SYNOPSIS:
Things aren't going exactly as planned for high-powered, Manhattan
lawyer Louise (Meg Ryan). Her husband of 13 years, Ian (Timothy
Hutton), announces to her that he's leaving her for a younger
woman (Kristen Bell). Taking things into her own hands, Louise
holds Ian captive until he agrees to work on their marriage.
The unexpected arrival of a gardener turned opportunistic thief
(Justin Long) and Ian's impatient mistress serve only to complicate
the spiraling situation further.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Watching "Valentine’s Day" easily makes one think that Hollywood is paraphrasing Richard Curtis’s "Love Actually" but in a very bad way.
Director Garry Marshall pulls in 19 stars for his ensemble romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher trying to pull off a Hugh Grant as florist Reed who just successfully proposed to her girlfriend, Morley (Jessica Alba). The remaining of the plot or subplots revolves around the people who know him, sort of acquainted with him and people unrelated to him.
His best 'girl' friend, Julia (Jennifer Garner) is deeply in love with a divorced doctor, Harrison (Patrick Dempsey). His best 'guy' friend Alphonso (George Lopez) who is also his employee frequently dispensed his own love experiences to him. A seemingly career-obsessed TV reporter Kelvin (Jamie Foxx) unwittingly finds love in a lonely publicist Kara (Jessica Biel). Two strangers, Holden (Bardley Cooper) and Captain Kate (Julia Roberts) find they have so much to talk about in a 14 hours flight to LA. Adding to the mix is a pair of not-so-young lovers, Jason (Topher Grace) and Liz (Anna Hathaway) who are still trying to sort out their insecurities in life, young lovers Grace (Emma Roberts) and Alex (Carter Jenkins) trying to have sex for the first time, an underage Edison trying unsuccessfully to get his flowers deliver to his Valentine and lastly a very elderly couple Estelle (Shirley Maclaine) and Greg (Matthew Walker) found out a long hidden secret.
Who else did I miss out in this starry rom-com? It doesn’t matter actually as this romantic comedy turns out to be a plain, predictable two hours of star gazing affair. Marshall has no idea what to do with his whole lot of cast or the befuddled script by Katherine Fugate. Instead of given more exposition to characters liked Reed or even the surprising turn out of Holden, we are granted even more star-gazing in the forms of Taylor 'Twilight' Lautner and Taylor Swift proving once and for all, she shouldn’t hung up her day job as a singer. The story jumps from one plot to another without establishing a deeper connection for the audience to hold on to. Marshall who gave us classics such as "Pretty Women” and "Runaway Bride" seems to be crafting a two hours pilot to a sitcom than a full-length feature. And for the record, including an unnecessary Bollywood dance segment don’t really benefit the story much.
Ultimately, "Valentine’s Day" is as digestible as a box of chocolates, packaged in a nice wrapper and obviously sweet, sappy but before the clock strikes midnight, you would have forgotten much about what you have eaten or in this case, watched.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
For the extras, we get 14 additional/deleted scenes with optional director commentary together with an unnecessary sneak peek trailer of "Sex and the City 2."
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The visual is nice and sweet with much of the LA settings bouncing lively off the TV screen. With the exception of the commercial-viable soundtrack spinning in the background, there isn’t much range or sonic material to comment in this dialogue-based movie.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
Posted
on 6 June 2010
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