I watched & enjoyed "The Family Stone." I watched and forgot "How to Lose a Guy." I don't have impossible standard for films. I love romantic comedies, and if I want to see more one movie a year, I can't afford standards. But this film, "Failure to Launch," made me want to give up and stay home. I could have popped "Love, Actually" into the DVD player for the thousandth time and had a better, more rewarding evening. There are many many ways this movie went wrong, but I'd like to focus on the nail that sealed its coffin.<br /><br />Two words . . .<br /><br />Animatronic animals.<br /><br />That's right . . . more than one. In this movie. Were you thinking "Must Love Dogs" or "The Wedding Date?" Think "Caddyshack" without the appeal.<br /><br />Four separate animatronic animals appeared, one in a subplot which provided neither support nor counterpoint to the purported "main plot" (the romance between SJP & MM).<br /><br />I wanted to like these subplot sections. Even with excessive sweat and scary, crazy eyes, I just love Bradley Cooper, but no actor on earth could have saved this movie. <br /><br />If even one of these animatronic monstrosities had appeared in a trailer, I would have saved my $8. Maybe the failure was in marketing a low-ball comedy as a romantic comedy. <br /><br />I don't ask that a romantic comedy be high art, but this was barely a romantic comedy at all.