It feels sort of mean trashing “Book of Love,” a bilingual romantic comedy that offers a clever premise but never truly delivers on it in satisfying fashion. Sam Claflin plays an author whose latest novel, “The Sensible Heart,” is a major dud. But the book becomes a huge hit in...
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Reviews
RogerEbert.com — Love, Guaranteed
“Love, Guaranteed” is the kind of movie you leave on the TV because you’re lying on the couch with a cold, and the remote control has fallen off the blanket onto the rug, and you don’t feel like going to the trouble to reach down, grab it and change the...
Read moreBreakfast All Day Podcast 2/15/19
We are your valentine and so much more on this jammed episode of Breakfast All Day. Alonso, Ben, Matt and I are together again — three weeks in a row! — with reviews of the sci-fi extravaganza “Alita: Battle Angel,” the horror-comedy sequel “Happy Death Day 2U” and the extremely...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Isn’t It Romantic
“Isn’t It Romantic” has a good time toying with all the tried-and-true rom-com tropes — the familiar, feel-good formula that inevitably leads to a happy ending. But it tries to have its red velvet cupcake and eat it, too, in simultaneously ridiculing and embracing the well-worn genre. Rebel Wilson is...
Read moreWhat the Flick?! Podcast 8/30/18
After 8 1/2 years, we’ve had to say goodbye to What the Flick?!, as you may have heard. But for the time being, at least, we’re reincarnating our YouTube film review show as a podcast. This week, Matt Atchity and I talk the historical thriller “Operation Finale,” the completely...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — How to Be Single
The ensemble rom-com “How to Be Single” manages the tricky feat of balancing bawdiness and sentimentality. It doesn’t do quite as good a job of connecting all its various story lines. But the cast is so winning, you may not mind, and there’s a moment toward the end that packs...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Man Up
“Man Up” is a pretty standard romantic comedy on paper, featuring all the tropes of the genre: the meet-cute, the wacky friends, the spontaneous dance routine, etc. But the charismatic Lake Bell and Simon Pegg have such sparkling chemistry, they make this predictable trip worthwhile. Bell, in Bridget Jones mode...
Read moreRogerEbert.com — They Came Together
Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler star in this parody of romantic comedies and all the formulas and cliches that make them seem so interchangeable. Working with director David Wain and an impressive supporting cast of likable comic talents, they’ve essentially made a formulaic, cliched romantic comedy. It’s sadly lifeless. My...
Read moreWhat the Flick?! — They Came Together
Alonso and I have a major disagreement with our good friend, Amy Nicholson, over whether the romantic comedy parody “They Came Together” is actually funny or not....
Read moreRogerEbert.com — Baggage Claim
“Baggage Claim” is so archaic in its depiction of feminine self-worth—and, frankly, so insulting—it’s amazing that it’s coming out in 2013, not 1963. My RogerEbert.com review. Read the review here...
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