On L List of Movie Reviews

(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)


Love Story (1970)

Rate: 2
Viewed: 4/05, 1/09

LoveStory
4/05: Full of sappy bullshit, Love Story is the most overrated film of 1970 although it saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy.

"Love means never having to say you're sorry" is the corniest line of the decade if not all time. This is the movie that transformed Ali MacGraw into an overrated actress. She'll do one more before disappearing from Hollywood for good. If not for her overnight fame, she would've never been married to Steve McQueen.

Plain and unconvincing as Jenny, Ali McGraw is annoying like fingernails scratching on a chalkboard. Profanity comes out of her mouth unnaturally. Ryan O'Neal manages to keep things as real as possible, but the phony acting hurts him constantly.

I appreciate the straightforward, direct communication between the two principal characters, but it hasn't strengthened their chemistry. In fact, there isn't any. That's why when Jenny died, I was like, "Uh, bye." Happily, young Tommy Lee Jones makes his motion picture debut. Who knew he would end up being an Oscar winner down the road?

All in all, I can't believe people fell for that bullshit in Love Story en masse.

1/09: The corniest line of 1970 is: *drum roll* "Love means never having to say you're sorry"!

Come on up, Love Story! You just won a year's supply of corn from Nebraska. The movie is so terrible that it has become more and more of a Ripley's Believe It or Not! tidbit for saving Paramount Pictures from the brink of collapse. How the two lead thespians, Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw, got Oscar-nominated for their roles is beyond me. They're terrible and have little chemistry. When Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw deliver their lines, it feels forced and unnatural.

The plot is underdeveloped and fails to explain the bitter relationship between the father and his son. Otherwise, it's been an endless cycle of corny lines, kisses, car rides, and snow activities. Speaking of car rides, I can't believe they kept the top on during the middle of the winter. Perhaps that's why Jenny died of leukemia.

All in all, Love Story is corny with a capital C.