Well since last weekend ended up being a total guy weekend for me as I saw not only Robin Hood, but Iron Man 2 this weekend ended up being all about Kellianne and movies that she wanted to see. So for our Friday night stay in date I went and picked up some Costa Vida and made the journey to Blockbuster to pick up Valentine's Day. With the romantic comedy genre I go in with very low expectations, due to the simple fact that most play on any and every romantic cliche. This time they went with one of the newer trends in having multiple storylines that are intermingled to give us one overall arching story of couples in Los Angeles going throuhg Valentine's Day.
This movie picks up points just by the fact that they were able to get Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Bradley Cooper and Shirley McClaine all in one movie. This was the romantic comedy equivalent to an Ocean's Eleven casting. The biggest shame to me with this film was that there were so many stars that really there was not enough time on screen for all of them to develop their characters like we are so used to seeing in their films.
With so many different storylines it really does not allow much chemistry to swell between characters which to me is the lifeblood of the romantic comedy. All of the stars in this film do enough to get by, but there was really not one character that made any attempt to be unforgettable. But I think part of that is just due to the writing, the multiple storylines may have worked if there were 3 or 4 but having at least 10 or 11 storylines it just got too crowded.
With the acting the saving grace has to be Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace who all had great comedic timing that gave me a chuckle or two during those moments when the movie felt like it was dragging or that it may come to a flow halt altogether. While it provided a quick one liner here and there, nothing really stood out as memorable.
While each of the stories had there cliches, some of them were definitely more enjoyable then others. While the high school stories were unbearable to watch and although I believe Taylor Swift's annoying character was done on purpose it came off as unfunny and I could have done without. I think it would have really done wonders for the film had they cut the high school stories completely and used that time to really focus on what was the strongest story of Kutcher and his conflict over his friend Garner and her love interest Dempsey.
Bottomline for me with this is this movie was just mediocore. The problem was that we have seen it before. It is important for the romantic comedy genre to realize that it takes more then just big stars to make a movie be successful. Good writing, strong chemistry and a hint of unpredictability is what propelled some of last years romantic comedies to more then just being mediocore. I am giving Valentine's Day two and a half buckets of popcorn out of five. The movie did exceed my initial expectations and managed to entertain me and I did not keep asking myself when will this end.
-The Movie Man-
the only thing I found funny about Taylor's role was that although that whole thing was supposed to be a joke...she is actually like that in real life. But I agree, it wasn't very funny more annoying than anything. Loved this movie though! but its a chick flick and I am a girl and so therefore I am a little biased.
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