John Francis
With Netflix and box office phenomenons like Set it Up, Love, Simon, The Kissing Booth, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, and Crazy Rich Asians, 2018 has truly been the year of the rom-com renaissance. Maybe it's the turbulent times we're living in, but it seems everyone wants to feel the love.
If you just can't give the films above another re-watch, it might be time to visit some of the rom coms of yesteryear. Here, the best, most popular, or just plain classic love stories from 1983—today. And no, I couldn't choose just one for 2018.
1 of 37
1983: 'Romantic Comedy'
amazon.com
Stars: Mary Steenburgen, Dudley Moore
Plot: Two NYC writing partners just can't get their acts together when it comes to love. Same.
Perfectly '80s tagline: "Only two things can screw up their relationship. He's one. She's the other."
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2 of 37
1984: 'Sixteen Candles'
amazon.com
Stars: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Schoeffling
Plot: Samantha (Ringwald) wakes up on her 16th birthday to find that no one in her family remembered—which was basically my worst nightmare in high school. Meanwhile, Samantha is crushing on senior Jake (Schoeffling), but thinks her virginity might get in the way. Plus, nerdy Ted (Hall) won't leave her alone!
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3 of 37
1985: 'Secret Admirer'
amazon.com
Stars: C. Thomas Howell, Lori Loughlin, Kelly Preston, Fred Ward
Plot: Michael Ryan (Howell) is in love with Deborah Ann (Preston) and his best friend, Toni Williams (Loughlin), is secretly into him. He leaves Deborah Ann an anonymous love letter —Lara Jean vibes, anyone?—and the two get together.
Plot twist, Deborah Ann's parents find the letter, causing suspicion of adultery among them and their neighbors.
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4 of 37
1986: 'Pretty in Pink'
amazon.com
Stars: Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, Andrew McCarthy
Plot: Another John Hughes classic, Ringwald plays Andie, an outcast at her Chicago high school. When a rich, popular kid asks her out, it seems too good to be true. Andie falls for Blane (McCarthy), but dating someone from a different tax bracket is not as easy as she thought it'd be.
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5 of 37
1987: 'Moonstruck'
amazon.com
Stars: CHERRRRR (!!!), Nicholas Cage, Danny Aiello
Plot: Cher—who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role—plays Italian-American widow who is set to marry her boyfriend, Johnny (Aiello). That is, until she meets his younger brother, Ronny (Cage).
Ronny blames his brother for the loss of his hand, so he has no problem laying the moves on Loretta (Cher) under Johnny's nose. Can she resist?
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6 of 37
1988: 'Heathers'
amazon.com
Stars: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty
Plot: Stuck in a ruthless high school clique, "good-girl" Veronica (Ryder) teams up with a sociopath (Slater, obviously) in a plot to kill the Heathers.
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7 of 37
1989: 'Say Anything'
amazon.com
Stars: John Cusack, Ione Skye
Plot: According to IMDB, the plot boils down to "A noble underachiever and a beautiful valedictorian fall in love the summer before she goes off to college."
But basically, what you need to know is that this is where the boombox over head trope came from! Iconic.
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8 of 37
1990: 'Pretty Woman'
amazon.com
Stars: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts
Plot: The rags-to-riches story of a prostitute, who is hired by a rich business man who needs dates to classy events. Obviously, they fall in love. More importantly, this shopping moment happens.
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9 of 37
1991: 'Doc Hollywood'
amazon.com
Stars: Michael J. Fox, Julie Warner
Plot: A hot-shot doctor causes an accident away from Hollywood Hills. He's sentenced to work a few days in the small town's hospital. Hijinx ensue.
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10 of 37
1992: 'Boomerang'
amazon.com
Stars: Eddie Murphy, Robin Givens, Halle Berry
Plot: Keeping with the trend of jerks-turned-romantics, Eddie Murphy plays a womanizer who gets a taste of his own medicine when his new female boss beats him at his own game.
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11 of 37
1993: 'Sleepless In Seattle'
amazon.com
Stars: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan
Plot: After the death of his wife, Sam Baldwin (Hanks) moves to Seattle with his son, Jonah (Mallinger). After Sam is forced to talk on the radio after his son calls in to find him a new wife, Annie Reed (Ryan) falls in love with him. In what's probably the meet-cute of the century, she writes a letter asking him to meet her at the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day. Can your Tinder date do that?
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12 of 37
1994: 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'
amazon.com
Stars: Hugh Grant, Andie McDowell
Plot: Enter my boy, Hugh! Charles (Grant) meets a beautiful American named Carrie (MacDowell) at a wedding, and sparks fly. But when Carrie returns to the States, he thinks that's the end of that. But Charles and Carrie can't seem to get rid of each other. They keep meetings at (you guessed it) more weddings, and a funeral.
IRL: This real person was brought to a funeral on a first date, and the story is WILD.
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13 of 37
1995: 'Clueless'
amazon.com
Stars: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd
Plot: The iconic, tartan clad Cher Horowitz (Silverstone) attempts to transform the nerdy new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) into a popular girl. But what happens when Tai becomes more popular than she is? Was Cher's cynical, sexy ex-stepbrother (Paul Rudd) right all along? As if!
