One of my all time favorites.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

A delightful romantic comedy inventively directed by Bob Luketic, this one has some nice twists in its scenario and is most ingratiatingly played by all concerned, but particularly by our heroine, Kate Bosworth, and her two leading men, charming Josh Duhamel as the Hollywood star, "Tad Hamilton", and Topher Grace as the hometown boy who knows he's outclassed, but is in there pitching anyway. To my surprise, the movie cost around $24 million, a staggering sum for what we actually see on the screen. I know at least four or five producers who could have wrapped it up for half that sum, but there was no way it could have recouped $24 million. Thus, despite good attendance figures, the movie actually lost money and returned only around sixty cents in the dollar to its investors. Available on an excellent DreamWorks DVD.

If you are an aspiring filmmaker and need an idea for a ninety minute film I think I may have your solution; write a script for a romantic comedy. Think about it, the first thing you do isn't the thing your going to wind up sticking with. Kevin Bacon started with horror films and now he's a household name. Even Peter Jackson. What you want to do is get a pretty straightforward storyline for a romantic comedy made and expand it into roughly an eighty to one hundred minute film.Comedy is a risky environment, if there aren't big names, people won't pay. Even if it's bashed, you'll make money, but you need respectable comedy names. Horror is a bad market to get in now because everything is CGI and remakes. It's another genre I'd shy away from. Write a script for a romantic comedy, get some middle of the road stars to be in it, and boom. It doesn't cost too much to make a romantic comedy either. That is my advice for you.I bring this up because Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! sounds like a film that could've been made by almost anyone. There is always a market for romantic comedies because there is always a girlfriend in need of a chick flick and time with her boyfriend. It's a win win. Even the most cliché romance movies get a fair rating from critics and audience members. It doesn't have to be Notebook worthy. If it makes them laugh, tear, and care, chances are, they'll eat it up.Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! is about a regular girl named Rosalee (Bosworth) who gets the once in a lifetime chance to go on a date with her favorite movie star hunk Tad Hamilton (Duhamel). What she doesn't know, aside from his stunning, romantic comedy appearances, Tad is just a burnout Hollywood wreck. Tad winds up falling in love with Rosalee, and wants the two to live together. Rosalee's best guy friend Pete (Grace) is extremely jealous and in shock Rosalee would fall in love this guy. This causes a whole new subplot for the film.The movie is stuck in the awkward hybrid section of "regular ol' rom com" and "on the edge of daring rom com." Even though I am usually an easy sell with romantic comedies, I didn't care too much for the characters in the film. Even Topher Grace who I am known to love. Rosalee's simply minded, quick decision making character isn't how I would like a protagonist to be and Tad's character just is an unlikable schmuck.I did however enjoy some scenes in the film, most of all the farm scene where Pete and Tad are trying to chop logs. Pete tries to show off to the girls with his bird-chest, but once that shirt comes off of Tad, Pete might as well get lost. The scene was very accurate on how girls act around a muscular guy and a wimpy guy. It hit the target.Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! has some nice little perks to it like Topher Grace, an interesting soundtrack, and some small other plot perks, but overall it's one of those films that really used up a ton of it's budget on actors when it could've done so much more and went a lot deeper. I didn't hate it, I didn't care too much for it.Starring: Kate Bosworth, Josh Duhamel, Topher Grace, Nathan Lane, Sean Hayes, and Gary Cole. Directed by: Robert Luketic.

