Dave (1993)

Written by Gary Ross and directed by Ivan Reitman, this good-hearted political fantasy seems silly, based on a one-line sitcom idea, but works so smoothly and so beautifully that it can restore your faith in America. Dave Mitchell (Kevin Kline) runs an employment agency and is a dead ringer for the crooked President of the United States. When the real POTUS suffers a stroke, Dave is tapped to impersonate him for an undetermined period of time. In reality, the evil White House Chief of Staff Bob Alexander (Frank Langella) has a plan for getting rid of both the president and the kindly Vice President (Ben Kingsley) and taking over the country. read more...

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Blended (2014)

Blended at least shows that Adam Sandler, who has offered up some of the laziest comedies of recent years, is still thinking about his career. Ten years after 50 First Dates (2004) has teamed up for a third time with Drew Barrymore, co-star of one of his most beloved films, The Wedding Singer (1998). As if for good luck, Sandler has also reunited with Wedding Singer director Frank Coraci (also of The Waterboy and Click). Sadly, the comparisons stop there. Sandler has once again used moviemaking to provide himself a paycheck and a vacation simultaneously; this time he brings his friends to a colorful African tourist resort, complete with amorous hippos. read more...

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Trainwreck (2015)

With Trainwreck, Amy Schumer wrote her first feature screenplay, which was then entrusted to Judd Apatow to direct; the result is, like all Apatow films, too long and quite messy. But it has that unique combination of outrageous comedy slowly and unexpectedly merging into heartfelt emotion. It may stretch the bounds of believability, but it's never phony. read more...

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• Optimistic ▶ Yes please
• Romantic Love ▶ Happily ever after

Elizabethtown (2005)

When Cameron Crowe was a young rock journalist, he probably had a good editor who helped shape his copy. Even when he wrote his first screenplay, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982, based on his own book), there was a director, Amy Heckerling, who translated it into a good movie. read more...

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Love Me Tonight (1932)

This delightful, inventive pre-code screwball musical feels like something that Ernst Lubitsch should have done, given that it uses his usual cast of players, and glides with a effortless lightness and a cleverness usually not associated with director Rouben Mamoulian (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Queen Christina). But Mamoulian's film this is, and it's a great one, featuring songs by Rodgers and Hart. You've never seen a number like "Isn't It Romantic?" begun casually by tailor Maurice (Maurice Chevalier) in his shop, carried out into the street by a happy customer, picked up by a cab driver, jotted down by a songwriter, who gleans lyrics from a group of singing soldiers on a train, etc. read more...

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• Love Story ▶ Yes please
• Funny ▶ Yes please
• Romantic Love ▶ Happily ever after