Romance Movie Checklist

I'm a librarian. Making lists, charts and putting them in order if I can is what I do. So here's a new list since I've become such an fanatic about romance films, but first, some thoughts.

I have written that cheesy holiday romance movies "have a low production value, usually subpar acting and the storylines have a ton of holes and therefore require viewers to suspend some of their realistic expectations," but the past couple of years I've seen that many Hallmark and Netflix productions have been allowed to spare no expense on their films. Also, I've found several films that I have a hard time considering cheesy. It's come to the point where I am removing the adjective "cheesy" and going to call all these films "romance movies," and properly labeling the cheesy ones. 

I've Googled "What's cheesy?" to see if anyone else has tried to digest this and lo, I've found some good discussions on Urban Dictionary and Reddit. Basically, cheesy often includes poorly written dialogue that is unsubtle and in authentic, predictable and simplistic stories that are cliche ridden, and cheap production and effects. I especially want to note this comparison from Urban Dictionary:

The word cheesy is often defined simply as "sentimental", but there is a key distinction between the two. A situation is cheesy when the characters, their motives, and/or their emotions are not believable. It is a sentimental moment (it could be extremely sad or happy), but there is a weak connection to the characters or their situation, thus making it cheesy.
Many people confuse the two, and it is a matter of opinion to a certain degree, but things can be sentimental, emotional, or dramatic without being cheesy. 

All this means is that I'm going to have to go back and relabel some posts "romance movies" instead of cheesy.
Another element on the checklist is determining the tropes the films fit into.  I was interested in getting to know romance genre tropes so I can give a name to many of the similar storylines. So I looked up some trope compilations and added a couple of my own trope descriptions when necessary. That was fun!

Romance Movie Checklist
Cheesy or sentimental?
Production value?
Writing?
Acting?
Suspension of belief required? Low/medium/high
Trope(s):
Diversity?
Paranormal/science fiction element? Y/N
Clownish character(s)? Y/N
Added to the annual holiday romance movie playlist?