My 20 Top '80s comedies
by melsen | created - 08 Jan 2022 | updated - 08 Jan 2022 | PublicSimple as that.
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1. Night Shift (1982)
R | 106 min | Comedy
A mild-mannered morgue attendant is assigned to the night shift, and his new coworker, along with his prostitute neighbor, convince him of running a prostitution ring out of the morgue.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton, Shelley Long, Gina Hecht
Votes: 17,959 | Gross: $23.60M
2. Trading Places (1983)
R | 116 min | Comedy
A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.
Director: John Landis | Stars: Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche
Votes: 165,869 | Gross: $90.40M
3. Stir Crazy (1980)
R | 111 min | Comedy, Crime
Set up and wrongfully accused, two best friends are sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit. However, no prison cell can keep them locked in a cage.
Director: Sidney Poitier | Stars: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Georg Stanford Brown, JoBeth Williams
Votes: 30,402 | Gross: $101.30M
4. Midnight Run (1988)
R | 126 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A bounty hunter pursues a former Mafia accountant who is also being chased by a rival bounty hunter, the F.B.I., and his old mob boss after jumping bail.
Director: Martin Brest | Stars: Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton
Votes: 94,273 | Gross: $38.41M
5. Zapped! (1982)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
A high school science nerd gains telekinetic powers after a laboratory accident and uses them for revenge upon bullies.
Director: Robert J. Rosenthal | Stars: Scott Baio, Willie Aames, Robert Mandan, Felice Schachter
Votes: 7,606 | Gross: $16.90M
6. Any Which Way You Can (1980)
PG | 116 min | Action, Comedy
A trucker turned prize fighter, his brother and their pet orangutan have a series of misadventures involving the mob, corrupt cops, motorcycle gangs and pretty dames.
Director: Buddy Van Horn | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William Smith
Votes: 20,983 | Gross: $70.69M
7. Innerspace (1987)
PG | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A test pilot is miniaturized in a secret experiment, and accidentally injected into a hapless store clerk.
Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Kevin McCarthy
Votes: 65,169 | Gross: $25.89M
8. Back to School (1986)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Romance, Sport
To help his discouraged son get through college, a funloving and obnoxious rich businessman decides to enter the school as a student himself.
Director: Alan Metter | Stars: Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman, Burt Young, Keith Gordon
Votes: 36,217 | Gross: $91.26M
9. Tootsie (1982)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Michael Dorsey, an unsuccessful actor, disguises himself as a woman in order to get a role on a trashy hospital soap.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman
Votes: 114,708 | Gross: $177.20M
10. Nine to Five (1980)
PG | 109 min | Comedy
Three female employees of a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot find a way to turn the tables on him.
Director: Colin Higgins | Stars: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, Dabney Coleman
Votes: 39,435 | Gross: $103.29M
11. Weekend at Bernie's (1989)
PG-13 | 97 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
Two idiots try to pretend that their murdered employer is really alive, leading the hitman to attempt to track him down to finish him off.
Director: Ted Kotcheff | Stars: Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, Catherine Mary Stewart, Terry Kiser
Votes: 62,933 | Gross: $30.22M
12. My Bodyguard (1980)
PG | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
When a boy comes to a new school and gets harassed by a bully, he acquires the services of the school's most feared kid as a bodyguard.
Director: Tony Bill | Stars: Chris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin, Matt Dillon, Paul Quandt
Votes: 10,849 | Gross: $22.48M
13. Hanky Panky (1982)
PG | 110 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Completely innocent man, Michael Jordon, is drawn into a web of government secrets when a girl carrying a mysterious package gets into a taxi with him. When she's later murdered, Michael becomes the chief suspect and goes on the run.
Director: Sidney Poitier | Stars: Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Kathleen Quinlan, Richard Widmark
Votes: 3,110 | Gross: $9.82M
14. Campus Man (1987)
PG | 94 min | Comedy
Todd Barret is an aspiring businessman. He's got what it takes, but what he doesn't have is enough money to stay in college. So he cooks up a plan to make the first ever all male sports ... See full summary »
Director: Ron Casden | Stars: John Dye, Steven Lyon, Morgan Fairchild, Kim Delaney
Votes: 609 | Gross: $0.99M
15. Into the Night (1985)
R | 115 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
After discovering that his wife is cheating on him, an insomniac aerospace engineer accidentally meets, and tries to help, a beautiful model on the run from some extremely dangerous people.
Director: John Landis | Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stacey Pickren, Carmen Argenziano
Votes: 13,639 | Gross: $7.56M
16. Ghostbusters (1984)
PG | 105 min | Action, Comedy, Fantasy
Three parapsychologists forced out of their university funding set up shop as a unique ghost removal service in New York City, attracting frightened yet skeptical customers.
Director: Ivan Reitman | Stars: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis
Votes: 450,464 | Gross: $238.63M
17. A Christmas Story (1983)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Family
In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie Parker attempts to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus that a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Scott Schwartz
Votes: 168,636 | Gross: $20.61M
18. Back to the Future (1985)
PG | 116 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Votes: 1,307,474 | Gross: $210.61M
19. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
R | 105 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A freewheeling Detroit cop pursuing a murder investigation finds himself dealing with the very different culture of Beverly Hills.
Director: Martin Brest | Stars: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher
Votes: 203,404 | Gross: $234.76M
20. Police Academy (1984)
R | 96 min | Comedy
The mayor declares that anyone can enroll in the police academy irrespective of their physical condition or education level, and many misfits descend on the academy, including a young troublemaker who's forced to apply or go to jail.
Director: Hugh Wilson | Stars: Steve Guttenberg, G.W. Bailey, Kim Cattrall, Bubba Smith
Votes: 137,481 | Gross: $81.20M
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