Films where the female protagonist chooses the jerk over the decent man

1. Sleepless In Seattle: Tom Hanks was kind of a jerk whereas Bill Pullman’s character seemed like a nice guy

2. The Breakfast Club: I loved Judd Nelson in this film, but he was a jerk.

3. The Karate Kid: I think every guy in this film was a jerk. Daniel was no exception. Well, I guess Mr. Miygai was a nice guy but that would have been illegal.

 

Not only do I agree, but I never could get the love for this movie nor most of the rest of the John Hughes junk. The most overrated filmmaker of the 1980s.

 

The Third Man I think. Holly ends up betraying Harry Lime and Anna chooses not to forgive him for doing so, even though she knows Harry was a bad guy. It's posthumous but I think it still counts and makes for a great final scene...

 

It's a TV series, but Felicity choosing Ben over Noel still bothers me. I really loved the show otherwise.

 

This is in keeping with the way Cyclops is in the comics. The following video shows why the actions of Cyclops in the movie pales against what he has done in the comics...

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Casablanca.

 

But that's not really what happened. Ilsa (Bergman) tells Rick (Bogie) that HE has to decide, so it's Rick's choice -- it's not Ilsa choosing one over the other. Rick decides (after one last night together {implied sex} that it would be better for everyone if Ilsa went with
Victor. No one was "friend-zoned".

 

Any John Wayne movie.

 

Hughes films tend to appeal most strongly to people who were young in the 80s. If you were born between 1967-1980 or so, you probably have some attachment to the films.

I agree that Hughes was flawed as a filmmaker, but I wouldn't call his whole filmography "junk". Some of it's pretty good!

 

Looking for Mr. Goodbar has that scenario (for part of the film, anyway) where Diane Keaton chooses heel Richard Gere over the nice, but boring James character. Had she hooked up with James, bad things might not have happened.

 

I was born in 1970, was right in the target demographic. Hated them then, hate them now. I do think Ferris Bueller was better, and Breakfast Club was at least tolerable. I suppose I did enjoy Planes Tranes and Home Alone, but those were outside that 80s run. It's really Sixteen Candles and Pretty In Pink that I truly loathe.

 

"Planes" was 1987, so smack dab in "80s run" - and since it came out in 1990, "Home Alone" is close enough!

"Some Kind of Wonderful" was a better version of "Pink" - even with the cringe-inducing self-conscious references to Stones songs...

 

Still too "cute." I think the thing I really didn't like about most of his 80s films that involved teens (or supposed teens) is that I really didn't recognize the cultural landscape that was supposed to be "ours." I don't think it accurately reflected that generation, and the fact that so many people felt it did just annoyed me further. I do recognize this might be a minority opinion.

 

Here's my big problem with Hughes films. In the movies where the guy lead is pining for a girl while another girl is pining for him, the girl doing the pining gets the guy. When its reversed, girl pining for guy while another guy pines for her, she gets the guy she pined for. So in every instance, the girl always ends up with the guy she wanted.

 

La La Land.

 

In the David Bowie extended video "Jazzin' For Blue Jean," the girl picks Screamin' Lord Byron over Vic.

All the male characters in that film were jerks within their own stereotype.

The Principal with a superiority complex and using his authority as a tool to intimidate his students.

Emilio Estevez as the popular, hazing star jock who picked on lesser adept classmates/teammates because he had Daddy issues (He ends up with the "pretty" girl in my opinion.)

Judd Nelson acted and dressed like a punk (and perceived as a "criminal",) mostly as a result of his lower class family life. He had to act tough around his peers to hide his true feelings and emotions.

Even Anthony Michael Hall's character was a jerk in his own way. Even though he had an inferiority complex as a stereotypical nerd, he also came across as a jerk since he also had an intellectual superiority complex around his classmates. No one likes a person who thinks they are smarter than everyone else, nerd or not.

 

But how do we know SLB is a jerk? Provide evidence, please!

 

I am not of the opinion that this is true. I think that people who don't get the girl impute jerkiness onto the person that she does pick, more often than not.

 

Reality Bites: She chooses the sanctimonious mooch over the hard working guy.

 

The first one that comes to mind is Pretty in Pink. I was cheering for Duckie right from the beginning. He was always there for Andie, but she took him for granted and chose the shallow, stuckup Blane instead. Duckie deserved to be something other than Andie's "girlfriend." There's a whole Internet-based movement to obtain justice for Duckie.

 

An example that came to mind is The Object of Beauty with Andie McDowell and John Malkovich. Andie's husband that she deserted has only a short cameo but comes across as a very decent guy if a bit older. The Malkovich character is a quintessential jerk.

 

How about the Benjamin Buttons movie.

Not sure that the 'other' guy was a jerk though...

 

Cute girls generally do.

 

Solo (depending, of course, on your view of the title character).

 

I'll stretch it a bit here, I'll play loose with "decent" and go with:

1. Casino
2. The Kids are All Right (also my nominee for worst movie ending ever)