Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

I don’t watch a lot of movies, so these aren’t the Newest, but I’ve liked Hot Fuzz, Hairspray, and No Reservations.

When I’m in the mood for romance I tend to watch films which have been out for years such as “Notting Hill”, “The Truth About Cats and Dogs” or “The Wedding Singer”.  I also love all the old Cary Grant comedies such as, “His Girl Friday”, “Bringing Up Baby” and “The Philadelphia Story”.

You could also try the new BBC adaptation of “Jane Eyre”.  I can guarantee it will make you cry, but it does have a happy ending!

Okay, going through my list of movies seen, here are some that might fit the bill.  Some are new, some are old.  If you’ve seen some, you can measure my taste against yours before watching any of the others.

10 Things I Hate About You
50 First Dates
Amelie
American President
Calendar Girls (not so much on the romance, but lighthearted and fun)
The Freshman
Hitch
Idiocracy (another not really a romance, but very funny)
Sabrina (old or new-ish)
Shaun of the Dead (same people as Hot Fuzz suggested earlier)

Try How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Two Weeks Notice. Two of my faves. And this one is older, but While You Were Sleeping.

Funny, as we have three movies here from Netflix that for the most part have gone unwatched while Alisonis under the deadline from hell, but we do take time to watch SAVING GRACE.  Interesting show you might (cough cough download cough) catch on reruns.  Starring a very scrawny and very naked Holly Hunter, “Grace” has screwed every man with a functioning penis on the show, and is working out her demons with Earl, the angel assigned to her. 

I watch it for the scenes with Earl, and not for, say, the moments like the opening scene of this weeks show where Grace was naked and handcuffed to her own bed and some random guy scrawling on her with lipstick…

Two Weeks Notice
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Hitch
While You Were Sleeping
Legally Blonde
Miss Congeniality 1 and 2

Hitch (loved Will Smith)
How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days (I didn’t expect to like this one, but found Kate Hudson charming and funny.)
50 First Dates (I’m a Drew Barrymore fan.)

Uh, there must be more, but I’m coming up blank!

How about Intolerable Cruelty? Or Raising Arizona? Or O Brother Where Art Thou (which has been playing on CMT a lot lately).

(I’m a bit of a Coen Brothers fan...)

I liked Music & Lyrics. It was fun in a 80’s blast from the past type of way.

Oh, Blast from the Past is also better than I thought it would be. VERY cute.

Recently re-watched Love, Actually.  Wonderful.

I was going to suggest Knocked Up but it’s not out on dvd until Sept. 25. but definitely check it out when you can. If for nothing else than because Paul Rudd is fantastic in it.

I always watch Love, Actually when I need to be put in a good mood. Or The Philadelphia Story as someone already mentioned.

I’m horrible about staying up to date on movies, but I did see Music and Lyrics which is not the greatest Hugh Grant rom-com but isn’t terrible.

The Gay movie list for women time on their hands…

The Women
All About Eve
What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?
Mommie Dearest
Steel Magnolias
Moonstruck
Working Girl
Sabrina - The one with Audrey Hepburn
Pretty Woman

Catch and Release (I love me some Timothy Olyphant, and I liked this film a lot)

Walk the Line (amazing performances!)

Just Like Heaven (sweet romance set in San Francisco, and it stars Mark Ruffalo, who I totally have a crush on).

13 Going on 30 (looks stupid, I know; I laughed my ass off, and again Mark Ruffalo).

I love Last Holiday with Queen Latifa.  (Did I spell that right?) Also, it’s not a romantic comedy, but Second Hand Lions is excellent.  Touching story, lots of adventure, lots of laughs.

ANTM and Gossip Girl start tonight, too.

Secretary
Strictly Ballroom
the Dish

and I watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding over and over when I need a fix.

How could I forget Music & Lyrics. I absolutely love that movie, though I hadn’t expected to. Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant worked great together in it.

I like The Mirror Has Two Faces, but it’s not really a funny movie.

