Andy Tennant
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Isn't It Romantic (2019)
Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson
influenced by Sweet Home Alabama (2002)
Themes
When her assistant (Betty Gilpin) watches Sweet Home Alabama at work, Natalie calls the movie a “masterpiece of shit.”
With a script by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox and Katie Silberman, “Isn’t It Romantic” demonstrates a clear affection and deep knowledge of romcoms from “The Wedding Singer” to “Sweet Home Alabama,” but this love isn’t blind.
Along the way, we get nostalgic homages as Natalie grows up adoring “Pretty Woman” (1990), her co-worker religiously watches “The Wedding Singer” (1998) and her friends regularly reference “Notting Hill” (1999), “Sweet Home Alabama” (2002) and “13 Going on 30” (2004).
Another inspired bit of casting is the slimy Pierre LePieu, a lecherous rich man who wants to buy Danielle, played by Richard O'Brien of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
And in Andy Tennant's Hepburn homage (The Philadelphia Story meets Breakfast at Tiffany's), her spin as Melanie Carmichael (nee Smooter), a Deep South scruff turned Fashion Week design darling (godawful wardrobe notwithstanding), lacks both Kate's sly ambivalence and Audrey's sad grace.
Materialists (2025)
Directed by Celine Song
influenced by Hitch (2005), Sweet Home Alabama (2002)
Plot
Will Smith stars in this earlier variation on the "single matchmaker" premise, playing a dating coach who's more adept at solving his clients' romantic problems than his own.
We’ve seen elements of this tale as old as time in The Notebook, Sweet Home Alabama, Made of Honor, and more.
Like "The Taming of the Shrew" or Emma, Hitch meets his match in tabloid columnist Sara (Mendes), who mistakes his helping schlub Albert (Kevin James--the real surprise of the show) to woo heiress Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta) for something venal instead of something wonderful.
And in Andy Tennant's Hepburn homage (The Philadelphia Story meets Breakfast at Tiffany's), her spin as Melanie Carmichael (nee Smooter), a Deep South scruff turned Fashion Week design darling (godawful wardrobe notwithstanding), lacks both Kate's sly ambivalence and Audrey's sad grace.
Building its legacy on the backs of “Romancing the Stone” with a little help from “Indiana Jones” and, to a lesser extent, the Kate Hudson/Matthew McConaughey vehicle “Fool’s Gold,” Aaron and Adam Nee’s “The Lost City” deserves some credit.
It probably has more in common with a movie like Fool’s Gold , although at least Tatum, Bullock and Pitt give it their all.
However, other such attempts like Fool's Gold or Six Days Seven Nights failed much harder, so "good enough" might be enough for The Lost City.
He’s a ideal protégé/charity case for pickup artist extraordinaire Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a mix of Will Smith’s character in “Hitch” and “How I Met Your Mother” player Barney Stinson—without the need to classify things as legendary, since Jacob’s swagger alone demonstrates when something awesome is about to happen.
Even in the similar Hitch (2005), where a guy with insight into women passed out advice to the hopelessly lost, Hitch (Will Smith) refused to help a guy who just wanted to have sex.
Hitch (Smith), a smooth, fourth-wall breaking ladies man (like Alfie or Robert Downey Jr. in The Pick-Up Artist), makes his living helping the helpless attract the attention of their ladies fair.
But where Hitch was all about the characters, Fool's Gold is much more concerned with external plot elements, infusing its rom-com storyline with treasure hunting a la Indiana Jones or National Treasure.
The aptly titled "Fool's Gold" is a retread of a retread – an attempt to cash in on such movies as the "National Treasure" series, which in turn were rip-offs of "Indiana Jones," which, as it happens, is being revived this summer.
The movie by that name appears to be a romantic comedy (maybe even a good one!), but is actually a "National Treasure" -style adventure caper that happens to involve a bickering couple.
After a few reels of hearing characters spout Weird Lost Factoids of History (alternated with bursts of ``Oh my GOD!!''), I started to get that queasy, sheepish, National Treasure-y feeling of being the stupidest kid in the room.
Think "National Treasure," but with more romantic bickering and less clothing.
No doubt conceived as an underwater version of National Treasure, Andy Tennant's film plays like a Three Stooges movie with scuba gear.
Even Reese Witherspoon (heavily involved in the film via Hello Sunshine) knows something about a good Southern love triangle (see: Sweet Home Alabama ).
Obviously, there's not much there with which to fashion a film, so screenwriter C. Jay Cox (making his debut) and director Andy Tennant ("Anna and the King," "Ever After") have essentially just taken the 1991 picture "Doc Hollywood," changed a few parameters, complications and characters, and called it their own.
This isn't to say that contrived episodes don't rear their ugly heads from time to time -- that's what keeps "Hitch" from being great guy-centric romantic comedy in the vein of Stephen Frears' "High Fidelity."
And so she leaves not just Jake, her teenaged husband, but her parents (Mary Kay Place and Fred Ward), her friends (including Ethan Embry and—she's back!Heavenly Creatures' Melanie Lynskey), and all of her acquaintances in Pigeon Creek, Alabama, without a word.
I’m going to be honest here and admit it has the “ Hitch ” factor.
But since then, the young actress has become America's new box office sweetheart, starring in her own "Legally Blonde" franchise, followed by the insipidly saccharine romantic comedy "Sweet Home Alabama."
Witherspoon, fresh off her successes with three exercises in being adorable -- the two "Legally Blonde" movies and "Sweet Home Alabama" -- may simply be too appealing to play Sharp.
Only Sarah Baker (2002's " Sweet Home Alabama ") gets a shot to play with the big boys as Marty's neglected wife Mitzi, an obviously (until now) untapped comic talent who runs away with her scenes.
As Chris, Sean Bridgers (2002's " Sweet Home Alabama ") is disquieting in his own right by so convincingly essaying the kind of evil soul that exists in one's everyday surroundings.
The Lopez-Fonda-Vartan axis in particular bears a striking resemblance to the Reese Witherspoon-Candice Bergen-Patrick Dempsey relationship from "Sweet Home Alabama."
This puts him on roughly the same career arc as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, except that he works anonymously and in a much bigger shtetl.