The Best _____ _______ of all time

The other day a buddy of mine mentioned (in an email chain) that the new Jake Gyllenhaal/Anne Hathaway movie Love and Other Drugs is "the best chick flick of all time," which of course got me thinking about what the best chick flicks of all time actually are. Now I have yet to see this film, although I will say that it is 1 of 4 movies that either have been recently released or will soon be released that I want to see (the others being How Do You Know (another chick flick), The Black Swan, and The King's Speech), so I can't include it on these rankings just yet, but I have a feeling it will compare very favorably to a few of the following.

As far as chick flicks go, the criteria to be considered one is pretty ambigious. I'll let Wikipedia explain, "Generally, a chick flick is a film designed to have an innate appeal to women, typically young women. Defining a film a chick flick is, as the New York Times has stated, more of a parlor game than a science. These films are generally held in popular culture as having formulaic, paint-by-numbers plot lines and characters. Some frequent elements of chick flicks include having a female protagonist, thematic use of the color pink (along with metaphorical allusions of the color), and romance and/or dating based storylines. Longtime producer Jerry Bruckheimer has remarked about the plots as "How do you cope with money and love?"

For our purposes I've decided to not include any movies that have garnered attention from the Academy Awards. Those movies (I'm looking at you Titanic) are dramas.

And now, without further ado, the top 10 chick flicks of all time that guys could easily put up with/might secretly enjoy.

1.) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)- An intriguing plot where a magazine columnist (Kate Hudson) dates a guy and does everything imaginable to get dumped in 10 days, but little does she know that the guy (Matthew McConaughey) made a bet that he could get her to fall in love with him in 10 days.

Also, not for nothing, Kate Hudson looks phenomenal in that yellow dress. As I've previously written, normally guys aren't overly impressed with a dress because if a girl is good looking she's going to look good in just about any dress, but this yellow dress was perfect for Kate Hudson.

2.) Definitely, Maybe (2008)- A soon to be divorced father (Ryan Reynolds) tells his daughter about three of his past relationships, including the one with her mother, and soon after the story is over the plot shifts to the present (a la Forrest Gump) as his unresolved feelings for a woman from his past come to the forefront.

I think what makes this chick flick so entertaining is that the protaganist is a male. The plot involves plenty of female emotions, but you see them from a male perspective.

3.) (500) Days of Summer (2009)- To be honest, I'm not even sure if this one counts. I've seen it referred to as a "male chick flick", so we'll go with that. Either way the plot centers around a male 20 something (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who tries to figure out where things went wrong with a girl (Zooey Deschanel) that he dated.

As I've repeatedly stated over the past few months, Zooey Deschanel is my current #1 celebrity crush and I can almost guarantee that she will be yours as well once you're done watching this movie (and Yes, Man).

4.) Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)- This is a bit of a throwback and it did garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, so I'm breaking my own rules, but I feel like it's a movie that not too many people have heard of. Maybe because it's British. Anyway, as the title indicates this movie tells the story of two people (Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell- a something about her/sneaky hot type of girl) that fall in love over the course of four weddings and a funeral.

5.) Love Actually (2003)- This is almost like the British version of Crash (2004), but it's set around Christmas time. There are 5 or 6 storylines that seem to weave together. It's basically like a bazooka to the face of Christmas spirit. Incredibly heartfelt and hard not to like. I know at least 3 girls who say that this is their favorite movie of all time.

6.) When Harry Met Sally (1989)- It's been called the ultimate date movie and I threw it on here mainly because of that. Not to mention that there aren't too many chick flicks that I've seen and enjoyed (surprising, I know). The movie is about a guy and a girl (Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan) who drive to New York together from Chicago and seemingly can't stand each other, but they become friends as they keep running into each other over the years in NYC and eventually fall in love.

7.) Raising Helen (2004)- A young, career-first socialite (Kate Hudson) is tasked with raising her sister's 3 kids (the oldest played by a young Hayden Panittiere) after she and her husband die in a car accident. As the title infers, Kate Hudson's character Helen matures through this experience of raising her sister's children.

I know it sounds like a brutally painful movie to watch, but it's actually heartwarming and borderline enjoyable.

8.) The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)- I thought this movie was semi-worthwhile mainly because I didn't fully grasp the rules to this time travel. Basically Eric Bana jumps through time and pops up at different stages of his life. Whenever he goes to another point in time he always shows up without any clothes. If you think that's bizarre, it's get crazier. He starts showing up at different points of this girl's childhood (Rachel McAdams) and eventually they "fall in love" and get married (as if she had a choice- this guy kept showing up and practically told her that they were destined to get married), but he keeps disappearing for stretches and she is forced to deal with the reality that her husband will never fully be there for her.

