In praise of chick flicks

That’s probably the worst movie I’ve ever paid money to see.

I’m a big movie fan; I can watch and enjoy just about anything. But just like I disagreed with the offerings in the action movie thread, I don’t consider romantic comedies to be “chick flicks.” Most people do, and I understand why, but I dont.

I generally dislike what I consider to be chick flicks. (Nice self-fulfilling destiny there, eh?) But I have been entertained by one or two. The chick flick titles that come to mind are:

Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
In Her Shoes
The Devil Wears Prada

I’ve only seen one of the four. I recognized it was a decent movie, and even found it wtachable and mildly entertaining, but it didn’t appeal to me.

Dangerosa…Chasing Liberty is another fantastic one. I must get that the next time I’m at Best Buy. I tend to enjoy Julia Stiles vehicles the most though Mandy Moore is a favourite as well (though she can’t top Kirsten Dunst in Bring it On). Have you seen Saved? It’s a little too dark humour to qualify as a true teen movie (I think) but she was great in it as the head Christian bitch-queen.

Does that include She’s the Man?
Sense and Sensibility is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Oook! Speaking of Mandy Moore, A Walk To Remember was so awesome, I actually went and got the book too.

Oh, come now, I’ve paid money to see a lot worse movies than that! :slight_smile:

Sometimes, you just want the world to be a place where boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy sings song and gets girl back again. (Or girl meets boy, or boy meets boy, or girl meets girl. That’s a trivial detail. No one even has to sing…but it really helps when they do.)
And it’s nice to know that situations, no matter how difficult they seem at the time, (like losing your leopard, or mistaking the guy for your best friend’s husband, or accidentally getting lost at sea and coming back years later to find your husband has married another woman that very morning, or watching your cousin get left at the altar, or falling in love over the radio, or pretending to be your gorgeous neighbor), it’ll all work out. In 90 minutes - 120 tops. And you’ll live happily ever after.

Thank you, I was beginning to wonder about the sense and sensibility (yes, I know that ain’t Chéspir) of my fellow dopers!

“Not being an action flick” is not exactly the same as “being a chick flick”.

I used to loathe chick flicks without ever seeing one.
That is until I saw Fried Green Tomatoes, which blew me away.
Since then I have been keeping an open mind and like a lot of them.
But I still cannot watch Steel Magnolias.

I loved (and bought) :
Fried Green Tomatoes
When Harry met Sally
Sense and Sensibility
the Icestorm
(which I actually don’t really consider a chick flick)

Hee hee. Someone please figure out what he’s talking about. :stuck_out_tongue:

My guess is he’s talking about Marisa Tomei. Don’t know the picture, though.

He’s talking about Marisa Tomei, but he’s got My Cousin Vinny (for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) with Only You.

No, I’ve been meaning to see Saved, but forget. Add to Netflix queue now…

Hot damn! Green Snake and The Bride With White Hair mentioned in the same thread, and the thread’s not even about wuxia films!

I don’t know that those are chick flicks…too much fighting and swordplay maybe, but they’re beautiful and surreal, fun and well worth checking out.

If only to see fighting eyebrows!

Deservedly.

If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, his wife would be very surprised to hear that. Is this because he played Peter Allen so convincingly, or is it just something that goes around about every actor (and sometimes actress) whose kids are adopted?

I did get Saved (bumped it to the top of the Netflix queue) and it was wonderful. Loved it. Thanks for reminding me.

It’s easy to forget that in most chick flicks, at least the ones that are in the romantic comedy realm, nearly as much attention is given to what the male characters are going through, and I can certainly identify with the humor in that. The two main male characters in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood are a good example of that.

Mostly I just like to watch good movies of any genre and stay away from the bad ones. For instance, Alien Versus Predator is undoubtedly a non-chick flick, but the whole idea of reprising two monster flicks at once seemed stupid. The tag line was “Whoever wins, we lose”, and I said to myself, “Especially the audience.” I’d rather see Titanic or Love Actually than AVP any day.

Okay I was about to come in here ranting about how much I loathe chick flicks, but I love most of the movies that have been referenced (of course I’m not surprised that Dopers have such excellent taste!). Generally, I don’t like chick flicks as a genre (or chick lit, for that matter). I don’t know if I would classify all romantic comedies, Austen, or Shakespeare comedies as chick flicks though.

That would be Only You, with Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. I loved that one too.