Love Stinks

The most laughable thing about this romance- gone-wrong comedy--featuring a sitcom writer trying to break up with his deranged, matrimony-mad girlfriend--is that nobody in the movie thinks the plot is funny. When the writer (French Stewart) tries to incorporate the same story into his show he writes for, it bombs. So if writer-director Jeff Franklin acknowledges the material isn't funny, what's he doing making this movie? The early romantic banter is cute and witty, but when the relationship sours and the plot turns to Stewart and fiancée Bridgette Wilson trying to destroy each other, the comedy starts to misfire badly. The two leads become fundamentally unlikable and Franklin hasn't given his characters anything but paint-by-numbers character traits in the first place. Not recommended. (R. Blackwelder)