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Iconic director John Hughes dies

’80s flashback: Video tribute to Hughes classic films

Photos from his movies

You know you’ve made an impression in Hollywood when your name is a genre.

Because when a film is described as “something like a John Hughes movie,” a picture emerges as crisp as the hook of a Smiths song:

It’s about a teenager, usually from the wrong end of the popularity scale, who willingly breaks the rules of social clique and class to find their true selves, and perhaps an awesome girl or guy, in a burst of wry observation, clever catchphrases, and an irresistable, hip soundtrack. It might also be set in the 1980s.

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Read real life ‘Harry met Sally’ stories

Released 20 years ago this summer, When Harry Met Sally … famously pondered whether men or women can be friends without “the sex thing” getting in the way, as Billy Crystal’s Harry so bluntly put it.

But looking at all of the romantic comedies that tried to match Rob Reiner’s touching and funny 1989 hit, and failed, a better question might be: Will there ever be a mainstream comedy about adult men and women, friendships and sex that rings as smart and true as this one?

The answer is: maybe. But no one’s managed to pull it off in the past 20 years. And given the recent crop of dismal, crass, chemistry-free chick flicks, such as the depressing downer P.S. I Love You or movies about undeserving jerks who get the girl or guy anyway (Made of Honor, Serendipity), I’m not hopeful.

Historically, When Harry Met Sally worked, in some ways, because moviegoers were hungry for movies that weren’t about teen angst, cops blowing up stuff or a formerly arrogant Tom Cruise learning an important life lesson about … something.

It was about a decadelong connection between two imperfect grown-ups, Harry and Sally (Crystal, Meg Ryan), who took their time getting to know each other, with a Nora Ephron script inspired by real experiences (hers and Reiner’s) with a lived-in casualness that can’t be rushed.

When Harry Met Sally … did more than answer the question about, as Harry Connick Jr. sang on the soundtrack, “making two lovers of friends” (read further for my take on that). It sweetly, soberly and satisfyingly addressed a few other issues very few movies have even tried to get near since, and ones I didn’t really get when I first saw the movie at 18, but that, at 38, ring true now:

“HE’S NEVER GOING TO LEAVE HIS WIFE, IS HE?” The divine Carrie Fisher, who in 1989 was still mostly known to movie fans as Princess Leia, plays Sally’s friend, Marie, who has a long-standing affair with a married man. Most movies would have made her wacky, slutty or tragic. But Ephron’s script is smart enough to let Marie’s affair play out to the point where she one day looks up and finally speaks the truth her friends have been trying forever to smack into her lovely head. She finally gets it. And it’s the thing Marie has to get past before she can find true love. Who among us hasn’t almost missed out on something awesome because we refuse to get out of our own way? (Put your hand down. I don’t believe you.)

“ALL THIS TIME, I THOUGHT HE DIDN’T WANT TO GET MARRIED. BUT, THE TRUTH IS, HE DIDN’T WANT TO MARRY ME.” When Harry Met Sally … is full of “Ouch, too close to home” moments, and the ouchiest is the scene when Sally grieves over the news that her ex, Joe, is getting hitched to someone else. She’d convinced herself, when they broke up, that he just wasn’t made for commitment, when the truth was that he wasn’t committing to her. Again, it’s the sort of truth that requires admitting that the problem, sometimes, is you. I don’t know one woman over 25 – me included – who hasn’t talked herself into believing that she’s with a commitmentphobe who pretty much commits to the first girl he runs into on the street on his way back from breaking up with you.

CAN WOMEN AND MEN BE FRIENDS WITHOUT SEX GETTING IN THE WAY? All right, so here’s the big one, which turns out to be a trick question. When Harry and Sally meet after college, he says that they can’t, as long as one of the friends wants to have sex with the other, which is probably why that friendship doesn’t happen for another 10 years. And when they finally do become close, they manage to be friends for years, even though they’re beginning to be drawn to each other. When they finally do give in to that attraction, on the night that Sally has that realization about Joe not wanting to marry her, they prove Harry right – she nests too quickly, he bails, and they wind up not only not dating but not being friends.

And again, a lesser movie would have had them find their way back to each other immediately, probably with one or the other breaking up the other’s wedding at the altar. Ephron and Reiner let them pursue and ignore each other, fight, and then really miss each other. When Harry runs, breathless, through the streets of New York to finally declare his love on New Year’s Eve, he realizes that yes, it’s hard to just be friends with someone you have deeper feelings for.

But when it’s right, love can be even deeper when you really, really like each other.

'G-Force' took the top spot at the box office over the weekend. (Walt Disney Pictures)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An elite squad of guinea pigs has worked its own brand of magic at the box office, taking the No. 1 spot from boy wizard Harry Potter.

