Ensemble Romantic Comedies—Love 'Em or Leave 'Em?

January 28, 2010

With Valentine's Day due to hit cinemas in just a few weeks, it's no secret that the ensemble romantic comedy is getting more popular every year. We had He's Just Not That Into You and who could forget our personal fave, Love Actually. I'm kind of divided on the whole genre, but where do you stand—love 'em or leave 'em?

18 Comments

lizlee89 3 years

oh, come on, you all - ensemble romantic comedies are no different than any other kind of romantic comedy. there all cheesy, cliche, predictable, insanely formulaic, and always feature poorly-crafted characters. but that's not why we love them!!!! no matter how much of a movie snob I am; I will always love rom coms (haha; I love the ridiculousness of that term) because they're fun, cute, and sweet...

3 years

"Love Actually" is one of my favorite movies. I would vote yes, but none of the other movies are as good.

BabyNorbert 3 years

*have (oops)

BabyNorbert 3 years

I how no problem with neither cheesy nor cliched movies :-P

katiedid0985 3 years

@greenfairy, I agree, I'm so sick of the stupid cliche romantic comedies and the ensemble ones are part of that. Oftentimes they are worse because they combine so many cliches into one movie! Love Actually was slightly better than the rest, but still not great. I wish someone would write a romantic comedy that doesn't suck. Either that or I'll write a bad rom com, make lots of money off of it and laugh all the way to the bank!

xgreenfairyx 3 years

Nah, all romantic comedies are fairly nauseating, preposterous, unfunny, and insulting.

popcorn19 3 years

I agree with having such a soft spot for Love, Actually and not really being able to tolerate any others.

Cris1192 3 years

Love actually is the best one!

Studio16 3 years

I think that they're usually pretty cute. It definitely keeps you on your toes.

a million suns 3 years

So awful. You don't have time to really get to know any of the characters because there are like 5 bazillion main characters.

penguins268 3 years

Love Actually was great and He's Just Not That Into You was awful so...go figure.

Allyace 3 years

Usually they don't go well, but Love Actually is the exception.

allthingsgrow 3 years

"he's just not that into you" was a letdown, but i have high hopes for valentine's day... i hope i love it!

sourcherry 3 years

Wow, I wasn't expecting so many people to love them. I personally find them exactly what the option says, cliched and cheesy... Probably because I feel those movies only go skin deep since there are so many different story lines, and I end up not really caring about any of them...

postmodernsleaze 3 years

I like ensemble casts for romantic comedies (and other genres too) because it shows different outcomes and aspects of love/relationships/life/whatever the movie is about. Sometimes you do kind of get the "fairy tale", but sometimes it just plain kind of sucks.

popculture whore 3 years

ensemble casts can be great, like paris je t'aime (though that's not exactly a romantic comedy) but sometimes there's too much going on my friends really wanna watch valentine's day... hopefully it doesn't suck

tlsgirl 3 years

Oh, and I will absolutely not see What To Expect. Yuck.

tlsgirl 3 years

Love Love Actually. Hated He's Not That Into You. Have no desire to see Valentine's Day. So, I guess it depends.