I agree. There are some romantic comedies I like, (Love Actually, About a Boy, High Fidelity, etc…), but mostly they’re so repetitive I don’t want to go and watch another one. If the cast and the director are good enough to really charm the audience and if the writer can find a neat new twist I’ll watch it and like it. Otherwise no.
Romantic melodramas and the like I hate with a passion.
I enjoy “chick flicks” just as much as any other genre of movies – both comedies and dramas. However, as with any genre, there are good ones and bad ones.
I break the trend, I freaking hate Love Actually. It’s one of my least favorite films ever. I think Notting Hill is not much better. Nonetheless, I don’t think of these as chick fliks.
To me the chick flick is the overblown melodrama where one of the ladies dies at the end. I clould list a bunch, but since someone dies at the end of every one of them it would be a mass spoiler.
I don’t know if your definition of “chick flick” would be widely accepted. What you’re describing I’d call a “weepy”, or “three handkerchief” movie. The Sex and the City movie would pretty definitively be called a “chick flick”, and nobody dies in that one.
I liked Little Women and Legends Of The Fall.
I cry easily, but mostly for movies like Saving Private Ryan.
Are you sure many of these movies are chick flicks? IQ, Say Anything, High Fidelity, and Legends of the Fall aren’t what I’d call chick flicks, and even though I haven’t seen the movie yet, Crazy Heart’s trailer didn’t really paint it out to be a chick flick–unless Jeff Bridges is hiding something under that tripped-out beard. Comedy+Character Depth+No Explosions != Chick Flick.
I’ve always hated chick flicks. I saw How to Make an American Quilt in '96, and even though I’d never heard the term, I knew right off the bat that this was a specific genre and that watching it made me feel dirty–the *bad *kind of dirty.
I’ve said it before, though, and I’ll say it here. I like one chick flick: Under the Tuscan Sun. Watching Frances picking up the pieces of her old life and starting another brought back memories from when I did more or less the same thing, and neither Sandra Oh or Diane Lane are ever hard on the eyes. But that’s it, though. At least the only one I’ll admit to liking on this board.
I’m a woman, and I generally don’t like romantic comedies. I agree with tim that they are too formulaic. At least with action movies you get to see shit blow up. But my major problem with them is that I find it really hard to relate to the female characters. These women always seem so desperate and pathetic, as if their entire world revolves around finding a man. Also, it’s such a sacharine and sterilized depiction of love. Love to me is nothing like they depict in these films. The real thing is so much… better.
And the romantic dramas, a la Nicholas Sparks… blerg. I don’t care much for dramas anyhow, but I can’t think of anything less interesting to me than a dramatic love story.
I’ve got nothing against romance… in fact, I’m a sucker for it. It’s just that I’d much rather see some other main storyline that has a romantic subplot.
That said, there are a handful of phenomenal movies that would fit the ‘‘romantic comedy’’ description, and Love Actually is one of them. And there are some good romantic dramas, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
I like when they don’t have the predictable ending. Like Kissing Jessica Stein. But then again, that’s more indie film than chick flick.
Anyway, my brother likes chick flicks. I know I’ll always have someone to go see the Sex in the City movies, and it’s not my husband. He watches The Devil Wears Prada. I think he’s so cute that way. Someday he’ll make a girl happy, watching all the chick flicks she can handle.
I’m a gay guy and like chick flicks, particularly rom coms, however if it’s overly sappy then I can get a bit turned off. I like a good cry as the next [del]man[/del] person, but if the film is pulling my heart string out of my chest rather than tugging on them then I start to feel like the film maker isn’t so good.
There is also the phenomenon where all chick flicks can start to look the same.
OP, I’m glad I’m not alone in this. To list a few…
[ul]
[li]Pride and Prejudice[/li][li]Tristan and Isolde[/li][li]Time Traveler’s Wife[/li][li]Dawson’s Creek (TV show but I always enjoyed it. Sorta fits this category.)[/li][/ul]
To my mind, not all romantic comedies are “chick flicks” (and, of course, vice versa). In particular, if the story is told all or in part from the point of view of the male lead, who is at least somewhat sympathetic and multi-dimensional, I don’t consider it a “chick flick.”
For what it’s worth, very few of the movies that have been mentioned so far in this thread are named in the Wikipedia article on Chick Flicks (although I have some problems with its list as well).
I love chick flicks myself! They actually go in depth with the emotional development of a character instead of solely focusing on stoic characters that advance a storyline. In When Harry Met Sally, Harry developed into a human being instead of a testosterone driven womanizer. In Love Actually Collin finds a place to belong amongst Americans, the Prime Minister sacrifices his values to be with the girl he likes, Jamie learns Spanish in order to win the heart of his fiancee. In The Notebook, Noah never leaves Allie even after her memory goes and also worked against all odds in order to win her in the first place. I could go on for days about this. I just love movies where you can see into the heart of the character instead of just following their actions.
How about Mean Girls? Is that considered a chick flick?
Portuguese.
The subset of the chick flick: the teen film. Pretty young girls in high school drama.
(That said, I’m a 26 year old woman who owns - and enjoys - this movie.)
This might sound weird, but I actually like those more than romantic comedies. I don’t remember being wowed by Mean Girls, but Clueless and Legally Blond are legitimately good movies.
I DO like movies where the ending is not so predictable. In **Along Came Polly, **which isn’t that great of a movie, I nonetheless loved the ending, which ended pretty realistically without being in any way depressing.
And one of my all-time favorite movie endings was in The Graduate. That ‘‘WTF did we just do?’’ look of terror on both their faces as the bus rolled away was… perfect.
I readthe title as Im a straight man and I love Chicks with Dicks.
No, not a big fan of those. Are there any chick flicks that feature “Chicks with Dicks”?
Maybe:
The Crying Game.
You can watch a chick flick and still retain you straighthood if you balance it by by doing some arc-welding after the film.
Or, indeed, by cleaning your gun whilst watching said chick flick.