What's the best chick flick you've ever seen in your life?

If I'm ever stuck alone in a destroyed world but with an intact video shop like Will Smith in "I am Legend" and I've watched everything else where do I begin with the chick flicks?

I'm thinking that some of the better ones might contain Julia Roberts and I've already seen these:
Pretty Woman (I went to it to see some flesh )
Erin Brokovich
4 Weddings and a Funeral (not with J.Roberts)
but I've also seen Fried Green Tomatoes and Benny and Joon, both with Mary Stuart Masterson (where is she now?). That's it, unless Groundhog Day or As Good As It Gets can be counted as chick flicks.

Are there any Sci-Fi chick flicks at all? I'd probbly start with them if they existed. So where do I begin once once I've cleared out all the Die Hards, Lethal Weapons, Zulu Dawns and so on?

For those who have as much interest in chick flicks as chick litt or watching paint dry, this thread could be converted into one which discloses "Film I would watch only if under extreme duress" - many people can't stand WWII films, John Wayne numbers or ones containing Burt Reynolds for example.

Auditor #9 wrote:

If I'm ever stuck alone in a destroyed world except with an intact video shop like Will Smith in "I am Legend" and I've watched everything else where do I begin with the chick flicks?

I'm thinking that some of the better ones might contain Julia Roberts and I've already seen these:
Pretty Woman (I went to it to see some flesh )
Erin Brokovich
4 Weddings and a Funeral (not with J.Roberts)
but I've also seen Fried Green Tomatoes and Benny and Joon, both with Mary Stuart Masterson (where is she now?). That's it, unless Groundhog Day or As Good As It Gets can be counted as chick flicks.

Are there any Sci-Fi chick flicks at all? I'd probbly start with them if they existed. So where do I begin once once I've cleared out all the Die Hards, Lethal Weapons, Zulu Dawns and so on?

For those who have as much interest in chick flicks as chick litt or watching paint dry, this thread could be converted into one which discloses "Film I would watch only if under extreme duress" - many people can't stand WWII films, John Wayne numbers or ones containing Burt Reynolds for example.

Great question Auditor #9, you have discerned that chick flicks are not an amorphous blob but a genre with great films as well as pure siucra.
Your list is pretty good, but where is "Dirty Dancing"?

Alien is a Sci Fi chick flick - yes it really is.
Willow is a fantasy chick flick
Sense and Sensibility is a classic chick flick
Waterloo Bridge - black and white weepy

Any of those will do for a night in with a box of chocolates.

Dirty Dancing was very good though it's a good while since I saw it. Is GI Jane a chick flick?

Auditor #9 wrote:

Dirty Dancing was very good though it's a good while since I saw it. Is GI Jane a chick flick?

No. Too muddy.

Try Amélie which is a warm film (well worth a view)


Or La Femme Nikita which rightly moves along and was copied in Point of No Return. I think the original is grittier.

http://srv14.movie-list.net/strube/trailers/la-femme-nikita-trailer-640x272.mov

The last comedy chick flick that I saw was an anime: The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

Well it was part scifi too, but mostly comedy.

I saw also a chick chick chick chick anime recently: Nana

It was half-way between girly teenager and realistic slice of life.

Auditor #9 wrote:

If I'm ever stuck alone in a destroyed world but with an intact video shop like Will Smith in "I am Legend" and I've watched everything else where do I begin with the chick flicks? .

Bend it Like Beckham. Kiera Knightly AND football. Everybody wins.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Are there any Sci-Fi chick flicks at all? I'd probbly start with them if they existed. So where do I begin once once I've cleared out all the Die Hards, Lethal Weapons, Zulu Dawns and so on?.

Zulu, the ultimate Bank Holiday film.

Auditor #9 wrote:

- many people can't stand WWII films, John Wayne numbers or ones containing Burt Reynolds for example.

