11 Must-See Movies Starring Celebrity Couples
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are arguably the most popular pairing to find sparkage on-set. As their new movie, "By the Sea," hits select cities, here are 11 more movies starring real-life couples that you need to see.
'Annie Hall' (1977)
Woody Allen and Diane Keaton were no longer a couple when they essentially re-enacted their romance in their fourth movie together. Still, their hilarious, bittersweet pairing here resulted in the mother of all modern-day romantic comedies. It's about the best valentine to an ex that one can imagine.
'Bull Durham' (1988)
In this beloved comedy about a romantic triangle on the baseball diamond, Susan Sarandon's baseball groupie Annie chooses seasoned catcher Crash (Kevin Costner) over undisciplined rookie pitcher Nuke (Tim Robbins). In real life, of course, Sarandon and Robbins fell in love during the shoot and remained together for more than two decades.
'Cruel Intentions' (1999)
Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe's romance blossomed as they filmed this teen version of "Dangerous Liaisons." The two were certainly believable as rich teens whose mutual disdain turns to passion and heartbreak. (Alas, within seven years, their off-screen marriage was over, too.)
'Flesh and Bone' (1993)
Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, who had met on the set of 1987's "Innerspace," had been married for a few years by the time they made this underrated drama. They're a mismatched pair of lonely Texans who begin a tentative romance, only to run up against the ghosts of their unwittingly shared past. Quaid and Ryan have very different approaches, of course, yet they're utterly comfortable together. Seek this one out.
'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999)
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman famously met on the set of "Days of Thunder" and were married by the time they made "Far and Away." In retrospect, their last film together, "Eyes Wide Shut," seems to offer an eerie preview of their divorce that would come less than two years after the film's release. Under the merciless, clinical eye of director Stanley Kubrick, they play a wealthy couple whose union is sorely tested when sexual temptation rears its head. The result is a waking nightmare of secrets, recriminations, and paranoia.
'Mr. and Mrs. Bridge' (1990)
In this underrated Merchant-Ivory film, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward play a conservative, upper middle class Kansas City couple during the WWII era -- struggling to cope with tumultuous times, their rebellious grown children, and their own Midwest-bred emotional reticence. For all their stoicism, however, they're an incredibly moving and poignant pair, thanks to the actors' decades of shared history that is apparent in every gesture.
'Step Up' (2006)
Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum famously met and fell in love on the set of this dance drama about a ballerina who falls for a dancer from the wrong side of the tracks. There are lots of movies on this list where you can see real-life couples falling in love on camera, but this is the only one where that budding romance is expressed through hip-hop dance moves.
'To Have and Have Not' (1944)
Lauren Bacall was just 19 when she made her film debut opposite the veteran Humphrey Bogart, 25 years her senior, but her deep voice and sultry sophistication made her seem worldly enough to be a match for Bogie. Of course, they began one of Hollywood's most celebrated romances on the set, married not long after. They made three more movies together and remained together until his death in 1957. They were just as smokin' together in "The Big Sleep," "Dark Passage," and "Key Largo," but watching the film that started it all is a revelation.
'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse' (2010)
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson may have had chemistry on the first "Twilight" movie, but they didn't start dating until after it wrapped. By the time of the third film, however, their romance was real. Poor Bella may spend the movie vacillating between werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and vampire Edward, but is there really any doubt which one she'll ultimately choose? Sadly, the K-Stew/R-Pattz romance didn't outlast the series, but on video, it can still last forever.
'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' (1966)
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, both married to others at the time, began the most notorious on-set romance of all time when they made 1963's "Cleopatra." Over the next decade and a half, they married and divorced each other twice and made a dozen more movies together. None offered a more incendiary depiction of the boozy bickering than "Virginia Woolf." As academic couple George and Martha, Liz and Dick lash out at each other, terrorize a younger couple (George Segal and Sandy Dennis), and unpack two lifetimes' worth of emotional baggage. Taylor won an Oscar for what turned out to be one of her last great roles; Burton should have won one too.
'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' (2005)
The movie responsible for making Brangelina a thing, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" pits two married assassins against each other as a form of marriage therapy and, in between the inventive and exciting action scenes, an engaging on-screen romance develops that audiences can care about. And to think, this movie was supposed to star Nicole Kidman in the Jolie role.
