Hitch

Romantic comedies (pretty much the worst sub-genre ever created, even beneath buddy-buddy cop movies) follow a very strict formula that allows for practically no variation, or imagination. Hitch is no exception.

Rule 1: the lead character must be a high-flier with a job that pays big bucks - eg working at a magazine, advertising exec, fashion designer, lawyer

Rule 2: the male character must be at the top of his game. He's got his shit sorted out and the last thing he needs is a woman coming along and messing it up. The guy-half of the audience will identify with this character but then get in touch with their feminine side at the end when they realise that he was a thin excuse for male chauvinism.

Rule 3: the female character REALLY is at the top of her game. She will destroy everything that the male character holds dear and it is okay for her to do so because she's a female chauvinist thinly disguised as blind female empowerment.

Rule 4: you WILL set it in New York, preferably in October.

Rule 5: add deception. One of the characters (either the male or the female) is lying and is not really who he/she says they are.

Rule 6: cute animals. Without a blind ferret/cute dog/parrot or some other such irritating contrivance your rom-com ain't worth nuthin'.

Rule 7: the poster should be one or two characters against a white background. You must conform to the total arrogance that a face and a name is enough to sell the film on its own, regardless if it is any good. The stars names will be in a font 20 times as big as the nobody director's.

Rule 8: clumsiness. Is a rom-com really a rom-com without some annoying character who walks into lampposts and falls down manholes?

As competent as it is, Hitch is not special, different, or ambitious enough to break away from any of these.

Will Smith is that dude who thinks he's got it made. His job is to bring people together and help them find true love and the irony is that he doesn't believe in true love himself until he meets Sara (Eva Mendes), after which "comic" misunderstandings and hijinks follow.

Man alive! You have seen this film a hundred times before and unless you're totally whipped by your woman no guy should go near it. Only idiots fall for these kinds of films and I'm sorry to say that most of the time they are girls.