The Opposite Sex and How to Live With Them (1993)
I know I talk a lot about my intense disdain for the vast majority of Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell comedies, but one thing I have to admit is that at least they have some energy behind them. They are working hard and really trying to be funny. They just fail miserably. It's movies like the drab and listless The Opposite Sex and How to Live With Them that make me yearn for the sly comedy of dog-poop jokes.
This movie doesn't even have the sense of urgency to get the grammar correct in its title. I point this out not to really insult the movie per se, but to underline the fact that this is the only thing of any interest, and it will most certainly be the only thing you'll remember about it once the end credits roll.
The Opposite Sex and How to Live With Them has about the same sort of wit you'd find in just about any failed, television sit-com pilot. The whole movie follows the relationship of dolts Arye Gross and Courteney Cox as they meet, date, fall in love, move in together, fall out of love, fall back in love and get married to live happily ever after. This might have been the stuff for a perfectly delightful romantic comedy, but the problem is that Gross and Cox are just so dull, and despite both having high-end careers, not all that bright. Adding to this blah relationship are Gross's and Cox's best pals and confidants, played by Kevin Pollack and Julie Brown, respectively. In fact, Brown is the only character with any life that we wish the movie would follow her around instead.
We get all of the expected and predictable scenes: there's the meet-cute where Gross tries to pick up Cox in a bar and she blows him off only to finally agree to go out on a date, there's the uncomfortable meetings with each other's parents, there's the his stuff vs. her stuff disagreements when they live together, there's the big cooling-off period, there's the breakup and so on. What is not predictable, however, is the fact there are constant "fantasy" sequences and transitions that have the cast members at various times talk directly to the audience. But if you thought that what the characters say to each other is of little interest, what they say to us is even less interesting.
The Opposite of Sex and How to Live With Them is so much flimsy nothingness. There is so little substance here to even create an entire feature-length movie that the result practically evaporates as it plays. Those who actually got shookered into paying first-run box-office prices to see this in theatres ought to all get together and file a class action lawsuit.