Oh the romantic comedy...

I like a good romantic comedy as much as the next person, although I prefer the ones that are a bit more well balanced, like a good meal. Not too much sap, not totally unrealistic, and just enjoyable fun. Take some of the classics, Notting Hill, any Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks, Love Actually (if that is under this genre) These are all hits, but its true, romantic comedies are often predictable misses, and when they miss, they miss bad. We're talking not even on the dartboard bad, like one of those chicks that makes a hold in their boyfriends wall whilst trying to shoot darts, bad. Take the following example that I painfully subjected myself to...

So, last night I watched "Under the Tuscan Sun." Maybe I should retitle it under the "Under the tuscan barf." It was by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen. One of those movies where you're asking yourself as you're watching it, "why am I wasting my time? My life is better than this movie!" But somehow its like watching a car crash, even though its awful, you just can't stop. The only other instance I can think of this happening is when "Phat Girlz" (thats right, its spelled with a "z") was on TV and I clearly was procrastinating. Yes, I did just admit to having seen phat girlz, but I also admitted that it was a stupid idea.

So anyway this movie, sappy, over-coincidental, oozing "follow your heart messages" (thank you Disney Pocahontas), stupid, pointless, the list could go on. I feel like I could be one of those movie critics with great sharp phrases to follow up on these films. Anyway, after the first five minutes, I kept on going "what? what?", circumstances were too coincidental to work in real life, the plot was seeming totally unrelated, mere tableaux where random events occurred, and the entire movie was just so far removed from anything remotely real that it was difficult to believe what happened next. And the cheese, and the stereotypes, it goes on and on. The stereotypes were actually remotely offensive, especially to one who has lived in Italy for a bit. No, not all Italian men are skirt-chasing cads, no, not all little old ladies are amazing cooks that say "mamma mia!" all the time, and no, it is not possible to obtain a house in Italy without citizenship in a day, let alone years! And while the scenery was beautiful, they didn't show nearly enough of it to make up for even the bad acting. I guess I'm just wasting my typing continuing to bash this movie, if you've seen it and like it, thats fine, if not, please, at least don't pay money for the torture of viewing. (now I really feel like one of those writers!)