# Gentlemen: Do you like Rom-Coms? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 7, 2023, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178 "2023-08-07T08:47:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/21 "2023-08-07T15:37:35Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > **L.A. Story** : Written by Steve Martin, and starring Martin with his real-life wife Victoria Tennant. Martin plays a goofy TV weatherman who’s smitten with visiting English journalist. He tries to win her over with help from an unlikely source. One of my favorite films. If it’s well-written and well-acted, then I enjoy a good rom-com just like I enjoy any other genre. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/22 "2023-08-07T15:44:44Z")
It’s like any other genre really; I like good ones (talk about stating the obvious!). The creme de la creme being _When Harry Met Sally_, of course. That is a superb film and genuinely hilarious at times. It has been imitated many _many_ times in the past 30-odd years but no one has got close to it. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/23 "2023-08-07T15:59:58Z")
\*_It Happened One Night_ is on my top ten movie list. I’ll watch Sandra Bullock in anything, RomCom or otherwise. I liked _Notting Hill_, _My Best Friend’s Wedding_, _When Harry Met Sally_, but I’ve snoozed through a great many. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/24 "2023-08-07T16:16:48Z")
I actually like the Hallmark channel quite a bit, and my family makes fun of me for it. Thematically in line with your post, once my family came in while I was watching a movie, it was a scene with bunch of women sitting around the Christmas tree talking about relationships, and my wife and son came in and my wife said, “is this one of your hallmark movies?” and I told her yes!, and they both sat down to watch with me, except it wasn’t a hallmark movie, it was Black Christmas (2006), which IIRC revealed itself quickly when someone got stabbed to death. The reactions of my family were priceless, and they still bring it up from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/25 "2023-08-07T16:41:22Z")
If it is a good film, sure. I actually don’t like the standard plot where “woman chases after her true love, finds out he’s really a schmuck, meets some cute local guy, exposes true love as schmuck to all, lives happily ever after with local guy.” Why is that arc apparently necessary? For a handy example, I think I would have liked it more, and I think it would have been a better film, if in _Legally Blonde_ Elle’s HS boyfriend wasn’t a schmuck, and they stayed together but everything else happened as it did. And why not? Adult rom-coms, no more > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Boy meets girl; boy loses girl… More like: 'Man tried to understand what the hell went wrong". Because I’m an adult now… ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/26 "2023-08-07T17:18:07Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > > > **L.A. Story** : Written by Steve Martin, and starring Martin with his real-life wife Victoria Tennant. Martin plays a goofy TV weatherman who’s smitten with visiting English journalist. He tries to win her over with help from an unlikely source. > > One of my favorite films. There are a few times in the movie when characters refer to a very powerful talent agent named Harry Zell. There’s a deleted scene where Harris (Martin) meets with Zell at an outdoor restaurant. Zell is played by John Lithgow and arrives to the meeting by jetpack. Find that scene if you can. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/27 "2023-08-07T17:31:17Z")
Watched **Romancing The Stone** this weekend for maybe the 6th or 15th time, but on this occasion it was the first viewing for my tween children. Both liked it, but my daughter lamented that Michael Douglas was ugly. A key element for a good Rom Com is a handsome male lead. I am sorry Mike, you didn’t do it for my 13 year old daughter. I asked her who she thought should have been cast. Tom Holland. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/28 "2023-08-07T17:54:02Z")
It’s not a genre I would typically seek out, but I enjoy any good well-made movie and some rom-coms qualify. Going through the Wikipedia list of rom-coms (some of which, IMO, are not actually rom-coms) I was surprised by how many I’d seen – though it’s only a small fraction of a very long list, and my list is bolstered by the fact that I’m a Woody Allen fan. I made this list for my own curiosity, out of the movies listed on Wikipedia as rom-coms. These are by no means recommendations, just a list of which of them I’ve seen. I must admit that the fact that I saw and enjoyed a silly fluff piece like _Just Go With It_ exposes my occasional weakness for silly fluff pieces, or maybe I just like Jennifer Aniston. Another bit of silliness that Aniston was in that I quite enjoyed (not a rom-com) was _We’re the Millers_. It Happened One Night Born Yesterday (1950 version) Play It Again, Sam Annie Hall Manhattan Arthur Romancing the Stone The Purple Rose of Cairo Working Girl When Harry Met Sally Pretty Woman The American President Mighty Aphrodite As Good as It Gets American Pie Legally Blonde My Big Fat Greek Wedding Intolerable Cruelty \<— One of my favourite movies ever! Lost in Translation Under the Tuscan Sun 50 First Dates Sideways Just Go with It Midnight In Paris Moonrise Kingdom Licorice Pizza Asteroid City ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/29 "2023-08-07T18:38:44Z")
I enjoy a rom-com if it’s done well. Recently we watched “Crazy Rich Asians,” essentially a rom-com but with a little more depth. It’s the first rom-com we’ve seen in years. It was okay. For decades, rom-coms were a reliable audience-grabbing genre, up until a few years ago, when they seemed to just disappear. Rom-coms were promoted as “date movies.” We passed a movie theater a while back (pre-“Barbie”) and I glanced at the posters. All action-type movies. Said to my wife, “Where are the date movies? I wouldn’t take a date to any of those.” Things were a lot easier years ago. Say you were a guy in 1963. You and your buddies would have gone to see “The Great Escape,” but you would’ve taken a date to see “Charade.” ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/30 "2023-08-07T18:56:14Z")
