'Chick Flicks': 'Chick flicks' have often been put down as trite, sappy, emotional, soap-opera-ish, cliched, melodramatic, weepy, and trivial. Often considered an all-encompassing sub-genre, they mostly include dialogue-laden, formulated romantic comedies (with mis-matched lovers or female relationships), tearjerkers and gal-pal films, movies about family crises and emotional catharsis, some traditional 'weepies' and fantasy-action adventures, sometimes with foul-mouthed and empowered females, and female bonding situations involving families, mothers, daughters and children.

Actors and actresses typically associated with 'chick' flicks include Meg Ryan, Barbra Streisand, Hugh Grant, Mel Gibson, Emma Thompson, Renee Zellweger, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore, or Julia Roberts, among others. From the following list, it appears that 'chick' flicks have become a prominent staple of films beginning in the mid-1980s and after. Compared to the earlier "woman's film," film critic Molly Haskell has written that the:

"chick flick", chirrupy and upbeat, sings a different tune, more defiant and ironic, postmodern and post-feminist, like the growling braggadocio of "grrrl power". Where "grrrl power" says "I can be cute and assertive too", "chick flick" says: "I'm emancipated but it's OK to long for romance, to get hung up on a guy, to obsess about mothers or children."

Recently, there has been a rash of female-oriented romantic films, including 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002) with Josh Hartnett, Life or Something Like It (2002) with Angelina Jolie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) with Kate Hudson, Little Black Book (2004) with Brittany Murphy, Raising Helen (2004) with Kate Hudson, Hitch (2005) with Will Smith, The Perfect Man (2005) with Heather Locklear and Hilary Duff, Catch and Release (2006) with Jennifer Garner, The Holiday (2006) with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), Music & Lyrics (2007) with Drew Barrymore, P.S., I Love You (2007) with Hilary Swank, and 27 Dresses (2008) with Katherine Heigl, but often films of this kind pass by fairly unnoticed.

Familiar quotes or taglines from each film have been included in this compilation. Another useful resource for this subject is The Rough Guide to Chick Flicks by Samantha Cook, and the book author's own site www.chickflickguide.com. Also see 50 Greatest Chick Flicks by O Magazine. After examining Filmsite's own Greatest 'Guy' Movies of All-Time (illustrated) compiled by this site, or the 100 Greatest Guy Movies Ever Made and the 50 Best Guy Movies of All Time, it only seemed fair to put together a list of gal films or chick flicks (a demeaning and damning term, however, since this sub-genre of film was traditionally known as the "woman's films - melodramas " in the 30s and 40s). See also Greatest Tearjerker Films, Moments and Scenes (illustrated) - many that are "great chick flicks" - and the genre of Romantic Films.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the "100 Greatest Films"