Try The Sweetest Thing (Christina Applegate); I’ll second 13 going on 30 and The Philadelphia Story; I just watched The Legand of Billie Jean recently-and it was a nostalgic extravaganza; I’m a sucker for Oceans 11 for the romance between Clooney and Roberts (I think they are a sweet couple); then there are the oldies: Sixteen Candles, Say Anything, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire.

I’ll second 13 going on 30 and The Philadelphia Story.

Others: The Sweetest Thing, Ocean’s 11 (for the Clooney/Roberts romance-how cute are they in that movie?);

Romantic nostalgia: Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Legend of Billie Jean; and to a certain extenet Real Genius.

I didn’t mean to post twice. How did that happen? The sytem lied to me. *grumbles*

It’s not available on DVD, but Shirley Valentine is really great.

Anchorman. Favorite line?  “My apartment smells of rich mahogany.

Varsity Blues. What can I say about a crappy movie with a naked Scott Caan?  How about, “I want to take a bite out of his lucious ass.”

Strictly Ballroom.  Early Baz Lurman or however you spell his name.  Lots of bright colors and sparkly things.

Office Space “I’m gonna show her my “O” face.”

Not a whole lot of romances, but entertaining and mindless.

ooh, I second “Amelie” and “Strictly Ballroom.” Others I can re-watch over and over:

Sleepless in Seattle
Mostly Martha (it’s German with lots of yummy food in it)
Cat Ballou (classic Jane Fonda western - so funny)
About a Boy
Bringing Up Baby (Cary Grant w/glasses=cute)
The Thin Man (comedy about a 30’s era married crime-solving couple - awesome)

For romantic comedy I love While You Were Sleeping.

For a romantic fantasy my absolute favorite movie is Ladyhawke.  A studly Rutger Hauer as a knight, a smartass Matthew Broderick as a thief.  Also stunning photography.  You can’t miss with Ladyhawke.

It might not be out on DVD for a while yet, but I LOVED Stardust.  French Kiss with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline is one of my classics as well.  And my favorite girly movie of all time, Funny Face.  Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Paris, what more could a girl ask for?  :)

Haha, confirmation word is “home71”

1. Pride and Prejudice (BBC production with Colin Firth—yowza!)
2. The Philadelphia Story
3. Holiday
4. It Happened One Night
5. Shakespeare in Love
6. Much Ado About Nothing
7. The Women
8. Notting Hill
9. Last of the Mohicans (OK, it’s not funny, but come on...Daniel Day-Lewis!)
10. I, Claudius (OK, this one isn’t a romance and although it has funny bits, it’s not a comedy. But it’s a Roman soap opera with the most deliciously wicked female character imaginable—all hail Livia!)

I third 13 Going on 30.

I also highly recommend Don’t Tell Her It’s Me (also known as The Boyfriend School). It’s a hoot, all about a guy who wants the girl and how his sister helps him win the girl by transforming him into a charecter from a romance novel (the sister is a romance novelist). It also pokes fun of the stereotypes of romance writers and readers. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and I watch it every six months or so.

I forgot my ultimate feel good can’t help but watch it when it’s on tv movie: Fools Rush In with Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek. I don’t know why I love this movie. I just do. Well, there is my unnatural love for Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek, but it’s still a funny and sweet movie.

I fiftythird 13 Going on 30. I love Mark Ruffalo in this movie.

The Sweetest Thing will make you laugh until your stitches burst. And it’s a really cute love story.

Sweet Home Alabama is really cute.

And I adore Love Actually. I could watch it over and over again. Oh, I do ;-)

I sooo second Love, Actually. (my favourite movie)

Sliding Doors
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Holiday
Ice Castles (come on who didn’t cry at the end?)
Any old Disney live action movies are great for old nostalgic feelings.
Practical Magic

But if I was only able to recommend one: Love, Actually.

The Matchmaker (it stars Janeane Garofalo, what more do I need to say?).

Danny Deckchair (great little Aussie romance).

40 Year Old Virgin. If the musical montage to “Aquarius” at the end doesn’t make you cackle, nothing will.

Roman Holiday-classic Audrey Hepburn

The Mummy--adventure and Brendan Fraser looking swashbucklingly good!

Blast from the Past has already been mentioned but is great.

