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Well, if nothing else, this thread has convinced me to add You've Got Mail to my Netflix queue. I'm not bumping it to the top, but I'm adding it.
Out of curiosity, OSC, what would you say is the best romantic comedy you've seen? Would it be You've Got Mail? My vote would probably be for French Kiss.
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I like While You Were Sleeping fairly well. When Harry Met Sally is also a contender for me. One that seems to be fairly popular that has really never done anything for me at all is Sleepless in Seattle.
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Whew! I thought I was the only one who hadn't seen You've Got Mail. (adding it to my Netflix too, Noemon!) I usually can't stand romantic comedies but I gotta say I'm a sucker for Pretty Woman Posts: 70 | Registered: Jan 2005
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"Out of curiosity, OSC, what would you say is the best romantic comedy you've seen? Would it be You've Got Mail? My vote would probably be for French Kiss."
Gah. My poor brain. You know, as enjoyable as When Harry Met Sally was, romantic comedies don't have to star Meg Ryan to be any good. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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You've got Mail has a special place in my heart for obvious reasons. Not sure if I really think it's my favorite though...
On the Sleepless in Seatle note, I know a lot of people seem to think it was bad, but as someone who normally distinctly doesn't enjoy romantic comedies I thought it was pretty good.
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I took my wife to While You Were Sleeping right after I proposed to her and she had accepted. That makes it kind of hard to judge romantic comedies. I almost have no choice but to consider WYWS the best.
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My favorite romantic comedy is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's the only romantic comedy I've ever watched that I wanted to watch again. Plus it has Sci-fi elements. You can't beat that!
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How are we defining romantic comedy here? There have been a ton of great movies listed that I don't think of as romantic comedies.
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I'd have to give my vote for "The Wedding Singer."
I wouldn't call "Eternal Sunshine" a romantic comedy. It was too well woven. Romantic comedies are light and fluffy and should give you some level of sugarshock.
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I've never seen You've Got Mail, but man, Sleepless in Seattle sure sucked. And I say this as a guy who prefers emotional content in a story. (I'm an OSC reader, after all.) Don't get me wrong, I liked Tom Hanks's character and his son. I thought they had a great, realistic relationship, and he really did deserve to find a good woman.
Meg Ryan's character, on the other hand, was creepy and manipulative. Based on having heard this guy's story over the radio, she becomes a stalker--even going so far as to hire a private detective to hunt him down and surreptitiously photograph him--and leaves the man she's already engaged to.
Now, if she were single, or if she were with a man who was abusive, I could have accepted it. But by everything we saw, he was a great guy. He was nice, he respected her, he had a good sense of humor. Aside from his multitudes of allergies, he was everything women claim they want in a man. And we're supposed to be happy when she dumps him for a man she hasn't ever met?
Well, I was happy for her ex-fiance. Now he can move on and find a good woman, who won't use him up and throw him away like a tissue. Tom Hanks's character is the one I felt bad for.
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quote:Part of the genius of You've Got Mail is that they worked out these normally insurmountable problems. He hired her former employees and turned their children's section into something great.
Was this in the book? 'Cause I sure don't remember it in the movie. Granted I only saw it once, when it was in the theater, so I could have forgotten.
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Noemon, to be honest, I saw it many moons ago and now basically all I remember is that I strongly disliked it. While you were Sleeping same thing.
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I'd be interested in what people thought of Amelie, Bridget Jones' Diary and My Big Fat Greek Wedding as romantic comedies. To me, these are the three best I've seen of this genre in the past 10 years.
I believe this type of film is made better when you can enter the characters world and see it through their eyes. Sad to say, I don't get that same feel from most romantic comedy. Most of it is like watching a long-format TV show (a double episode of something pretty good, but not all that great).
The characters in their environment is what makes it work, and the three I named had both great characters and great (absorbing) surroundings.
Of the older stuff, I'd say Annie Hall was about the best of the modern era. From the 30's - 50's...I'd probably go with Desk Set as the best, although there's something to be said for Bringing up Baby too.
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There's a reason why big budget thrillers are likely to make more money than romantic comedies - there are people who just hate them.
But I'd suggest that perhaps those who dislike most romantic comedies are not those best qualified to vote on which ones are best.
To me, "Eternal Sunshine" isn't a romantic comedy - it actually borders on tragedy. I do count it as the best science fiction movie of all time. And Charlie Kaufman, the author also of "Being John Malkovich," as the first writer of sci-fi movies to bring the film genre up to the level of the literary genre. Ever since Star Wars, filmmakers have settled for doing thirties sci-fi - only with better and better special effects.
Likewise, Bringing Up Baby is a "Screwball Comedy"; but the genre boundaries are SO flexible. It Happened One Night is generally regarded as one of the best, and I do like it a lot. And is His Girl Friday a romantic comedy or a comic detective movie?
So, recognizing that boundaries are flexible and that not every movie is to everyone's taste, let me suggest a list of romantic comedies, sort of in order:
- Sense and Sensibility (number one alltime) - The Truth about Cats and Dogs - You've Got Mail - His Girl Friday - It Happened One Night - Sleepless in Seattle - Adam's Rib - French Kiss - 50 First Dates - While You Were Sleeping - The Rainmaker (Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn, NOT Matt Damon and Claire Daynes) - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Gary Cooper) - Mr. Deeds (Adam Sandler) - Born Yesterday - Lion in Winter - Far From the Madding Crowd
(The last two are very iffy on genre assignment. If I were sure they belonged in this category, I'd rate them much higher, because I think they are two of the greatest films ever. But since they probably don't belong here, I can't put them higher than movies that clearly do.)
This is more than you ever wanted to know about what I admire in romantic comedy.
