50 Best Action-Comedy Movies Of All Time Ranked

Action-comedies are almost as old as the movie industry itself, but the genre hit its stride in the late '70s and early '80s with movies like "48 Hrs" and "Lethal Weapon." The best action-comedies usually feature two contrasting leads with strong chemistry that leads to thrilling action and sharp humor. Movies from the '70s usually followed renegade lawmen and fast-talking outlaws, while buddy cop movies of the '80s introduced the concept of two mismatched officers; one was usually an uptight stickler for the rules, while the other was often a free-spirited jokester. 

Over the years, the action-comedy has evolved to fit with the times, often mixing in different genres, whether it's secret agent adventures, horror stories, or sci-fi epics. Everyone has their favorites, and the best have become all-time movie classics. If you're looking for big, explosive action and some uproarious laughs, poke around for something on this list. You've probably heard of most of them but may never have seen them. Whether it's a movie you haven't watched in a while or something entirely off your radar, every entry on this list of the best 50 action-comedies is sure to entertain.

Described as an "action road comedy," the 1977 adventure film "Smokey and the Bandit" starred one of Hollywood's leading tough guys, Burt Reynolds, alongside America's sweetheart, Sally Field. Reynolds is Bo "Bandit" Darville, whose skill behind the wheel of a souped-up Trans Am helps his bootlegger buddies haul 400 cases of illegal booze across state lines. Bo has just over 24 hours to get the beer from Texarkana to Atlanta so that Texas tycoon Enos Burdette can celebrate his team's racing win in style.

With an $80,000 prize paycheck waiting for him, Bo is aided by his friend Cledus Snow (Jerry Reed). The two start their run, but unwittingly draw the attention of Sheriff Buford Justice, AKA "Smokey the Bear" (Jackie Gleason), when they take on a young woman nicknamed "Frog" (Field) as a passenger. Frog was due to marry Smokey's son but left him at the altar, and now the three runaways find themselves making a fast getaway to Texas with the law in hot pursuit. As our heroes speed their way cross-country, more police join the chase, but they get help from people they encounter who have no love of the law. A full-tilt adventure full of riotous laughs and stunt driving, it became a massive hit, and was the second highest-grossing movie of 1977, behind a certain sci-fi epic.

"Pineapple Express" comes from the slacker dream team of Seth Rogen and James Franco. It doesn't start out like your typical action-comedy, but it quickly turns the dial to 11 when two friends' love for marijuana sets them out on an action-packed adventure. Rogen is Dale Denton, a process server whose marijuana dealer Saul (Franco) has gotten him into Pineapple Express, a rare and powerful strain of pot that he gets from a supplier named Red (Danny McBride). 

While visiting a friend, Dale witnesses a brutal murder at the hands of a corrupt cop and accidentally drops his joint at the scene. Before long, police use this evidence to track down Dale and Saul. The two friends are now on the run from both a dirty cop and a powerful drug kingpin and his gang of hitmen. A sky-high mix of an action movie and a stoner comedy, "Pineapple Express" is a unique adventure. A surprise hit, it even did well with critics, who loved its genre-hopping blend of cheap laughs, oddball action, and drug-induced, off-the-wall zaniness.

"RED" isn't an all-time classic, and doesn't offer up the biggest action or the most uproarious comedy. Instead, it delivers just the right amount of both to complement its impressive all-star cast. Bruce Willis takes top billing, but there are no scrubs here, as he's surrounded by Karl Urban, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, and Richard Dreyfuss. 

In the film, Willis plays Frank Moses, a long-retired intelligence agent who is surprised when he's suddenly the target of an assassination attempt. Hunted by an unknown enemy, he's also being tracked by CIA agent William Cooper (Urban), who has orders to kill him. To stay alive, Moses gets help from fellow retired agents from the good old days, including his old mentor (Freeman), an ex-Soviet spy (Cox), and a woman assassin (Mirren). A comedic thriller, "RED" is a return to action-comedies of the '80s; a rich man's "Expendables," if you will. It's a high-concept film full of Hollywood legends that gives you everything you could want in a movie of its type... and then a little more.

