'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, Robert Pattinson, Owen Wilson, Mel Gibson, Emma Thompson, Renee Zellweger, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Garner, Kate Hudson, Rachel McAdams, and Katherine Heigl, 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 since the year 2000, there has been a rash of female-oriented romantic films (or rom-coms), including some that passed by fairly unnoticed:

• 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), Raising Helen (2004), and Bride Wars (2009) with Kate Hudson
• Little Black Book (2004) with Brittany Murphy
• The Perfect Man (2005) with Heather Locklear and Hilary Duff
• 13 Going on 30 (2004), Catch and Release (2006), and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) with Jennifer Garner
• The Holiday (2006) with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet
• 50 First Dates (2004), The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), Music and Lyrics (2007), and Going the Distance (2010) with Drew Barrymore
• P.S., I Love You (2007) with Hilary Swank
• 27 Dresses (2008), The Ugly Truth (2009), Life As We Know It (2010) and One For the Money (2012) with Katherine Heigl
• Remember Me (2010) with Robert Pattinson
• Along Came Polly (2004), The Break-Up (2006), He's Just Not That Into You (2009), The Switch (2010), and Just Go With It (2011) with Jennifer Aniston
• Valentine's Day (2010) with lots of chick-flick stars
• Friends With Benefits (2011) with Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis
• No Strings Attached (2011) with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman
• The Notebook (2004), The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) and The Vow (2012) with Rachel McAdams

More About Chick Flicks: Familiar quotes or taglines from each film have been included in this compilation. 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. Also 50 Greatest Chick Flicks by O Magazine. 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.

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"