Bend it like Beckham--cute soccer coach!

She’s the Man--silly teen movie but more soccer and Channing Tatum with his shirt off a whole bunch.

A few folks have mentioned Strictly Ballroom and I heartily nth it. I’d also say just about any Hugh Grant comedy would work. Don’t forget About a Boy. While the romance there is in the B plot, what it has to say about the love between parent and child will give you the good sort of weepies in your current state.

And both the Firth and the MacFadyen P&P get my vote. For more juicy MacFadyen goodness, watch Spooks (a.k.a. MI-5) or The Way We Live Now, both, I think available streaming on Netflix.

Finally, for some good raunchy fun, how about BBC’s Casanova with David Tennant and Peter O’Toole? Suspend all desire for historical accuracy, and it might work for ya.

I Third (fourth?) While you were Sleeping (I <3 Sandra Bullock in it), and also wanted to add The Cutting Edge...it’s romance, it’s comedy, it’s sports and skating, and it kicks ass. Preview

Oh, and I also second Michelle with LadyHawke, too - It’s probably kind of hard to find now (and certainly not devoid of an 80s-tacular soundtrack) - but it’s an epic and touching romance, with just the right amount of comedic offset. Oh - and I think Michelle Pfeiffer is in it too, before she was big.

And Stardust was also awesome, although I think it’s still in theaters. It doesn’t work if you go in with huge expectations, but it’s got the Princess Bride/Pirates of the Carribean sense of playfulness and not taking itself to seriously.

For Romantic COMEDY I would recommend:

You’ve Got Mail
The Sweetest Thing (2nd that one)
Philadelphia Story - as stated above
And it’s not really a comedy but North & South by the BBC is WONDERFUL! Just like P&P

Hope this helps!

About A Boy - another Hugh Grant film and I do love me some Nick Hornby.

High Fidelity - Hornby again, Americanized. John Cusack . The character he plays is so like my ex-husband. Hornby often uses the theme of men growing up in his work.

For something quirky - Committed.  Heather Graham is OK but Goran Visnjic is dreamy. Also with Casey Affleck, Mark Ruffalo and Luke Wilson.

I have to agree about Music and Lyrics. Not the best plot but Grant’s 80’s Whamlike video is a scream.

-Sense and Sensibility
-Much Ado About Nothing
-Love, Actually
-Bend it Like Beckham
-Bride and Prejudice

And whoever voted for Anchorman, I just want to say, ilu bb. Add Talladega Nights and Zoolander, and that’s a date night. :p

I couldn’t stomach “13 Going on 30” myself.  You know how I am about “Sweet Home Alabama” though.  Have you ever seen “Shag” (about the dance, not the act.)?
Also:
The Holiday (relatively new)
Can’t Buy Me Love
Casino Royale
Hitch
Rumor has it

Oh! I also love “The Italian Job”!

(My captcha is “income42” are you telling me to get back to work?”

Oh goodness, how could I forget? Stage Beauty!

When I need a good onscreen romance, I tend to stick with the classics: Pat & Mike, His Girl Friday, It Happened One Night, The Thin Man (not really a romance, but Nick and Nora have one of the best onscreen marriages ever), etc.  Or the instant classics:  Legally Blonde, Ella Enchanted, Clueless, Brown Sugar.

If I want something slightly weepy I go with either the William Hurt/Charlotte Gainsbourg or the Orson Wells/Joan Fontaine (with a young Liz Taylor in a small role!) version of Jane Eyre.

If I need to really pull out the big guns in terms of visually stunning, a great romance, smart AND funny yet not overly demanding of brain cells, I go with A Room with a View.

oh yes, the Hurt/Gainsbourg Jane Eyre is one of my favorites.

Love, Actually is the perfect romantic compliment to percoset and hormones.

(spam blocker is but.  *teehee* butt)

My two cents?

When Harry Met Sally
The Baxter

I just love me those slowburn love stories.

“About Adam”

Indie Irish production in which Stuart Townsend plays the same man seen through the eyes of three different sisters and one brother - all completely different characters. Kate Hudson in a very early role as the sister he actually marries (he also sleeps with the other 3).

