Nah. No genre is truly dead, although some-musicals, westerns-are barely on life support, if we go by how very few films of those get released. I feel romcoms is one of those genres, like horror, that a lot of people think can be done easily (Just put two attractive leads in a run-of-the-mill romantic plot, and voila! Hit! Right?), which explains how many crappy romcoms we get. But as along as people fall in love, and as long as audiences want to escape reality by falling for a Hollywood romantic fantasy, there will be romcoms made.
In no particular order:
Favorites: Malcolm in the Middle, Friends, The Parkers, Alias, Living Single, Roseanne, Everybody Hates Chris.
Most hated: Buffy, Gilmore Girls, Dawson's Creek, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, Firefly.
I agree. As much as its detractors want to believe that audiences din't care about anything but the special effects, I went to see the film with a group of 7 people, and all we could talk about afterwards was the love story between Neityri and Jake, and the emotional resonance of the plot. That's why I laugh whenever I read "Avatar had no emotional impact. It was all pretty colors." It makes me think "Speak for yourself."
These films are always underestimated, and they always seem to prove people wrong. I still remember how NM and Eclipse were supposed to gross less than their predecessors. We all know how that turned out.
I don't see the awfulness in the "The Iron Lady" trailer that several forum members have mentioned. In fact, all I see is a run-of-the-mill biopic, but I fail to see anything cringe-worthy. And sorry, but Streep looks to be doing another fantastic performence. I guess different strokes and all that...
Well, so much for the "I don't see any hype this time" talk. This franchise has silenced the doom-n-gloomers before, and it will probably do it again. I am not entirely convinced that this will end up doing less than the previous film. I think this will do 325-330 domestic.