They brought out the knives for Meg Ryan following SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE.
But the thing is, even her KATE AND LEOPOLD continues to deliver audiences on streaming services 15 years later.
As Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts walked away from rom coms, the format was supposedly dead.
But, in 2009, Sandra Bullock returned to rom coms with THE PROPOSAL and the film made $317.4 million worldwide.
Because there is an audience for rom coms.
It's not an audience that wants to see Matthew Broderick.
No, THE PROPOSAL teamed Sandra with the attractive Ryan Reynolds.
See that's what really killed the rom com: Ugly men.
There's nothing romantic about teaming with Ben Stiller (see DUPLEX), or Broderick, or Owen Wilson.
And while not great lookers, Tom Hanks and Billy Crystal had personality.
Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey have personality, looks and talent but they need to be teamed with actresses film goes like -- Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore, Kate Hudson, Jennifer Lopez, etc.
They don't need to be teamed with the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker.
A romantic comedy asks the audience to enjoy two people falling in love, this requires a cast with actors the audience wants to see.
Supposedly the genre was tired and that's why critics attacked it.
If that were indeed true, the super hero films would have been attacked years ago since nothing remotely inventive has been done since Sam Raimi directed the SPIDER-MAN trilogy.
The reality is what it's always been. Critics attack films where women star or co-star.
They do it because they hate women or just because they know they can get away with it.
It's why they went after Goldie Hawn and Jane Fonda before Goldie, trashing them for supposedly making the same film over and over . . . while ignoring Clint Eastwood doing the same thing in his films.