When in Rome, Do As the Romans Do and Don't Watch Shitty Romantic Comedies

I was watching the movie When In Rome, a movie about a girl who favors her career over everything until she finds loooooooove. It was sorta cute and kinda sappy and JUST LIKE ALMOST ALL ROMANTIC COMEDIES.

The dreamweavers in Hollywood, they can't come up with anything better than chocolate but they hope putting it in a colorful candy shell will be enough to land our butts in their theaters and our bucks in their wallets. This is true of all genres, but it tends to be very glaringly obvious with the romantic comedies. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy and girl live happily ever after once they overcome a series of wacky events.

Here are a couple of rom coms that don't fall in line.

Chasing Amy: First things first, there is no one named Amy in this entire picture.

Comic book artist Holden (played by Ben Affleck) falls for fellow comic book artist Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams) but, as it turns out, Alyssa is a lesbian. When Alyssa starts to develop feelings for Holden the movie takes an unexpected turn that forces us to ask what love really is: can it be defined by gender? Sexuality? Our past?

Even with the unique perspective, excellent directing, and witty writing of Kevin Smith, the movie still holds a bit to the Hollywood standard until the end when (SPOILERS) Holden and Alyssa break up. The ending is sad and touching, but mostly it shows that people can grow apart and still be okay.

Swingers: Mike (played by the director, Jon Favreau) has just been dumped and dumped hard. With the help of his womanizing friend Trent (the supreme Vince Vaughn) and his other warped and weird friends, Mike slowly gets over his hurt.

It's like watching a really good prequel to most crappy romantic comedies. We see Mike go through the pain of his break up, we see him pull himself up by hist boot straps and we see him meet someone new.

Swingers also talks about some of the more rarely discussed aspects of dating, like how long to wait before calling for the first time, how to deal with pain, and the benefits of NHL games on Sega Genesis.

When Harry Met Sally: When Harry (Billy Crystal) meets Sally (Meg Ryan), they hate each other. It takes about 12 years for them to finally get together, but during that time they become friends and grow closer and closer.

Out of the three, this movie is the most formulaic, but what is interesting about it is the sheer amount of time it takes for Harry and Sally to become lovers. It's one of the only movies where a romantic relationship grows out of a friendship that doesn't involve a high school girl dating a jock only to realize she loves her nerdy best friend.

It's kinda heart warming.

Iron Man 2: Now with more AC/DC

Iron Man 2 is a solid movie, no doubt about it.

If the first Iron Man was an AC/DC tour, Iron Man 2 would be more like an AC/DC reunion tour. It's the same songs again, but it still rocks hard.

The entire cast has returned, except for Terrence "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" Howard, who left due to a fallout with Marvel for unknown reasons coughMONEYcough. He is replaced with Don Cheadle.

The plot is like the first. Tony Stark has a neat toy, someone else wants his neat toy and tries to build a better toy which Tony promptly pounds into rubble. This time around it is Justin Hammer (played by Sam Rockwell) who is the dime store version of Stark. Hammer employs tattooed Russian psycho Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) after he sees him in action with some electric whips. Needless to say, hijinks ensue.

I think the point where Robert Downey ends and Tony Stark begins is starting to blur like my vision when I'm drunk. If there is any fault in Downey's portrayal of Tony Stark, is that he is a little too accurate with his narcissism and cleverness.

Gwyneth Paltrow still does a good job as Pepper Pots, the anchor that keeps Stark from drifting in a haze.

Don Cheadle, who had the toughest role of all, stepping into the shoes of another actor, did great. He fit in pretty seamlessly and his opening dialogue was awesome.

Sam Rockwell takes his performance as a third rate weapons mogul and knocks it out of the park. His every motion, every word, is like someone took a pound of Robert Downey and cut it with baby laxative.

Scarlett Johansson... well, to quote Tony Stark, "I want one!"

I could go on about the cast -- talk about how fantastic Samuel L. Jackson was, or how bad-ass Micky Rourke looked covered in Russian prison tats, or even how great Jon Favreau was as Happy, the hapless bodyguard -- but I would just be babbling about how great they all were.

Speaking of Favreau, he really did a bang-up job with the directing. A lot of people forget that the best part of an action movie is the comedy, but this movie had it in big honking spades, thanks to Jon.

The franchise is not without its faults: the plot was a replica of the first one but with more robots and less terrorists; AC/DC is a wonderful band, but using them as musical back bone is annoying; and if I see one more Iron Man ad that isn't for the movie, I am going to buy an Audi Spyder just so I can crash it into a 7-11.

The movie is 4 stars all the way. Go see it.