The 3-D G-Force was the top movie at the box office this weekend, opening with $32.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Walt Disney release from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, with its mixture of live action and computer-generated animation, is a Mission: Impossible-style adventure. It features voiceover work from Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan and Penelope Cruz as resourceful rodents.

Last week’s No. 1 film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, came in a close second with an estimated $30 million. That’s a whopping 61-percent drop from its huge opening last weekend of $79.5 million.

Coming in third was another of the week’s wide releases, the battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy The Ugly Truth, which had a $27 million opening.

The sixth installment in the Harry Potter franchise has now made $222 million total, which is $14 million ahead of where part five, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was after 12 days in theaters in 2007. And this week, Half-Blood Prince will start showing on 166 IMAX screens, which the last Harry Potter movie did from the start.

“So we’re coming in with this one (in IMAX) a little bit late, but it’s going to be a great addition and it’ll keep our momentum going,” said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.’ head of distribution.

G-Force triumphed in a crowded summer marketplace with its combination of 3-D effects and the Disney and Bruckheimer brands, said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney’s motion-picture group.

“You never go into a situation where you’re competing against two important movies — the second weekend of ‘Harry Potter’ and the opening weekend of ‘The Ugly Truth’ — you never go in cocky,” Zoradi said.

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Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler star in ‘The Ugly Truth ‘. (Sony Pictures) | ‘Ugly Truth’ Premiere

Leslie Grey Streeter: Is Katherine Heigl biting the feeding hand again?

Is the ugly truth about The Ugly Truth that no critic likes this movie?

At this point, the romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler has scored a horrific 8 percent at Rotten Tomatoes.

The good news for The Ugly Truth is that it’s early yet. A film that had previously scored a zero, I Love You Beth Cooper, finally started getting positive reviews and now has a whopping 13-percent score.

Metacritic, which uses fewer reviews but more sophisticated scoring, has so far given it a 55.
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Pics of ‘Ugly Truth’ Premiere

Another day, another interview with Katherine Heigl apparently talking smack about “Grey’s Anatomy.”

The up-and-coming romantic comedy queen was pushing her newest flick, the amusing-looking “The Ugly Truth,” on “The Late Show With David Letterman,” and just couldn’t stop herself from complaining about how long the “Grey’s” overlords worked her when she returned for the upcoming season. (Her character, terminally ill doctor Izzy, was flatlining as the last episode ended, and was pondering riding an elevator to heaven with former lover George, who, judging from the fact that portrayer T.R. Knight isn’t coming back, is really, most sincerely dead.)

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt thinks it’s time to acknowledge that stories of broken hearts are not exclusive to females. 500 Days of Summer is his answer to the chick flick.

Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf discovered that his new film whimsically flings us back and forth through the silly days, the sexy days and the sad days in the saga of a romance.

The scars, the vivid memories — Gordon-Levitt understands the dumpee
“I’ve had my heart broken. Yeah. I know what it feels like and I wanted this movie to take it seriously because I think the truth is actually funnier than a pack of lies. When I look back at me in my broken-hearted phase it’s pretty hilarious because it feels so much more extreme than it really is.”

See photos of the latest celebrity breakups and hookups

Pain can be good for you
“I think it’s good to take it seriously. It’s fine to feel it and get hurt and get upset and give yourself a good cry and listen to loud music. It’s healthy. I don’t know, I came out of it a better man, I think.”

Don’t believe that greeting card wisdom.
“I think that love can be as strong as lightning, but I do not think it works the way they say it does. I think it works differently for every unique individual and that is what we are here to figure out. You have to figure it out for yourself instead of listening to the conventional wisdom. I think that is why [my character] Tom ends up heartbroken. Reality does not always meet up with your expectations.”

Find out which stars got a second chance at love

Try to see it my way
“This character deifies the girl he has a crush on. He is not objective so it works that the film is subjective– all his point of view. Since it’s one person it’s more about what he feels like than what actually happened. It’s like the guy you hear in your own head when you are living something. That is not reality.”

The ultimate morning after
“There is this one scene after they finally sleep together. He’s had a crush on this girl for so long and finally made love. The next morning he is on top of the world. To an objective observer it might look like you are just walking down the street with a smile on your face. We’ve all been there. It feels good. But the way it feels to you is that the whole world is like dancing in the street with you and slapping you high five and congratulating you.”

So Joe thought he could dance?
“We dance in the movie because it’s his memory of the feeling. For me, man it was a fantasy. I mean ever since I was real young–and even though it’s sad news about Michael Jackson–it makes me think about some of the happiest times in my childhood. Dancing in front of the television screen watching Thriller. I never thought I was going to be the dude in front of 30 dancers doing the choreography. But that is what happened in 500 Days of Summer. It was almost a surreal experience, dancing down that street, getting to be something that I have always dreamed of since I was young.”

See photos of stars who can sing, dance and act!

