Runaway Bride (1999)

Directed by: Garry Marshall | 116 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Joan Cusack, Hector Elizondo, Rita Wilson, Paul Dooley, Christopher Meloni, Donal Logue, Reg Rogers, Yul Vazquez, Jane Morris, Lisa Roberts Gillan, Kathleen Marshall, Jean Schertler, Tom Hines

In 1999 there was a sequel to the collaboration of the most romantic film duo of the nineties from the film ‘Pretty Woman’: Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. The sparks flew from the screen at the time, so people saw bread in a new product from these two Hollywood icons. The chemistry between these two actors is also good in ‘Runaway Bride’, but the film does not reach the level of its predecessor. What this is about is not entirely clear. The story is just as unbelievable as that of ‘Pretty Woman’ (and we accepted that!), there is not bad acting in it, there are quite nice jokes in it (“Hi leave a message after the beep. If you want to send me a fax then buy me a fax machine.” Or if Maggie leaves her groom at the altar and hops on a Fed Ex truck, “Where is she going?” “I don’t know, but she’ll be there by 10:30 tomorrow.”), yet something is missing from the film.

Maybe it’s because the audience has to get used to Maggie and Ike as a couple too quickly. After all, she plans on getting married to Bob for more than half of the movie. The film is edited in such a way that it seems that it takes them longer to fall in love with each other, but if you think back, everything must have happened within a few days. Considering that Maggie and Ike hate each other so much at the beginning of the film, that’s practically impossible. According to this film, having your own opinion equals knowing how you prefer to eat your eggs, and that was what Maggie lacked. She didn’t know who she was, but Ike did. Still, it’s clever to be able to fathom someone in a week, which his predecessors hadn’t been able to do in years. Or was it ‘meant-to-be’ after all? In short, this ‘Pretty Woman II’ is nice as a snack, but for a really romantic evening, you better rent ‘Notting Hill’ or ‘Pretty Woman’. Or get married of course.