Breakin' All the Rules Review

In Breakin' All the Rules, Quincy is ready to announce his engagement just to find out that Nicky, his girl, wants to take a break b/c "everything between us is too right, too easy. I'm 25 years old and still waiting for that GRAND PASSION!"  This normally sly guy is now quite the downer. To add to the trouble his boss is asking him to fire people. He's uncomfortable with it but as his boss says "I just happen to be in the position to delegate, and you are not!" He thinks this is wrong so he writes his own name on the firing list and leaves. Depression sets in as he stays in his house until his friend comes over to see where he's at.

Quincy has been reading so much employee termination research that he's starting to compare it to his girlfriend and during the past week he made a manual on how to break up with your boyfriend...which he says is just like firing someone because "you want to do it the easiest way, the simplest way without creating a stalker". He first puts it into practice as Evan wants to break up with a girl... and then it all starts to flow. The process works so great they decide to print the breakup handbook! Quincy went from being dumped to being the king of breakups.

Actors
Jamie Foxx .... Quincy Watson is depressed, than happy, then depressed again when he realizes he has no one to love. He's not the confident guy you've seen in the Jamie Foxx show, instead he's a little lovestruck, semi-confident, mostly shy guy. He's got bad pick up lines and even when those work he's got bad follow up lines.

Gabrielle Union .... Nicky Callas ... Evan's girlfriend who he loves mostly because of her long black hair, which she is about to cut real short without him knowing it. She's trying to make this relationship work and doesn't realize Evan's only planning his next breakup. I like her in this movie because she is the everyday woman who gets stuck into this mess and now wants to get some revenge on Evan and Quincy.

Morris Chestnut .... Evan Fields ... his friend who seems like a nice guy but really is not prepared to stick with any girl very long. He's so afraid Nicky's gonna dump him that he runs out of the apartment when she's not looking. In other words, he's a jerk. 

Some Analysis 
It's kind of comedy, kind of romance but mostly it's just there. I can't say I laughed that much, but I also wasn't bored. I like the chemistry between Quincy, Evan, Nicky and the doggy. Plus I like the few twists and triangles that intercept the characters. It's kind of realistic...maybe not the break up book part... but the rest of it is pretty much like real life. I would have liked to hear more of the break up rules because I think that would have made the movie more funny. I thought it would be the opposite of Hitch. Where Hitch told you how to get a girl, I thought this movie would tell you how to dump a girl with rules and lessons and stuff, just to make it funny. I would love to see what was in this book that made it such a big hit! There was one aspect that was humorous and that was watching a guy try to dump his girlfriend not knowing she has also read the book and knows everything a step ahead of him.

Of course when a movie says there are standards to breaking up, you wonder if that is true. Could you really break up with someone following rules and guidelines? Everybody has a different personality so it's likely something would go wrong no matter what "rule" you tried. And why do you need rules to break up? If you really don't like someone, just break up...why play games??

It's an adult movie because of the subject but it's not dirty in anyway. It's only rated PG13 so it's fine to let your teens watch, but do you really want them looking at love in this way?

Conclusion
This was an ok 3 star movie, but I probably won't purposely watch it again. I might catch it if it's on TV for free, but otherwise once is enough. Once you get through the whole thing, there's really no need to watch it again as there will be nothing you "missed" because the plot is so simple. Catch it if you are in the mood for a relationship type movie with a little comedy, but if you want major romance or major comedy - watch something else. Enjoy...maybe!