One of Kurt Russell's best films, "Big Trouble in Little China" saw the action star reunite with "Escape from New York" director John Carpenter. Though many of Carpenter's celebrated films had comedic elements, this one is the only real, bonafide action-comedy of any note. Here, Russell stars as Jack Burton, a truck driver who gets caught up in an adventure after his best friend's girl is taken captive by a band of thugs. After following the gang to Chinatown, Burton soon uncovers a long-lost world of mystic warriors. It turns out that the street toughs kidnapped his friend's fiancée (Suzee Pai) to sacrifice her to an ancient wizard called Lo Pan. According to legend, sacrificing a woman with green eyes will keep the ageless sorcerer alive.

One of the sillier films on this list, "Big Trouble In Little China" is almost slapstick in its level of humor and outlandish and comical visual style, something that in its day prevented it from getting better reviews. Over the years, audiences and critics alike have come around to appreciate it for its absurdist humor and high levels of bizarre fantasy action. Now an '80s classic, it sits near the top of Russell's incredible filmography, and is lovingly remembered as a low-budget gem.

From "Rush Hour" to "Lethal Weapon," buddy cop stories have been a tried and true concept for a great action-comedy for decades. Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell proved that there was still life in it when they made the 2010 hit "The Other Guys." Like the best in the sub-genre, pairing action star Wahlberg with comedy icon Ferrell as two NYPD detectives proved to be a winning formula. Ferrell plays Allen Gamble, a level-headed, by-the-book officer, while Wahlberg is the fiery, hot-headed Terry Hoitz. They're a great team but are outcasts in the department for their idiosyncratic partnership. Allen and Hoitz aren't the best, brightest, or most distinguished cops on the force. They aren't the heroic brave cops who get the most exciting cases. They're...the other guys.

But a seemingly ordinary investigation into permit violation at a construction site leads Allen and Hoitz down a rabbit hole that exposes a vast conspiracy and becomes the case of their careers. Now in the middle of the action, the pair of mismatched detectives prove their worth, all while cracking one-liners and jumping from big explosions in the nick of time. Nearly a full-throated spoof of the buddy cop premise, it deftly straddles the line between action and farce, but is ultimately more of a faithful and loving homage than a straight-up satire.

Though its two stars play a pair of musical malcontents rather than police officers, the 1980 John Landis classic "The Blues Brothers" still feels like a buddy cop movie. Instead of a pair of mismatched, outsized personalities, Jake Blues and his brother Elwood (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, respectively) are dry, deadpan, and straight-faced. Based on a series of "Saturday Night Live" sketches starring the same duo, the movie tells the bigger story of Jake, recently paroled from prison and "on a mission from god" to save the orphanage they grew up in. They'll need to raise enough money to pay off an enormous tax bill before the year's deadline, and to do it they plan to reform their old blues band and hold a massive benefit concert.

Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished, and along the way the brothers make enemies on practically every street corner. Chased by the police, a rival band, a group of Neo-Nazis, and a vengeful ex-fiancée (Carrie Fisher), the brothers manage to make one narrow escape after another. Possibly the funniest movie on this list, it's almost a straight comedy if not for the enormous explosions, wild shopping mall car chases, big brawls, and violent crashes for which the movie became famous.

Though many see this as a rip-off of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the original script for the 1984 romantic comedy action-adventure "Romancing the Stone" predates the Harrison Ford classic by at least a couple of years. A classic pulp-inspired jungle adventure, the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner picture embraces romance and comedy much more than "Indiana Jones," and it flips the two main roles by making the woman the hero, and her male love interest the adventuring sidekick. 

