Romantic Comedy Pack Quadruple Feature – DVD Review

No other genre of film is as “hit or miss” than the “romantic comedy” genre. In reality, the “hits” are few and far between. The reason for that is simple. Most romantic comedies have the same basic plot, since most screenwriters simply hit “cut and paste” when writing this type of movie. In some form, it’s always “boy and girl come from two different worlds; eventually boy meets girl and a connection is made; but before boy and girl get together there has to be something or someone keeping them apart; that is until eventually they beat all the odds and boy and girl live happily ever after”. Insert some generic jokes, maybe even a little sophmorphic humor, and fill the screen with good looking people, and you have a recipe for your standard “romantic comedy”. They don’t win any awards, but they do get made often because like it or not people still go see them in large numbers.

For that reason it’s pretty easy to throw four random romantic comedies together on one set and have it sell. There is bound to be at least one film on the set that romantic comedy fans love and will buy because they have seen and liked the other films, or they will at least give them a watch if they haven’t seen them before. However, it is almost impossible to find and combine four great romantic comedies on one set, since there are two things that make or break a romantic comedy: story and chemistry between the two starring leads. Both elements of this type film must be top-notch for a romantic comedy to be considered great, and that’s hard to pull off. But Universal Studios Home Entertainment attempts to do just that with its latest Romantic Comedy Pack Quadruple Feature or at the very least load this set with enough star power and big name directors and writers so that romantic comedy fans will buy it no matter what.

Along Comes Polly

In Along Comes Polly, Ben Stiller plays Reuben Feffer, an insurance risk-assessment analyst. Therefore, Reuben is cautious, and for good reason in today’s world. After marrying Lisa (Debra Messing) they take off to the Caribbean for their honeymoon, and immediately upon arriving she cheats on him with a sleazy scuba instructor, Claude (Hank Azaria). She decides to stay on the island with Claude, and Reuben takes off. Once Reuben arrives back home he meets Polly (Jennifer Aniston). They were classmates back in middle school, and Reuben soon believes that they have met because they are destined to be together. They begin “dating”, but Lisa soon comes crawling back. What’s a guy to do?

Ben Stiller is essentially playing the same character here that he has played in previous comedies like There’s Something About Mary and Meet the Parents. He is the nice and nerdy guy who gets humiliated. Jennifer Aniston is also good at playing this flaky girl, who is the almost complete opposite of Ben Stiller’s character. The two of them together on screen do have a decent amount of chemistry. In addition, the supporting cast is fun to watch as well especially Philip Seymour Hoffman.

However, what is lacking for this film is the story. This film was directed and written by the same guy behind Meet the Parents, John Hamburg. But the humor in Along Came Polly is not nearly as sharp and clever as it was in Meet the Parents. Too many times the film resorts to toilet humor. Everything that happens in Along Came Polly is something that has been done countless times before, and honestly done better.

The Wedding Date

In The Wedding Date, hopelessly single Kat Ellis (Debra Messing) must attend the wedding of her sister, Amy (Amy Adams), in London and see her ex-fiance act as the groom’s best man. Of course, her first thought after learning this is to hire a male escort to pose as her new boyfriend and bring him to the wedding. She then hires Nick Mercer (Dermot Mulroney) to pretend to be her boyfriend, at a cost of $6,000 plus expenses, just to make her ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield), jealous. But in the end, could Kat actually fall for a guy like this?

This is actually the second appearance of Debra Messing on this set of romantic comedies, so maybe that is a loose connection between the films. But here she is basically playing her character of Grace from the television sitcom, Will & Grace. Likewise, Dermot Mulroney is playing a similar character to what he played in My Best Friend’s Wedding. He is suave and has a “way with the ladies”. However, there isn’t much chemistry between Mulroney and Messing which makes it hard to imagine these two as a couple.

The story for this film is basically a rip-off of Pretty Woman with the roles of the genders just being reversed. That starts the film off on a bad foot that it can never recover from, especially considering the weak chemistry between the two leads. From there everything that happens in this film is predictable, since we have seen it all before in many other films. You can usually find even a few good laughs in any old romantic comedy, but that’s really not the case here. There are a few chuckles scattered throughout, and romantic comedy fans will surely enjoy this film, but nothing that puts The Wedding Date in “must-watch” or “must-rent” territory.

Intolerable Cruelty

In Intolerable Cruelty, Miles Massey (George Clooney) is a wealthy, top-class and best divorce lawyer in town, who wins cases by any means neccessary. Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is a evil gold-digger who marries rich men with wandering eyes, arranges to catch them in the act, and then walks away with half their assets in divorce court. When Miles is hired to defend her latest victim, soon-to-be-ex-husband Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann), it puts him in direct contact with Marilyn, whom he is drawn to despite knowing he probably shouldn’t be. Following the divorce of her third husband, oil tycoon Howard D. Doyle (Billy Bob Thornton), Miles lets his feelings for Marilyn be known. Now all he has to do is ensure that the feelings she says she has for him are genuine, and not just a part of her latest con.

