- Say Anything (1989)-Even if you haven’t seen this movie, you’ve probably seen the iconic scene where John Cusack stands outside holding a boom box over his head that blares “In Your Eyes” to the love of his life, Diane Court (Ione Skye). Cusack plays Lloyd Dobbler, an average teenager that procrastinates figuring out the next step in life when he falls in love with the beautiful valedictorian of his high school, Diane. He convinces her to go out with him just by calling her up. It really was that easy. However, keeping her is the difficult part since she will be leaving for England in a few months and doesn’t want to be tied down. This is a classic teen 80’s movie that leaves you feeling good. The relationship between the two is sweet but not sappy and much less dramatic than most romance movies.
- Silver Linings Playbook (2012)- This peculiar picture received many Oscar nominations and won Jennifer Lawrence her first Academy Award for Best Actress. The film stars Bradley Cooper as Pat Solitano, a man that has finally been released from a mental institution after a psychological breakdown. He meets a stranger girl named Tiffany (Lawrence) that shares his background of mental problems. They fall in love trying to help Pat win back his ex-wife. This movie has a brisk pace and it’s often awkward and uncomfortable, but it’s also humorous and charming. The acting performances in this movie are unforgettable.
- 500 Days of Summer (2009)- This film is different to say the least. At the beginning of the movie, a narrator declares that it is not a love story. However, a relationship between Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is the main focus of the picture. Tom falls in love with the new coworker, Summer, and they share many great days together talking about all the random stuff they like and exploring the city. Tom is convinced that Summer is the one. But then, out of nowhere, Summer ends it. What’s Tom going to do now? This movie offers really cool cinematography, music, and even a delightful dance/musical number.
- Edward Scissor Hands (1990) – 500 Days of Summer may be different, but Edward Scissorhands is the definition of weird. This odd little film shot Johnny Depp into stardom when he played a quiet and shy manmade creature with multiple scissors for hands. He is taken in by a suburban family when he stumbles upon the neighborhood and becomes a useful tool for many people in the town. Winona Ryder is the kind and accepting teenage daughter of the family that falls in love with Edward. This film is strange but endearing and even pretty funny.
- Ghost (1990)- One of Patrick Swayze’s best films, Ghost tells the story of a man that tries to keep in touch with his girlfriend (Demi Moore) from beyond the grave through a medium played by Whoopie Goldberg. It’s romantic, it’s mysterious, and it stars young Patrick Swayze. What more could you ask for?
- The Last of the Mohicans (1992) – Based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper and one of the manliest movies on this list, The Last of the Mohicans stars the always-amazing Daniel Day Lewis as Hawkeye, the white man adopted by the Indians that works as a trapper. During the French and Indian War, he and other members of his tribe work to save two daughters of a British Colonel. Hawkeye ends up falling for the beautiful elder daughter (Madeline Stowe), who thankfully is not a typical damsel in distress. She’s fiery and fights back against enemies and it makes you proud. This is a romantic movie camouflaged as an action/adventure movie, and it’s a really good one at that.
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)- If you like classic movies where everyone is well-dressed and Americans sound British because they’re just that classy, then you’ll like Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Starring Audrey Hepburn in her iconic role, this movie tells the tale of fortune- seeking Holly Golightly as she becomes intrigued by a young man that moves into her apartment building. They spend a lot of their time doing new and silly things like stealing masks from a toy store and engraving a Cracker Jack prize ring at a very expensive jewelry store by the name of Tiffany’s.
- WALL-E (2008) – Who would’ve thought a budding relationship between two robots would put most romantic movies to shame? WALL-E, a trash-compacting robot that cleans the unlivable, polluted, futuristic Earth, falls head over heels in love with EVE, a bright and sleek scouting robot sent to Earth to search for any life on the planet. You will without a doubt go “Awww” when you see the adorable WALL-E show EVE how wonderful the world used to be as he tries out chivalrous gestures from all the old movies he’s seen.
- The Phantom of the Opera (2004) – Yes, it is a musical. Yes, there is opera singing. No, the whole movie is not full-blown opera, thank goodness. This is personally one of my favorite musicals. The tragic tale of a brilliant deformed man, known as the Phantom (played by Gerard Butler, who is actually a very good singer), that lives in the catacombs of a French opera house. He secretly instructs a beautiful young woman to be a great opera singer, and becomes obsessed with her. When she falls in love with Raoul, a handsome and wealthy childhood friend, the Phantom will do anything it takes to keep her with him, even if he has to kill.
- P.S. I Love You (2007) – Another Gerard Butler movie, but this time he plays Gerry, the charming Irish husband of Holly (Hillary Swank), a young woman stuck in a job she hates wanting for their lives to actually start (bigger home, children, etc.). When Gerry dies unexpectedly, he leaves behind a series of letters for Holly to help her learn to live without him and enjoy life again.
- Chocolat (2000) – Juliette Binoche stars as a single woman that opens a chocolate shop in a small French village with her daughter, much to the disapproval of some of the townspeople with unbending morality. Costarring Johnny Depp, with no weird facial makeup, this well-made little film was nominated for five Oscars. This movie is subtle and very entertaining and full to the brim of mouthwatering chocolate so for the love of Hershey’s, make sure you have some chocolate to eat before you sit down to watch this movie.