If we added romantic fantasy, then we'd have to add:
- It's a Wonderful Life - Miracle on 34th Street - One Magic Christmas
And no, it's not a coincidence that these are all Christmas movies. It seems that Christmas is the season when filmgoers are willing to accept contemporary fantasy that doesn't involve horror.
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If The Lion in Winter counts, you bet it's up there! (My God, I'm 50, alive, and a king, all at the same time! )
Bringing up Baby is also good. I thought it had what any good romantic comedy needs (in my unlearned opinion), characters we can care about, funny, fast and witty dialog, and good actors and actresses (and of course the ending we all want). Monkey Business falls into this category too, though lower down. And yes, I enjoyed It Happened One Night.
And I would finally like to take this opportunity to say that the color version of Miracle on 34th Street was one of the only movies that didn't get destroyed by colorization.
quote:But I'd suggest that perhaps those who dislike most romantic comedies are not those best qualified to vote on which ones are best.
Like not being qualified has ever stopped me from offering my opinion.
[EDIT: In my own defence, most romantic comedies I've seen are ones my sister rented or otherwise obtained and then I saw against my will. She did not go out of her way to obtain the classics, these were basically all teen-flicks for girls. I enjoy most of the screwball comedies and a lot of the "classic" romantic comedys, with a few notable exceptions like French Kiss and While You Were Sleeping.]
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If we can count those romantic movies with a fantasy twist, y'all MUST see Dead Again. It is one of my all-time favorite movies.
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I don't think I dislike romantic comedies, but I can't stand Meg Ryan.
I really didn't like Sleepless in Seattle. I couldn't get what the fuss was about.
I was surprised by how much I liked Bringing Up Baby.
I really liked My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but even though I think it is a better movie, I would not make it my favorite in this genre, because I consider light airy sweetness to be a defining characteristic in the genre. My favorite romantic comedy is probably While You Were Sleeping.
Is anybody else disappointed in Sandra Bullock since then, because, while she is good at what she does, she has never been as charming again?
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To add to and try to clarify my thoughts on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I think what it comes down to is that it was not the romance in it that did anything for me. It was the family, and the many ways that Greek family life resonated with my experience of Latino families. It gave me a big warm fuzzy. So I think it's a very good movie, but not an especially good romantic comedy. Does that make any sense, Bob?
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AC, I'm not sure what movie you are thinking of, but Dead Again was incredibly romantic. A key difference is that it had a happy ending and lovers devoted to each other.
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Isn't Dead Again the one where the couple have been reincarnated several times, and there are memories of one of them murdering the other with a pair of scissors? Doesn't it die with one of them trying to kill the other and dying in the process? Posts: 1002 | Registered: Feb 2005
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Lady Jane, are you sure you don't mean "Hello Again?"
And I'm convinced it's "Sleepless in Seattle" that Icarus doesn't like, and "While You Were Sleeping" that he does, because I like the thought and the Sleep words could've gotten him all kerfuzzled.
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Yes, the couple is reincarnated, but the whole point of the story is that it WASN'T the husband that killed her the first time, but the jealous psycho son of the housekeeper. The husband took the rap for it because he felt so guilty about not firing the possessive housekeeper when his wife asked him to. Besides, with her gone, there was nothing to live for. It is a GOOD thing that they are reincarnated and find each other again. I just love that movie - go watch it again.
Added: Hello Again?!? Shelley Long, mugging for the camera, bad jokes, dumb plot? You'd think that of me? Honestly, I'm insulted.
[ March 18, 2005, 11:51 AM: Message edited by: Lady Jane ]
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Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT needs to go on a list of amazingly wonderful-yet-painful romantic comedies.
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Okay, you've got to refresh my memory on this. I could have sworn that the husband killed the wife the first time, and that the husband was reincarnated AS THE WIFE the second time and tried to kill the wife/husband again. If this isn't what happened, then I completely misunderstood the movie. What really went on?
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That's really close to how I'm remembering it. It ends with the original murderer dying (but, of course, not being killed by the victim).
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Movie opens with a b&w flashback to headlines telling of the love and death of Margaret and the death walk of Roman, the husband.
Cut to modern day. A detective that looks remarkably like Roman is summoned to the orphanage where he grew up to deal with a woman who looks remarkably like Margaret that was found wandering on the grounds, voiceless and memory-less. They don't remember each other, but something softens between them. She can't talk, he takes care of her, and most of the movie is the detective story of figuring out who Roman and Margaret were, and did Roman really kill Margaret. By the time they realize that it's a possibility, the modern day heroes are in love with each other (her voice and memory have come back).
The movie does end with the original murderer dying, but in both the flashback death and the modern death, the killer is never one of the couple.
I am not going to completely spoil the ending, and especially not the twist, but no, Roman did NOT kill Margaret way back when, it was a great love story, and everything turns out happy and incredibly romantic. Mystery, murder, truly deathless love, funny lines (Robin Williams facilitates the mystery), and Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branaugh when they were together and happy. This is a wonderful, wonderful movie.
It does require that you pay attention. I don't feel too bad about spoiling as much as I did, because it helps to know what is going on. There is everything in the movie that is necessary to understand, but you have to, have to pay attention. I love it.
[ March 18, 2005, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: Lady Jane ]
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For my excuse, I will point out that I got home from the hospital last night around 3:30 am, and had to get up at 6:30 to go to work. (Mango has had a really bad asthma flare-up, in case you're wondering. I posted about it elsewhere, but I'm not sure where.)
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I thought about it and found a romantic comedy I like besides the goofy Pretty Woman. It's only a comedy under the most technical definition of the word comedy though. The Secretary! Awesome movie, funny and romantic. (in a way) Posts: 70 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I changed my mind. My favorite romantic comedy is the original Manchurian Candidate. You have to stretch the definition of the genre a bit, but I think you can see why it wins.
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