Karaoke may be better after you down a few.
“I had to step up for this movie. I mean not to endorse the alcohol industry too hard. But if you are going to get up and sing at a bar, you might as well have a couple.”

Third Rock made him shy
“When I was young, I was phobic about that kind of recognition. I think it was mostly just because I was kind of selfish when I was young. I just cared about my own pleasure. It was a pleasure to create that show.”

Fans are no longer alien to him
“As I grew older, I started to care about more than just my self. I’m not sure why, but I just felt somehow connected to the rest of the world. So now when people see something I’ve done and it means something to them that means the world to me. I love it when people care about something I’ve done. What else can you really ask for in life? There’s still the annoying stuff where people are approaching me because they’re buying into some nasty myth about celebrity. But that has nothing to do with what I care about.”

Adam Sandler stars in the 1998 comedy 'The Wedding Singer.'

Since my fiancé and I announced our engagement, my girlfriends have been encouraging my wedding movie addiction.

“We have to watch 27 Dresses!” they gushed.

We did, and it was adorable. But was it adorable enough? Read the full story

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock attend the Los Angeles premiere of 'The Proposal'. (AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Movie audiences accepted a proposal from Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, who scored the summer’s first big romantic comedy hit.

Bullock and Reynolds’ The Proposal took in $34.1 million to open as the weekend’s No. 1 movie, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Disney flick delivered the biggest opening ever for Bullock, nearly double that of her previous best of $17.6 million for the 2007 paranormal thriller Premonition.

Bullock stars as a ruthless publishing executive who coerces her put-upon assistant (Reynolds) into a fake marriage so she can avoid deportation back to her native Canada.

“I think the market was ready for a really fun, broad romantic comedy,” said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney’s motion-picture group.

The Proposal took over the top spot from the Warner Bros. bachelor-party comedy The Hangover, which slipped to second place with $26.9 million. A surprise smash hit, The Hangover raised its total to $152.9 million.

Disney’s animated adventure Up was No. 3 with $21.3 million, lifting its total to $224.1 million and following Paramount’s Star Trek as the second movie of 2009 to cross the $200 million mark.

Debuting in the fourth spot with $20.2 million was Sony’s caveman comedy Year One, starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as Neanderthals on a road trip after they are banished from their village.

It was summer’s second big-name comedy set in prehistoric times to take a back seat to a wedding-themed romp. Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost opened at No. 3 in early June, the same weekend The Hangover pulled off a No. 1 upset.

“June is officially comedy month at the theaters. Comedy is really ruling things,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Woody Allen’s latest comedy, Whatever Works, had a strong start in limited release, hauling in $280,720 in nine theaters for an average of $31,191 a cinema. That compares to an average of $11,163 in 3,056 theaters for The Proposal and $6,684 in 3,022 cinemas for Year One.

Released by Sony Pictures Classics, Whatever Works stars Larry David as a misanthropic New Yorker who forges unlikely relationships with a conservative Southern family (Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Jr.).

While some of June’s comedies performed well, the month generally has been a downer for Hollywood, which tore through the first part of the year with a record box-office pace.

Revenues this weekend were up slightly compared to the same period a year ago, but that followed three straight weekends of declining box-office receipts.

For the year, revenue remains up a solid 10 percent, though summer ticket sales are dead even with last year’s, Dergarabedian said.

That should turn around this coming weekend with the debut of the blockbuster sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which industry analysts say could deliver the year’s first $100 million opening.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com.

1. “The Proposal,” $34.1 million.

2. “The Hangover,” $26.9 million.

3. “Up,” $21.3 million.

3. “Year One,” $20.2 million.

5. “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” $11.3 million.

6. “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” $7.3 million.

7. “Star Trek,” $4.7 million.

8. “Land of the Lost,” $4 million.

9. “Imagine That,” $3.1 million.

10. “Terminator Salvation,” $3.07 million.

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• Bullock’s ‘Proposal’ woos date crowds with $34.1M (ctv.ca)
• Moviegoers say yes to ‘The Proposal’ (msnbc.msn.com)
• Sandra Bullock tops box office after 10 years (canada.com)

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds need to fall in love in three days in 'The Proposal'. (Touchstone Pictures)

They include an uptight character who literally lets her hair down to show she’s loosening up, a spontaneous sing-along, wacky relatives, a shocking mid-wedding revelation, a mad dash to the airport and, finally, some very public I-love-yous.

Where is the creativity, people? By definition, this is a predictable genre — a guy and a girl who are clearly meant for each other eventually end up together, despite the many madcap obstacles and misunderstandings that come their way. We know the destination before we even park the car at the multiplex; it’s how we get there that matters.

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With the remake of “The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3” coming out on Friday, film fans will wonder if the Denzel Washington-John Travolta “retaking” can match the gritty ‘70s original with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. (We say no.)

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