Happy Valentine’s Day!
What’s more indicative of a romantic comedy than the title Valentine’s Day? Sure it’s sappy, and sure it’s formulaic as hell, but I just can’t shake the minority feeling that when I say compared to the handful of lackluster films I have seen theatrically these first two months of 2010, Valentine’s Day was one of the better ones. Rest assured, I’m pretty confident that by December of this year Valentine’s Day will be far removed on my Top 10 list, but for now let’s talk about how I believe this film succeeded and why a sequel has apparently already been green lit.
Before I get all philosophical and we delve deep into the synopsis of Valentine’s Day, I just got to say one thing. How about that incredible all-star cast? Never before in my recent memory has such a huge cast of modern day popular actors and actresses been involved in a single feature film. You want to talk about why I believe this film will be successful come this weekend? Well this one sure fire reason. If you are keeping score that’s Brian 1 and the Naysayers 0. So how about it? Really! I feel what I am about to do is obligatory in nature, but absolutely necessary in order to get my point across. So I am going to list, in alphabetical order, all the stars attached to this project, in addition to the very beautiful Jessica Alba that is. Well wait a minute. Speaking of Jessica Alba… That gives me a great excuse to post a picture of her. So let’s get that over with so I can move on. Ahh… Here we go!
So what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the incredible cast of actors and actresses you will see, should you go check out Valentine’s Day this weekend. All right, here we go. Drum roll please. As mentioned before, in addition to the lovely Jessica we have Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Carter Jenkins, Joe Jonas, Ifran Khan, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts and Julia Roberts. Now that we got all those big names out of the way we can proceed with the review.
As I mentioned prior, in my first sentence above, the movie is both sappy and formulaic. All right, I will come right out and say it. It is a chick flick! And I liked it? You might as well just take my man card now. But guess what? It also just happens to take place on the most romantic day of the year. It’s a win-win! All women across the U.S. are going to eat this candy up. They’re not stupid. They know how to work it. Boyfriends around the nation are going to feel obligated to take their girls to see this. This is perfect for the women as they don’t have to lie and say they are seeing it solely for the chance to check out all the their favorite onscreen hunks simultaneously. Although, you and I really know the truth, don’t we? Point taken. But guess what guys? There are some hot females in the movie too, in addition to Jessica of course. Speaking of Jessica, how about another picture? That makes it Brian 2 and the Naysayers 0.
Before moving on, let’s talk a little bit about the subject of the movie being based around a holiday. It’s really ingenious. You know how many people can relate to it? That’s a rhetorical question. It just makes it an easy movie to write, an easy movie to make and an easy movie for the audience to relate to. Heck, Warner Brothers/New Line Cinema wasted no time in announcing they are going to work on a sequel immediately. And guess what? Again… It’s based on a holiday! Rumor has it that this time around it will be New Years Eve. Most everyone celebrates New Years Eve right? Easy money! Cha-ching! Best of all, I also hear that they will be continuing some of the same storylines from this movie in regards to the actors/actresses they can lure back. Do you think Jessica could be one of them? Gosh, I hope so.
So you have all the basic ingredients and the dream team ensemble of the actors/actresses, but what’s Valentine’s Day all about? Well, I am glad you asked because that brings me to my third and final point. Chris Stuckmann may disagree with me, but for the most part, Valentine’s Day was successful in interweaving all the evolving storylines and plot arcs into one cohesive body of work by the movie’s conclusion. To recap all the mingled storylines would simply take too long so let’s keep it basic. Simply put, Valentine’s Day takes place solely on the holiday of the same name and allows you to share in the experiences, triumphs and failures of a multitude of different couples and individuals as to how they celebrated and were affected by the famous holiday that almost every guy hates. There are obviously certain storylines and plots that are more important than others, but almost every one of them intersects and blossoms in some unique way. We seen it before and it’s nothing new. It’s just a cash cow that works well. The movie studios know that unless there is another great white storm this weekend they will get the numbers they are looking for. That’s all the matters.
So there you have it. In case you lost track of the score it is now Brian 3 and the Naysayers zip. Oh, and guess what? That’s the final score. I’m in control of this review so I get to say when enough is enough. But seriously, you want to know what I liked most about this film? Well, besides Jessica Alba. I was very happy with the acting of Ashton Kutcher within this film. And did you see him sporting the pink above? He’s really come a long way. His performance is hardly worthy of an Oscar nod, but his character was probably the single-most one I cared about the whole time and as sappy as this sounds, I was hoping his character would receive a happy resolution. That’s saying a lot too since my main man Bradley Cooper was in the house as well. So did I ultimately get my wish for a happy ending? Well, you will just have to find out for yourself. So grab your favorite girl or that special someone in your life and have a Happy Valentine’s Day this weekend, in the theater of course.
Oh! Since I mentioned both Ashton and Jessica in the same paragraph above it just would not feel right to end this review without another shot of the two of them. See below. There…that’s much better!
Valentine’s Day opens nationwide Friday, February 12th.
next time send chocolates.
Yeah, no.