How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days is a romantic comedy film directed by Donald Petrie. The plot sees two people begin bets, Andie (Kate Hudson), is trying to prove that by being needy and overly clingy she can lose a guy in ten days. Whereas Ben (Matthew McConaughey), is trying to prove that he can make a girl fall in love with him in ten days, both have varying degrees of success and then eventually end up together.

I take umbrage with the premise of this film, both of these people are shady and play games with the others emotions, they shouldn’t be together at the end of the film; in real life they wouldn’t be. Rom-Coms really seem to have toxic messages.

There is some cheese ball appeal to the film and both the leads are charming and seem to be having fun. That said the issues with this film don’t stem from the performances, it is the writing that is at fault. So not only is the premise of the film troubling, there are also all the hallmark clichés that have gone to make the genre somewhat of a laughingstock.

Overall, this film is poorly written, not just that the premise also promotes unhealthy ideas and forces clichés and stereotypes on us.

Pros.

Hudson and McConaughey

Cons.

It is clichéd

Everyone is a stereotype

The premise is troublesome

The fun is very limited

2/5

Reviewed by Luke   

Safety Not Guaranteed is a comedy drama romance film directed by Colin Trevorrow. The plot follows three reporters as they interview a man (Mark Duplass) who say he is producing a means to travel back in time. One of the reporters Darius (Aubrey Plaza), is send in undercover with wannbe time traveller Kenneth (Duplass), only to end up falling in love with him and finding out that he does in fact have a means of getting back to the past.

I enjoyed this film quite a bit, I think that it works on two layers. Firstly it works as a great science fiction film, the time travel stuff is fascinating, and I like how they don’t reveal it one way or the other until the end of the film. Secondly it works as a great rom com as well the relationships feel very genuine and believable, Duplass and Plaza have great on-screen chemistry.

The film has a great heart and a few good laugh out loud monuments. My personal favourite character was probably Jeff (Jake Johnson), because I loved what they did with a character who is basically a jerk to everyone around him showing his tragic motivation, he is fundamentally lonely. Normally I am against subplots about side characters, but in this case it worked. Also I am a huge New Girl fan.

Overall, a very strong indie darling with a great heart and some mind-bending science fiction.

Pros.

The heart

The humour

The chemistry between the leads

The ending reveal

Jake Johnson

Cons.

It starts a little slow.

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke    

Blended is a romantic comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. The plot sees two single parents end up going on holiday together with their kids to Africa. At first the two parents, Jim (Adam Sandler) and Lauren (Drew Barrymore), hate each other and don’t get along, but often as these sort of films go they end up madly in love by the end.

This film is viewed as one of the trash tier Sandler films by a lot of people, but I have to say upon watching it myself I enjoyed it; maybe that says something about my taste. I think this film benefits from being more subdued than Sandler’s normal fare. Yes, you have the cheap poo jokes and what not that are the life blood of Sandler comedy, but you also have this single parent character study where we see that Jim is actually quite a layered person to add on top of those scat jokes. Sandler’s performance here reminded me a bit of his character in Funny People in that he is a tragic character.

On top of this you have the romance between Sandler and Barrymore’s characters, which is incredibly strong. In recent years Sandler has being playing romantic leads by the side of Jenifer Anniston, but his ultimate on-screen romantic pairing will always be Drew Barrymore. The spark that was first shown in The Wedding Singer is still alive and well.

My one complaint would be that Terry Crews character, who is a sort of lounge singer who shows up at inopportune times, becomes tiresome quickly and they beat that joke into the ground.

Overall, a surprisingly sweet, heartfelt film that has a lot of say about grief and raising kids. Benefited immensely by obvious spark between Sandler and Barrymore.

Pros.

Romance

The depth

Some good jokes

Barrymore and Sandler have great chemistry

Cons.

Not all of the jokes land and they keep reusing some of the worse ones

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Just Go With It is a romantic comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan. The plot follows Danny (Adam Sandler), a man who pretends to be in a bad marriage to get with girls. One day he meets The One (Brooklyn Decker) and things seem to be going well, but then she finds his old wedding ring and gets cold feet. From there Sandler enlists the help of Katherine (Jennifer Aniston), his assistant, to pretend to be his soon to be ex-wife, in hopes of convincing Palmer (Decker), that she is not in fact a home wrecker.

Yes, the premise is absurd, and it gets to a point where none of it makes even the smallest bit of sense and it is easier to just not think about it. It only gets complicated by more weird and needless plot twists down the line that serve to make the film even harder to follow.

