8 Forgotten Comedy Movies That Have Aged Like Fine Wine—and Still Surprise

A night gone wrong

In After Hours, Martin Scorsese turns a late-night date into a surreal ordeal. Paul Hackett, a Manhattan word processor played by Griffin Dunne, meets Marcy Franklin, portrayed by Rosanna Arquette, in SoHo. After being stranded downtown without money, he tries to get uptown before his morning shift.

Catherine O’Hara, John Heard and Tommy Chong also appear. Scorsese filmed entirely at night, capturing a gritty SoHo of artists, lofts and eccentric characters. Thelma Schoonmaker edited the film, while Howard Shore composed its synth score.

The story’s urban alienation and loss of control still feel relatable, the article argues. Its anxious, darkly comic thriller style also helped establish a “yuppie nightmare” template that influenced later works.

A comic journey inside

Joe Dante’s Innerspace follows test pilot Tuck Pendleton, played by Dennis Quaid, after he is miniaturized in a secret experiment and accidentally injected into supermarket clerk Jack Putter, played by Martin Short. The pair must evade criminals, recover stolen technology and return Tuck to normal size before his oxygen runs out.

The film pairs Saturday-morning adventure and slapstick with an emotional core. Quaid’s confident pilot contrasts with Short’s frantic clerk, while Meg Ryan plays Tuck’s ex-girlfriend, Lydia Maxwell. The article notes that Ryan met her future spouse while working on the project.

Innerspace won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Practical effects, scale models and anatomy sequences by Industrial Light & Magic help sustain its appeal, while its self-contained premise requires no franchise background.

A crime spoof begins

Johnny Dangerously stars Michael Keaton as Johnny Kelly, an honest man who becomes a 1930s-style mobster to cover his mother’s medical bills and fund his younger brother’s law studies. The film’s humor comes from its exaggerated take on crime stories.

Rapid-fire slapstick, breaks of the fourth wall and visual non-sequiturs make it a spoof in the vein of Airplane! and Top Secret! The article describes its absurdity as a central source of its appeal.