The Break-Up...(how to screw up a pretty simple formula)

Recipe for Romantic Comedy

1 cup - male lead
1 cup - female lead
2/3 tble spoon - courting ritual
2 cups - momentary bliss
3/4 cup - complicating incidents
1 sprinkle - token comedic best friend (save a lame joke for adding to the plot just before credits)
1 cup - momentary bliss
2-3 tea spoons - overplayed Barry White or R&B soundtrack
1 tble spoon - romantic dancing into the sunset scene
3 cups - studio credits

Plot Recipe

1. combine 1 cup male lead with 1 cup female lead
2. stir in 2/3 tble spoon courting ritual (to bring couple together)
3. add 2 cups momentary bliss and let sit
4. combine mixture with 3/4 cup complicating incidents (to cause rift in relationship and separate)
5. boil on stove top until couple realizes the “whole” of their relationship is greater than “the sum of the parts”and put aside differences
6. cue the overplayed Barry White or other R&B soundtrack
7. add romantic dancing into the sunset scene
8. stir in lame joke from token comedic best friend
9. roll the studio credits

The Break Up screws up the formula almost from the inception of the movie by having Vince Vaughan (male lead) and Jennifer Anniston (female lead) becoming shacked up and at each others throats within a few minutes of the starting credits. The majority of the rest of the movie is spent on disjointed scenes, where the audience is left wishing the two would just split up for good (both Jennifer and Vince seem to have a pretty good handle on how to do that outside of the “silver screen”). Although Vince Vaughan demonstrates some of his usual neurotic and highly energized comedic abilities, the movie has little else along the lines of humour. For any romantics who might be interested in “aspartame laden” love scenes, the movie also fails to deliver on this front as well. In my opinion this movie has a shelf life of two weeks and is about as memorable as the Eddie Murphy classic “Adventures of Pluto Nash”.