With so many streaming services to pick from, we have nearly endless possibilities on what we can watch and where we can get our laughs. Hulu, one of the OGs in the streaming game, is a top contender, with rom-coms, gross out humor, animated family fun, and classic films that might be older than we are.
If you’re looking to keep things light, here are 25 movies you can stream tonight.
I’m not sure if my boyfriend has ever watched Big Daddy, so my arguments of, “But I wipe my own ass! I wipe my own ass!” largely go ignored in our apartment. This adorable comedy stars Adam Sandler as a manchild who adopts a 5-year-old kid (check out a very young Dylan and Cole Sprouse) in order to prove to his ex-girlfriend that he’s responsible and an adult who...makes...good..decisions? Adam Sandler has always come across as super unlikeable to me, but he’s pretty funny and sweet in this one, and you get to see Leslie Mann, Rob Schneider, Jon Stewert, and Steve Buscemi in their younger days.
Some of you may remember the 1978 book on which this movie is based; I personally was obsessed when I discovered it nearly two decades later. Something about food falling from the sky seemed so magical to me and now, even as a grown-up, I’m enthralled. We watch our hero, Flint, a young and idealistic inventor, try to save his hometown, located on an island who credit their main source of revenue as sardines...so the economy isn’t doing that great.
After he creates a machine that will transform water into food, a series of missteps cause the machine to short circuit and the cheeseburgers that once rained down from the sky get bigger...and start falling faster...and in the forms of earthquakes and tornados. This is a great film if you’re feeling nostalgic, or even if you want to see some gorgeous and whimsical animation.
So if you’re not too familiar with ‘Ted’, the premise sounds like a hard sell: when an 8-year-old little boy makes a wish on a shooting star for his best friend, a teddy bear, to come to life, it does...and twenty-something years later, they’re still best friends, living it up in Boston. Come for Mark Wahlberg, who is honestly charismatic in everything he does (this being no exception), stay for the Boston accents. Or for the cursing, drinking, partying teddy bear. Or Mila Kunis.
If you need to figure out whether or not you’ll like this movie, let me also add that this is Seth McFarlane’s directorial debut. Do with that what you may.
I know that putting multiple Adam Sandler movies on this list may be a bit much, but the man knows how to make hits. Silly premises, sure, but hits (Is Mr. Deeds on Hulu? Remind me to check.) In 50 First Dates, Sandler plays a womanizer (doesn’t he always?!) who meets Lucy; an art teacher played to perfection by Drew Barrymore, who suffers from anterograde amnesia after an accident so he sets out to win her heart every single day. It even won an MTV Award for Best On-Screen Team...you know, when MTV Awards were big deals.
Remember the time when you couldn’t see a trailer for a rom-com without seeing the toothy grin of Katherine Heigl? Take a trip back to 2008 where Heigl was still in Hollywood’s good graces, as she stars as an overworked, people-pleasing woman who is planning the wedding of her boss, who she is secretly in love with, and her sister (played by Malin Ackerman.) At the same time, she is unknowingly the subject of an article about “always being the bridesmaid, never the bride.”
Most people always describe ‘Deadpool’ as a ‘superhero movie but comedy!” as if the other films in the MCU aren’t hilarious, but few play the charismatic asshole type quite as well as Ryan Reynolds. Playing up the ‘anti-hero’ trope, the team behind this movie really double-downed on an unconventional marketing strategy: they released billboards with just a few emojis, fake movie posters, a Tinder profile for the character, and odd TV spots. Somehow it all worked because the $58M budget-film earned almost $800M.
If you’ve been thinking, “You know, one thing my life has been missing is more politics,” then here you go; you’re welcome. The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as two men competing for a seat in Congress. Ferrell plays Cam Brady, fifth term incumbent, who has an affair with someone on his campaign and leaves a very explicit voicemail on a family’s machine. Galifianakis plays his opponent, a pure-hearted town tourism director who wants to better the city he loves but is backed by two corrupt businessmen, the Motch brothers. A bit heavy-handed, yes, but tons of fun.
Steve Carrell is truly America’s Sweetheart and if you don’t believe me, seeing him star as a very smart but often overlooked analyst working for a top secret intelligence agency called CONTROL might change your mind. When headquarters are attacked, taking out all of the top agents, there’s no choice but to finally make Carrell a field agent, with his new partner, Anne Hathaway. Well, no, not Anne Hathaway herself but Agent 99, played by Anne Hathaway. You get it.
The stressful thing about movies that involve going back in time is that there’s always the question of “Will they mess something up that results in someone not being born?!” We all know they’ll figure it out, but it still has me stressed. When three sad-sack friends reconnect when one of them goes to the hospital, they all take a trip to the Kodiak Valley Ski Resort (along with a nerdy nephew, which makes sense in the movie.) A malfunctioning hot tub takes them back to 1986, where the guys try to not change anything by (reluctantly) making the same mistakes.
Study high, take the test high, get high scores...right? The logic might not check out, but it is the premise in this film starring Redman and Method Man as two students who prefer to smoke more than they prefer to do...really, anything. Our heroes are visited by the ghost of their dead friend (after they smoke his ashes) who helps them pass their exams and get them scholarships into Harvard University.
Chris Rock stars as a struggling comedian who dreams of making it big, or at the very least, hopes to not get booed off the stage. Just when things start looking up, he gets hit by a semi-truck, goes up to Heaven, and finds that his guardian angel, Keyes, has made a mistake. In an effort to fix things, he gives him another body -- but this time, it’s of a fat, rich, middle-aged white man...which isn’t nearly as effective when telling jokes.