Maybe I enjoyed this film (sort of) because I'm a big Rachel McAdams guy, but I will say that girls ate this movie/book up big time.

9.) Serendipity (2001)- Hopefully you know what you're getting into when you see Cusack and Kate Beckinsale on the cover. This film reinforces the largely female notions of "everything happens for a reason" and "if it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

10.) The Proposal (2009)- The plot is a bit ridiculous, but the movie isn't horrible. A female CEO type (Sandra Bullock) is getting deported (she's Canadian), so she forces her male assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her so that she can stay in the country. They go away to his hometown for a long weekend and, you guessed it, fall in love.

The three chicks I'd marry tomorrow

How many times have you been watching a movie and just completely fallen for one of the characters? Please don't act like you are free from this affliction. Female movie characters are so idealized because in more cases than not, only the best aspects of their personalities are portrayed. Most of us guys know that deep down, every woman has a crazy, psychotic bitch in them that usually comes out (well aside from the obvious once a month) right before a big trip, whenever cleaning is involved, and when you least expect it. The female movie characters that we fall in love with are not real because, well for starters, they are all gorgeous Hollywood celebrities. Women this attractive and this cool cease to exist in the real world, but somehow, because of how they are presented in movies, we still have hope that they do.

Which brings us to the top 3 female movie characters that I have fallen head over heels for. No real surprise here, but two of them are from bonafide chick flicks.

1.) Andie Anderson (played by Kate Hudson) in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)



I mean, if that dress doesn't say it all, then I don't know what does. Normally guys aren't overly impressed by a dress because if a girl is good looking then she's usually going to look good in a dress. The first time I saw this movie (yes that implies that I've seen it more than once) I was completely blown away. Andie Anderson is the total package, which of course means that she could get my entire package all day every day. Obviously I dig that she's a writer, goes to Knick's games, and did I mention that she's a smokeshow? She's so hot that she does all of these annoying things throughout the movie and it doesn't even matter. She's so hot that she made a guy's name hot.

I do have one gripe, but it's not with Andie, or the movie for that matter. It's just that in the movie they sing their own version of the song "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon. Now the lyrics, "You're so vain. You probably think this song is about you. Don't you? You're so vain," are repeated throughout the song. Everytime I hear the song, I want to say- Hey Carly, by addressing this unnamed man as 'You', you have made the song about him, yet somehow you are calling him vain for thinking (accurately mind you) that... it is about him.

2.) Claire Cleary (played by Rachel McAdams) in Wedding Crashers (2005)



Now this movie is most known for its humor and everytime I watch it I pick up on yet another line that your average college aged kid uses in regular conversation. It's literally a gold mine. While the humor was the initial draw, everytime that I have seen it since, I have been all about the love. It's sweet, sappy, and corny (ironically all words I could use to describe poop), but this scene gets me every time.



Claire is literally everything a guy could want. She's quick on her feet, funny, pretty (phenomenal smile), smart, has Christopher Walken as her father, and loves to play the slaps game. Girls, please take notice that she is rather pale- yet still widely adored. You don't have to tan 8 times a week to impress men.

3.) April Hoffman (played by Isla Fisher) in Definitely, Maybe (2008)



Yes, she's the girl that Vince Vaughn marries in Wedding Crashers, but in this movie she plays one of Ryan Reynolds' love interests. Because I'll assume that most of you haven't seen it, here's the trailer (no way I would ever embed that) . I saw it with my sisters on Thanksgiving. It has chick flick written all over it. It even has a textbook chick flick title. It fits in perfectly with Love Actually, Serendipity, and P.S. I Love You. But in my defense, everything is closed on Thanksgiving and I think Ryan Reynolds is hysterical. Speaking of Ryan Reynolds, here is a bonus chick from a movie that I'm in love with. Tara Reid in Van Wilder.



Okay, so now that my heterosexuality is semi-restored, back to April. She's a smoking hot red head that plays a girl that pretends to be bad ass, but deep down is a complete softy. I think I might actually be more into the actress herself because in every movie I have seen she has spoken without her natural voice. She was raised in Australia and has an English accent and pretty much any accent is hot.

If I had to pick one of the three, I think I'd have to go with Claire (McAdams).



I don't know what's going on with me lately. I'm writing about Ben Affleck and chick flicks. Somebody better send me an article about red meat and beer pronto.