The 1990s and early 2000s were a treasure trove of rom-com goodness, with classics like Sleepless in Seattle, Notting Hill, and Love, Actually gracing our screens and making us all believe in love, just for a little while. But, with the possible exception of 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians, the past 10 years have been something of a rom-com desert, leaving us thirsting for some good old-fashioned romance and laughs.

Sure, there are a constant rotation of rom-coms on the Hallmark Channel, and a few here and there on Netflix and other streamers, but if your taste ranges less on the cheesy side and more on the classic stories of slow-burning love like we saw in movies like When Harry Met Sally... and Serendipity, there is good news. Perhaps we needed a pandemic to remind us of what a good rom-com could be because there are two new offerings this month to whet your long-starved rom-com appetite.

Both movies premiered on Friday, February 11, just in time for Valentine's Day weekend, of course. So get thee to a theater and see Marry Me, or fire up Amazon Prime and check out I Want You Back. You'll be glad you did since both harken back to an era you may have thought had seen its finest days.

Marry-Me

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Marry Me, starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, starts off feeling like a JLo concert so if modern-day pop music and over-the-top spectacles of dancing in skimpy costumes aren't your thing, you may want to stream the movie on Peacock Premium, so you can mute or fast-forward to the good stuff — a love story that will warm your winter-chilled heart. In this rom-com, Kat Valdez (Lopez) stages a massive concert in Times Square with her fiancé, fellow Latin pop singer, Bastian (Maluma). At the culmination of the concert, the two plan to have a wedding, which of course, is televised and livestreamed with millions of people watching. Just before Kat takes the stage in her designer wedding gown, a video of Bastian cheating on her (with her assistant) goes viral on social media. Once she sees the video and dramatically drops his phone, she decides the show must go on and walks out on stage anyway.

But, instead of marrying Bastian as planned, she spots a random man in the crowd, Charlie (Wilson) holding his friend's sign that says "Marry Me," the on-the-nose theme song of the wedding that was meant to be performed by the superstar couple. The typical normal guy swept up in a celebrity's world story ensues, à la Notting Hill, as Kat and her people decide to keep Charlie around for six weeks, just so she doesn't have to be publicly ridiculed for getting divorced yet again. In usual rom-com fashion, the ending is fairly predictable from there. However, it is a sweet story with solid acting from the two leads and a few laughs interspersed along the way. It doesn't quite live up to the magic of Notting Hill, and that's okay. It's a more modern take, with social media tropes and single dadness adding a new dimension to the whole celebrity-falls-for-normal-person trope.

Clearly, Lopez is looking to re-claim her queen of rom-com title that she earned with titles like Maid in Manhattan and The Wedding Planner. Next up, she'll again play the not-exactly-blushing-bride in Shotgun Wedding alongside Josh Duhamel. This flick may be shooting for an entirely new genre, the rom-com/action film, with Lopez and Duhamel as a couple hosting a lavish destination wedding. Their plans go awry when both of their families are kidnapped, and it’s up to them to save their loved ones from the bad guys. Ass kicking, comedy, and rekindling love are sure to ensue. Shotgun Wedding is slated for a June release, in time for the blockbuster summer movie season.

I Want You Back

Also released on Valentine's Day weekend is the Amazon Prime rom-com, I Want You Back, starring Charlie Day and Jenny Slate. What a pleasant surprise this movie was! In the opening scenes, Peter (Day) and Emma (Slate) are both dumped by their long-term loves, Anne (Gina Rodriguez) and Noah (Scott Eastwood), respectively. They both have mini-breakdowns at work and go to calm themselves in a high-rise office building stairwell, leading to a pretty dang cute meet-cute. After a round of drunk karaoke (including a truly stellar, if slurring, performance of Alanis Morrisette's "You Oughtta Know"), they hatch a plan to help the other win back their exes.

It's a flawed plan with seduction and making a new BFF at its core, so you know it will turn out exactly as they hope! Though romantic comedies are, as a rule, somewhat predictable, this story will keep you laughing and surprised the whole way through. The cheese level is kept to a minimum, and there's some physical comedy here, too. Overall, it gives a When Harry Met Sally... vibe of friendship possibly morphing into something more, but it is a fun ride through to the awww-inducing end.

Fans of old-school rom-coms will also appreciate some of the throwback music that appears on the I Want You Back soundtrack. In addition to the '90s ultimate breakup song mentioned above, there's some Marvin Gaye, Herb Alpert and Four Tops thrown in that really capitalizes on the nostalgic feel of the storyline. Some songs and some love stories are timeless, and the filmmakers realize that.

So, will the romantic comedy genre return to its 1990s-early 2000s heyday? Or has the time for truly great rom-coms passed? That remains to be seen, but having two new rom-coms to enjoy is good news for fans of the genre. After the past two years, even people who don't love romance might learn to fall in love with a new generation of romantic comedy. With disaster movies and superheroes and dinosaurs dominating the post-COVID era, maybe it's time to let in a little love and laughter into the movie-going experience again.