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14 of 37
1996: 'Jerry Maguire'
amazon.com
Stars: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renee Zellweger
Plot: Sports agent Jerry Maguire (Cruise) gets fired and tries to hang on to the athletes that he represents by starting his own firm with single mother Dorothy Boyd (Zellweger). Football player Rod Tidwell (Gooding Jr.) is their sole client and only hope. The film follows what happens when Jerry and Dorothy begin to fall in love, risking everything they've built.
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15 of 37
1997: 'My Best Friend's Wedding'
amazon.com
Stars: Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz
Plot: When a Julianne's (Roberts) long-time friend reveals he's engaged, she realizes she loves him and plans to win him over, with just days before the wedding to do it.
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16 of 37
1998: 'You've Got Mail'
amazon.com
Stars: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan
Plot: When AOL was the thing, two rival business owners who despise each other in real life fall in love over the Internet. Now that's just like, any Saturday night.
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17 of 37
1999: '10 Things I Hate About You'
amazon.com
Stars: Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Plot: A modern day telling of Taming of The Shrew, the beautiful Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) is not allowed to go out unless her hard-edged older sister Katarina (Stiles) goes as well. Bianca's "nice-guy" crush Cameron (Gordon-Levitt) hires scary bad boy Patrick (ledger) to try and crack her shell.
Iconic marching band numbers, elaborate paintball dates, and tearful poetry definitely included.
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18 of 37
2000: 'What Women Want'
amazon.com
Stars: Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt
Plot: A misogynistic businessman (Gibson) starts to hear what women really think about him after an accident. Probably Mel Gibson's real-life nightmare.
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19 of 37
2001: 'The Wedding Planner'
amazon.com
Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey
Plot: Mary Fiore (Lopez) is San Francisco's absolute best wedding planner. But what do you do when you start to fall in love with a groom (McConaughey)? This movie is super cute, but I'd never trust her to plan my nonexistent wedding...
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20 of 37
2002: 'Sweet Home Alabama'
amazon.com
Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Patrick Dempsey
Plot: When a New York City cool girl (Witherspoon) gets engaged, she has to return home to Alabama to obtain a divorce from her husband...after seven years of not speaking. Basically, she's the ghosting QUEEN.
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21 of 37
2003: 'How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days'
amazon.com
Stars: Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey
Plot: She's a mag writer, he's a player. She decides to write a piece about making some guy fall for her in order to show all the ways to get dumped in 10 days (why though?). Too bad, he trying to prove he can stick with one girl for more than a week. I hate them both, but this movie is everything.
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22 of 37
2004: '13 Going On 30'
amazon.com
Stars: Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo
Plot: A girl makes a wish on her thirteenth birthday, and wakes up the next day as a thirty-year-old woman. She destroys the dance floor with the perfect rendition of Thriller.
Yes, there are a lot of rom coms about fictional magazine editors, I know!
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23 of 37
2005: 'Fever Pitch'
amazon.com
Stars: Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon (???)
Plot: Lindsey (Barrymore) thinks she found the perfect guy in Ben (Fallon), until his obsession with the Red Sox gets in the way... BEEN THERE.
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24 of 37
2006: 'She's The Man'
amazon.com
Stars: Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum
Plot: When her school revokes funding for its girls soccer team, Viola (Amanda Bynes) poses as her twin brother to play for the boys. Things get real complicated when she starts falling for her roommate Duke (Tatum), who thinks she is one of the guys.
New fun fact: Bynes claims she insisted on Tatum for this role, launching him from Mountain Dew commercial purgatory to tampon-nose stardom.
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25 of 37
2007: 'Knocked Up'
amazon.com
Stars: Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl
Plot: Boy meets girl, boy gets girl pregnant, boy is a man child and needs to get his sh*t together.
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26 of 37
2008: '27 Dresses'
amazon.com
Stars: Katherine Heigl (again), James Marsden
Plot: Literally if the phrase, "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" was made into a movie.
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27 of 37
2009: 'He's Just Not That Into You'
amazon.com
Stars: Ugh, everyone. Just look at the poster.
Plot: A bunch of hot people try to get with a bunch of other hot people. Also, Justin Long is way harsh.
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28 of 37
2010: 'Easy A'
amazon.com
Stars: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes
Plot: You know how everything you used to read in school used to somehow match up to sh*t you were dealing with in real life? Well that happens to Olive (Stone) whose reputation goes down the drain when people start thinking she's sleeping with any guy that looks her way. Inspired by the Scarlet Letter, Olive decides to lean in to the false claims, until she starts reconnecting with the real bae of her dreams.
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29 of 37
2011: 'Crazy, Stupid, Love'
amazon.com
Stars: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone
Plot: Just as Cal Weaver's (Carell) marriage is falling apart, he meets a player named Jacob (Gosling) who promises to get him back in the dating game. The pair strike up a perfect odd-couple friendship... until Cal discovers the former f*ckboy is dating his daughter 😬
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30 of 37
2012: 'Think Like A Man"
amazon.com
Stars: Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy, Meagan Good, Jerry Ferrara, Regina Hall, Romany Malco, Taraji P. Henson, Gabrielle Union, Terrence J
Plot: Four guys hatch a plan when they discover their ladies have been using Steve Harvey's relationship guide book (which actually exists) against them. But do you really think they stand a chance against Taraji P. "Cookie" Henson? Thank u, next.
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