I’ve always had a problem with Valentine’s Day. It is an excuse for the lazy to not be romantic all year long until one stinkin’ day. That said, just like my love for Romantic Comedies, I am completely irrational about it and still desire to get something nice on that holiday. So I sat down this weekend, newly inspired by the greatest proposal of all time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3rlU8bGovU ) to watch Valentine’s Day. I hadn’t rushed out to see this one in the theatres because I am not enthusiastic about this trend in films where you have tons and tons of stars with short interwoven plots that occasionally collide. It feels a bit like ADD and I’m not sure who to give my heart and attention to. There are some great exceptions like Love Actually and He’s Just Not That In To You, but this really didn’t measure up. It actually felt like a knock off version of those two films. Maybe it is just that nothing could possibly put me as over the moon as that You Tube proposal, or maybe it is that Ashton Kutcher just looks like the dumbest puppy dog ever, or maybe it just wasn’t that great...
Maybe it would also help, if I stopped drinking an entire bottle of wine when I sit down to enjoy these movies... I might be able to follow more... just sayin. But we’re not here to talk about my flaws (wait...are we?!)...but here is how Valentine’s Day checked off my list of must have’s:
• Giddy: I’ve noticed a trend here that I’m extremely giddy in the beginning of a movie and as the movie unfolds, I tend to get less so. Quite like most of my past relationships. And like those past relationships, they might not have been good the first time around but nostalgia and a more complicated current reality make me long for the already tried-and-not-really-so-true. So the scenes that could have been heart pumping here might be so in a year but for tonight... not one thing compared to that proposal...
• Lie: There is McDreamy lying to his 2 women, and Jessica Alba lying that she wanted to marry Mr. Puppy dog but not really (and um the director who cast her in the role of powerful go getter woman is lying to himself if he thinks we’re buying Alba in that role) and there’s that guy that looks like he is related to Leonardo DiCaprio who has been lying about being gay... oh there’s lies- lots of em... too many to keep track of!
• Big Emotional Outburst: Oh yes, again- in spades and hard to keep track of.
• Wedding: No, but I think if they had tried to squeeze in one more RC stereotype something would have had to explode!
• Dance Sequence: No
• Rewatchable: Ask me next year
• Love: Every kind there is
• Fantasy: I guess its seeing this many hot people. There are lots of hot people in this movie.
• Journey of the Main Character: Which ONE!?
• Body Count: No – and this – they could have used a bit of- so there would be less plots to keep track of!
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Actually I liked a few songs on this soundtrack. I will most likely be downloading them soon...
• Strong Female: Um, I think there were a couple- Like Queen Latifah (but when isn’t she?) and Julia Roberts is a soldier... um but again, I didn’t get to have a full 2 hours to judge them, I got maybe 10 minutes of each character so... I can’t really say.
