Watching ‘Love Actually’ the other night, and yes I do believe it is a great British film! It drew my attention to the fact that the theme of comedy is in most major production, main stream films of any genre.
I believe that all films made by the major production companies e.g 20th Century Fox, have an element of comedy in, even Horror movies, which obviously aren’t meant to make the audience burst out in laughter. To name a few of the vast amounts of highly successful films that contain comedic themes are:
Thriller/Neo-noir: The Usual Suspects
Love: Love Actually (yes, it is a comedy/love film)
Horror: Scream/Funny Games
Documentary: Borat (as it was on first appearance, but it was actually about the ignorance of our colonial cousins)
Action: Die Hard
You see, comedy is a tool used by the major film producers in order to create a bond between the audience and the characters, this would be why Love films use comedy so often, so that there is a more heart felt regret when something bad happens in the film. Of course spoofs have helped wrench the themes of comedy out of Horror films, scary movie for example, but some films didn’t need a helping hand with it like Scream. Many Comedy films are getting made presently, and I believe the producers and writers are not looking to make a good film, but to make ever more sums of money. Comedy is in my opinion a safe bet for producers when it comes to releasing a movie, as Comedy of any style can relate to some people, even if it’s honestly really not funny, not mentioning any names (*cough* Harry Hill) They will make money out of it no matter what, and I believe that as a member of the audience they are portraying these movies to, it should stop and release better films rather than 1 comedy film every month starring Vince Vaughn every single time.
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