I had planned on publishing a Movie Marketing Madness review of the Natalie Portman/Ashton Kutcher sex comedy No Strings Attached today but have been wrestling with that decision, ultimately deciding to scrap it. Not only that but I’ll be passing on other upcoming movies that I might otherwise have covered, notably Hall Pass, Just Go With It and Friends With Benefits.

The reason I’m punting on these is that I just can’t get over my feeling that these movies have some morally reprehensible thematic material. All seem to treat the institution of marriage as a joke, either by portraying it as some sort of burdensome partnership that stifles a guy’s perfectly natural impulses or as being wholly unnecessary since sex is all about physical pleasure and has no connection to marriage or the creation of children.

To be sure there are countless movies that take this attitude as part of their story but the movies I’ve listed above are extreme examples of it, so extreme that I just can’t get over my problems with their subject matter and am unwilling to give them any extra attention by showcasing them here.

–Chris