Kathleen Turner stars as Joan Wilder, a New York author known for her series of romance novels. When she comes into possession of a mysterious map, and her sister-in-law is abducted by a drug kingpin named Zolo, she sets out on a wild adventure through the Colombian jungle. There she meets smuggler Jack Colton (Douglas), whom she hires to help her find her sister-in-law. As the two survive car chases, deadly shootouts, and crocodile-infested jungles, they use the map to seek an incredible treasure while being pursued by Zolo's men. In the process, sparks fly between Wilder and Colton, and the bickering pair eventually fall in love. Driven by the chemistry of its two charismatic leads, "Romancing the Stone" harkened back to classic adventure serials, but with a livelier sense of humor to boot.

The 2018 dark comedy action thriller "Game Night" starred Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams as married couple Max and Annie, who host a regular weekly game night with friends. One week however, Max's brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) arrives with a plan for a murder mystery game. But there's no board here: this will be an interactive live-action role-play, and he says it will kick off when one of them is kidnapped. Nobody is all that alarmed when armed men arrive and abduct Brooks. They just assume it's part of the game.

To begin the "game," Max and Annie find clues that lead them to a handgun, but when they find Brooks and accidentally shoot him, they realize this is no game after all. Brooks comes clean and reveals he's actually a black market dealer, and one of his clients is looking for revenge following a sale gone bad. On the run from dangerous criminals, the suburbanites find themselves in a real-life game of life and death. Garnering accolades for its original and novel concept, "Game Night" was praised for its sharp script, strong comedic performances, and plenty of twists and turns, making it a satisfying murder mystery comedy to rival classics like "Clue" and "Knives Out," but with a lot more action.

King of blockbuster action movies, director James Cameron had become a major player in the industry after "Aliens" and two "Terminator" films with star Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 1994, the duo got back together to mix impeccable action with a healthy dose of comic wit. Arnold starred opposite veteran scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis as married couple Harry and Helen Tasker, whose relationship is strained under the apparent boredom of suburban life. But Helen is in for a rude awakening when she learns that Harry's career as a computer salesman is a lie, and he's actually a covert government operative working for an elite counterintelligence agency. 

Drawn into a plot by a foreign terrorist group to steal a stash of nuclear weapons, Helen becomes a pawn in the villain's diabolical plans, and Harry is forced to reveal his secret double life. Now, the pumped-up secret agent must pull double duty trying to save the world and his marriage at the same time. Schwarzenegger had proved his comedic chops already with movies like "Twins" and "Kindergarten Cop," but "True Lies" was Cameron's first real entry into the genre, and it didn't disappoint. An underrated classic in his long and impressive career, it was full of memorable action sequences and unforgettable comic gags.

1970s throwback "Black Dynamite" shined a light on an overlooked movie subgenre thanks to the efforts of Michael Jai White, who wrote and starred in the 2009 film. Black Dynamite is a former CIA agent, Vietnam vet, and kung fu fighter who takes to the streets in a one-man war on crime. After the death of his brother, Black Dynamite seeks vengeance and uncovers a massive conspiracy to taint the city's liquor supply. As he reassembles his old team of elite operatives to help him, he finds evidence of a government-run drug ring that reaches all the way to the Nixon White House.

An absolutely ridiculous action-comedy, "Black Dynamite" wholeheartedly embraces the often bizarre nature of the Blaxploitation movies that it pays homage to. With its tongue firmly planted in cheek, it boasts over-the-top gun battles and schlocky kung fu fighting, including a bare-knuckled showdown between Black Dynamite and Mr. Nixon himself. Perhaps surprisingly, critics like Entertainment Weekly loved the film, writing, "'Black Dynamite' blends satire, nostalgia, and cinema deconstruction into a one-of-a-kind comedy high." A hit with audiences too, the film was spun off into an equally trippy animated series in 2011, with Michael Jai White reprising his role as Black Dynamite and continuing the vigilante's kung fu quest for justice. 

