Movies

5 Cringey Rom-Coms if You Have Low Standards for Your Guilty Pleasures

5 Cringey Rom-Coms if You Have Low Standards for Your Guilty Pleasures
Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Sony Pictures Releasing, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

They are so bad we love them with our whole hearts.

Every movie genre serves a purpose, right? But it's still not clear why we have romantic comedies. Some of them are reassuring and make us believe in love again. Some of them portray toxic relationships that we can learn to escape in reality.

Yet, romance is also the genre that can be the most cringeworthy of all. But we still watch them hundreds of times, because who are we to resist our most guilty pleasures?

So here are some pretty awkward romantic comedies that will live forever in our hearts.

1. The Proposal (2009)

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What is the most important thing that makes a rom-com great? Of course, the main couple of the movie. There should be logic and chemistry between them, and the viewers will truly believe that they are actually following two people in love (or sometimes just falling in love).

But when a film fails in that, what does that leave us? Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds tried hard to make the audience believe they fell for each other during three days in Alaska despite hating each other for three years… Still, it feels good to see a love story end well, even if it’s not quite realistic.

2. Just Go With It (2011)

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This Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston rom-com is my personally favorite movie featuring the actors, and the fact that it’s absurd on so many levels just makes me love it even more. The premise of the movie is quite simple: we have our male lead, a successful surgeon, and his “ugly Betty” secretary, who saves him all the time.

They go on a trip together to try to impress Danny's new love interest, a young hot woman named Palmer, but as usually happens in these movies, he ends up realizing that the real treasure was Katherine all along.

3. 50 First Dates (2004)

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Another Adam Sandler rom-com, because he is just so perfect for the roles of a soon-to-be middle-aged man coming to his senses in terms of commitment. He never wanted to get married or start a serious relationship until he met Lucy, the woman of his dreams. And here comes the cringe part…

The writers invented a disease for her, that results in a young girl waking up every day on the same day, not remembering whatever happened to her yesterday. But some magical way Sandler makes it all work out and they end up being a happy family.

4. The Princess Diaries (2001)

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Anne Hathaway is one of the best actresses of our generation, and there's no way you missed this movie when you were a little younger. In The Princess Diaries, a teenage girl named Mia Thermopolis finds out that she is a princess, and now she has to go through some tough training to become a real one.

As heartfelt as a teen love story can be, this one even has love triangles, including heartbroken Michael and bad-guy-turned-good-guy Sir Nicholas. What a way to live when you are 16, right?

5. The Holiday (2006)

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This is my all-time favorite Christmas romance, and it always makes my day a little better, despite the low ratings and general hatred from people who take movies a little too seriously.

Kate Winslett and Cameron Diaz play the roles of two female leads in the movie, and they get to a point where they are just so tired of all the male drama. So they somehow decide to swap homes in each other's countries, and this creepy decision brings them to the peace and love they dreamed of.