The Man Chick Flick

… which you apparently can't try to be hip and call a "Mick" flick, because … well, you know why.  Let's talk about chick flicks though.  Obviously, many women love them because they're movies not geared towards men, which is why we men often make fun of them and say things like "I heard it's a chick flick."  Then there's the "Romantic Comedy" which let's face it, is also a chick flick because it's still trying to keep women interested.  For some reason, women don't like people on skis shooting machine guns at people like Arnold Schwarzegger and Sylvester Stallone.  I don't know why they don't like this, but we can all agree they don't.  I've always believed that any man whoever tells you he liked watching chick flicks or romantic comedies, did that because he felt it increased his chances of getting laid.  There's no other explanation.

That machismo aside, every now and then, men love a movie and unbeknownst to them  it's a chick flick in disguise.  The perfect example of this is the movie Swingers.  Men love it because of Vince Vaughn and his hysterical assholishness; references to man movies like Reservoir Dogs and conversations about things like film; going to Vegas and getting laid; and of course, playing SEGA hockey which is one of the most underrated rights of passage for people born between 1972 and 1979. 

At the heart of it though, is Mikey and his relationship troubles.  Once you get by all this cool Vince Vaughn cockiness and interesting man dialogue, it always comes back to all the guys helping Mikey with his problems.  Mikey is basically a chick.  She leaves that embarrassing stalker message on that dudes phone.  She gets into a fight with one of her friends because her bitchy friend is taking a tough love approach hoping to make her get over her lost love because she's sick of hearing her cry.  She can always go back to her best friend though, who will always be there for her.  There's really not much difference between Mikey and Vince's escape to Vegas than there is Thelma and Louise's big journey, you know, aside from what happens once they leave, but the reasons for why they leave are very similar, they're both about a character having relationship problems and they flee with their best friend. 

If you reverse the genders of everyone in the movie, you have as your plot, a girl moving away from her home town because of a failed relationship and having a difficult time getting used to the new "big city".  Have Drew Barrymore play the role of "Michelle" and mix in Angelina Jolie to play "Tracy" and you're half way there.  Instead of having them playing SEGA hockey, you can have them drinking Appletinis and watching "Sex and the City", and instead of going to Vegas, they take a trip to wine country where Drew Barrymore finds a sensitive rugged man who helps the girls find their way back home after they break away from a wine tour and get lost in a vineyard after the sun goes down.  

Sure, maybe the chemistry between Barrymore and Jolie wouldn't be that good, but you get the idea.