Same goes here. If it’s done well and also if it’s a good story then I can get into them. But they’re not among my top go-to genres. Count me in with others, like @Staggerlee, I’m not an Andie McDowell fan. I just don’t see the attraction. And it’s not just her face, which I don’t find too pretty. It’s everything, including voice and mannerisms. I’m not too keen on good acting, but I do need a good plot. Tell me a good story. Same goes for chick flicks too. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/31 "2023-08-08T02:18:08Z")
Jane Austen Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. _Castle_ ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/32 "2023-08-08T09:03:41Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Looking over Wikipedia’s [List of romantic comedy films](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_romantic_comedy_films), I find that I have seen a lot more than I thought, and I enjoyed most of them. Of the North American productions, I’ve probably watched 75-80% of the movies from the 1980s onward. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/33 "2023-08-08T10:49:14Z")
I like _good_ movies. Being a rom-com is generally irrelevant. Now having said that, outside of movies I know to be good, I almost never search the rom-com genre for a new unknown-to-me movie. A mediocre rom-com, to me, is worse than a a bad horror flick, for example…though there are of course exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/34 "2023-08-08T10:52:46Z")
Some of the ones I’ve enjoyed over the years: (500) Days of Summer 13 Going on 30 40 Year Old Virgin 50 First Dates About Time Crazy, Stupid, Love Definitely Maybe Failure to Launch Funny People Groundhog Day Gross Point Blank Her He’s Just Not That Into You High Fidelity Just Friends Kate & Leopold Knocked Up Meet The Parents Overboard Palm Springs Say Anything She’s Out of My League She’s The One Sleepless in Seattle Splash The Breakup The Holiday The Proposal The Wedding Singer There’s Something About Mary This is 40 What Happens in Vegas When Harry Met Sally You’ve Got Mail I have to agree with @XOldiesJock. It seemed like there used to be tons of rom-com date movies I could reliably watch with my wife. Now you can hardly find any. The last ones we watched was The Lost City with Sandra Bullock (which wasn’t bad) and Shotgun Wedding with Jennifer Lopez (which wasn’t good). I also watched You People with Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill (which is basically another Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner remake). ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/35 "2023-08-08T11:06:54Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Now having said that, outside of movies I know to be good, I almost never search the rom-com genre for a new unknown-to-me movie. A mediocre rom-com, to me, is worse than a a bad horror flick, for example…though there are of course exceptions. Horror flicks. Not my cup of tea. I was once forced to watch “House of 1000 Corpses” because friends wanted to see it. Never again, and I will not understand people who like this stuff. Every protagonist ends up bent, folded, mutilated, or spindled, and always dead in any event. Who the blank finds that entertaining, and why aren’t they in a psychiatric hospital? If you like watching a mad scientist ripping guts out of a film’s hero, well … (Leaving the rest blank, because this is the SDMB, and I dare not say more.) Rom-coms are fun and entertaining. They’re fluff, and they are nothing more, nor are they meant to be. I mentioned a couple of my favourites in my OP; what are yours? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/36 "2023-08-08T11:16:59Z")
Yeah, I have basically no interest in those sort of films. Which is not to say that occasionally I don’t find an enjoyable horror film or film with horror elements. I’ll watchin pretty much anything zombie related. **Ready or Not** was a recent horror film that was also pretty funny. And @Staggerlee can see Andie McDowell explode, so that’s a bonus. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/37 "2023-08-08T12:00:07Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > **Joe vs. the Volcano** : Set in a quirky version of the real world; somehow, the only two normal people find each other. If Abe Vigoda as a tribal chieftain on a South Pacific island isn’t funny, what is? Yeah. I like Rom-Coms, sure. I watch all types of stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/38 "2023-08-08T12:01:58Z")
I’m a sucker for almost all of them. My GF mostly hates them. She says I am too sentimental. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/39 "2023-08-08T12:11:35Z")
Lady here: There have been a small handful of romantic comedies I’ve enjoyed, including Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth, Moonstruck with Cher and Nic Cage, and the Winslow Boy with Jeremy Northam and whatshername with all the hair. I also enjoyed Strictly Ballroom. The test being, I watched each of them more than once, which is a great rarity for me. But it isn’t a genre that generally turns my crank. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178/40 "2023-08-08T14:27:58Z")
In general, I am not the biggest fan of romantic comedies. But you could say the same for action movies and musicals. There are many exceptions, some are simply more interesting, well written and well acted than others. But many are mindless or sophomoric. Movies like: It Happened One Night, Groundhog Day, When Harry Met Sally or Princess Bride are great and I have watched them repeatedly. I liked Crazy Rich Asians, which was novel and interesting, but (like many of them) was remarkably unsubtle. A random made-for-television movie where the main plot point is that the guy falls in love, after the woman makes an impassioned plea as to why scones have to contain lemon juice? Perhaps not quite as good. In summary, they are like other genres. A few great ones. Some good ones. Lots of mediocrities others might enjoy more than I do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentlemen-do-you-like-rom-coms/988178.md?page=3)