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Is it grammatical to say: "But overall the romantic comedies and action movies I like." https://youtu.be/Fdp_lHXj--Q?t=120

It seems like the noun phrase "I" and the verb "like" of the verb phrase went after the whole sentence. What is the rule here?

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But overall, romantic comedies and action movies I like.

Grammatically, this is called preposing, which occurs when some element is put before the subject of the clause when its basic position would be after the verb. In this case, the object of "like" ("romantic comedies and action movies") has been preposed.

Semantically, the preposed element is not used for emphasis, but to serve as a link to the preceding discourse: if you listen to the earlier part of the video, you'll notice that the speaker was talking about action and adventure movies, and romantic comedies, so the preposed element ties in with the things he was saying earlier.

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Yes, it is grammatical. It's just a case of change of word order for emphasis. You can notice that in the way he says it. Notice the speaker doesn't use the definite article, as he is using the generic zero article. Instead of saying:

  • I like romantic comedies and action movies, overall.

or

  • Overall, I like romantic comedies and action movies (Subject + Verb + Object)

He places the object at the beginning:

  • Overall, romantic comedies and action movies, I like. (Notice he makes a slight pause to show that the normal word order has been disrupted.)

Another example:

  • Action movies, I like. But horror movies, I don't.
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