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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb poster

Movies that feel likeDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop it.

If you loved Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, the closest films we have are M*A*S*H (1970), The Great Dictator (1940) and The Bed Sitting Room (1969). All three share Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is I'm All Right Jack (1959).

🍅 98% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Stanley Kubrickwittyplayfulbleakdarkly funny
10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb hit the spot, these will too

M*A*S*H poster
M*A*S*H
1970 · dir. Robert Altman
🍅 86%★ 7.3comedy · drama · war

One thread runs through both: dark comedy

The difference: Played as drama first

One of the world's most acclaimed comedies, M*A*S*H focuses on three Korean War Army surgeons brilliantly brought to life by Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould. Though highly skilled and deeply dedicated, they adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. Robert Duvall, Gary Burghoff and Sally Kellerman co-star as a sanctimonious Major, an other-worldly Corporal, and a self-righteous yet lusty nurse.

The Great Dictator poster
The Great Dictator
1940 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 92%★ 8.4comedy · warPrime VideoMax

Common ground: satire

The difference: Made in the 1940s, in a different era of the craft

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

The Bed Sitting Room poster
The Bed Sitting Room
1969 · dir. Richard Lester
🍅 64%★ 6.1comedy · science fictionPrime Video

Both keep coming back to the same thing: dark comedy

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.

The Producers poster
The Producers
1968 · dir. Mel Brooks
🍅 92%★ 7.5comedy

The same preoccupation in both: satire

The difference: Lighter on bleakness

A conniving Broadway producer and his meek accountant plan to profit from charming wealthy old biddies to invest in an overbudget production, and then put on a sure-fire disaster, so nobody will ask for their money back — and what's more disastrous than a tasteless musical celebrating Adolf Hitler.

Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! poster
★ 7.8comedy · war

Both are built on the same subject: general

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.

I'm All Right Jack poster
I'm All Right Jack
1959 · dir. John Boulting
🍅 85%★ 7.1comedy

One thread runs through both: black and white

Naive Stanley Windrush looks for a career in a family business. Much to his dismay, he finds work at a munitions factory where he has to start from the bottom, while both the management and the labor union use him as a tool in their fight for power.

Paths of Glory poster
Paths of Glory
1957 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 96%★ 8.4war · drama

Stanley Kubrick working the same nerve twice

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Jojo Rabbit poster
Jojo Rabbit
2019 · dir. Taika Waititi
🍅 81%★ 7.9comedy · war · dramaRent or buy

Witty and playful in the same breath

Jojo, a lonely German boy during World War II has his world shaken when he learns that his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Influenced by a buffoonish imaginary version of Adolf Hitler, he begins to question his beliefs and confront the conflict between propaganda and his own humanity.

Life of Brian poster
Life of Brian
1979 · dir. Terry Jones
🍅 96%★ 8comedyPrime VideoPeacock

Comedy with a pulse of dark humor, in both cases

Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he's not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python's signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian's life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs.

Tropic Thunder poster
Tropic Thunder
2008 · dir. Ben Stiller
🍅 82%★ 7.1action · comedy · warHuluApple TV+

Both lean on bleakness more than on war

A group of self-absorbed actors set out to make the most expensive war film ever. After ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they encounter real bad guys.

The Ruling Class poster
The Ruling Class
1972 · dir. Peter Medak
🍅 83%★ 7.2comedy · dramaMax

Witty comedy in both cases

When the Earl of Gurney dies in a cross-dressing accident, his schizophrenic son, Jack, inherits the Gurney estate. Jack is not the average nobleman; he sings and dances across the estate and thinks he is Jesus reincarnated. Believing that Jack is mentally unfit to own the estate, the Gurney family plots to steal Jack's inheritance. As their outrageous schemes fail, the family strives to cure Jack of his bizarre behavior, with disastrous results.

Brazil poster
Brazil
1985 · dir. Terry Gilliam
🍅 98%★ 7.8comedy · science fiction

War built on play, twice over

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

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The best-reviewed films that share Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’s defining feeling.