This is one of the worst mainstream romcoms I've ever seen. The movie follows big city columnist Ike who writes a story about small town Maggie who's become a local legend for how many times she's run away from weddings leaving her groom to be at the alter. After Ike loses his job he goes to Maggie's home town to seek vindication and sparks supposedly begin to fly.

Runaway Bride is a bad movie. It has unlikable characters played by uninvested actors acting out an unbelievable premise in a chemistry free and toxic love story that honestly feels more stalkerish at first than like a genuine meet cute. The movie costs $70 Million none of which can be seen on the screen and its humor alternates between cringing Disney channel "wah wah" shenanigans to folks "oh gosh" small town type humor, and to rather creepy segments including a sequence where Ike obtains a topless photo of Maggie and won't give it back. I HATED this movie and wanted to throw my TV out the window after watching it. Joan Cusack however was enjoyable and what few laughs I did get came from her. She's an underrated actress.

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.

Runaway Bride is an enjoyable romantic comedy. Yes, it isn't perfect, the story is very predictable and repetitive, the direction is perhaps a little too leisurely in some parts and there are parts when very little happens. But it is a very well played romantic comedy at that.

The script is full of very funny one-liners and quotes. Whilst I had a few problems with the story, the script was fine. Julia Roberts makes the most of her role as the title character, and Richard Gere, her co-star in Pretty Woman, is his usual charming self as the somewhat over familiar love interest, and Joan Cusack is enjoyable as Roberts's friend who gives her the odd piece of advice throughout the film.

All in all, not too bad. It is predictable, like I have said too many times already, but it is well played and well scripted, so not so bad to pass the time. 7/10 Bethany Cox