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The quality of romantic comedies in the TPS era and today

posted 13 years ago by SiestaFiestaLaLa
16 replies | jump to latest

The Philadelphia story is maybe the best example of the quality a romantic comedy can have.It has laughs,great plot,romantic themes,top notch cast and best of all amazing and compelling dialogue.

I`m not a native English speaker so for this film I used english subtitles,in order to be able to follow it thoroughly(since it contains a lot of words and expressions rarely used today).The same goes for To catch a thief,The appartment and bunch of other films from this Hollywood era.

Today`s romantic comedies,the vast majority at least(studio films)have clichee filled lines,no compelling interactions,but just this formulaic pattern-an interesting job,chance encounter,bonding night,fight and running in the rain,after the realizition that the leading heroes are meant to be.And the lines and the dialogue are not used to develop and push forward the story,but to fill the time.

When did this happen?When did the decadent and vulgar era of cinema begin?I don`t know whether I should blame the studios or the audience.
Movies like This means war,What/s your number,Crazy stupid love that are filled with cringy worty moments do have their entertainment value(escapism,fun ride) when you catch them in the movies,but they are too forgettable.The day after you see it you barely even remember them.
The day after I saw the TPS for the first time,I saw it again.

So my question is when and why did this decline in quality happen?It reffers to all genres perhaps,but in the romantic comedy category it is the most obvious.
And I like romantic comedies.Some days they are the best therapy.

The only thing keeping you from being happy is the belief that you are alone

[–] baseballgirl 9 years ago

The dialogue and character development really were better. Nowadays, it's just sight gags, really cliched themes, and unnecessary sex scenes. I will say there are still good ones from time to time. The 90s still had some quality: Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping and Ten Things I Hate About You. The three of those had really witty dialogue and character development. For the most part, though, romantic comedies today are completely pointless.

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[–] scottevans57-426-185921 9 years ago

The older one gets the more difficult it becomes to pinpoint a precise time in which the rom/com soured. I'd have to venture that lifting the stigma from premarital sex was a contributing factor to the rom/com's demise. Tension, particularly sexual tension, can be both alluring and comically entertaining. Maybe not so much for the participants, but for those of us who like to watch, it can be most enjoyable. Or once upon time it was.

[–] Prismark10 9 years ago

I have to be contrary. The so called older classics just look overrated these days.

It's that man again!!

[–] Robbmonster 9 years ago

It depends what you look for in your films.

The things that used to be important - skilful writing, story, character development - are largely unimportant now, replaced by cheap thrills and quick gratification that has led to what I like to call 'Instant Classic Syndrome'.

It's also worth taking into account that comparing something made 75 years - yes, 75 years!!! - ago to something made now is just unfair, both to the past product and the contemporary. You wouldn't compare a car from 75 years ago to one made today on the same standards, would you? Different standards applied, the focus was different, the styles were different, the available technology was different.

Oh, and as for how something can 'look overrated', well, that just makes no sense. 'Overrated' is a horrible, meaningless word, right up there with 'pretentious' and 'manipulative'. Overrated means nothing except as a statement of your own opinion. It's not possible for something to be overrated: the rating is what it is because of an average. When you say something is 'overrated', what you REALLY mean is 'I didn't have as high opinion of it as so many others seem to'.

Anyway, I'm tired and grouchy. Here concludes the rant.

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[–] SiestaFiestaLaLa 8 years ago

Thank you everyone for your replies.I agree with the most points that you made,especially with the impact that the teen market had,which I never really took into account before.

I also agree that there are some gems in the 90s.

I think one of the problems is maybe the hectic life style most people lead nowadays.People are stressed and don't have the patience to watch even a remotely complex comedy,so mainstream movies that you can follow while still scrolling through your phone are perfect(this applies even when a person is not stressed,but simply addicted to her smartphone).The attention span seems kind of lower in the 21st century,people consume a lot of stuff and a lot of information,but it often has no real impact on them.

To the person who wrote that the older movies are the overrated ones,I think the previous response about the negative side of using the term "overrated" explained a lot.I would like to add that the problem with watching movies like TPS and Casablanca today are the huge expectations because of the fact that they are classics and you keep hearing how wonderful they are.For example,my friend recently saw Casablanca and told me he thought it was overrated.I asked him if he liked it.He said yes,and slowly we came to the conclusion that because of the fact that it was the famous Casablanca he expected something life changing,so the nicely written,insanely quotable film he so wasn't enough,because the bar was set impossibly high.

The only thing keeping you from being happy is the belief that you are alone