George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones fit the part here. Clooney is perfect as the sly lawyer as is Jones as the seductive vixen. They are both stylish and glamourous, but more importantly they have remarkable chemistry together. They look like two people that could fall in love, despite their despicable ways in this film. There are also some strong supporting roles from Geoffrey Rush, Cedric the Entertainer, and Billy Bob Thornton. But make no mistake about it’s a joy to watch Clooney and Jones together in Intolerable Cruelty.

This is a Coen Brothers film, so the dialogue is clever and comedy is often witty. Although, since this film was not soley written by the Coens there are some weak jokes thrown in that bring down the film a notch, but other than that the script is top-notch. Clooney and Jones do play characters that aren’t likable people, so some will wonder why we would care if these two characters end up together in the end. But that’s the beauty of this film. It’s almost like an anti-romantic comedy. Two dislikable people end up together, but we aren’t sure if they are really meant for each other, but regardless it becomes clear that they deserve each other anyways. You have to give the Coens credit for “thinking out of the box” and creating an unique entry in this mostly unoriginal film genre.

The Story of Us

In The Story of Us, Ben (Bruce Willis) and Katie (Michelle Pfeiffer) Jordan are a California couple with two children who have reached a crossroads in their marriage after fifteen years. He is a writer who goes with the flow of his feelings and loves the anarchy of playfulness. She is a designer of crossword puzzles who has a need for order and propriety in her life. Unable to fully accept each other’s personalities and prone to replaying old behavioral tapes, they have made a “silent retreat to neutral corners.” While the kids are off at camp, they separate, postponing the actual announcement of the impending divorce until the end of the summer.

Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer are both great actors, but together in The Story of Us they are decent at best. The chemistry between these two is just not as strong as it could have been. They both do have some great individual acting moments during some scenes, but the story of this film is not strong enough to completely showcase their acting skills. As a result, it looks as if Willis and Pfeiffer are basically just “going through the motions” here. The supporting cast, which includes Rob Reiner and Rita Wilson, is mostly here for comic relief. Unfortunately, they aren’t any funnier than your typical “comic relief” characters in any other “romantic comedy”.

This movie could be described as Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally film 15 years later. Marriage is difficult, and it’s interesting topic to examine in a film. Many married people could probably relate to this film, but the story and characters are not that interesting to watch. There are a lot of flashbacks and voiceovers used, so we are mostly told what these two people have been through in their marriage. There is just very little reason to care about what happens to them, though. Especially when you realize halfway through the film that the ending is going to be mostly predictable anyways. In the end, The Story of Us is just an average “romantic comedy” at best that is really hurt by a lack of chemistry between two big name stars.

Chemistry and story go hand in hand with romantic comedies. Ben Stiller and and Jennifer Aniston were able to make Along Came Polly watchable eventhough it was poorly written. At the same time, though, if they were given better material to work with they could have really showed off their potentially great chemistry together. Take for example, George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Intolerable Cruelty. They not only had strong chemistry together, but they also had strong writing to back them up and their potential is realized. Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney prove the converse, though. They have almost no chemistry together in a film that is a combination of weak rip-off ideas from other films. But Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer also prove that big name stars can not always save an average “romantic comedy” with a weak story like in The Story of Us.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s latest Romantic Comedy Pack Quadruple Feature consists of four random romantic comedies thrown together. There are big stars featured throughout all four films, but they doesn’t always help a “romantic comedy” be a better film. Therefore, this set is really made up of one great film with an unique twist on the “romantic comedy” format that everyone should watch (Intolerable Cruelty); another film that is slightly watchable and above average (Along Came Polly); and two more that aren’t worth watching unless you are hardcore fans of the romantic comedy genre(The Wedding Date and The Story of Us). So once again this set proves that it’s extremely hard to find four great or even good romantic comedies to put on one box set that everyone will love.

The video for all four films is given in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen color, which is enhanced for 16:9 TVs. Nothing special, but on par with other new release DVDs. No majors problems at all here.

The audio for all four films included is available in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English SDH as well. No problems here either as the music and dialogue come out loud and clear.

There are no extras for any of these films in this box set.

If you are a hardcore fan of the “romantic comedy” genre and don’t care about having any extras for these films, then you might consider buying this set. There really is only one film that could be considered “must-watch” and “must-rent” for everyone, even for “romantic comedy” haters. But you can just go rent Intolerable Cruelty and be done with it. So as a whole this set is not recommended for anyone really as there has to be a better collection of romantic comedies out there than this.

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Universal Studios Home Entertainment presents Romantic Comedy Pack Quadruple Feature.

Running time: 376 minutes. Rating: PG-13 (Along Came Polly, The Wedding Date, Intolerable Cruelty) and R (The Story of Us). Released on DVD: August 5, 2008. Available at Amazon.com