Runaway Bride (1999)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Best movie of this year hands down!

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Julia Roberts has been around for a long time. Every couple years I end up seeing one of her movies, and every single time I ask the same question - why on earth is this woman so famous? There's a couple of things about her acting I can't stand: 1)Facial Expression: In every movie I've watched with Julia Roberts she has the same stilted-emotionless expression on her face during the whole movie. I call it the "deer-in-headlights" look. She doesn't even look comfortable speaking. She looks like some child actor who is staring wide-eyed into the camera, struggling to speak her lines.2) Delivery: Her delivery is equally terrible. She always speaks her lines in the same monotone-deadpan voice. It does not matter what scene she is in. She is incapable of altering the pitch or loudness of her voice. She sounds like that computer "Hal" from 2001: A Space Odyssey.3) A totally uninteresting actor: Julia Roberts does not adapt herself to any role. She always plays herself. Many great actors do this (aka Robert De Niro, Al Pacino etc). It works for them because they are actually interesting-dynamic people and hence their characters are always interesting and dynamic. This is not the case with Julia. It doesn't matter if she's playing a queen, a mother, a prostitute or a wife. You always get the same monotone-stilted performance.She is the most overrated female actress in history.

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.

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.

Well, I got the DVD of this from a friend and I started to regret watching this because I thought it would be another same old romantic chick flick, which has no meaning to it whatsoever. But, despite all that, I was amazed that I actually liked this movie! Because like I said, normally I don't like chick flicks but this movie brought the world of romance to another level, which for me, I like. The performances by the handsome Richard Gere and the beautiful Julia Roberts was surprisingly good! I mean, it just made the movie more enjoyable and compelling. So well done to them, and for the script, it was a little dodgy at the start and a little few people will not understand a single thing that is happening, but I think to make the script better, someone should be a narrator and tell the story, so people will understand it. Other than that I really enjoyed the beautiful and wonderful ending!This movie just kept me on the edge of my seat and I must say, when you watch it, you lose yourself and you feel like your in heaven. Seriously, I felt like that when I was watching it and I was really captivated by that. Furthermore, I think the cast and crew did a marvellous job creating this heartwarming romantic comedy and they should deserve a Oscar for it! So once again, well done! So if you feel like taking a break from a long exhausting day, Runaway Bride is always there to calm you down and take you away into the blue skies of heaven and above.