Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
For Ted, prom night went about as bad as it’s possible for any night to go. Thirteen years later, he finally gets another chance with his old prom date, only to run up against other suitors including the sleazy detective he hired to find her.
There's Something About Mary is a landmark gross-out romantic comedy that pushed the boundaries of the genre in ways that felt genuinely shocking and transgressive for 1998. Its novelty score is high because the Farrelly Brothers crafted a film with a singularly anarchic, taboo-busting sensibility — the hair gel gag alone became a cultural touchstone. The plot is a serviceable romcom framework elevated by escalating absurdist complications, earning an above-average score. Acting is solid throughout, with Cameron Diaz delivering a luminous, game performance and Ben Stiller doing reliable everyman work, though neither is stretching dramatically. Cinematography is functional and unremarkable — standard studio comedy coverage with no distinctive visual ambition. The ending defaults to a crowd-pleasing romcom resolution that feels slightly deflated given the anarchic energy of the rest of the film, making it the film's weakest element structurally.