Why Watch? I fell in love with Finite Films, the crew of creators who give themselves (and ask for) constraints on their short film projects, with their horror short Forest Falls. With this one, they tackle the romantic comedy genre with some interesting rules, and the result is something with more heart and humor than the Heigl-rific crap that passes for rom-coms these days. In Occupational Hazards, a teacher with debilitating social anxiety braves a party to catch the eye of a guy she likes. It’s twitchy, sweet, dangerous, and it’s definitely smile-inducing. What does it cost? Just 20 minutes of your time. Trust us. You have time for more short films.

A beam of light threatens the poor, hungover eyeballs of Julio (Julián Villagrán) who wakes up in a bed he’s never been in before. That bed belongs to Julia (Michelle Jenner) who slinks around her apartment cleaning up from a night of drinking and random sex with a stranger. Up in the sky, a UFO has appeared floating above the city. In fact, they’re all over the place. Overnight, while two people were blacked out drunk, at least thirty have appeared over Spain. Who knows how many more all over the world. However, writer/director Nacho Vigalondo is less concerned about the ship and more concerned about the play-like humor and drama to be mined from a tangled relationship because, as it turns out, Julia is in high demand (especially by her boyfriend).

If the multiple storylines, loose connections, and a total lack of chemistry of Valentine’s Day was simply not enough for you, director Garry Marshall has yet another holiday-themed film for the masses – twice the storylines! twice the loose connections! twice the total lack of chemistry! Wait, that math isn’t right. Even less chemistry! Everyone, meet New Year’s Eve. Like last year’s chillingly empty Valentine’s Day, Marshall’s latest film tracks a group of romantically challenged love losers across the course of one holiday. Will they find love? Will I hiss in the theater again? When is he making Flag Day? New Year’s Eve moves the action to New York City, though it inexplicably features two stars of VD (Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Biel) who appear to be playing totally different roles than in the previous film. If that hints at some sort of alternate universe, well, that’s still not very interesting to me. The really strange part about this trailer is the sense it gives off that all of its many stars were thrown into a blender, set to “frappe,” and poured out onto the pages of the script. How else can we possibly account for a film that pairs up Katherine Heigl with Jon Bon Jovi, Michelle Pfeiffer with Zac Efron, Lea Michele with Ashton Kutcher, or Jessica Biel with Seth Meyers? And that’s only about a quarter of the cast, everyone else flew by so quickly that my own mother could be in this film, and I wouldn’t [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Every week, Landon Palmer and Cole Abaius log on to their favorite chat client of 1996 as MrSmith1939 and 2BorNot2B in order to discuss some topical topic of interest. This week, the two daydream the ultimate reboot – an entire era of filmmaking brought back to life through the lens of modern directors. What styles should we bring back and homage? It is a good idea to let nostalgia drive us artistically? Will people in 30 years be harkening back to the Abramsian style?

There are a lot of movie called Lucky. In fact, there are at least 2 coming out in 2011 alone, and there’s now a trailer for the one that doesn’t involve a stolen dog. The Colin Hanks-starring film features blood, blondes and a Bluth. Writer/Director Gil Cates Jr. doesn’t like the conventional, and it looks like he’s playing around with more black romantic comedy here. It doesn’t hurt that he’s got the unassuming Hanks in a murderous lead role alongside Ari Graynor, Ann-Margaret and Jeffrey Tambor. But honestly, why give him such a big knife to cut the cake with?

I spent two of my three available afternoons this weekend watching the Kristen Wiig-led anti-romantic comedy Bridesmaids. I love everything in this film from the honest exploration of emotions in a life-long female friendship to the feelings of exclusion when one person’s life seems to skyrocket towards awesome and the other one is left in the dust. But at the film’s center is a story about female friendships that are supportive and real, not destructive and solely dependent on what man is in their lives. I am excited for what the success of it says for funny women, and hopefully what it will do for the future of smart lady-driven films that are neither led by Katherine Heigl or about coming to terms with the death of a child. Previously, I crowned Lucas (Rory Cochrane) from Empire Records King Slacker Lover. But my vault full of imaginary film boyfriends does not end with the loyal yet meddlesome Lucas. Rather, there are handfuls of male characters from influential and not so influential films that make up pieces of the perfect imaginary husband pie. Men like Gone with the Wind’s Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) exemplify the ruffian with a heart of gold, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Tom from (500) Days of Summer proved that men could have just as many crazy “girl” feelings as the objects of their desire. The ideal imaginary husband combines all the traits of the perfect boyfriend, while still offering something a little extra (and I’m not just talking [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