Stuart Townsend...le sigh…

Under the Tuscan Sun and Must Love Dogs, both starring Diane Lane. MLD also stars John Cusak, if you’re into him.

It’s a rare romantic comedy that doesn’t have poignant moments, but I’ll second:

Love Actually
Amelie
50 First Dates
Shirley Valentine

And add:

Still Breathing ...with Brendan Fraser.  An overlooked gem.  The men in his family have visions of their true love and go out to find them.  She long ago lost any belief in love and makes her money conning jerks.

http://tinyurl.com/2llrrs

(Warning: movie music and video clip start playing simultaneously)

One of my all time favorites is Charade.  Kinda a lighter Hitchcockian thriller ala To Catch a Thief or North by Northwest.  It’s got Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, so you can’t go wrong.

Also, if you have digital cable, some of the NBC pilots are on Entertainment on Demand.  Life and Chuck have some amusing moments though Bionic Woman wasn’t all it could have been.

A good decade old comedy is Home Fries with a pregnant Drew Barrymore and a yummy Luke Wilson.

Also I thought Clueless (modern day Emma) was surprisingly good.  And yeah, the Gwenntyh Paltrow Emma was very good.  They work on rewatching too.

Since my daughter is 2.5, I can’t tell you anything about movies from the last, well, 2.5 years.

Oldies but goodies:  The Desk Set, Bringing Up Baby, Philadelphia Story or Father Goose

I agree with everyone who suggested How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and While You Were Sleeping.

Also, since I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned yet, The Family Stone.  That one lives on my iPod and I almost always watch it again while flying.  I love it.

The last thing I saw was “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.” I’m not rushing out to buy it, exactly, but I thought it was cute.

I remember getting really swoony over the first couple episodes of The Jewel in the Crown, while it was focusing on the star-crossed love story (later it goes on to more general themes of British imperialism - not nearly so swoonworthy!). It’s not at all comic, though. If you want some romcom to snark at (as opposed to something you can legitimately buy into), rent Kate & Leopold, a dismally uninspired time-travel thing starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman.

A lot of people have mentioned the various Jane Austen films. The early-90s Persuasion (with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds) is a good one, too.

Sarah,

You MUST see Brief Encounter, a 1945 British flick, b&w, written by Noel Coward.  It’s a touching and eminently believable story with a Rachmaninoff score.  Something of a tear-jerker, but oh-so-lovely!  Far and away the best romantic film I’ve ever, ever seen.

Four Weddings and a Funeral is good for love ‘n’ laughs. 

TEDDYPIG...are you fuckin’ nuts? What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? ?!?!?!

For a romantic comedy I’d recommend:

Bridget Jones’ Diary (Colin Firth--need I say more?)
Down with Love (it grows on you, and David Hyde Pierce has some pretty funny lines)
Music and Lyrics and Sixteen Candles (hey, I’m a child of the 80’s)
The Parent Trap (the parents get back together--happy ending!)
(not really a comedy, but one of my all-time comfort movies)
(not a true rom-com, but it’s got Brendan Fraser in a loincloth and a funny narrator in the Jay Ward tradition.)

Enjoy!

Some of my favorites:

Moonstruck
The Daniel Day-Lewis Last of the Mohicans
Holiday (Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn)
Now Voyager (Bette Davis - lots of sniffles)
An old one called I Know Where I’m Going - World War II Scotland, Wendy Hiller
Strictly Ballroom
For weirdly romantic, Choose Me (Genevieve Bujold, Leslie Warren, one of the Carradines, directed by Alan Rudolph)

I don’t have time to read 54 comments right now, so forgive me if I repeat, but “the Tall Guy” is hilarious and romantic and combines the two in what is probably the funniest sex scene ever filmed.

Love Actually is so good.  I have Ladyhawke--the music still bugs me, but not enough to quit the movie. ;)

I see lots of good recos here, but I’ll add a pretty sweet romance movie called Something New.  Recently watched it again. 

My sick day movies are Practical Magic, Stranger Than Fiction and though it’s anything but a romance, Boondock Freaking Saints.  Man, that movie rocks.

