If the romantic comedy Breakin' All the Rules had come along four decades ago, it would have starred Rock Hudson and Doris Day.
Today it stars Jamie Foxx and Gabrielle Union, but although most of the principal characters are African-American, writer-director Daniel Taplitz doesn't have much new to say on the ups and downs of romance.
Actually, had Breakin' All the Rules been made 40 years ago, it no doubt would have been faster paced and had snappier dialogue. Some of the gags in Breakin' All the Rules revolve around a pug dog with a bladder problem. By the time one gets to the middle of the film, the mistaken-identity situations have been stretched to unbelievable lengths and many of the characters seem only silly.
The plot gets rolling when, shortly after his girlfriend dumps him at their engagement party, Foxx's Quincy Watson writes a book on the rules of breaking off a relationship. The book becomes an instant bestseller. Suddenly, the hapless Quincy has become a national expert on breakups.
So when his publishing boss (Peter MacNicol) and his best friend Evan (Morris Chestnut) are both thinking about dumping their respective girlfriends, it's Quincy they turn to.
Sent to cool things with Evan's girlfriend Nicky (Union), Quincy mistakes her for someone else and soon is off to the races with her. She, reluctantly at first, begins developing feelings for him as well. Meanwhile, Evan is mistaken by his boss's girlfriend (Jennifer Esposito) for Quincy and she begins a romance with him, despite her initial dislike for him. Then Quincy's original girlfriend (Bianca Lawson) returns, ready to continue their old relationship. Got it?
Soon the complications have compounded in this Dating Game stew of situations, which grow more and more outlandish as the film rolls bumpily along. Had the characters not been so foolish, the script might have captivated. MacNicol is especially silly in a role that would have been played by Tony Randall in the old Day-Hudson comedies, and the gold-digging woman he's trying to dump seems a conniving shrew. Wedding bells do ring eventually, but by that time you may not care who gets hitched to whom.
**
Breakin' All the Rules
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Peter MacNicol, Jennifer Esposito, Bianca Lawson.
Rated: PG-13, contains sexual situations, profanity.
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