Jackie Chan followed up "Rush Hour" with another buddy cop movie of sorts, this time partnering with Owen Wilson in the 2000 Western comedy "Shanghai Noon." Like the aforementioned film, it's a clash of cultures, as the Imperial Guardsman Chong Wang (Chan) is sent to the United States by the Emperor of China when Princess Pei Pei leaves for its shores to escape an arranged marriage. There, Wang meets Roy O'Bannon (Wilson), the classic thief with a heart of gold. After spending time in a Nevada prison together following a barroom brawl, O'Bannon offers to help Wang find the Emperor's daughter.

Despite its simplistic script, clichéd characters, and easy jokes, "Shanghai Noon's" good-natured tone and witty stars, combined with some fantastic action that mixed kung fu with the Wild West, made it a hit with audiences. Critics too were impressed, with Roger Ebert overlooking its flaws to call it "a wink at Westerns, martial arts and buddy movies — enriched by a goofy performance by Owen Wilson, who would steal the movie if [Jackie] Chan were not so clever at sharing it with him." As a revival of the kung fu Western previously made famous by Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune, the movie gave it a new twist by injecting it with comedy. 

The British crime caper comedy "The Italian Job" may be better known to audiences today from its 2007 remake starring Ed Norton, but the original is a far better — and funnier — film. While the remake was more of an action movie, the original, starring Michael Caine, Noel Coward, and Benny Hill, was a bonafide comedy heist movie. Caine stars as cockney ex-con Charlie Croker, recently out of prison, who inherits an old friend's brilliant and complex plan to knock off an armored truck filled with gold bullion in Turin, Italy. To do the job, though, Croker has to convince crime boss Mr. Bridger to fund the operation and recruit a crack team of expert thieves to help him.

To get their target, the team plans to shut down the city's traffic system by sabotaging the computers that control it. But their plans are complicated when a local mob boss named Albatani becomes aware of the operation and wants it called off. A true classic comedy adventure, "The Italian Job" was the spiritual precursor to the likes of "The Fast & the Furious" with its high-speed action, car crashes, and slick street criminals competing for a big score.

Adapted from the 1985 television drama of the same name, "21 Jump Street" took the original teen crime drama (which starred a young Johnny Depp) and turned it into a rip-roaring action farce. Accepting the silliness of its premise — that a pair of adult men well into their 30s — go undercover to bust drug dealers in a high school, the movie ditches the seriousness of the TV show and makes it all about high-energy action and tongue-in-cheek laughs. 

The 2012 film adaptation of the buddy cop comedy stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as a pair of typical mismatched police partners Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko. One is smart and awkward, the other dim-witted and suave, but together they make a good team. Sillier than perhaps it had any right to be, its all-star cast (that included Brie Larson, Ice Cube, Ellie Kemper, Jake Johnson, and Nick Offerman) gave the movie plenty of great comedic performances, while an unexpected cameo from Depp — reprising his original role — put a bow on it. A send-up of '80s action movies and teen dramas, it found success as a broad action-comedy thanks to its many loving homages and its two witty stars.

Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne made a good team in the 2015 MCU entry "Ant-Man," but in the sequel, Hope takes on a superhero identity of her own, and the two become bonafide crime-fighting partners. After the events of "Captain America: Civil War," Lang finds himself back in trouble with the law for having violated the Sokovia Accords and acting as a super-powered vigilante alongside Captain America. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) aren't happy, but give him a chance to atone when Pym learns that Lang may hold the key to bringing his wife back from the Quantum Realm, a microscopic dimension where she'd been lost nearly 30 years before.

To go back into the Quantum Realm to find her, they need the help of a black-market arms dealer named Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), who promptly betrays them, hoping to get his hands on Pym's powerful shrinking tech. Meanwhile, a jilted ex-partner of Pym's resurfaces with a powerful new and mysterious ally who threatens to destroy everything they've built. An even more exciting adventure than the first film, its bigger story and better villains make this one sequel that definitely outdid the original.