- Australia (2008)- Holy Hugh Jackman! The man made famous by the X-Men plays, as he remarked at the 2009 Oscars ceremony, “an Australian playing an Australian in a movie called Australia”. In this Baz Luhrmann picture set in pre- World War II Australia, Nicole Kidman plays a wealthy woman whose husband has recently passed away. Another business man is threatening to take their cattle ranch in Australia and she has to travel to the land down under to prevent this. While there, she hires a stock-man (Jackman) to run the business while she works things out. The pair end up spending a lot of time together and reluctantly fall for each other.
- Braveheart (1995) – Another undeniably manly movie, the iconic 90’s movie directed by and starring Mel Gibson tells the story of William Wallace, a man that seeks to take down the English tyrants that are ruling the Scottish people. Wallace met a lovely little girl when he was a boy and she was very kind to him when he needed someone, but he had to move away with an uncle, never to see that girl for years. When he returns as a strapping young man years later, he discovers that same girl has grown into a beautiful young woman and he marries her in secret. Soon after they are married, an English soldier tries to rape Wallace’s wife and she fights him off. However, the English army executes her for assaulting a soldier. When Wallace discovers this, he is out for blood and forms an army out of Scottish commoners. If you haven’t seen this movie before, do yourself a favor and watch it.
- Benny and Joon (1993) – Oh look! It’s Johnny Depp again! As it turns out, he’s done quite a few movies without Tim Burton. Costarring Mary Stuart Masterson as a girl with unclear mental problems, this movie tells the story of how Joon (Masterson) falls in love with a strange fellow named Sam (Depp) that she won in a poker game. Sam is quiet, eccentric, and a very talented comic entertainer and earns Joon’s trust in a way that no one has ever done before.
- Crazy Stupid Love (2011) – This movie lives up to the title with a story of how multiple loves stories all come together. It is hilarious, star-studded, and not nearly as sappy as one could assume and features Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, and Kevin Bacon.
- Date Night (2010) – Steve Carell stars with Tina Fey in this hilarious movie about Phil and Claire Foster, a boring suburban couple that wants nothing more than an exciting night on the town. And that’s exactly what they get. They steal a dinner reservation at a hip new restaurant that was made under the name, Triplehorn. Turns out the Triplehorns are criminals and they spend their special night running from crooked cops.
- Dear Frankie(2004) – Emily Mortimer plays a single mother that struggles to tell her deaf son the story of his father and why he never gets to see him. So, she tells him his father is a sailor that can rarely come home. The little boy writes letters to his father, which his mother responds to in secret. When the father is supposed to come home to visit the boy, the mother hires a kind stranger (Gerard Butler) to act as the boy’s father.
- Mclintock! (1963) – This great western starring the one and only John Wayne holds a lot of laughs and mischief. Wayne plays a wealthy cattle baron, McLintock, a man respected by everyone around him. When his daughter returns home from school, along with his wife that left him a few years before, McLintock tries to reunite the family all while keeping his business in balance. This movie is comical (look for the scene where McLintock returns home drunk and falls down the stairs repeatedly) with fight scenes and romance, and it’s well worth the watch.
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) – This is a classic musical that never gets old. Howard Keel stars as a 1850’s backwoodsman that gets married and brings his wife home to his six brothers. When the brothers meet the lovely new bride, they decide they want to get married too. And actually kidnap six other lovely young ladies from town to bring back to their home in the mountains. When the horrified girls get stuck there for the winter and spend time with the brothers, they start to realize that maybe being taken from their old lives wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
- Sixteen Candles (1984) – Molly Ringwald stars as an average teenage girl whose family completely forgets her sixteenth birthday in the midst of planning for her older sister’s wedding. She is disappointed that she doesn’t look or feel any different as well. However, things aren’t completely awful because the guy she’s had a crush on, Jake Ryan, starts to see her in a new light.
- This Means War (2012) – This action rom-com is not anything close to an award-winning film, but it sure is a lot of fun to watch. Tom Hardy and Chris Pine play secret government agents and Reese Witherspoon is the woman they’re competing over. The agents take advantage of all the technology they have access to such as cameras, tracking devices, drones, and tranquilizer darts to sabotage the other’s chances to win the girl.
- Water for Elephants (2011) – Based on a novel by the same title, Robert Pattinson plays Jacob, a young veterinary student that leaves home after his parents die. He joins a traveling circus as a veterinarian and falls in love with the ringmaster’s wife (Reese Witherspoon). The ringmaster (Christoph Waltz) is abusive, controlling and refuses to let his wife go, but Jacob won’t give up that easily.
- What Women Want (2000) – Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt star in this romantic comedy about a chauvinistic man who, after an accident, gains the power to read women’s minds. He definitely takes advantage of this power at first, but eventually learns to really listen to what women want.
- 50 First Dates (2004) – After an accident that lead to a head injury, Lucy (Drew Barrymore) lives each day like it’s brand new. Now, when she falls asleep each night, she forgets everything that happened during the day. Now she unintentionally does the same thing every day and remembers nothing and no one she met after the accident. When Henry (Adam Sandler) falls in love with her, he will do everything he can to make her remember him. This movie is funny and oddly adorable.
- Seven Pounds (2008) – After getting in an accident that causes the death of seven people, including his wife, Ben (Will Smith) decides to try his best to make up for the lives lost, and meets a kind beauty (Rosario Dawson) with a heart problem. Beware, this movie is on the sad side.