Down with Love (it grows on you, and David Hyde Pierce has some
pretty funny lines)

It really does grow on you. I remember the first time I watched it I thought it was insanely bad, but the more you watch it the funnier it gets. Plus, if you watch the extras there’s a video and Ewan McGregor sings.

“Dear Frankie”.  Not only is it sweet, it has Gerard Butler!

The Guru.  Jimi Mistry, Heather Graham, Marissa Tomei.  A boy grows up in India obsessed with American movies.  So he moves to the US to be an actor and ends up a famous sex guru instead.  How can you miss when the main characters cruise off into the clouds at the end ala Grease?

Oh, yes, Toddson.  Now, Voyager is my very favoritest Bette Davis movie.  I still want the black dress she wears on her first night back home. Dark Victory was good, too, but so sad.

If you like The Philadelphia Story, try High Society, the musical version!  Worth it just for the Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra duet.

Any swashbuckler with Errol Flynn, but especially Against All Flags.  Hard to find, but so worth it.

For rib-tickling romance, you can’t go wrong with Much Ado About Nothing.  And you get to see Keanu Reeves shirtless being oiled up.  Rrrrrr.

If you want something cheesetastic, go for Grease 2.  Michelle Pfeiffer singing about a cooool rider while humping a ladder--priceless.

Also wanted to add Romancing the Stone.  It is pretty cute.

For Jane Eyre have to go with the Timothy Dalton one.  That man is so good at the brooding hero.

For anime Howl’s Moving Castle is cute.

As an aside my love for Ladyhawke is so encompassing that I have the soundtrack to the movie.

My husband rented a movie from Block Buster last night. The movie is called FRACTURE, staring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling.  It’s funny, just looking at the picture of Anthony Hopkins on the cover made me think of Silence of the Lambs.

I sat down to watch this movie and prepared myself to be scared. Thankfully it was not a scarry movie. I loved this movie, the acting and the script was excellent. The lines were sharp and witty, we found ourselves laughing a lot during the movie.

The movie is full of twists and turns, and the dialog between Hopkins and Gosling is really well done…

A GOOD YEAR, with Russel Crow was excellent. The acting and the scenery was really great!!!

My friends and I must be the only women on earth who didn’t like Love Actually. I was either bored, enraged, or depressed by pretty much the whole film. The only two romances I gave a flying fuck about (the Alan Rickman/Emma Thompson one and the Laura Linney/Rodrigo Santoro one) were either not resolved, or were resolved badly. I’m always amazed when women go on and on about how much they loved this movie.

verification: men11 (and aren’t they just)

I’ll chime in with the chorus for Amelie with the note that is in French so if your not in mood for subtitles hold off.
10 Things I hate about You & While You were Sleeping are both fun and I’m going to add Corpse Bride to the list.

For an oldy but a goody--check out American Dreamer! Tom Conti and JoBeth Williams. This is still a favorite. I still giggle everytime they show the scene of him in the ballroom sitting alone at the table. That is all I will say, except she is an aspiring author who wins a trip to Paris and madness ensues!

One of my favorite movies of the past few years--it actually may be the only movie to ever make me cry *happy* tears--was Saved! Maybe it’s funnier to me b/c I actually went to a church like that in my teens (of my own free will, btw), but it’s such a fantastic love story--romantic love, parental love, sibling love...it’s fantastic.

A lot of my other favorites have been mentioned, including Last of the Mohicans, The Mummy, and Love, Actually, so let me recommend two movies that aren’t romances...but that are romantic in some of the best (and worst) ways.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. (::ducks::) I know, I know! It’s mind-blowingly awful, but it’s so much FUN. It’s worth it just to see Alan Rickman chomping his way through scenery like he’s bulking up for the winter. (At least, I think so. All 34 times I’ve seen it I’ve thought so.)

Return of the Jedi. Not the best of the Star Wars trilogy (that goes to ESB and do NOT speak to me of that other trilogy), but for sheer, unadulterated pleasure, it’s got to be ROTJ. Snogging, cuddly bear critters, lightsaber battles, and X-Wings...what more could a girl want?

