After viewing the gay ensemble film The Broken Hearts Club–the subtitle of which helpfully points out that it’s “a romantic comedy”–you might feel as if you’ve been offered a discussion conundrum not unlike the kind that Mike Myers’s Linda “Coffee Talk” Richman would put forward: “The Broken Hearts Club is neither romantic nor comedic. Discuss.” What it is, rather, is a gay male version of Steel Magnolias, right down to the funeral scene and hospital visit. While decidedly les Read more…

Is timing everything? That’s the premise of the sweet and frothy Love Happens, a satisfying romantic comedy starring two of America’s most versatile and attractive actors, Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart. Love has the power, as viewers secretly know, to swoop in and change lives–even at the most inopportune times. And Eckhart and Aniston are achingly believable, as the two who would (futilely) fight the fates. Eckhart plays Dr. Burke Ryan, a motivational guru whose bestselli Read more…

Cute-as-a-button Sandra Bullock is a homemaker who learns that her husband and best friend are having an affair. The so-called best friend reveals this information on a national chat show, leaving Bullock devastated and disgraced. Heading back to her small hometown in Texas, she seeks refuge with her eccentric mother. Laconic Harry Connick Jr., a former high-school classmate, attempts to bring Bullock out of her depression and win her heart. He has, you see, been carrying a torc Read more…

If you like your humor broadside up, hold the subtlety, you’ll want to nurse this Hangover with your best buds. The ensemble cast meshes perfectly–it’s like a super-R-rated episode of Friends: silly, slapstick, and completely in the viewer’s face. When four pals go to Vegas to celebrate the imminent nuptials of one of them, they partake in a rooftop toast to “a night we’ll never forget.” But they’re in for a big surprise: their celebration drinks were laced with date-rape drugs Read more…

The irresistible casting of John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale highlights this predictable romantic comedy, which combines the romantic yearning of An Affair to Remember and the New York charm of You’ve Got Mail. It all begins “a few years ago,” when New Yorker Jonathan (Cusack) meets Brit beauty Sara (Beckinsale). They share a few perfect hours together before parting ways, leaving future encounters to her quirky obsession with fate. “A few years later,” they’re about to marry the Read more…

The visually ravishing animated movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox follows a fox, voiced by George Clooney and dressed in a natty brown corduroy suit, as he cheerfully and recklessly takes his thieving ways a little too far and brings down the wrath of some sour-faced poultry farmers on his family and friends. Based on a lesser-known book by children’s author Roald Dahl (who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach), the movie is the work of Wes Anderson (w Read more…

Meet the Parents found such tremendous success in the chemistry produced by the contrasting personalities of stars Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller that the film’s creators went for broke with the same formula again in Meet the Fockers. This time around, Jack and Dina Byrnes (De Niro and Blythe Danner) climb into Jack’s new kevlar-lined RV with daughter Pam (Teri Polo), soon-to-be son-in-law Gaylord (Stiller), and Jack’s infant grandson from his other daughter for the trip to Flor Read more…

Under the white guy “everyman” exterior lurks one of the cleverest original comedians of today. An established star in standup comedy and a frequent guest on the late shows of David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, Jim Gaffigan is a noted actor as well, from comedic turns in Super Troopers, That 70s Show and Sex and the City to dramatic roles in dozens of films and TV dramas. But here his unique comedy persona takes over — cantankerous but endearing, clean but cutting, with an irr Read more…

Katherine Heigl is delightful as Jane, a self-effacing Gal Friday so addicted to organizing weddings in her off time, that 27 Dresses opens with her character juggling two nuptials on the same night. A perpetual bridesmaid, Jane’s hobby is discovered by a matrimony reporter named Kevin (James Marsden), who hides a romantic side behind his wall of cynicism. While Kevin gradually develops feelings for Jane, the latter’s superficial sister, Tess (Malin Akerman), pursues George (E Read more…

Basil Fawlty, as created and performed by John Cleese, is the rudest, most boorish, most hilariously obnoxious man on the face of the planet. What a natural for a TV sitcom! His screen wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales), put it best in the episode “The Psychiatrist”: “You’re either crawling all over them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them like some Benzedrine puff adder.” He mockingly replies, “Just trying to enjoy myself, dear.” With his gangly frame and contortionist Read more…