John Wayne. He bottled in WW2. Even Jimmy Stewart managed 20 bombing missions over Germany.

I've seen Amelié and liked it. Bend it like Beckham should have been called Around the Bend, sorry. Teenage girl Animé ? Hmm sounds dodgy.

Was Kill Bill a chick flick? If so it was mighty fine and one worth getting a 42" plasma TV for.

Auditor #9 wrote:

I've seen Amelié and liked it.

At least it was a movie with good feelings. Quite a miracle these days. We had almost forgotten good feelings could exist.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Teenage girl Animé ? Hmm sounds dodgy.

You don't watch teenage girls anime? You are not normal.

By the way the word anime is a Japanese reduction of the English animation. If you want to appear upbeat with teenagers, you must clearly show that you distinguish manga (the comics) from anime (the cartoons).

Auditor #9 wrote:

Was Kill Bill a chick flick?

What was it if not a chick flick? It was also full of camp cliches from older martial arts movies.

arnaudherve wrote:

You don't watch teenage girls anime? You are not normal.

By the way the word anime is a Japanese reduction of the English animation. If you want to appear upbeat with teenagers, you must clearly show that you distinguish manga (the comics) from anime (the cartoons).

I know that stuff I think but I just haven't got into it yet. Is Ghost in the Shell one of those Animé films? And the films often derive from the comics I suppose? The teenagers I know are nihilists and Animanga presumes a bit of enculturation...

arnaudherve wrote:

The last comedy chick flick that I saw was an anime: The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

Well it was part scifi too, but mostly comedy.

I saw also a chick chick chick chick anime recently: Nana

It was half-way between girly teenager and realistic slice of life.

Talk of which, I left a little something for you on the "last meal" thread:

https://machinenation.forumakers.com/chatter-f5/last-meal-before-i-die-slow-posting-version

Bridget Jones Diary- over sentimental, but one of the best film fights ever is in it.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Is Ghost in the Shell one of those Animé films?

Yes, Ghost in the shell is probably your best introduction to top quality anime. And it is a chick flick too. A cyborg chick flick.

Yeah that looks good. I saw the Animatrix which was derived from Animé too. Would you say that Animé and Manga in general are chickflicklitt?

cactus flower wrote:

Talk of which, I left a little something for you on the "last meal" thread:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Would you say that Animé and Manga in general are chickflicklitt?

I don't understand chickflicklitt.

arnaudherve wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Would you say that Animé and Manga in general are chickflicklitt?

I don't understand chickflicklitt.

Chickflicks/Chicklitt - Animé is film and Manga is literature or comics. "Chicklitt" is the written women's art genre - Bridget Jones Diary, Celia Ahern's books, Maeve Binchy .. Literature written by, about and for women. I don't think JK Rowling's work qualifies.

So do you think manga and animé are chicklit and chickflicks overall?

When Harry met Sally is great (and there are a pile of lesser Meg Ryan ones while we're at it - Sleepless in Seattle, You've got mail.)

I thought that PS I Love You was good - though it's not my thing usually.

I love Pretty Woman.

Mama Mia is also very much a chickflick - it's well worth seeing but other stuff from this year is crap, such as Made of Honour, 27 Dresses...

Try The Road Home. It is a love story but it is somehow quite a sad tale. Forget the Batman remakes this is well worth watching.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQco7M-YjWQ&feature=related

Auditor #9 wrote:

So do you think manga and animé are chicklit and chickflicks overall?

No, because there are many genres, and books or anime for girls are just one of them. Works for girls are called Shoujo.

As regards the display of female characters in anime, the Japanese industry shows a tension between conflicting trends:

- A persistence of traditional Asian values for decency, and a commercial obligation of showing nudity in order to attract a teenager public. Showing nudity out of context is called fan service.

- A need to show females in traditional female roles, and a need to show them in modern superhero or leading roles.

- An international audience, and not very exportable Japanese fetishes for erotism. In particular, they have a thing for panties, which would make you think they are 8 years old in mental age.

