11 Good Movies for Tax Day

If dealing with the IRS has you at your wit’s end, these 11 good movies for Tax Day will serve as the perfect balm to sooth your weary soul. After you’ve mailed your check and tax return to those government bloodsuckers, be sure to swing by your local video store or log onto your Netflix account and pick up one of the following. These films have been chosen for two reasons: (1) not much brainpower is required to enjoy them and (2) all the violence and physical comedy should provide a cathartic release for weary (and suddenly poor) taxpayers.

As an added bonus, several of these films also include links to A1 Movie Reviews, thus allowing you to read more about them.

• Dumb and Dumber (1994) – While tax day no doubt makes you feel like a moron, you can’t be any worse off than Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels). The dim-witted roommates head from Providence to Aspen to deliver a suitcase filled with ransom money, and along the way deal with hitmen and impromptu detours into Nebraska. Directed by the Farrelly brothers, the film lets its two leads ratchet up the dunce factor, and the result is a sweetly stupid movie that’s ideal for those groggy from filling out tax returns.

• Death Race (2008) – While it’s far from perfect, this remake of Roger Corman’s Death Race 2000 lets you flip the “off” switch on your brain and just revel in the high-speed carnage. Set in the future, prisoners on Terminal Island are outfitted with lethal vehicles, teamed with felonious babes, and sent out on the track to kill each other in the biggest pay-per-view event on the planet. Jason Statham stars a former professional racer Jensen Aames, a man wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. As you might expect, it’s not long before he finds himself in a race for survival against guys like Machine Gun Joe, Grimm, 14K and Travis Colt.
• Evil Dead 2 (1987) – Part sequel and part remake, this Sam Raimi horror classic creates a unique mixture of slapstick comedy and gore. Bruce Campbell stars as Ash, a humble college student chosen by fate to battle the evil designs of otherworldly demons and the undead. This is a slam dunk for fans of horror, and even those normally repelled by the genre may find themselves laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all. Just imagine the bad guys as the IRS, and you’ll be feeling better in no time.
• Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007) – This might seem a bit out of place on our list of good movies for tax day, but this visceral treat should allow you to blow off plenty of steam after dealing with deductions and itemizations. A group of twenty-somethings (plus Henry Rollins) are filming a reality show in the middle of the woods, but they run afoul of cannibal hillbillies and get picked off in most unpleasant ways. The plot moves along at a solid pace, and the kills are far more inventive than most in the genre (especially that of former American Idol contestant Kimberly Caldwell).
• Groundhog Day (1993) – While tax day sucks, it could always be worse. Try being an asshole weatherman (Bill Murray) trapped living the same day over and over. But it’s not all bad for Phil Connors: he’s got Larry the cameraman (Chris Elliott) around to make him laugh, and there’s the hope of sleeping with sexy Rita (Andie MacDowell) at the end of the ordeal. One of the great American comedies.

• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) – Nicolas Cage plays a New Orleans cop with chronic back pain, a prostitute girlfriend, a gambling problem, and an addiction to every kind of drug that can be snorted or smoked. While it certainly has its dark moments, Bad Lieutenant is also surrounded by a surreal quality (including POV shots from an iguana and an alligator). Eva Mendes and Val Kilmer co-star in this film that’ll make you realize just how good you’ve got it.
• Top Secret! (1984) – Filled with sight gags aplenty and Val Kilmer singing rock and roll parodies, Top Secret! comes to you from the guys responsible for Airplane! and The Kentucky Fried Movie. While Donald Sutherland sadly doesn’t reprise his role as The Clumsy Waiter, we do get to see American singer Nick Rivers (Kilmer) match wits with the repressive East German government and spoof both Elvis films and Nazi movies along the way. This was Kilmer’s first film role, and he does all his own singing, something he would later repeat as Jim Morrison in The Doors.
• Speed (1994) – The plot is simple: Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are trapped on a city bus rigged to explode if its speed drops below 50 mph. Offering non-stop action and Dennis Hopper in villainous role #432, Speed allows you to switch off your brain and have a good time after all that number crunching. I’d like to see Michelle “Bombshell” McGee try and navigate a speeding bus through Los Angeles.

• Taken (2008) – When white slavers abduct his vacationing hot daughter (Maggie Grace), former CIA specialist Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) gives them one chance to save themselves. The baddies decide to pass, and so Mills keeps his word, travels to Paris, and embarks on a kill-crazy revenge spree. The whole thing’s outlandish, but it’s also highly entertaining for those of us who’ve fanaticized about being an absolute badass for just a few moments in our life.
• Office Space (1999) – We’re all drones in the eyes of Uncle Sam, but this tale of a cubicle jockey who fights the system may give you a glimmer of hope. Sick of his job, computer programmer Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) attends a hypnotherapy session and finds himself permanently relaxed when the therapist dies before snapping him out of his trance. No longer giving a shit, Peter asks out the hot waitress across the street (Jennifer Anniston), blows off work, and launches a scheme with his pals to get back at their employers. Directed by Mike Judge of Beavis and Butt-head fame.
• Pineapple Express (2008) – Smoking a joint is a good way to unwind after paying your taxes, but our more law-abiding readers might prefer to watch others get baked. If that’s the case, you’ll have a hard time beating this comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco as a couple of likable stoners on the run from a murderous drug lord (Gary Cole). Danny McBride gives his usual scene-stealing performance, and Huey Lewis and the News contribute the theme song.

All these good movies for tax day are available for purchase at Amazon, and the site’s huge discounts are especially valuable to anyone who’s just forked over thousands to the IRS. We do receive a small commission for sending you there, but it doesn’t cost you one extra cent.

For more OGM articles, you might also consider the following:

• Why the IRS Will Never Defeat Wesley Snipes
• 11 Best Christmas Movie Scenes
• AFI Top Courtroom Drama Movies