Romcoms

sprinkles

I saw Up in the Air a few weeks back and have been thinking about if for a while. Clooney, while some may argue that he just plays the “clooney role” without doing anything exciting is excellent and well deserved of the praise he is getting from most critics. He’s a victim of his own success in that he has created the “Clooney role” and appears to play it with consummate ease. It is mesmerising. He is one of 2 actors that I would pay to see in anything – the other being DiCaprio.

So enough swooning over Clooney and I’ll get to the point. The film, imo, was a breadth of fresh air in the same way that 500 days of summer was. It was a romcom at heart but more importantly it was a clever, funny, realistic and at times a dark movie that anyone can enjoy – not just the sex in the city groupies – and more importantly even relate to! I seriously hope that Hollywood will take note and put an end to the Aniston/McConaughey formulaic tripe that seems to pour out every 6 months.

My Ire was ignited last night at the cinema when upon arriving I saw a poster yet again depicting Butler/Anitson standing beside each other with comically indifferent facial expressions on their faces. (you can sunstitute aniston/butler for other regular romcom cast). Having only seen the poster, which is about as far as I'm willing to go with the movie, I’m 100% sure I could predict, almost to the minute, when, despite the fact they are complete social/emotional opposites who hate each other, they will glance into each other’s eyes and realise that they were meant for each other before they are torn apart by some boring clichéd truth being unearthed (par example: he did it for a bet/she catches him kissing an ex girlfriend/he's lying about who he really is) while ultimately overcoming this obstacle and falling lovingly into each other’s arms and living happily ever after. This is more of a rant than anything else but do you think that the clever romcoms could put an end to the likes of the films below?

krudler

I'm a huge fan of Clooney's and I completely agree with you, not all romantic comedies have to have some wacky central plot and two characters who start out hating each other but by the end of their weekend/bank robbery/flight/football match/marathon run whatever the plot device is they fall for each other, and what the FCUK is it with romcom posters where people are standing back to back?!

D-Generate

I don't think Matthew McConnaughey has ever had a movie poster where he isn't looking back over his shoulder at some girl since A Time to Kill. The man is a parody of himself at this point!

bnt

Clooney reportedly thinks One Fine Day was a piece of empty fluff, but I thought he did rather well in an understated Cary Grant fashion, and it's probably my favourite RomCom. (This was early in his movie career, before he was Batman, and Out Of Sight was still two years away). There is a football (soccer) match in it, but he's just a spectator. :rolleyes:

Haven't seen Up In The Air yet - I might join the Film Club for it.

sprinkles

I think the posters annoy me the most about them. I'm always amazed at how these films get made in the first place - I mean there is a wealth of talent out there that is going to waste and yet instead we keep getting this tired old formula again and again and again. How long can it last until people stop going to see them?

sprinkles

Saw this write up today....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jan/19/the-bounty-hunter-jennifer-aniston