(Confirmation word: thirty92, as in yes, I’m almost thirty, and yes I still love Star Wars, and would like to kick George Lucas at least 92 times for wrecking it.)

Surely Shakespeare in Love has to be up there?  Hilarious screenplay by Tom Stoppard, beautiful Joseph Fiennes to look at, Geoffrey Rush hamming it up like MAD, Gwynnie wafting around the place in boy-drag, Dame Judy Dench as QE1, and Colin Firth with a goddamn mother-fucking earring!!

In a similar vein, I have to recommend a couple of Romeo & Juliets.  I like the Zefferelli one (classic) and the Baz Luhrmann one (Shakespeare! with! guns!)

And the Princess Bride, obviously.  Because it’s still one of the funniest, best cast, best acted movies I’ve ever seen.  With a massive helping of “twue wuv”, to quote the archbishop.  And Peter Cook, Cary Elwes, Billy Crystal, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Peter Falk, Kevin WonderYears, Robin Wright and Mel Smith may just be the best ensemble cast there has ever been or will ever be.

What’s Up Doc, with La Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, is funny and cute.

Disney’s Aladdin.

Oh!  I meant to mention, and I don’t know if you’ll be able to get them, but The Commitments and The Snapper are both seriously funny.  Commitments is great for the music, but the Snapper will make you cry laughing (especially given your recent childbirth experience).  You need to be good at accents though, because it is Dublin slang.  Not romantic really, but so funny you won’t care

Strictly Ballroom ("Who’d’ve thought it, eh? Our Scott dancing with Tina Sparkle!")

The Thin Man & its 4 sequels

Philadelphia Story

Some Kind of Wonderful ("I just want to see if you can deliver the kiss that kills.")

Singin’ in the Rain

A Christmas Story (Who cares if it’s only September?)

Oh, and I nth the recommendation of Ocean’s Eleven, although I tend to watch it for the unspoken Clooney/Pitt romance. ;)

Oh my, so many good movies. Seconding, thirding, whatever to Stranger Than Fiction (makes me bawl in the best way possible), Charade, Persuasion, The Philadelphia Story, About a Boy and Down With Love.

My big rec list (thank you, Netflix rated-movies list :).)
Guys and Dolls
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Bride and Prejudice. Mm, Naveen Andrews dancing . . .
Casablanca
De-Lovely, the story of Cole Porter and his wife and all his . . . other life. Kevin Kline is so dreamy ;).
L.A. Story
Meet Me in St. Louis
Shadowlands
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
Before Sunrise/Before Sunset
An American in Paris
Better than Sex
Chasing Amy
Harold and Maude
Moonstruck
Notorious (the one with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. I haven’t seen the remake, but the original is A+.)
Shakespeare in Love
Shall We Dance? (the Japanese version)
The Taming of the Shrew (with Burton and Taylor)

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned it, but Sense and Sensibility, the Emma Thompson version. Worth watching for Alan Rickman, I though Hugh Grant kind of got in the way though. 

my word outside15 yeah, I’ve been there

Becky:  The Guru. You’re right, really cute movie… Have you seen Bride and Predjudice?  I like it even better - it makes me go all happyhappyhappy around the living room.

Linnet: Bend it like Beckham--cute soccer coach! OMG, yes.  I’m not one for puffy man lips, but he was hott.  I waited for that kiss the whoooooole movie! So worth it.

Saltypepper:  ...Pat & Mike, His Girl Friday, It Happened One Night, The Thin Man ... Legally Blonde, Ella Enchanted, Clueless, Brown Sugar. You are a person after my own heart - all of these are on my favorites except Brown Sugar… I’ve never heard of it, but I’ll imdb it.  I always have to back up to re-watch the “Somebody to Love” song in Ella. awesome.

I have the hugest DVD collection but it never fails that I come back to the same few when I’m not feeling well (I’ve weeded out the thinking-too-much ones & the pay-attention- every-sec-or-miss-the-plot ones).

