Never Mind Pop Film

Romantic comedies are a studio-designed template in this day and age. The formula works, so it isn't tinkered with often. Boy and girl meet cute, go on some dates, fall in love, make love, and an argument is manufactured in before the last twenty minutes so that they can declare their love for each other once again. Then along comes a picture like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it took the template, bent the frame, pulled it back through itself and added some science fiction along the way.

Eternal Sunshine isn't alone though, here are eight other romantic comedies that don't follow the formula. Check out my list on GotchaMovies!

One can't help but wonder if this poster for The World's End is a barebones layout of the plot via this exchange in Shaun of the Dead. Deceptively simple, yet brilliant.

Edgar Wright is a very popular man amongst his legion of geeks, nerds, and other pop-culture aficionados. One of those reasons being that Mr. Wright is a certified master of easter eggs—Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is entirely made up of them. Yet the ode to the English auteur's brilliance takes place in Shaun of the Dead. This throwaway line Ed shares with Shaun at the pub “a bloody Mary first thing, a bite at the King’s Head, couple at The Little Princess, stagger back here and bang… back at the bar for shots.” 

Not much to ponder for a viewer seeing a film for the first time, but think about how the film unfolds after that. Shaun and Ed kill a zombie named Mary. They then go to Shaun’s stepfather’s place to find out he’s been bitten. Off to rescue Liz (Shaun's love interest) at her flat and then the group pretends to be zombies and infiltrate The Winchester where they fend off zombies with a rifle.

The entire film is described in one line. Brilliant.

If Shaun of the Dead were drawn by Bryan Lee O'Malley