From director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster-in-Law), I had certainly heard the title, and I knew it might be a soppy romantic comedy chick flick, but I have been known to sit through many of those. Basically in rural West Virginia, young grocery clerk Rosalee Futch (Superman Returns' Kate Bosworth) dreams of one day meeting her movie star idol Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel), and she sees a way to make this a reality. She spots a competition where the prize is to go on a date with Hamilton himself, so after raising the $100 entry fee, she is shocked and delighted to be the winner, while her best friend and co-worker Pete Monash (Topher Grace) is irritated. So Rosalee finally comes face to face with Tad Hamilton, who is doing this, with the insistence of his agent Richard Levy the Driven (Nathan Lane), to clean up his fading image and boost his profile, and she is naturally nervous. So the date goes well and she has a nice time, as does Tad, who is somehow smitten with this girl he only got to know for a few hours, and he wants more, so against the wishes of Richard, he moves to West Virginia. Rosalee is of course confused to see this movie star asking her out for another date, and getting close to become a more frequent boyfriend, but she enjoys every minute of it, while Pete, who is secretly in love with her, is extremely jealous. Pete does find it in himself to come out and show his true feelings for Rosalee, but she is confused, doesn't seem to really take it in and is naturally more towards Tad. In the end, Rosalee realises she does indeed have true feelings for Pete, Tad tells her he has been lying and lets her go, and the true loving couple have their happy ending kiss. Also starring Gary Cole as Henry Futch, Ginnifer Goodwin as Cathy Feely, Kathryn Hahn as Angelica, Octavia Spencer as Janine, Sean Hayes as Richard Levy the Shameless, Amy Smart as Nurse Betty and Stephen Tobolowsky as George Ruddy. Bosworth is nice as the beautiful star-eyed fan, Duhamel is alright as the simpleton movie star, and Grace is good as the love sick jealous friend, the film didn't make me laugh a lot, but the story would appeal to anyone who has always wanted to meet their idol, your probably going to get more than you bargained for, and there's that saying that it's different when in the flesh, anyway, a not bad romantic comedy. Worth watching!

Unobtrusive would be a good word to use when describing the film Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. Is it obvious? Yes. Is it clichéd? Yes. Is it horrible? Not quite. With a few good laughs, some fun performances, and a decent soundtrack, the movie ends up being nice filler on an evening with nothing else to do. I even think it was better than Robert Luketic's previous "chick flick" effort Legally Blonde, but then, I hated that one. With no expectations at all, mocking my sister for her taste in films, I will say I had a smile throughout. Sure most of it was due to the sheer absurdity and banality of it all, but it was a genuine smile nonetheless.The premise is something that could be written by any marginally gifted screenwriter and pits two best friends (with the obvious sexual tension of the boy being in love with the girl) caught up in the fact that she wins said date with said movie star. Being the good Virginia girl she is, she does not allow Tad to take advantage of her in Hollywood and ends up leaving town to go home with his heart. He follows, trying to better his life full of materialism and debauchery, much to the chagrin of his manager and agent (a funny twosome of Sean Hayes and Nathan Lane). Just at the moment when our lead is about to pour his heart out to the love of his life, after she finished her story of Hollywood escapades, in comes Tad to turn his life upside-down. Rather than finally tell her how he feels, he attempts to sabotage Tad's advances, but of course, like in all these types of films, his tries end up backfiring, bringing the two lovebirds closer together.There are no misconceptions on how the movie will end up, who will get the girl, who will do the right thing at the right time, but despite these misgivings the journey is entertaining. Topher Grace as the lead hero, trying to win the girl of his dreams, plays the geeky good guy to perfection. When he goes to Tad's farm, portrayed great by Josh Duhamel, (he's really just playing himself isn't he?), and the two go head to head chopping lumber, you can't help but laugh. Especially when Duhamel smacks Grace at the end, and Topher feels the sting…priceless. As for the girl at the center of it all, Kate Bosworth does a good job. She has never impressed me too much, but here she plays the country-bumpkin to a T. All the innocuous language and catch phrases can definitely induce some eye rolling, but it works for the part. Even Ginnifer Goodwin and Gary Cole bring in some laughs with small roles. Cole's attempts to talk the west coast movie biz lingo is great because you can see someone in his situation totally doing just that.It is paint-by-numbers through and through yet finds some moments of creativity. With lines such as Grace saying he'd tear Duhamel apart with his bare hands, or vicious rhetoric, I had to chuckle. The director and screenwriter treat the townspeople nicely with their star-goggles on, unbelieving that a movie star is in their home. I guess they even throw in an homage to An Officer and a Gentlemen—I'll take the parents' word for that being as I have not seen the film. Would I go out of the way to check the film out again? No. However, if it is on TV or someone suggests watching it, I will have to refrain from laughing at them obscenely, walking out and never talking to them again, because in the end, I'd probably stick around and watch.