Top 10 worst romantic comedies
By Courtney Bowerman
(See the original post and find other movie lists in Courtney’s Movie Blog.)
The sad thing about romantic comedies is that they aren’t as good as they used to be. Sure, we do see some good ones every once in a while, but the majority of them have the same old clichéd formula. Either someone falls in love with the wrong person or a woman resorts to desperate methods in order to snag a man. And of course, there’s always a love triangle. There’s literally nothing new to offer in the genre, and it’s getting old very fast.
While some of them are tolerable if you’re in the right mood, others are so bad that I literally cannot watch them without feeling ill. Here are the 10 romantic comedies I despise the most and why:
1. The Wedding Planner: Normally, I like wedding movies, but I absolutely hate this one. Every single romantic comedy cliché is used. Jennifer Lopez is a type-A career woman that organizes weddings because her fiancé cheated on her with her maid of honor, her father is trying to set her up with a mail-order groom, and she (in)conveniently falls in love with her client. The thing I can’t stand the most is Matthew McConaughey’s character. When you’re engaged, you don’t go on dates with other people, no matter what excuse you have! And then he has the nerve to get huffy because he thinks Lopez is engaged too! To top it all off, he’s too cowardly to break up with his fiancee until the wedding day. What a sleaze!
2. Runaway Bride: Julia Roberts and Richard Gere might have been a good screen couple in Pretty Woman, but not in this movie. Julia Roberts is really unlikable; even if she claimed she didn’t want to hurt all her jilted grooms, I think she got a secret thrill out of it. Why else would she keep all the engagement rings? Richard Gere’s character isn’t that much better. I just could not believe that the two of them would fall for each other, which is a crucial element in any successful romantic comedy.
3. Notting Hill: Once again, Julia Roberts plays an unlikable character. She treats Hugh Grant like crap, and then expects to win him back by saying, “I’m just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.” Worst movie line ever!
4. How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days: Kate Hudson bets she can’t break up with a guy in 10 Days, while Matthew McConaughey bets he can make a girl fall in love with him in 10 days. I think you know who wins. Do you know who loses? The audience, for having to sit through this dumb movie.
5. Because I Said So: A single mother (Diane Keaton) tries to meddle with her daughter’s love life. I could have lived a long and happy life without seeing her make out with the dad from 7th Heaven. That image will haunt me …
6. My Best Friend’ss Wedding: Julia Roberts tries to steal her best friend back from his fiancee (Cameron Diaz). The only thing I liked about this movie is Rupert Everett as Julia’s best friend. I wish it could have ended with Cameron Diaz kicking Julia Roberts’ butt, but since she’s Julia Roberts, she gets away with it just by apologizing. Like that’s realistic!
7. Something’s Gotta Give: Jack Nicholson plays an aging playboy that falls for his girlfriend’s mother (Diane Keaton). Seeing Diane Keaton wailing and crying after the breakup made me feel ashamed for the whole female race.
8. Rumor Has It: Jennifer Aniston, believing that her family inspired the plot for The Graduate, goes to California to meet the man (Kevin Costner) who once had a fling with her mother. The whole plot was just dumb and I didn’t like Aniston’s character at all. Cheating on her fiancé was bad enough, but with Kevin Costner?!
9. Little Black Book: Brittany Murphy plays a woman who breaks into her boyfriend’s “little black book” to find out about his past relationships. While what she does is wrong, I didn’t like the boyfriend character either because he was keeping so many secrets for her and still had feelings for his ex. He was obviously leading her on. However, the film is worth watching for the scene where Brittany Murphy lies on the bathroom floor, singing, “Nobody Does It Better.” She will be missed.
10. My Big Fat Greek Wedding: I know a lot of people liked this movie, but I didn’t. It just seemed to be a very stereotypical portrayal of Greek families. Are they really all like that? Also, I didn’t like how Toula let her father push her around, even if she was living under his roof. She was a grown woman who should have been able to make her own decisions about her love life without him making her feeling guilty guilty about it!
I would like to stress that these are only my opinions, and I’m sorry if I offended you by dissing your favorite romantic comedies. I realize that people have different tastes. So what romantic comedies do you hate? Feel free to share in your comments, and be sure to check out my list of top 10 best romantic comedies!
How to lose a guy in 10 days is one of the best romantic comedies! The writing is witty and although you could guess the ending, like most romantic comedies, the things Kate’s character does to lose the guy is entertaining.