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Sentimental movies make romantic fans sigh

Remember when love stories were something that both men and women enjoyed? Remember when they made romance flicks that became instant classics?

Once, in the not-so-distant past, Hollywood produced stories that enchanted audiences, and gave hope to hopeless romantics, but lately that is all just a thing of the past.

Perhaps, a good love story is hard to produce. It takes a great deal of sensitivity and thought to make a masterpiece that does come across as sentimental mush.

The characters have to have that certain chemistry that make their relationship captivate audiences. The plot has to be more than the ordinary fairy tale, and the suspense and drama have to combine to create a classic lscreen romance.

The golden age of film had its share of incomparable tear-jerkers that have survived the technology of modern film. Hideously long epics like "Gone with the Wind" even attracted many sentimental souls. Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh portrayed the drama of yesteryear that began the dawn of the love story. In "Casablanca," Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman represented war-torn lovers caught in a battle between lust and loyalty.

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr made tear-jerker history in "An Affair to Remember," as the two mesmerized individuals who were lost in a struggle of truth and humility. In "Breakfast at Tiffany's," the sexy yet classy style of Audrey Hepburn enchanted George Peppard.

These stars were the sex symbols of the era; they ruled the big screen. They knew how to schmooze their audiences, and instill classic love. The endings always had us hunger for more because we could not see how true love prevailed. They just don't make love like that anymore.

When the Big '80s swept the silver screen, theater fans got a bundle of exquisite romantic flicks. Actors from the "brat pack" stole the hearts of American teens. "Pretty in Pink" and "Sixteen Candles" live as classics for Generation X. Even "The Breakfast Club" and "St. Elmo's Fire" fulfilled the perfect fantasy. Today, many still sit around and think, weren't the `80s fabulous?

Hunks like Andrew McCarthy and Rob Lowe had the babes swooning. The simplicity of Molly Ringwald earned her the reputation as the pin-up goddess in teen magazines.

The amazing thing was that these films rarely struck critical best seller lists. None of these flicks were Oscar-caliber films, but they did live up to their potential with a younger crowd who could relate to a majority of the characters' emotions and experiences.

The late '80s and the very early '90s had some incredible romances, too. "Pretty Woman" introduced a new romantic leading lady with then-unknown Julia Roberts. Meg Ryan took the lead with her roles in some of the best romances in recent memory. Hits like "When Harry met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle" modernized old-fashioned love with several references to the classic "An Affair to Remember." Ryan bruised her record, though, when she starred opposite Kevin Kline in the dud "French Kiss."

Sentimentalists enjoyed D.B. Sweeney and Moria Kelly in "The Cutting Edge, " where Olympic pairs ice skaters fell for each other on and off the rink. In the sugary "Only You," Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. created a desire to travel across the ocean to Italy to fall in love.

Aside from these few, this decade has so far produced minimal hits in the love-story category. We are now half way through the '90s, and for what do we have to call our own?

A couple of years ago, Annette Bening and Warren Beatty got caught up in the "An Affair to Remember" craze that struck Hollywood when they made "Love Affair." Unfortunately, both the actors' performances and the film's script were weak, and "Love Affair" flopped.

Over the winter break, some moviegoers enjoyed "The American President," but really a love affair with the commander in chief? Not in this lifetime.

Sentimental moviegoers did have a winner with Sandra Bullock in "While You Were Sleeping," but in the not-so-distant 21st century, will we really look at the film as we do similar '80s flicks, saying, "Weren't the '90s great?"

The makings of the perfect fairy tale do not necessarily have to be the classic boy-meets-girl scenario where we all know the plot. For instance, take the action-packed thriller "Speed" with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. The point when we can tell that the two have fallen for one another adds a whole new twist to the plot. It's not cheesy, not flaky, but passionate --the kind of hot romance that, as they say, can only happen in the movies.

More recent releases like "Bed of Roses," starring Christian Slater and Mary Stuart Masterson, have all the makings of sentimental fluff.

Romantic movie fans want the good stuff. The turn of the century is quickly approaching, and the great many romance-starved film fanatics are waiting for that ideal flick.