Romantic comedies, I've said it before and I'll say it again, we always have the hit and miss formula that comes with this genre. For the most part it's a miss, we RARELY have a funny or original romantic comedy. It's been over a year since we've had a good romantic comedy and this year seems to be pushing the horrible movies of this genre. For example, we had The Proposal that was released this year and it was just awful and so simple. The Ugly Truth seemed to be heading the same way when I first saw the trailer, but when I learned that it was Rated R, I decided to try to give it a chance. Honestly, this movie was a lot better than I had expected, it actually had some really great laughs and is a heck a lot better than The Proposal. But once again The Ugly Truth fell back into the ugly formula of clichés that are just annoying and there were quite a few things that I would have done differently with the story, I'll first explain the plot.

Abby, a TV producer, is coming home from another disastrous date one night, she happens to see a segment of a local television show, "The Ugly Truth," run by Mike Chadway, whose cynicism of relationships prompts Abby to call into the show to argue with him on-air. The next day, she discovers that the station is threatening to cancel her show because of its poor ratings, and the station owner has hired Mike to do a segment on her show to bring them back up. At first, the two have a rocky relationship; Abby thinks Mike is crass and disgusting while Mike finds Abby to be a control freak. However she meets the man of her dreams, a doctor named Colin living next to her, and Mike persuades her to follow his lead. She agrees to his helpful advice and if he can get her the man she wants, proving his theories on relationships, she will work happily with him, but if Mike fails, he agrees to quit; he successfully guides Abby to be exactly what Colin would want. But being a romantic comedy, Abby and Mike instead fall for each other as usual, you know how the story goes.

Now things I would've done different, if you don't want spoilers then don't read on: there is a child that comes into Mike's apartment, he and Mike get along great, I'm thinking that's his son; instead it's his nephew. I think this would have added substance to his character and made him more likable and would have had a better story on why he was so bitter on women, maybe like the mother left him or something. Second: I honestly would have had Abby chosen the doctor over Mike. Katherine and Gerad are great on screen together, but their chemistry for this film I felt was more of a great friendship than falling in love with each other. Her choosing Mike over the doctor was so typical, I would have had the doctor find out about what was going on and then take her back realizing that he still liked her very much and then Mike ends up with some slutty girl as usual happy with his shallow life, but still enjoying it. Third: no tired formulas, no girl best friend supporting everything the lead female does, no big kiss in front of an audience, no dramatic of finding out what a kiss meant. Fourth: why do we have gorgeous people claiming they have a hard time finding love or supposedly not having sex for a year? I'm not saying it's impossible, but I'm finding it hard to believe that girls who look like Katherine Heigl are having the hardest time finding love.

But there are some positives in the film, honestly I did have a good time watching this film over all, it was just the ending that killed the movie. But even the little rip off of When Harry Met Sally where Abby is wearing vibrating panties at a company dinner and someone saying what was in her food to have the same effect, it's an old joke but it never gets old. I loved that this was a Rated R rom-com because the reason MOST of these movies don't work are due to the fact that they're too family friendly and very much unrealistic. Not to say that The Ugly Truth is completely realistic, but more so than most films. We have some sick jokes but get a great laugh, Abby is going to a baseball game with Colin, her crush, and she accidentally spills her drink on his lap and starts rubbing his pants to clean them and the kiss cam lowers in on them with a bad angle looking like she's just having fun with his hot dog. Honestly I think most of the theater had a hard time catching their breath on that joke, no one could stop laughing. Katherine and Gerad do have great chemistry on screen, I just think it would have worked better as a friendship. So I would say this is better suited as a rental vs. a theater view. It's a lot better than I expected but had more potential as it falls back into the same old tired formula.

6/10

Truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of Gerard Butler, and I'm really not that familiar with Katherine Heigl, so I can't say that I went into this movie with particularly high expectations. But I have to confess that I was surprised. This is actually a very enjoyable movie, and at times (I'm thinking of the scene in the restaurant) it's downright hilarious. Heigl plays Abby, the uptight producer of a local Sacramento morning TV show who's always on the lookout for love but never finds it. Meanwhile, Mike (played by Butler) is the obnoxious host of an obnoxious talk show about relationships who gets hired for the morning show (against Abby's wishes) in the hopes of boosting ratings.

OK. You can pretty much see where this is going to end up so it can't be considered especially original, and it's true that once it takes its predictable turn (which is thankfully fairly late in the movie) it becomes rather formulaic as opposites attract and romance blossoms, etc., etc. But the story goes on for a while before that angle gets introduced, and there's a lot of fun along the way, especially as Abby and Mike first become friends and Abby tries to reinvent herself with Mike's help in order to snare a local doctor she's attracted to (who's played by Eric Winter.)

Yes, by the end it's quite predictable and the last 20 minutes or so become a little dull to be honest. But before then this movie does have a lot of laughs. Butler and Heigl also played their parts well and worked well together. It is at times (fairly often actually) a bit crude, so it's not for those who are looking for a sweet, innocent romance. But for a few laughs, this is worth watching. (7/10)

Now I do like this genre of film, but only when the comedy is funny and the romance touches or moves me. The Ugly Truth I am afraid to say, did neither.

The film does look quite nice with striking cinematography and locations, but sadly that is the only praise I can give. I was disappointed in the soundtrack, I did find it very generic and forgettable, and in the direction which was so smug and unfocused.

When it comes to the acting, it wasn't very good really. Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler do try to bring some life into their roles, but the two have no chemistry together and it doesn't help that their characters(and all the characters of the film for that matter) are so shallow and clichéd that I couldn't care for them at all.

The worst assets were the script and the story. The script is incredibly unfunny and mean-spirited, and the story is predictable and hackneyed with an ending you can smell a mile off. Also the pacing is so sluggish, and with everything else so poor the whole film was a dull chore to sit through, and on top of all that with how some of the characters behave and treat each other here some of it felt sexist.

Overall, I disliked it, because I found it dull with a poor story and script with characters I felt nothing for. 1/10 Bethany Cox