The Women - a classic.
Sliding Doors - It has Monte Python Quotes & a very cure John Hannah.
Persuasion - Jane Austen HEA.
Moon Spinners - Disney but good.
An Unfinished Life - Not romantic but very feel good with Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford & Jennifer Lopez.
Strictly Ballroom - tight pants on a healthy male toosh (nuff sad).
Gross Pointe Blank - A little actiony but light-hearted with a bit of romance.
Amelie - Cute. But don’t watch if you can’t concentrate to read the subtitles.
Love Actually - Yes. It’s a Christmas movie but I defy anyone to watch it without smiling at the end.
Marnie - Alfred Hitchcock but wonderful Sean Connery ^ Tippie Hendren & has a possible HEA.
Playing by Heart - There are a couple of tear-jerk scenes but if you have a chance when the emotions calm down & you still have time, try it.

None of these are real new but the only new ones I’ve seen have yet to hit video (Waitress, Stardust, No Reservations).

When I was on bed rest, back in the early 90’s (pregs with 2nd child) I watched Singles 3 times in a row.  It was the music.

I love 10 Things I Hate About You and have it on my ipod. I watch it when I am waiting for kids to finish with:lessons, games, school,etc… Almost Famous has a great sound track.  And for your Joan Cuzack moments: School of Rock, In and Out (she is HILARIOUS), and Raising Helen. I just LOVE her.

Did you see My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Absolutely a must see.

But with all that time...Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth, be still my heart). It’s just the best. Everytime I watch it, my husband groans and runs in the opposite direction.

An old one called I Know Where I’m Going - World War II Scotland, Wendy Hiller

Strong second for that one, definitely on my list, as is “Death Takes a Holiday” with Frederick March. Gees, he was good looking and the story is incredibly romantic.

ooh ... I forgot - highly romantic and a three-hankie movie, “Truly, Madly, Deeply” - Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson.

If you’d like to see a woman wronged get her revenge, try Juliet Stevenson in “The Politician’s Wife”.

For laughs, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen is “La Chevre” - the original French version with Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard.

Amelie and Better Off Dead

There are so many good ones here and I won’t go over them again. Still if we aren’t strictly sticking with the last two years…

Grumpy Old Men & Grumpier Old Men

Both are romantic and moving while at the same time they are both hilarious.

My two cents.....

A Letter to Three Wives, if you’re in the mood for a classic. Lora May and Porter are one of my favorite couples of all time.

Kalen Hughes - Were we separated at birth?  I’m also in love with Mark Ruffalo. I almost suggested 13 going on 30, but I only remember a couple bits and pieces.  Really need to see it again.  I also think I need to re-watch Love Actually, since so many people think it’s great, but your response was what I was thinking - I oscillated between thinking it was bad and boring. Still, I’ll watch again sometime when I’ve nothing else to do.

Everyone else has listed some great ideas, so my list is growing too.

My go to movies

Last of the Mohicans - it’s been mentioned a few times
The Outsider with Tim (drool) Daly and Naomi Watts based on the book by Penelope Williamson and
Something New with Simon (also worth a drool) Baker and Sanaa Lathan

I gotta say, I’m really happy About a Boy is popular here! I’m the only of my friends whose seen it. A shame, that movie is quite bloody brilliant.

My romantic comedy recs:

- “Captain Blood” (okay, neither new nor a comedy, but SO swashbuckling)

-- “Persuasion”

-- “Bell, Book & Candle”

-- “Maverick”

-- more votes for “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” and “Ten Things I Hate About You”!!

-- “Clarissa” (fine, fine, so it ends unhappily, but Sean Bean as Lovelace is just too yummy to pass up-- and you can always press stop before it goes downhill).

John Tucker Must Die

Too funny of a movie. It’s a teen one, but the drive of some girls for revenge proves to be a good laugh.

I didn’t see anyone mention Little Miss Sunshine.  We were just roaring about that one this weekend.

I loved the new Pride and Prejudice, mostly because I love Matthew Macfadyen.  Mmm, Mr. Darcy.  And for comedy, Blades of Glory was entirely too funny, and I expected to hate it.

I thought I was the only one who liked the new Pride and Prejudice. I like the Colin Firth version, but if I want to watch a nice happy movie with lovely people, lovely costumes, good acting, and a decent script