For decades, it seemed like Batman and Superman had the monopoly on DC superhero movies, but other heroes finally got their due when the likes of "Wonder Woman" and "Aquaman" began hitting the big screen. But it was "Shazam!" that truly broke the mold of superhero blockbuster action movies, giving audiences a genuine comedy instead. Starring Zachary Levi, who'd proven his action-comedy chops on TV's "Chuck," the film didn't shy away from the colorful, old-fashioned nature of the character, instead using it to its advantage. Horror director David F. Sandberg somehow crafted one of the best DC Comics films to date, deftly mixing action and comedy that beautifully captured the childlike enthusiasm of comic books of old.

In the film, young orphan Billy Batson discovers an ancient wizard, who gives him tremendous abilities so he might become this realm's newest champion. When he speaks the word "shazam," the 14-year-old Batson is turned into the mighty red-and-white-clad adult superhero with powers to rival Superman. But when the evil Dr. Sivana — who had been rejected by the wizard before — learns of Batson's new identity, he seeks to destroy him using the powers of the wizard's greatest enemy. In some ways, it's a superhero version of Tom Hanks' "Big," but this is one fun and funny adventure that's also wholly unique as a near pitch-perfect adaptation of classic superhero comics.

Another Shane Black joint — this one a buddy comedy and neo-noir action movie with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe — "The Nice Guys" also plays with tropes and sets its action in the late 1970s. Gosling is Holland March, a middling private investigator and alcoholic still recovering from the death of his wife. March finds himself with a new case when he's hired to look into the apparent death of adult film star Misty Mountains, whose mother thinks may still be alive. His investigation leads him to one of Misty's former associates, a woman named Amelia, who has paid for hired muscle in the form of enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) to get March off her trail.

When Amelia goes missing, the pair of mismatched manhunters begrudgingly decide to work together. The case sends them down a dark rabbit hole leading to the underground world of adult films, corrupt automakers, and a possible government conspiracy. In "The Nice Guys," Gosling and Crowe prove to be another in a long line of comic action partners, and like most on this list, it's the top-billed stars and their electric chemistry that make the movie shine.

The 1982 action-comedy "48 Hrs" was one of the first buddy cop comedy action thrillers–or, at the very least, it massively popularized the genre. The movie was also Eddie Murphy's big-screen debut. His smooth, irreverent performance and chemistry with Hollywood veteran Nick Nolte drove the film. It also turned him from an up-and-coming comedian and TV actor into a genuine leading man overnight. 

The film saw Nolte playing Jack Cates, a tough-as-nails San Francisco cop assigned to stop a convicted felon named Albert Ganz (James Remar), who's recently escaped from prison and already killed several people. To catch the escaped murderer, Cates tracks down Ganz's old criminal cohort, including Reggie Hammond (Murphy), a wisecracking punk doing a three-year stretch for armed robbery. Together, the mismatched team of hard-boiled cop and smart-aleck crook use their combined skills and inside knowledge to hunt Hammond's former partner before he can kill again. A trailblazing action-comedy that set the standard for the buddy cop formula, it wasn't just one of the first movies of its kind, it was also one of the best.

In the quasi-sequel to the disappointing David Ayer film, incoming director James Gunn ("The Guardians of the Galaxy") upped the comedy and the action and added a few big names to its cast. "The Suicide Squad" brought over Joel Kinnaman, Margot Robbie, and Viola Davis from the first film and added Idris Elba, John Cena, Daniela Melchior, and David Dastmalchian, among many others. In the bombastic sequel, government agent Waller (Davis) recruits a new team of supervillains, including two highly trained elite killers, Bloodsport (Elba) and Peacemaker (Cena); the oddly powered Polka Dot Man (Dastmalchian) and Ratcatcher (Melchior); the hulking, always-hungry King Shark (voiced by Steve Agee); plus Rick Flagg (Kinnaman) and Harley Quinn (Robbie). She dispatches them on a mission to a remote island nation where a mad scientist (Peter Capaldi) is experimenting on a giant mind-controlling monster from outer space.

