Having Julia Roberts and George Clooney star in a romantic comedy may have seemed like a no-brainer after seeing their palpable chemistry in the Ocean’s Eleven franchise. Now, moviegoers will get to see Roberts and Clooney reunite in Ticket to Paradise. Surprisingly, this film will be both stars' first rom-com in years. Of course, Roberts was the queen of the genre in the '90s, with hit after hit. At the time, critics and fans tended to look down on the genre. Playing such an instrumental role in the genre’s success, the Oscar winner chose to defend 1990s romantic comedies.
Julia Roberts was the face of romantic comedies in the 1990s with her resumé including Pretty Woman, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and Notting Hill. Looking back on the 1990s rom-com boom, Julia Roberts mentioned how under-appreciated the genre’s success and abundance while pointing out that these films were more effort than they appeared. She explained to The New York Times about why it’s so hard to keep romantic comedies unpredictable.
I think we didn't appreciate the bumper crop of romantic comedies that we had then. You don't see all the effort and puppet strings because it's fun and sweet and people are laughing and kissing and being mischievous. This is a genre that I love to participate in and watch, and I think they are hard to get right. There is a really simple math to it, but how do you make it special? How do you keep people interested when you can kind of predict what is coming?
The genre vet would be the right person to explain the importance of rom-coms! As the Oscar winner mentioned, the light-heartedness of the genre can sometimes make critics and fans think there was no effort put into them. That might be why she stopped doing romantic comedies for years.
The factory-like precision of 1990s rom-coms didn’t help their case to fight this perception. Sticking to the formula while deviating from certain tropes was a tough balance that a few films did get right. Fortunately, Julia Roberts managed to escape relatively unscathed.
While romantic comedies weren’t always well-received by critics, moviegoers swarmed these films making them huge commercial hits. The period was a boom for the genre with Julia Roberts and other stars making them year after year. Roberts led hits like Runaway Bride and Something to Talk About throughout the decade. Along with Roberts’ output, the 1990s gave viewers rom-com classics, including Sleepless in Seattle, Four Weddings and a Funeral, As Good as It Gets, She’s All That, and The Wedding Singer. Even George Clooney did the cult classic One Fine Day during this prosperous period. Oftentimes, multiple films were released at the same time.
Ticket to Paradise marked the two Oscar winners’ first rom-com since Julia Roberts appeared in 2016’s Mother’s Day and George Clooney starred in 2003’s Intolerable Cruelty. They last appeared together in the 2016 crime thriller Money Monster. The film sees Robert and Clooney playing divorced parents who travel to Bali to stop their daughter from marrying a man she just met. It appears fans are in for a fun time with the two A-listers as seen in the trailer.
Ticket to Paradise will hit theaters on October 21, 2022. If you want to see what other romantic comedies are coming out, check out our 2022 movie schedule to keep tabs on any new films.
