Reviewed by

Bud Carlson

Categorically, I dislike romantic comedies, and I often tell people that I believe the best rom-com is not as good as a mediocre actioner.

With that bias fully acknowledged, it would come as no surprise for me to say that I did not like "The BreakUp", and that gave it an unfavorable review. The movie is basically about Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston living together; Vince Vaughn's character gives her a hard time and treats her miserably all the time, so she breaks up with him, in an effort to coerce him into changing his thoughtless ways. But instead, he just moves out of the bedroom and onto the living room couch, and drives her even more crazy from there.

But there is no charm to this movie, much like there is no charm to other recent rom-coms. "Failure to Launch" didn't have the charm to it, and "The Family Stone" definitely didn't have it. And now "The BreakUp" doesn't have it. In fact, the only joy this movie gave me was in watching the Vince Vaughn character just relentlessly torture (emotionally) the emotionally-helplessly-insecure trying-to-be-manipulative Jennifer Anniston character ... I couldn't help but laugh at some of that! But in the end, even that wasn't funny any more. Oh, and this film also meets the newest rom-com requirement: all of the ancillary / supporting characters are all totally strange if not right over the top. If you see the movie, you'll know what I mean right from the start.

Truth is, this movie is poorly-written, poorly-acted, and only occasionally funny. Oh, and it's hardly even romantic. If you are interested in the whole anti-love-story / divorce-comedy story-line, go rent "War of the Roses" instead ... a much better movie than this!

Armstead’s Second:  I must admit, I liked the movie more than my colleague.  Not a whole lot more, but more nonetheless.  Just so you know, a large number of the funnier scenes are already in the trailer.  The gay brother thing is really funny, but if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve pretty much seen the gay brother thing, only a longer version is left.  Most Vince Vaughn’s best funnier bits are in the trailer, just longer versions, though there is a classic ‘Madden’ competition that is particularly amusing.  Jennifer Anniston is plenty good-looking and all, but I don’t think she’s quite found her acting ‘niche’ as of yet.  It’s not comedy.  I know, she was on friends for thirty years, but she wasn’t funny on friends for thirty years.  John Favreau has some funny moments too, just not enough.

So there you go.  Watch the trailer 70 times in a row and you have saved yourself 9 bucks and popcorn.