‘Love is in the air’, is the perfect tagline for romantic comedies. While comedy is the most-watched genre in the United States, romantic comedies have a twist of added hope and positivity that lights up our mood instantly. Due to the ongoing stress of the mundane lifestyle, romantic comedies are reassuring and promising about the goodness of the world. The idealistic settings, the flawless scripts, the uncompromised casting, and the seamless direction makes audiences fall in love with the characters in a beat.
With Spring coming up and our lives getting back on track, it is essential that we set our mood accordingly as well. Whether you are a cable TV enthusiast or streaming service buff, you must be planning on starting your weekends with the best of cinematic experience and so this article is brought to you with a list of the best romantic comedies (in no particular order) to brighten up your weekends.
The movies listed in this article can easily be found on streaming services or if you are a subscriber of Optimum cable, you would have no problem watching these movies on cable TV with a vast channel lineup of more than 220 channels.
Notting Hill (1999)
- Directed by: Roger Michell
- Lead Cast: Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts
- Box Office: $364 Million
‘I am just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her,’ the most iconic dialogue of the movie is picturized so beautifully that no matter how many times you have watched it, it always brings a sense of love, hope, and heartfelt feelings alongside. Notting Hill is the epitome of romance and stars the kind and queen of romantic comedies, Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. The movie is about a British bookseller, William, who meets and falls in love with a high-profile American movie star, Anna. As the movie progresses, we find their relationship going through various socio-economic crises.
10 things I hate about you (1999)
- Directed by: Gil Junger
- Lead Cast: Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles
- Box Office: $53.5 Million
There can never be a romantic comedy movie list without the mention of this brilliant movie. Heath Ledger playing a bad boy, Patrick, as convincing as the sunrise, who starts falling in love with a cranky outcast, Kat, after a bet is set. This teen movie set the bar of rom-coms a bit too high and is still one of the most-watched and loved romantic comedies of all time.
Pretty Woman (1990)
- Directed by: Garry Marshall
- Lead Cast: Julia Roberts, Richard Gere
- Box Office: $463.4 Million
If you haven’t watch Pretty Woman ever, I am sure that you would have seen it being used as a reference in various hit movies and TV shows like The Office (US), etc. The ever so enchanting shopping scene of this movie is built to perfection. The movie features Richard Gere as Edward Lewis, an entrepreneur, who hires Vivian, played by Julia Roberts, to be his date for some social gatherings. The movie is layered with a lot of points that are still valid in today’s society.
Two Weeks Notice (2002)
- Directed by: Marc Lawrence
- Lead Cast: Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant
- Box Office: $200 Million
George Wade (Hugh Grant), a weak-willed but charming billionaire, hires a dedicated environmental lawyer, Lucy Kelson (Sandra Bullock), and grows to become dependable over her, for professional as well as personal matters, by the second. Lucy gives her two weeks’ notice period after getting overly exhausted by his dependability yet when her time comes to an end at the firm, she starts having second thoughts.
How to lose a guy in 10 days (2003)
- Directed by: Donald Petrie
- Lead Cast: Mathew McConaughey, Kate Hudson
- Box Office: $177.4 Million
This movie is a classic expression of love, humor, and competition. It is about the power control in a relationship between Andie Anderson who wants to feature a column about the things leading up to a breakup and Ben Berry who needs to make her fall in love with him for a big project. But does their plan pan out or does love get in the way?
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
- Directed by: Sharon Maguire
- Lead Cast: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant
- Box Office: $281.9 Million
It would not be wrong to say that many among us started writing a diary just because of this movie and its brilliance. At the start of the 21st century, this movie showed us what modern relationships are like. Now that almost twenty years have passed, the modernity of this movie is still there when it comes to relationships. Should you fall for charms and looks or heart and sincerity? This movie opens our eyes in ways we did not even know were needed.
27 Dresses (2008)
- Directed by: Anne Fletcher
- Lead Cast: Katherine Heigl, James Marsden
- Box Office: $162.7 Million
If you love weddings, you are definitely going to love this movie. The introduction of the movie shows us a different angle of weddings making them better for all of us ever since. The movie is about Jane Nichols, played by Katherine Heigl, who loves being a bridesmaid. By the end of the movie, you are going to attend more than two dozen weddings making it a 3-D experience out of a 2-D movie.
My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
- Directed by: Paul J. Hogan
- Lead Cast: Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz
- Box Office: $299.3 Million
This is that one movie allowing you to shift your preference again and again. One second you want the guy to go with his best friend and then in a moment, you want to have him with his fiancé forever. Julia Roberts plays the best friend that realizes her love for Dermot Mulroney after he gets engaged to Cameron Diaz. How Julia tries to ruin their relationship and how it becomes stronger after every ploy, makes you want to believe in love so much more. No matter who you support in the start, you are going to end up wanting Diaz and Mulroney together by the end of this roller coaster movie.