The bright, glossy world of Doris Day and Rock Hudson sex comedies gets a self-aware brush-up in Down with Love. Pillow-lipped Renée Zellweger (Chicago) plays Barbara Novak, the author of a bestselling book called Down with Love that advises women to focus on their careers and have sex à la carte--just like a man would. Determined to prove that Novak is just as vulnerable to ...

Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Starring: Ewan McGregor|Renee Zellweger
Directed By: Peyton Reed

Like a pumpkin that transforms into a carriage, some very shrewd casting (and the charisma of Julia Roberts, in particular) morphed this story of a Hollywood whore into a Disneyfied Cinderella story--and a mainstream megahit. This is the movie that made Roberts a star, her charms helping tremendously to carry viewers over the rough spots in the script (which was originally to be a cynical tale ...

Manufacturer: Touchstone Home Video
Starring: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Ralph Bellamy, Jason Alexander, Laura San Giacomo
Directed By: Garry Marshall

This charming update of Pygmalion (by way of the John Hughes oeuvre, most notably Pretty in Pink) rode the crest of the late-1990s wave of immensely popular teen films (Varsity Blues, etc.), thanks primarily to the immense charisma of its two leads, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook. When school star Zach (Prinze)--who's a jock, smart and popular--gets dumped by ...

Manufacturer: Cinema Club
Starring: Anna Paquin, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Rachael Leigh Cook, Freddie Prinze Jr.
Directed By: Robert Iscove

Pretty Brittany Murphy and prettier Ashton Kutcher make a surprisingly enjoyable comic team in Just Married, a romantic comedy about a horrible honeymoon. After a whirlwind romance, radio traffic announcer Kutcher and rich girl Murphy get married over the objections of her upper-crust family. Their love can overcome snobbery--but as the cuddly pair start to drive each other nuts over ...

Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy, Christian Kane, David Moscow, Monet Mazur
Directed By: Shawn Levy

Manufacturer: Prism Leisure
Starring: Famke Janssen, Jon Favreau, Noah Emmerich, Ann Magnuson, Cheri Oteri
Directed By: Valerie Breiman

Nice concept, shaky execution--that about sums up the mixed blessings of British actor Peter Howitt's intelligent but forgivably flawed debut as a writer-director. It's got more emotional depth than most frothy romantic comedies and its central idea--the parallel tracking of two possible destinies for a young London professional played by Gwyneth Paltrow--is full of involving possibilities. It's ...

Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah, John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Zara Turner
Directed By: Peter Howitt

After a succession of hugely successfully movies of a lower brow nature, Shallow Hal finds the Farrelly Brothers attempting a slightly more thoughtful film, albeit still tied up in their trademark toilet humour. It's an approach that is not unproblematic but not unsuccessful either, resulting in a film that engages the emotions in a manner that the likes of Dumb and Dumber, ...

Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Starring: Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Alexander, Joe Viterelli, Rene Kirby
Directed By: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Ever since the late 1970s when the Australian New Wave was in full surge, Down Under directors have delivered movies that often hit you like news from another planet. Offbeat characters, weird narrative twists and a tart mixture of laughs and catastrophe--this is the juice that fuels such flicks as Proof, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Strictly Ballroom, ...

Manufacturer: Touchstone Home Video
Starring: Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Bill Hunter, Sophie Lee, Roz Hammond
Directed By: P.J. Hogan

Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Robin Givens, Halle Berry, David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence
Directed By: Reginald Hudlin

One of the best romantic comedies of the 1990s as well as a box-office hit, Jerry Maguire cemented writer-director Cameron Crowe's reputation as "the voice of a generation". Crowe could probably do without that label, but he's definitely in sync with the times with this savvy story about a sports agent (Tom Cruise) whose fall from grace motivates his quest for professional recovery, and the ...

Manufacturer: 4 Front Video
Starring: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston, Jerry O'Connell
Directed By: Cameron Crowe