When they find their target, however, Bloodsport and his team realize that Waller has manipulated them. As the monster Starro is unleashed on the city, the Suicide Squad defies their orders and fights to save the unsuspecting populace. Packed to the gills with explosive, graphic violence that is as much part of the fun as the jokes and sight gags, "The Suicide Squad" delivers humor, heart, action, adventure, and plenty of blood-soaked mayhem. Critically acclaimed, it was one of the DCEU's highest-rated films, and garnered a spin-off television series, "Peacemaker," before it even hit theaters.

Writer Shane Black's debut, "Lethal Weapon" raised the bar for action-comedies with a pair of mismatched police partners that set a new standard for buddy cop movies. In the 1985 film, "Mad Max" star Mel Gibson played LAPD detective Martin Riggs, a wild and outrageous officer who seems to relish in other people thinking he's halfway insane. His partner, Roger Murtaugh, played by Danny Glover, is the strait-laced, by-the-book veteran who is nearing retirement and who always seemed to be grousing about being "too old for this s***."

When the film begins, the death of Riggs' wife sets the already out-of-control officer down a dark path of recklessness and destruction. Now reassigned, he and his new partner Murtaugh clash over their polar opposite natures while on a case to take down drug smuggling operations. A landmark film in the genre, there would be many copycats, but few that could match the original's sheer audaciousness and unpredictability. The film was a big hit and a favorite of audiences, garnering strong reviews. It spawned a franchise that included three sequels and a television remake that ran for three seasons on the Fox Network in the late 2010s.

After the surprise box-office success of the first film, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" went even further, introducing bizarre new heroes and strange new cosmic villains. Kurt Russell played the lead villain of the picture, the human form of the living planet called Ego. The movie begins with the team of interstellar heroes escaping a fleet of alien starships when they're saved by the giant planet being. Russell's Ego is a seemingly friendly character who tells them that he's Peter Quill's alien father, who had visited Earth decades before and fallen in love with his mother. Ego reveals that Peter is in fact gifted with his race's incredible powers, and wants to teach him how to use them so that they can travel the galaxy together.

Not all is as it seems, however. When Ego's motives come into question, Quill is forced to re-evaluate his past and his parentage. An even more heartfelt emotional journey, it also sees the assassin Gamora make peace with her estranged sister Nebula and Rocket come to terms with his own tragic backstory. A near-perfect sequel, it had everything that made the first one great and continued pushing the envelope for Marvel's most far-out heroes.

A clever combination of sci-fi procedural and buddy cop comedy, "Men in Black" features rising box office star Will Smith alongside crime drama veteran Tommy Lee Jones. Playing off pop culture conspiracy theories, it follows rebellious, free-wheeling New York cop Jay (Smith), who unwittingly chases down an extraterrestrial fugitive and comes to the attention of the titular Men in Black, a clandestine government agency that oversees aliens living secretly among mankind on Earth. Selected as a recruit, he has his identity erased and is partnered with Agent K (Jones), an uptight, by-the-book officer who helped found the agency more than 30 years before.

With his new partner, Jay becomes Agent J, and together they hunt down an elusive alien insect who's looking for a powerful artifact hidden somewhere on Earth. With futuristic technology at their disposal, they must find the artifact before he does. While a massive starship in orbit threatens to destroy the planet if their relic is not returned to them before the day is out, Agents J and K have less than 24 hours to save the human race from cosmic armageddon. This off-the-wall action-fest is the perfect starring vehicle for comic actor Will Smith, whose chemistry with the totally deadpan Tommy Lee Jones makes this one of the best action-comedies ever.

The 1999 satirical black comedy war film "Three Kings" was written and directed by David O. Russell, better known for his later works like "I Heart Huckabees" and "American Hustle." George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube starred as three U.S. Army officers fighting during Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War in Iraq in 1991. As the war to stop Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait is winding down, the three men conspire to raid a secret bunker full of Kuwaiti gold bullion stolen by Hussein's regime.