- A repeat of the same themes in almost all works, and a huge creativity in reinterpreting those themes. Like "schoolboy is harassed by several girls" is an endlessly repeated feature, and yet different each time.

- A difference between the concept of Hentai and the concept of Ecchi (pronounce Etchi). Hentai means porn, Ecchi means the use of erotic situations for comedy purposes.

- A preference for the most naive emotions (like the characters remembering a childhood love), more naive than European standards, and a preference for violence that is far beyond European standards.

If you want to see an example of profoundly naive plus ecchi erotic comedy, there is Zero No Tsukaima.

If you want an anime that is not so great but where the characters themselves are manga drawers, there is Doujin Work.

- Nodame Cantabile is centred around musical culture

- In Honey And Clover the characters are artists in an art school

- In Moyashimon you have a comedy about biological science

- In Spice Wolf you have medieval economic history

- In Mushi Uta the visuals are above average

- In Paprika the music is above average

- In Futakoi Alternative the arrangement of time sequences and flasbacks is very avant-garde

- In Fooly Cooly the absurd psychology is very avant-garde too

Sure you will find the best and the worse in Japanese anime. Many are great in some aspects and terrible at other aspects. So don't judge the whole industry after having seen just three examples.

Seems like you know your Animé and your Manga. I haven't seen any of the films but might start soon - it's time. I'd imagine that the whole genre is very rich overall, if judging from the sheer volume of it is anything to go by. Mills and Boon is voluminous too though but manga gets its place on library shelves and every bookshop, often prominently and proudly placed.

I was struck by the visuals in some of the manga comics but the gratuitous and inane porn and nudity has skewed my imagination on what the stories themselves might be like.

Auditor #9 wrote:

I was struck by the visuals in some of the manga comics but the gratuitous and inane porn and nudity has skewed my imagination on what the stories themselves might be like.

It is certainly beyond the Western boundaries, not only for decency but also for mental coherence. I guess many of them are the kind that teenager boys will hold with one hand only.

However I watch anime but don't read manga. I find it too difficult to bear the simplistic drawings after having read European comics during my childhood. For anime they have the time and the money to do better.

arnaudherve wrote:

It is certainly beyond the Western boundaries, not only for decency but also for mental coherence. I guess many of them are the kind that teenager boys will hold with one hand only.

However I watch anime but don't read manga. I find it too difficult to bear the simplistic drawings after having read European comics during my childhood.

I must try to get into it just to see what it might be like inside the head of a teenage Japanese boy. Do girls not get a kick out of this at all ?

Now I don't mind the simplistic drawings as you call it - it's refreshing enough alongside my memories of the comics I've read, 2000AD having some of the best artwork ever of any comics anywhere, if you know it. It's the 'mental coherence' side of things as you call it - the extreme violence next to the panties Battle-Royale style, all wrapped up in a pokemonish/tamaggotchi aura. I suppose making the imaginative leap to that is of the order of the making the leap of appreciation to chick-flicks themselves.

When Harry Met Sally I liked (and thanks for the recommendation to the other one Squire)

Edit

arnaudherve wrote:

This is a beauty by the way - 3 minutes of something that just couldn't be done with conventional film without enormous expense and the effect and lasting impression is probably better... a true art indeed.

Apocalypse..!..............eh, sorry............Chocolat.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Erin Brokovich
4 Weddings and a Funeral (not with J.Roberts)

I've seen them and Notting Hill too.

Quote :

but I've also seen Fried Green Tomatoes and Benny and Joon, both with Mary Stuart Masterson (where is she now?). That's it, unless Groundhog Day or As Good As It Gets can be counted as chick flicks.

I've seen Groundhog Day again, and again, and again and, well, you get the idea. That's very good and I question the idea that it is a chick flick since Bill Murray plays such a central role and injects a good masculine presence into the film.