I’m hard-pressed to believe you already aren’t familiar with Shrek; the franchise is huge with 4 stand-alone movies, a spin-off movie, a television series, a Broadway musical, etc. On the off chance you don’t:: Shrek is a grumpy ogre who just wants to be left alone. He also wants all these fairytale characters who just showed up at his swamp to go away. In an effort to get his home back, he agrees to go on a quest to rescue a princess for the evil, tiny Lord of the land.
Is there anything more glorious than comedy mainstays pairing up together? Steve Carell and my-best-friend-in-my-head, Tina Fey, play a married couple with children who are desperate to shake up their routine life after they find out their best couple friend (Kristen Wiig! Mark Ruffalo!) are divorcing. While out on their date night, they steal a table from a couple who don’t show up. What’s the worst that can happen, right? RIGHT?! How about two mobsters showing up, demanding to get back a flash drive that they believe the couple stole from their boss? Catch the great cameos from Mila Kunis, James Franco, Mark Wahlberg and Taraji P. Henson.
Before there was Mean Girls, there was Heathers, a movie about a clique of four popular girls (with 3 of them being named Heather) who rule the school until a mysterious string of murders starts taking them out one by one. This dark comedy starring a very young Winona Ryder, Shannen Doherty, and Christan Slater, was originally written to contrast the string of John Hughes movies that were incredibly popular at the time (Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink...you get it) and ended up a cult classic.
Ryan Reynolds plays a 7th year senior who never wants to graduate college - he likes the drinking, the partying, the girls. When his father decides to no longer pick up the check for his education, he decides to earn money by creating a business, Topless Tutors. Yup, that’s the kind of movie this is. Loved by most but hated by critics (18% on Rotten Tomatoes but with a 73% audience score), if you’re a fan of gross-out humor, this is a great pick.
A classic boy-meets-girl-boy-then-meets-girl’s-father-who-will-stop-at-nothing-to-get-rid-of-boy story, if the girl was Dracula’s daughter and everyone was animated. Following so far? Dracula, voiced by Adam Sandler, runs a ritzy resort for monsters. While planning his daughter’s 118th birthday, a human named Johnny (voiced by Selena Gomez and Andy Samberg, respectively) stumbles into the hotel and ‘zings!’ with his daughter, Mavis. (Watch the movie. It’ll explain it better.) Dracula then enlists his monster friends to help get rid of Johnny and hilarity ensues. Seriously a great movie.
Is it even a list of comedy movies if you don’t have a stoner movie? Kal Penn and John Cho play buddies who get high and find themselves needing to go to White Castle after seeing a commercial on TV. Pretty normal stuff up until this point. It’s everything that happens after (squaring off with a raccoon, performing emergency surgery, Neil Patrick Harris being high on ecstasy, and stealing their car) that makes the journey to White Castle pretty unforgettable.
Zack and Miri are two friends and roommates who work in dead-end jobs and find themselves dangerously in debt. After their water and electricity get turned off due to unpaid utility bills, they decide to film a pornographic film to make some quick money and solve their problems. Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen, who play the title characters, are charismatic and extremely likable, which has you rooting for their sex to turn into something more the entire time.
Bill Murray plays Bob Wiley, a good guy with a lot of neurotic tics and endless phobias that exhausts therapist after therapist. He eventually gets referred to Dr. Leo Marvin, a successful yet cocky psychotherapist who treats him right before he goes on a month-long vacation with his family. Bob, not feeling satisfied, tracks down his location and slowly drives his shrink insane.
Currently, on multiple Best Comedy Movie lists (American FIlm Institute, Bravo, etc), The Princess Bride became a cult classic even though it only garnered modest success at the box office when released in 1987. The movie starts with a grandfather reading a nighttime story to his sick grandson, as the film enacts the story he’s reading. With a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating, this movie is so beloved that fans have stopped any possible remake, sequel, TV series, or musical from being created.
The rom-com of all rom-coms, the universally loved Tom Hanks and America’s Former Sweetheart Meg Ryan (sorry, Meg, we know what you did) play two bookshop owners, one who runs a huge chain and the other a small independent store. Unbeknownst to each other, they enter an online friendship while rivals in real life. This is one of those movies that entice, “What?! You haven’t watched You’ve Got Mail?! How is that possible?” so do yourself a favor and make this a priority.
Hailed a loose remake of the 2000 movie starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, What Women Want, this film stars Taraji P. Henson as a woman who is able to hear men’s thoughts after drinking a potion. Critics loved Henson’s performance, and what makes this movie fun is all the star appearances like Mark Cuban, Shaquille O'Neal, Lisa Leslie, and Pete Davidson, just to name a few.
Groundhog Day movies seem to really be having a moment right now, and Palm Springs is no exception. Two guests at a resort, played by the goofy and charming Andy Samberg and will-forever-be-known-as-The-Mother Cristin Milioti, are forced to live the same day over and over at a Palm Spring wedding. Originally premiering at Sundance, Neon and Hulu paid $17.5M for distribution rights, breaking the previous record of the highest sale of a movie from Sundance.
Often called “Superbad but with girls”, the initial premise might seem familiar: two friends are finishing high school realizing that they might have spent too much time on academia and not enough on having fun and being young. In an effort to course-correct, they are determined to make up for the lost time in one crazy night full of shenanigans. Who doesn’t love a movie with shenanigans?! Directed by Olivia Wilde, Booksmart was critically acclaimed and widely praised for being funny, smart, and fresh.
Just as a warning, I’m pretty sure this movie is racist and deeply offensive but it made me laugh. But also, I’m half Middle Eastern so different strokes.
Adam Sandler plays Zohan, an Israeli soldier of incredible talent and skill who dreams of one day being a hairstylist in New York City. After he fakes his own death, he travels to NYC and gets a job at a hair salon. What makes this movie slightly less racist (ever so slightly) is that it’s partly based on the story of Nezi Arbib, a real Israeli soldier who moved to California and opened a salon!