The rare action-comedy with a lot to say about politics and the state of foreign affairs, "Three Kings" doesn't make heroes of its thieves, even if we're rooting for them to succeed. A modest hit in theaters, it was lavished with praise from critics, with Roger Ebert awarding it a perfect four stars, saying the film had a fairly paint-by-numbers story, but that its blend of action, political commentary, and comedy made it extraordinary. "[It] bounces lots of distinct characters against one another and isn't afraid to punctuate the laughs with moments of true observation and emotion," the critic wrote. 

Stylish comedic director Taika Waititi ("What We Do in the Shadows") was brought on board to give Thor a facelift, turning the character from a dour, brooding warrior to a sly, good-humored adventurer in this wild reinvention of the series. "Thor Ragnarok" is a wild romp with plenty of laughs and big comic book action that few expected after the first two lackluster films. 

As the movie begins, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) discover that their father Odin's life is nearing its natural end. His death unleashes a malevolent villain named Hela (Cate Blanchett), who wants revenge for centuries of imprisonment by bringing Thor's home, Asgard, to ruin. After their first clash, Thor finds himself marooned on the planet Sakaar, where he meets the Hulk, and the two are forced into gladiatorial combat before leading a rebellion and escaping to save Thor's home. In "Ragnarok," the confident and brash hero is juxtaposed against both the timid, awkward scientist Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and his alter ego, the childish monstrosity of the Hulk, making it a double dose of buddy comedy that reinvigorated the character ahead of "Avengers: Infinity War."

A disappointing appearance as the character in "X-Men: Origins: Wolverine" couldn't stop star Ryan Reynolds from pursuing a more faithful Deadpool solo movie. In 2016, it finally came to fruition after years in development hell. Spearheaded by Reynolds and helmed by first-time director Tim Miller, "Deadpool" was a labor of love for those involved, and it shows. A breakneck comic onslaught of high-octane action propped up by Reynold's irreverent performance as the snarky, wisecracking, fourth-wall-breaking anti-hero, the film is a genuine thrill ride from start to finish. 

Mostly told in flashback, it tells the story of Wade Wilson, a former special forces agent who volunteers for an experimental procedure to cure his terminal cancer. Instead of a cure, he actually becomes part of a secret program designed to turn him into a living weapon by unlocking his hidden mutant genes. Now equipped with a logic-defying healing factor, Deadpool becomes an unstoppable killing machine. When he refuses to become the program's pawn, they kidnap his girlfriend. He embarks on a relentless quest to save her, killing everyone who gets in his way. At the same time, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead — a pair of wayward X-Men — assist him in an effort to convince him to join their superhero team.

A pioneering superhero action-comedy, its massive box office haul sparked a wave of R-rated big-budget action films, forcing studios to reconsider adult-oriented superheroes, which used to be seen as verboten.

"Hot Fuzz" is perhaps a surprising pick for the top spot, but take a look at its critical and audience response on various aggregator sites and you'll find that it takes the lead. It's not just the best action-comedy in Edgar Wright's prolific filmography; it might just be his best, period. Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the script, also plays highly respected London Metro Police officer Nicholas Angel. His accolades make him a near-celebrity, but his colleagues resent him for hogging the limelight. Always at the center of the action, Angel is devastated to be reassigned to the quiet, quaint rural village of Sandford, Gloucestershire, where he won't get to see much excitement... or so he thinks.

Angel teams up with a bumbling clod named Danny Butterman (Pegg's frequent co-star Nick Frost). A series of mysterious deaths get Angel's attention. When the townsfolk attempt to downplay them, Angel is convinced that something more is afoot. He and Butterman investigate further and discover frightening goings-on in the town, making for one of the best twists in movie history. We won't spoil it here. It's enough to say that nothing is what it seems. What follows is some of the funniest, most graphically violent humor that will make you howl with both laughter and astonishment.