TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983)

It's OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/Women's picture month (Film 12 of 12)

Terms of Endearment

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...

Jack Nicholson plays an ex-astronaut. If he ever played a current astronaut, I guess that would be acceptable as well.

We hope you have enjoyed It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture month. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to shoot an animal before consuming it, drink a beverage with an extremely high alcohol content, fix a mechanical maintance problem on my Harley Davidson, watch all the Die Hard movies in succession because, why? Because I am a man! I am Spartacus!...Spartacus? Yes, that's it! Forget Die Hard. It's Stanley Kubrick movies next month.

OUT OF AFRICA (1985)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...month

(Film 11 of 12)

Out of Africa

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if…

It won the Best Picture Oscar for the year it came out and you’re trying to see all the movies on that list, too. Of course, that means I still have to sit through Broadway Melody of 1929 and Cimarron.

A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1986, GREAT BRITAIN)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...month

(Film 10 of 12)

A Room With a View

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if…

It's a Merchant Ivory film, so then people can say at cocktail parties things like "Have you seen the latest Merchant Ivory? I think Merchant Ivory films are exquisite! The nineteenth century comes alive whenever I see a Merchant Ivory!" or if they're really being honest they can say, "I watch Merchant Ivory films, so that makes me better than you!"

THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...month 

(Film 9 of 12)

The Princess Bride

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if…

To paraphrase Peter Falk, "if there’s lots of fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles" and I'll throw in that anything is OK if it has Wallace Shawn (pictured above) in it.

My new favorite line from The Princess Bride is Wallace saying to Andre the Giant, “Do you want me to send you back to where your were? Unemployed…in GREENLAND!" (It doesn’t print funny, it’s all in how he says it.)

THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964, FRANCE)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...month 

(Film 8 of 12)

Umbrellas of Cherbourg

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if…

It’s all sung in French but isn’t actually a musical. I know that's a strange rule, but I can't think of another one right now!

This might be at the top of my list of films that I’m a bit embarrassed to liking as much as I do…and did I mention all the dialogue is sung in French?

MY BRILLIANT CAREER (1979, AUSTRALIA)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...month 

(Film 7 of 12)

My Brilliant Career

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if…

It’s Australian…no, I used that excuse for Muriel’s Wedding.

I got to come up with something else. Well, I remember the previews when this movie came out. “My brilliant movie.” Eleanor Ringel of the Atlanta Constitution raved. But I was just wasn’t inspired to see it.

So wny is it okay for a guy to see it? Let’s see…when I told my wife I was going to watch it I said it’s got to be better than Sarah, Plain and Tall.. Ok, that’s the rule.

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romances/Chick flicks/ Women’s picture if...

It’s better than Sarah, Plain and Tall…which this movie is.

MURIEL'S WEDDING (1994, AUSTRALIA)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if... 

(Film 6 of 12)

Muriel’s Wedding

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...

It’s Australian

Note: I must have some affection for this picture as I took two different dates to see it. I married the second date.

BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945, GREAT BRITAIN)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture month 

(Film 5 of 12)

Brief Encounter

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...

It’s directed by David Lean

or

written by Noel Coward

or

both

ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture month 

(Film 4 of 12)

Roman Holiday

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...

Audrey Hepburn is in it.

PRETTY WOMAN (1990)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flicks/ Women’s picture if…month 

(Film 3 of 11)

Pretty Woman

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flicks/ Women’s picture if…

The main female character is a hooker. (I stress female to leave out that other Richard Gere movie, American Gigolo.)

or if...

It has George Costanza from Senifeld, so you the viewer can throw in some George lines if you’re bored such as “I was in the pool!” or “Van Delay! Van Delay!

It’s also interesting that the movie has Seinfeld's actual George Costanza (Jason Alexander) as well as the almost choice for George Costanza, Larry Miller, who has a pretty funny role as a very compliant salesman. Well, it's kind of interesting.

Also...

Speaking of American Gigolo, If I recall in that film, murder suspect Richard Gere gave advice on how to dress to detective Hector Eliznondo. In Pretty Woman, Hector Elinzondo sends Gere’s girlfriend/hooker/niece Julia Roberts to the proper store to get suitably dressed. I think I remember that correctly.

Also, we have the last or nearly the last screen appearance of film veteran Ralph Bellamy. I last saw Bellamy in the 1940 musical Dance, Girl, Dance with Lucille Ball. Lucy has a cameo of sorts in Pretty Woman during the scene when Julia Roberts is watching an I Love Lucy rerun. I'm still not sure if that would count as a connection in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game.

We also have a scene with Julia watching an Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant movie making the critical comparisons between her in this film and Audrey in Roman Holiday more obvious…which leads us to the next film on the list…

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989)

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...

(Film 2 of 11)

When Harry Met Sally

It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...

The lead actor is Billy Crystal

or

If someone that looks like Billy Crystal can win over someone that looks like Meg Ryan.*

*I do have to mention that this film is an exception to what I call The Meg Ryan exclusionary rule. It’s still NOT okay for a guy to watch either Kate and Leopold, IQ, The Women, French Kiss, Prelude to a Kiss, etc. But When Harry Met Sally, that is OK.

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1988, SPAIN)

Let’s face it. Pedro Almodovar’s film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a chick flick. It doesn’t have the subversive twists that the two other Almodovar films I’ve seen(Talk to Her, The Skin I’m In) have. Of course, for many American filmgoers, watching any film in Spanish may constitute subversion on at least some level.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a comedy about a middle aged woman who is coping with the breakup of her (married) boyfriend.

Now this film is in the 1001 movie book. But if this same plot had been in English and was directed by Garry Marshall and starred Sandra Bullock, I’d probably dismiss it as fluff. I realize that isn't particularly fair, but we all have our preconceived biases.

So this month, I've decided that I’m watching movies designed for the fairer sex and making up my own rules as I go along as to why it’s OK for a guy to watch it (other that it is in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book).

So here’s the first rule.
It’s OK for a guy to watch a Romance/Chick flick/ Women’s picture if...

Pedro Almodovar directed it.

That may seem like a pretty narrow rule and only pertains to a handful of films, but I'm new at this and I'm sticking with it.