The voice over in this trailer is exactly the kind of thing that gets parodied today, but it’s sort of perfect for this flick. That Touch of Mink was a fairly standard romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Doris Day. Surprisingly, Grant just wants to fool around, but Day wants to save her precious purity for marriage. The man wants something casual and the woman something serious? Unheard of! It’s a fun movie – one that Cary Grant reportedly hated.

Whether you’re trying to avoid the releases this week or augment them with even more movies, Your Alternate Box Office offers some options for movies that would play perfectly alongside of (or instead of) the stuff studios are shoving into the megaplex this weekend. This week features a hammer-wielding Norse God from the pages of Marvel, a woman who can’t keep her hands off her friend’s fiance, and a crazed Mel Gibson with a puppet on his hand.

In a way, it’s sort of sad to see the director of Ali G Indahouse and The Big White (that frozen corpse comedy) make a romantic comedy that’s so by the book they might as well have looped print pages through the projector. Anna Faris plays a woman scared to death of having sex with one more man because, gasp, a poll shows that 96% of women who sleep with 20+ people end up as old spinsters. But she wants true love! So let’s all play a game. See how many cliches you can spot while watching the trailer for What’s Your Number?:

We’ve seen her on TV shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation, she shows up in a lot of Internet videos at places like Funny or Die, and she even gets a handful of smallish film roles whenever she has time off from all that other stuff. But now Rashida Jones is set to get her own starring vehicle, and she also co-wrote the script. The film is called Celeste and Jesse Forever, it’s set to be directed by Lee Tolan Krieger, and it will star Jones and Andy Samberg in the male and female leads. Celeste and Jesse will tell the tale of a married couple who is trying to figure out how to get a divorce, but still remain friends afterward. I’ve had a crush on Rashida Jones that’s been growing exponentially over the last six months or so, and after this quote from the writer/actress making fun of casual sex comedies; my crush might have hit critical mass. Jones says, “Our movie is about two people who love each other a ton but they don’t know what to do with that love, and how do you let that person go. It’s very different from: ‘I like having sex with this person because I’m so modern but then, ooh, maybe I like them.’ I’m less interested in that story.” That sounds interesting to me, and God bless her for taking the piss out of the lame state of the modern romantic comedy.

Leave it to Tom Hanks to be part of the salvation of romantic comedies by making what looks like a throwback to the heyday that ended at the end of the 90s. Plus, he manages to do it all in his tighty-whiteys. He goes about 20% Forrest Gump for Larry Crowne where he plays a lovable, completely sweet guy who tucks his polo shirts in. Larry gets fired from his job because he doesn’t have a college degree, so he takes a public speaking class taught by Julia Roberts’s character. Love ensues. The trailer is adorable like a cat sitting in a sink wearing a hat:

Back in 2009, Gerard Butler was planning a romantic comedy about a baseball player returning to his estranged wife to make amends with her and his child and to coach the local little league team. It was called Slide. Now that movie is about soccer instead of baseball, it’s called Playing the Field, and (according to Variety) Jessica Biel and Uma Thurman are now on board. Director Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) was always on board and still is. For what it’s worth, this doesn’t exactly sound like the typical rom-com Butler appears in on a nearly-annual basis in order to stoke the fires of his P.S. I Love You fanbase. The ladies love cool Gerard, but you’ll notice that the words ‘Aniston’ and ‘Heigl’ appear nowhere near the marquee on this one. Biel will play the ex-wife, and Uma Thurman will play one of the soccer moms. Who I’m guessing is single (if it’s one of those rom-coms) or is married (if it’s one of those rom-coms). One of the most interesting aspects of the production is the screenwriter. Robbie Fox hasn’t written for the screen in over a decade – after the double punch of So I Married and Axe Murderer and In the Army Now, he sort of disappeared, but do I want to watch a romantic comedy written by Robbie Fox? Hell yes. The man had a unique ear for comedy, and his return is a welcome one.

Adam Sandler lucked out. Instead of having to sell his soul to the Devil to become a top-grossing, leading man, he found a inexplicable role that Hollywood continues to perpetuate and sell to the masses: the smug, amoral love interest. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Sandler returns with Just Go with It, in which he pretends to be a married man as a way of roping in sympathetic woman. His best friend (Jennifer Aniston) strongly disagrees with his practices – think they’ll fall in love? Of course they will, this isn’t a Lars von Trier film. Forgiveness is pushed to its limits in American romantic comedies and Sandler isn’t the only offender. Countless relationships have blossomed from a quick change of heart and a tagged-on apology, and the formula continues to work. When the nice guys finish last, these guys finish first:

There is a fine line to walk as an indie dramedy, and HappyThankYouMorePlease seems to walk right up to the line and then raise its eyebrow. On the optimistic front, Neil really loved it when he saw it at Sundance last year and talked it up as the natural next step in the evolution of romantic comedies signified by 500 Days of Summer. The comparison seems obvious even from just the trailer, but Josh Radnor (of How I Met Your Mother) seems to want to juggle more than one relationship here with his writing/directing/starring debut. Check out the trailer for yourself:

The ground is far too fertile when a film from Sarah Jessica Parker is called I Don’t Know How She Does It, but rather than take cheap shots by answering the rhetorical title, it’s more important to celebrate the talent she’ll be surrounding herself with. The film has just signed on Christina Hendricks (despite science still having no explanation for how she physically exists) and SNL head writer Seth Meyers (despite science still having no explanation for how SNL still exists). Both are fairly new to the film but aren’t strangers to show business. Plus, they are the perfect, harmless additions to what seems like a stock comedy about a woman having it all. After all, there has to be a gossipy best friend and someone for Christina Hendricks to play. Oliva Munn will also be playing a small role, busting out of her cameo phase and the twitter fame people seem to care so much about. Over all, Sarah Jessica Parker has somehow completely morphed from the manic pixie dream girl of L.A. Story to the disliked shrew of today, but if she insists on hopping into the romantic comedy business, it might as well be with some talented actors who deserve more time on the big screen. [LA Times]

Valentine’s Day was a terrible movie. It was everything that is syrupy and wrong with Hollywood, so of course it’s getting a sequel in New Year’s Eve – a trend that will most likely continue until Flag Day is made. Then it will be rebooted. That follow-up will now possibly see Ashton Kutcher re-enlisting as a brand new character (who doesn’t like New Year’s Eve), and he might also be joined by two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, two-time Academy Award winner Robert DeNiro, and three-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Pfeiffer. It’s looking to shoot soon, and will most likely strive for a release close to New Year’s Eve 2011. Until then, the world longs for Flag Day. [THR]

There are few things more irritating in this country than being a zombie and having to deal with status as a second class citizen. Fortunately, it’s almost Fall – the time when a young zombie’s fancy turns toward romance. I’ve only read the first few chapters of S.G. Browne’s “Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament,” but from the outset it seems like a calmer version of the minimalist writing of Chuck Palahniuk – only the main character has been “re-animated.” It’s even got the Anonymous meeting connection. The adaptation of the novel got another kick toward reality now that Geoff LaTulippe’s script is finished and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson are attached (albeit in a casual fashion). LaTulippe’s work can be seen in theater with Going the Distance which displays how clearly he understands the romantic comedy genre. It’s unclear whether he gets zombies, but those two names are big enough to make this something to look out. Maybe it’ll be like 500 Brains of Summer. [Pajiba]

With the all-seeing eye of the internet watching every single movie production in existence (even the one your parents are making right now), it’s incredible when something flies under the radar. It’s even more incredible when it’s from an Oscar winner and fan favorite. Still, it seems that the new James L. Brooks romantic comedy How Do You Know completely flew under said radar until some promotional materials ended up in the Reject carrier pigeon drop this morning. Romantic Comedies have been sorely lacking these days. The studio formula seems to include cramming as many names and as little heart into them as possible, so seeing Brooks’s name involved in the directing game again is something to celebrate. Plus, with Paul Rudd squaring off against Owen Wilson, there’s something else there to celebrate.

Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, and Kristin Scott Thomas will be joining him on the expedition.

This has nothing to do with that pick-up line you advised him of last night.