The Ugly Truth is hitting cinemas this week, in more ways than one. Romantic comedies can be saccharine, sticky, kitsch, and banal - and might make you want to puke. But not all romantic comedies are bad.

Here are ten signs that a romantic comedy is going to be bad: Richard Gere, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Matthew McConaughey, Drew Barrymore, Jude Law,  Sarah Jessica Parker, Cameron Diaz, Colin Firth, Renée Zellweger.

And now for the good: Here are 10 examples, or tips, for all you directors out there planning your next rom com, on how to make one that won’t be kitsch, formulaic or boring (or, in the case of The Ugly Truth, like a not-too-promising mix of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Hitch …):

10. The Tip: Let the man be middle-aged, beer-drinking, poor, a once-promising boxer. Good. Now give Adam Carolla the role. No kitsch, guaranteed.

The Movie: In The Hammer (2007), Jerry Ferro (Adam Carolla) has reached his 40th birthday but still has plenty of fight. After getting fired from his construction job, Jerry decides to get back in the game with a return to his original love: boxing. This comeback comedy also stars Heather Juergensen, taking care of its romantic side.

9. The Tip: Take the opposites attract thing to the extreme. Make them more different than Charles Manson and Mother Teresa.

The Movie: A dozen years of analysis aren’t enough to rid Ira of all his neuroses in Ira and Abby (2006). A desire for change sends him to the nearest gym, where he meets easygoing Abby (Jennifer Westfeldt). She unexpectedly proposes marriage and he - even more unexpectedly - agrees. Their coupling seems ideal until Ira discovers that he’s her third husband, and his fears begin to take over…

8. The Tip: Let one of the characters receive messages from a freeway sign.

The Movie: In L.A. Story (1991), a gentle send-up of life in L.A., a TV weatherman stuck in an unfulfilling relationship and embarrassing job receives a mysterious message from a freeway sign saying the weather will change his life. Soon his life is turned upside down: He loses his job, his agent, his girlfriend, and all his reasons not to start living life to the fullest.

7. The Tip: Make the guy a short, ugly petty criminal, and the girl a blonde angel with superpowers, never-ending legs and martial arts skills. Not quite your generic romantic comedy couple.

The Movie: Self-described liar Andre (Jamel Debbouze) is down on his luck and in debt to Parisian gangsters in Angel-A (2005). Desperate, Andre finds himself on the edge of one of the City of Light’s majestic bridges, ready to plunge into the river below. Then he catches sight of a tall blonde woman, crying, also standing on the ledge. Forgetting his problems for a moment, Andre pleads with her not to jump. She does anyway, and he goes in after her, dragging her to safety. Andre soon discovers that meeting the girl, Angela, was no accident…

6. The Tip: Take a great movie that’s not a romantic comedy and adapt it. You could even take Schindler’s List and write a script where Oscar Schindler meets a nice lady… This one is a romantic version of K-Pax:

The Movie: Ruby (Marisa Tomei) is a compulsive co-dependent searching for true love in Brad Anderson’s idiosyncratic Happy Accidents (2000). She finds romantic bliss with Sam. But mysterious clues hidden in their apartment gradually suggest he is not who he claims. When Ruby confronts him, he tells her he traveled back from the future because he fell in love with her photograph in a curio shop. Strange coincidences begin to make his story seem true. If Sam is telling the truth, he may change her life forever, but if he’s lying, then what?

5. The Tip: Don’t make life easy for the two love pigeons. Example: If the guy touches the girl – she dies. It’s obvious there can be sex without love, but can there be love without sex?

The Series: In Pushing Daisies (2007), Ned (Lee Pace) is a pie-maker with a very special gift: he can bring dead things - from his dog Digby to rotting fruit to people - back to life with a simple touch. But the second he touches them again, they return to their previous state. If he doesn’t, something else meets a dire fate. He uses his ability to solve murders. But when he begins to look into the death of his childhood friend and lost love, Ned can’t bear to leave her among the dearly departed.

4. The Tip: In the final tear-jerking scene, when the man and the woman confess their true feelings for each other, put the woman on a toilet seat. It really brings things down to earth.

The Movie: After the success of Knocked Up, Seth Rogen pairs up with another comely comedienne in Zack & Miri Make a Porno (2008). In this Kevin Smith comedy, two desperate friends decide to earn a little extra money by creating their own adult film, but they also discover that they may be more than just pals.

3. The Tip: Let the male lead fall for a brain. Just a brain, no body. Sex only complicates things anyhow.

The Movie: In The Man With Two Brains (1983), a madcap brain surgeon, married to a beautiful but evil woman, falls in love with the brain of another lady who has everything he wants - except a body. The brain is voiced by Sissy Spacek in this wildly funny film.

2. The Tip: The relationship between the two shouldn’t seem difficult, it should seem impossible. Example: The man’s love interest could be a lesbian.

The Movie: When handsome young comic book creator Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) meets cute young comic book creator Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams) in Chasing Amy (1997), romance seems preordained. But Holden is soon confronted with Alyssa’s complex sexual history.

1. The Tip: Make the man work for it: Climb a mountain, participate in a sword fight, overcome a giant and win a mind game with an obnoxious bald guy who keeps saying “Inconceivable!”

The Movie: In The Princess Bride (1987), lovely Buttercup learns that “As you wish” really means “I love you” when she falls for her charming farmhand, Westley. While trying to seek his fortune, however, he disappears at sea, an apparent victim of the Dread Pirate Roberts. A few years later, Buttercup, engaged to the oily Prince Humperdinck, is kidnapped by an oddball trio of rogues. As they sail away toward the Cliffs of Insanity, they notice the pursuit of a man in black…and the adventure begins.

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