day 96 - Highest Grossing Romantic Comedies

Ok film fans, the last few nights I've been in a comedy mood. It's one of those wonderful things built into the human condition; laughter can lighten your mood and lift your spirits when you're feeling down. Comedy films are one of the most amazing things to watch because comedy is such a difficult thing to gauge. What might be funny to you might not be funny to someone else, case in point, the list for the highest grossing romantic comedies since 1978. Take a close look at this list. How many have you seen? More importantly, how many do you like? You may be surprised by this, because I don't give off a light-hearted rom-com vibe, but I've seen 80 of the films on this list. Unfortunately, I like maybe 20 of them.

The top ten of this list is the prime reason so many horrible rom-coms get made. I'm not shocked that there's two Julia Roberts films (worst best actress award ever! seriously, watch the other nominees from the year she one, you'll understand) and one from Sandra Bullock, they're America's Sweethearts (I just threw up in my mouth a little). I am surprised that there are actually three films I liked, There's Something About Mary, Knocked Up and As Good as It Gets. I'm also surprised there's two Helen Hunt films here, I had forgotten how much America loved this eighthead looking train wreck of a film actress (she wasn't bad on TV).

The closer you look at this list the more bizarre it looks, a random hodgepodge of styles and themes. No wonder Hollywood keeps churning these suckers out, you never know what's going to make over a $100 million, and yes I'm looking at Valentine's Day. You've got every kind of humor you can think of, from sappy (Pretty Woman) and raunchy (Knocked Up) to stories about teens (Pretty in Pink) and septuagenarians (Something's Gotta Give). It seems that if you throw a little romance into a film you can call it a romantic comedy if you through in even crappy jokes (i.e. every other film on this list).

What's even more disturbing is the group from 101 to 200. Here's is where you'll find some of my favorites, (500) Days of Summer, High Fidelity and Valley Girl slumming with the likes of All About Steve (Sandra Bullock made this and won an Oscar in the same year, this is one of the little known signs of the apocalypse), Addicted to Love and Picture Perfect (please for the love of all humanity, stop Jennifer Anniston from making any more films in this genre). In the end romantic comedies are such an eclectic group because it combines two things we all share but have wildly different opinions about; love and comedy.

Least you think I'm a film snob, which I try very hard not to be, I do consider this genre to be my biggest source of guilty pleasures. I like Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. I've been known to watch Notting Hill (yes I realize this is hypocritical of me) and The Wedding Date. One of my all time favorite films of the 80s is, and this is not to be spoken of outside this post, Blame It on Rio (one the greatest soundtracks as well, but impossible to find). Some of my favorite films don't even show up on this list until you get well into the 200s and others aren't even listed. But I think we'll save that for tomorrow.