Movie Summary of Valentine’s Day by Michael The Moviegoer.
VALENTINE’S DAY = **1/2
“Valentine’s Day Massacred”
Garry Marshall’s “Valentine’s Day” is the feature film equivalent of those red carpet arrivals specials that precede awards shows. The audience for this film are the very people who love to watch the flashy parade of celebrities to see what they’re wearing, who they’re paired with, and what tasty sound bites they might have to offer. Welcome to “Red Carpet Celebrities: The Movie”.
The star-studded cast of “Valentine’s Day” includes everyone from the new Julia Roberts (Jennifer Garner) to the old Julia Roberts (Julia Roberts). Yet despite all the big movie stars, the freshest performance in the film comes from teen music sensation Taylor Swift who offers evidence here that she has a big movie career ahead of her.
Marshall’s film takes place entirely in Los Angeles. And like another L.A.-based film, the very different “Crash”, all these characters have stories that are inter-connected in a way that makes Los Angeles seem like a small town in Kansas.
The plot, assuming there is one, is simply to tell various stories of one day in the romantic lives of nearly 20 characters portrayed by famous movie stars. And anyone who thinks Anne Hathaway makes a good phone sex operator needs to see Jennifer Jason Leigh in “Short Cuts” immediately.
“Valentine’s Day” is a painfully obvious attempt to mimic last year’s V-Day box office success “He’s Just Not That Into You”. But the results are just not as much fun, insightful or intelligent.
DVD Double Feature: The best example of a movie like this when done correctly is Richard Curtis’ “Love Actually”. Another all-star cast with inter-connecting stories, but set in London. Some of the celebs in this cast are Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Laura Linney.
Michael The Moviegoer
