together that as they gear up for a sixth (and potentially final) Die Hard, rumor has it that Zeus has already been written into the script.

9. Rush Hour (1998)

When east meets west, and west isn’t that interested in lending east a helping hand, you get something that looks very much like Rush Hour. Stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker didn’t just clash onscreen; Chan recently admitted that it took some time for him to adjust to Tucker’s diva-ish ways. But you can tell from the behind-the-scenes footage (few other film franchises are as known for their outtakes as Rush Hour) that the two eventually found common ground. Sharing a successful international film franchise together can help mend those fences…

8. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

One day in the distant future when they make a movie about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the sequence where they fell for each other on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith will be the lynchpin of their love story. The question is, will that future biopic be able to capture the intensity of their onscreen dynamic?

Mr. and Mrs. Smith will also be the fairy tale ending every writer in film school will chase after: having your film school thesis be picked up as a vehicle for two of the world’s biggest stars. (Mr. and Mrs. Smith is one of three films on this list to be based on a writer’s first script; in this case, writer Simon Kinberg.)

7. Thelma and Louise (1991)

First-time writer Callie Khouri (who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her script) gave director Ridley Scott a chance to switch gears to a story a little closer to home, and flex his comedic muscles to boot.

For a change, the ladies had a chance to bask in the spotlight, and show us what real courage looks like. To watch Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon as a couple of friends fight for their lives and their freedom, all the while learning never to let anyone, any man take advantage of them again, is pure cinema gold. Davis and Sarandon were so good, they were both nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Thelma and Louise also announced the arrival of a new heartthrob: Brad Pitt.

6. The Sting (1973)

Although The Sting would place higher on the list purely in terms of a moviegoing experience, it loses a few points for not having the heart-pounding action that some of the other entries on this list have. But The Sting makes up for less action with its intrigue (only when the dust settles do you really know who you can trust) and comedy. Paul Newman was rarely as funny as he was here re-teaming with Robert Redford, and together, they made the most charming pair of con men in movie history.

5. The Blues Brothers (1980)

A frenetic road movie, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi are at their madcap best, navigating a who’s who of entertainment royalty (including not only performances from greats like Ray Charles, Cab Calloway and Aretha Franklin, but cameos by John Landis and Steven Spielberg, among others). It’s as if Aykroyd and Belushi whispered into the ear of Hollywood, “wanna do something really fun?”

4. Hot Fuzz (2007)

The middle installment of the so-called “Cornetto Trilogy,” Hot Fuzz is by far the grisliest of the films on this list, with bloody kills you’d swear you saw the kid sitting next to you in detention draw into little flipbooks. Which, of course, makes the film even more hilarious.

Hot Fuzz feels much like a sendup of buddy action comedies lovingly made by a passionate fan of buddy action comedies (and frozen dessert cones). Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright (the braintrust that gave us Spaced and then buddy action zombie apocalypse comedy Shaun of the Dead) re-team to guide Pegg through another life crisis, and in true buddy action comedy fashion, Pegg learns that there’s at least one person he cares about more than his job: his partner.

3. Bad Boys (1995) / Bad Boys II (2003)

Where Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones fine-tuned an Abbott and Costello routine in MIB, in Bad Boys (and Bad Boys II), Smith and Martin Lawrence bicker like kids in junior high–doing an impression of a couple that’s been married for way too long. And it’s hilarious. Few teams in movie history flash the onscreen chemistry that Smith and Lawrence have here, and rookie director Michael Bay (with only a few music videos and commercials to his name) was there to catch it all on film, vaulting both Smith and Bay into a different class of stardom.

Years later, all three come back seasoned Hollywood players, and it shows: it’s actually Bad Boys II where they really hit their stride. Bad Boys 3, anyone?

The Bad Boys franchise in a word: woosah.

2. Lethal Weapon (1987)

First time writer Shane Black turned Hollywood on its head with his irreverent, wink-wink style in Lethal Weapon, re-energizing a generation of script readers and wannabe screenwriters. Little wonder he went on to become one of the highest paid writers in his class.

Although Mel Gibson already had the Mad Max trilogy on his resume, Black’s Lethal Weapon was the perfect vehicle for Gibson to launch himself into the action star stratosphere… and Gibson was the perfect vehicle for Black’s manic Martin Riggs to be brought to life. Riggs was also the perfect foil for Danny Glover’s grumpy old detective Roger Murtaugh, who only had his eyes set on retirement, but wouldn’t you know it? They ended up being just what the other one needed (for another three films).

1. MIB (1997)

Will Smith already had an international box office hit under his belt as a member of an ensemble cast in Independence Day (1996). In Men In Black, Smith was front and center with straight man Tommy Lee Jones, and together, they carried MIB to become the 2nd biggest domestic box office hit of the year (behind only Titanic).

The frolic and banter between Smith and Jones was so central to the success of the franchise that even though the end of the first MIB found Jones’s Kay (spoiler alert) moving on to greener pastures, finding and reinstating Kay was (spoiler alert) at the core of MIB II’s plot.

More importantly, they busted the international box office wide open and not only did the world find itself a new international leading man in Smith–a part he was born to play–but the film marked the beginning of a paradigm shift, seeing studios truly beginning to recognize the potential of the worldwide audience.