There are also some moments of what I will call from here on out “Sandler textbook creepiness”, where he openly objectifies women and is trying to date a woman half his age. This becomes a recurring joke through out the film that Danny and Palmer aren’t right for each other because they have nothing in common because of their age. It feels icky to think she is supposed to be 23 and he is presumably supposed to be in his 40’s if not older.

However, it is not all bad as there are some good jokes that are genuinely quite funny scattered in throughout that made me laugh. As a comedy film this film does its job and then some. Moreover, the interplay between Aniston and Sandler is also great and the two have a strong repour and a believable on-screen chemistry.

Overall, this is not as bad as a lot of the films Sandler was making around the same time, yes there are aspects that don’t age well and the premise is comically absurd, but if you’re a fan of Sandler you will find it funny and easy enough to watch. Not Sandler’s best, but also not his worst; by a large margin.

Pros.

Funny jokes

Sandler and Aniston have great chemistry

A strong central romance

Cons.

The icky creepiness

The incredibly dumb plot that gets dumber

3/5

Reviewed by Luke   

How To Be A Latin Lover is a romantic comedy film directed by Ken Marino. The plot follows Maximo (Eugenio Derbez), a man who has made a living off seducing and marrying old rich women. One day his wife realises that she wants a new toy boy and chucks him out, then Maximo goes to live with his sister Sara (Selma Hayek), and learns the value of family.

So, before we get into this I want to give this film applause for not being predictable. A lot of the time this sort of film has a very simple structure that it follows, but this one surprised me at several turns. I enjoyed how the film didn’t cave to convention and make Maximo realise the error of his ways by the end of the film. He starts the film as a toy boy and that is how he ends it; his character grows but not hugely. I was pleasantly surprised.

The comedy in this film was spot on for me and it had me laughing a lot, again as I often say humour is subjective, consistently throughout the film. I especially enjoyed Kristen Bell’s peppy cat lady character, I thought she was a scene stealer.   

Overall, the best thing about this film is its heart. It is warming to watch and the relationship between Maximo and his sister is quite heart-warming to watch. Also another great supporting role by Rob Lowe.

Pros.

It has a huge heart

It is funny

Rob Lowe is terrific

The relationship between Maximo and his sister is sweet

The film is surprising

Cons.

A little too long, a few pacing issues around the second act

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

What To Expect When You’re Expecting is a romance comedy film directed by Kirk Jones. The plot follows a group of women who all get pregnant around the same time. The film takes a New Year’s Eve or Valentine’s Day approach to storytelling choosing to have each story and character exist separately with minimal crossover with the others.

This is fairly inoffensive stuff; it is just a bunch of vaguely recognisable celebrities pretending to be pregnant and going through the various trials and tribulations surrounding that stage of life. It doesn’t leave much of any kind of impression and is not really memorable afterwards.

The comedy is okay, it made me laugh a handful of times throughout, again comedy is subjective, but this is by no means funny. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, even if I can’t remember any of their names and most of the characters just kind of blend together in my head.

Maybe this film would have had more impact on me if I was a parent myself, having never had a kid I can’t say how realistic it is in that regard, nor can I say whether they sugar-coated it.

Overall it is mindless fluff, fairly generic and unmemorable. Maybe genre diehard will get something out of it, but I didn’t.

Pros.

It has a few funny moments

The cast seem to be having fun

Cons.

It is dull

Its generic

You don’t care about the characters even enough to remember their names

The humour mostly didn’t land

1.5/5

Reviewed by Luke    

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a comedy romance film directed by Joel Zwick. The plot sees a young Greek woman fall in love with a non-Greek man, will her family ever accept him? Will the star-crossed lovers get to be together?

So, this is another childhood favourite of mine, I watched it a lot when I was younger and recently decided to watch it again and see if it still held up: it does.

As far as standard rom coms go this is quite generic, there have been many other films with the same plot. Two people from different backgrounds getting together and their families having to adapt to the change; it is as old as time.

However, what makes this one stand out and be so beloved by me and others is the heart. This film has one of the biggest, purest hearts of any films I have seen for a long time. It is good comfort viewing to be sure, in these bleak times something like this can have even more of an impact.

All of the characters in this film are great and incredibly loveable, the film makes you feel like part of the family. You become immersed in this world and want to see this couple get together. Crucially what this film does that many other rom coms fail to do is make you care, making the emotional and romantic journey be something that affects us the audience.

Overall, this film is good for the heart, it will make you smile and has some of the best lines that are guaranteed to make you laugh.

Pros.

The family

The romance

Hilarious

Heartfelt

Cons.  

A little generic at times

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke