Calum Hutton
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
MartinHafer
In PRETTY WOMAN, Julia was a prostitute and the public embraced the film. So, naturally, in this film they made her, in some ways, even more unlikable--as a selfish woman who makes it a habit to leave men at the alter. Again and again, she walks out of these men's lives at the last possible second and we are asked to care about her? Frankly, after leaving nice guy after nice guy, I just didn't like her. Plus, this being a formulaic film, you KNOW that despite all this, Richard Gere MUST in the end marry this bimbo! You don't totally hate his character, but considering that he knows all about her past and he STILL wants to marry her, he is in the end revealed to be a total fool.In romance movies we are often asked to suspend disbelief. I can do this and often do with films. But, in this case we are asked to suspend our brains! This I cannot do and encourage you to demand more from a film.While from a technical aspect this isn't a horrible film, but the message it gives viewers is.
Desertman84
Runaway Bride is a romantic comedy film the reunites the stars of Pretty Woman,Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.Included in the cast is Joan Cusack,Hector Elizondo,Christopher Meloni,Paul Dooley and Rita Wilson. The screenplay was written by Josann McGibbon, Audrey Wells and Sara Parriott.It was directed by Garry Marshall,the same director of Pretty Woman.Maggie has left so many prospective husbands at the altar that she has gained notoriety as "the Runaway Bride".A reporter,Ike Graham is assigned to write a story about her. He tracks her down to a small town in Maryland where she's spending time with her family and preparing to give marriage another try. However, the more time she spends with the persistent reporter, the more second thoughts she has about her fiancé.Love develops between Ike and Maggie.This romantic comedy is clichéd,formulaic and predictable from beginning to end.Also,the plot isn't original and has been done in so many movies for so many years.There also was an evident lack of chemistry between Gere and Roberts unlike in Pretty Woman.And most of all,it is shamelessly manipulative and contrived with an old-fashioned love story that is definitely star-driven since it most capitalizes on the presence of the two stars and nothing more. The only thing good about this movie is that it is charming,appealing and it imparts a good message that we can't open our hearts to love until we stop cheating on our true selves.
kyle-cruse
This film is a perfect example of why good romantic comedies are hard to find. Many of them turn out too much like this, not enough laughs or romance and too entirely predictable. "Runaway Bride" is not horrible and does manage to provide a few laughs here and there. However, as far as good romantic comedies go, this one did not satisfy me. For one thing, I found the plot too unbelievable and unrealistic. Though we usually don't expect romantic comedy to be entirely realistic, we want to see good reason for the two main characters to fall in love. I found the romance between Richard Gere and Julia Roberts to be too suddenly and awkward. No reason is really given in the film for why Roberts should start falling in love with a man who starts going around spying on her. I found Gere's performance just not realistic enough to enjoy. He does not play a very likable character, which gives me no reason to want the main characters to fall in love. The supporting cast is really the only reason I got any laughs out of this film at all. For example, Joan Cusack plays a funny, entertaining character, as usual, which brings a little enjoyment to the film. Nevertheless, it just did not work very well for me. Not a terrible movie, but not really worth your time either.**1/2 out of ****
christian123
Julia Roberts seems to be one of the most hated celebrities on this website. I can't really understand why. I find her to be talented and charming as well as engaging and usually likable, until I saw Runaway Bride. I thought I was going to like this one but it offered some of the most unlikable characters I have ever seen in a romantic comedy. Generally, the audience should want to cheer for the two people to get together but I couldn't care less. I don't think Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts) actually deserved to be in a marriage because she was selfish, immature and seemed incapable of love. I just couldn't fathom why anyone would actually be attracted to her. She has weddings like there no big deal and she probably wasted a lot of money between the four failed ones she had. She has her fiancé invest all of his time into the relationship, trying to show her that he does indeed love her only to be left at the altar. I guess the situation was supposed to be humorous and I shouldn't have taken it so seriously but it was tough to overlook all of the garbage the film was trying sell to me.Acting wise the film was decent, which did save it a little. Julia Roberts gives an okay performance, although it's one of her worst. However, she is working with rather weak material and she's portraying a woman that is just so hard to like. Richard Gere was also decent although nothing special. The chemistry between these two was basically non-existent which made their relationship seem completely fake and unrealistic. It was hard to buy that a cynical man would fall for a woman that has no problem trampling all over a man's heart. They did have a few funny scenes together though which made the film more enjoyable. Unfortunately, the film runs for an inexplicable 116 minutes so there are a lot of dead spots.Romantic comedies shouldn't really be loathsome movies. The characters should be likable and engaging so it's easy to get behind them and the story shouldn't be too far-fetched. Unfortunately, Runaway Bride commits the worst sin for a romantic comedy by offering unlikable characters, making it basically impossible to really get into the movie despite how talented the cast may be.
