With February being the month of love, it is the perfect time to catch up on some guilty pleasure rom-coms. Over the years, I’ve seen rom-coms that didn’t quite hit the mark and rom-coms that had me grinning from beginning to end. None of the movies I’ve listed are necessarily Oscar-worthy, but they were definitely entertaining enough to capture my attention for two hours.
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Friends with Benefits
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Stars: Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis
Friends with Benefits is probably one of the first rom-coms I’ve ever watched (and also one of the first R-rated movies I’ve ever seen), and to this day it still makes my favorites list. It tells the story of two good friends who decided to become friends with benefits, but end up as something more. I’m always weak for a good friends-to-lovers romance, and the chemistry between Timberlake and Kunis was one of the highlights of the film. It was also laugh-out-loud funny (in my humble opinion), and an all-around feel-good movie.
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The Proposal
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Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Sandra Bullock
The Proposal isn’t exactly my favorite rom-com ever, but I would still recommend it to anyone who wouldn’t mind staring at Ryan Reynolds’s face for two hours. This movie includes not only a hate-to-love romance between a boss and her employee, but also the fake dating trope where the two must pretend to be engaged. Once again, the chemistry between Reynolds and Bullock was amazing, and there were many hilarious and adorable moments as well. My only complaint is how fast the love interests fell for each other (they went from hating each other to wanting to marry each other in the span of one weekend!), but if you can look past that, then you are sure to enjoy this rom-com.
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Mr. and Mrs. Smith
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Stars: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is slightly different from the other movies on this list because it does include quite a bit of action. However, it is the movie that brought Brangelina together, so you know the chemistry is off the charts! The plot is also a bit more unique: it features a husband and wife whose marriage has lost its passion, until they find out that they are actually assassins who work for rival agencies and have been assigned to kill each other. Needless to say, the tension and drama is high in this one, and I quite enjoyed it!
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13 Going on 30
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Stars: Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo
13 Going on 30 might just be my favorite rom-com of all time. This movie has a bit of a magical element in that the main character is a 13-year-old girl who wakes up one day and finds herself transformed into a 30-year-old woman. There is just so much heart to this film, and Jennifer Garner does an amazing job at capturing the innocence of a child’s mind trapped inside an adult’s body. Plus, who doesn’t love Mark Ruffalo?
- Love, Simon
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Stars: Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Keiynan Lonsdale
Before I talk about the film, I feel the need to recommend Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, which is the book that Love, Simon is based on. I did read the book before seeing the movie, and I personally liked the book better because it included some scenes that were cut from the movie, and there were certain movie scenes I didn’t particularly love that weren’t in the book. That being said, if you’re not much of a reader, I would still recommend seeing this movie, because even with its flaws, it is still one of the cutest rom-coms I’ve ever watched. It tells the story of Simon, a closested high schooler who falls for a boy he meets online named Blue, and their love blossoms through the emails that they exchange. Besides the representation that this film brings, I also liked how it places a heavy focus on friendship. All in all, Love, Simon is definitely a can’t-miss film.