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Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1993)
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1993)
1993 | Action, Comedy
Finkle and Einhorn, Einhorn and Finkle ...
Early 90s comedy movie starring a then up-and-coming Jim Carrey (before he completely went off the rails), round about the time of Dumb and Dumber and the Mask.

Of those three, this has probably aged the least well - I would be shocked if they could get away with some of the stuff they did here nowadays (particularly the whole Einhorn and Finkle plotline).

Anyway - provided you're not too easily offended - Carrey plays the eponymous Ace Ventura, a detective who specialises in finding missing animals, and who is hired (by none other than Courtney Cox) when the Miami Dolphins mascot - an actual Dolphin - is kidnapped on the Superbowl weekend.

Which probably means more the American audiences than any other.

The film does still raise the odd wry chuckle, but I was obviously easier amused back in the day ...
  
King of Thieves (2018)
King of Thieves (2018)
2018 | Action, Crime, Drama
Michael Caine leads a crack team of crock crooks in robbing a safe deposit vault in London in this loosely-based-on-reality black comedy thriller. Quite apart from Caine, the film has an excellent cast (Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Ray Winstone, Paul Whitehouse, and Michael Gambon, plus Charlie Cox for the streaming generation), which will probably be what draws most people to it.

Initially this looks like it's going to be a slightly cosy comedy thriller about blokes who are too old be robbers any more, but - very pleasantly - it quite soon acquires some real heft and gravity to it, with the various members of the gang falling out and attempting to double-cross each other - most of these actors are well-known as comedians, but there is some proper meaty drama here and scenes with a definite tension to them.

Not quite as much Caine as you might hope for, but he is still the guv'nor as far as British film acting is concerned, and this is his best role for a while. Everyone else is good too. The film never quite gets the shifts between comedy and gangster thriller right, and the low budget keeps it from being very cinematic, but it's an engaging movie driven by great performances.