New Line Cinema | 2010 | 125 min | Rated PG-13
Boy, those folks at New Line are really crafty! They released a movie titled Valentine’s Day, just two days before the actual holiday. Since Hollywood is such a dream factory, director Gary Marshall (Pretty Woman) than goes on to make the holiday a bigger deal than it really is. The star-studded ensemble film follows several ongoing stories of love in LA during the mid-February love fest. There’s little doubt studio executives are hoping you’ll be drawn in by the endless list of names – an remarkable 19 recognizable names are provided on the Blu-ray cover – and not care about how truly unremarkable the film really is.
Here’s a list of the film’s stars in alphabetical order: Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Aston Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, and Taylor Swift.
Now for a general rundown of the films events; Florist Reed (Ashton Kutcher) has proposed to his girlfriend Morley (Jessica Alba); schoolteacher Julia (Jennifer Garner) is hoping to surprise her doctor boyfriend (Patrick Dempsey), who she thinks is away on business; football legend Sean (Eric Dane) is considering his next move after a bad breakup; Holden (Bradley Cooper) and Kate (Julia Roberts) bond over a long plane ride; Liz (Anne Hathaway) struggles to maintain night job as a phone sex employee while exploring a new relationship with Midwestern boy Jake (Topher Grace); sports reporter Kelvin (Jamie Foxx) snuggles up to publicist Kara (Jessica Biel) on a day she openly dislikes; Grace (Emma Roberts) considers losing her virginity before college; and Estelle (Shirley MacLaine) and Edgar (Hector Elizondo) encounter a brush with infidelity after 50 years of marriage.
If you haven’t figured it out already, this movie has a lot of spoons in the pot. Eventually, all the stories intertwine, but the terminal cuteness to get there was almost too much for me to take. However, I was able to stick with it, but I found Valentine’s Day to be tedious and boring. In order for me to like a film, even the slightest bit, I have to care about or relate to the characters in some way, and in lew of that, just have a good time. Suffice to say, Valentine’s Day struck out on all three counts. Basically, unless you’re a sucker for all romantic comedies, skip this one.
The engineers use a VC-1 codec and a dual-layer BD50 to ensure they capture mostof the film’s picture in its 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio. The results are an extremely clean screen and a fairly soft image, no doubt a characteristic of the original print. It looks like a digitally shot television production. On the positive side, colors have a sense of realism, without being too bright.
The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio seems wasted on a film that features mainly dialogue and background music. For what it is, however, it is more than competent. The midrange can get a tad bright and forward at times, and the sonic quality of the music, made up mostly of modern pop songs, varies from song to song.
The disc includes English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese spoken languages; French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Valentine’s Day has a solid set of special features, including a peppy audio commentary track with Director Garry Marshall. As he tries to keep the audience in-line with all the goings-on throughout the movie, Marshall speaks on the talent in the film, his attraction to the project, the process of shooting certain scenes, shooting around Los Angeles, adding a few elements for the men in the audience, and more. The Stars Confess Their Valentine’s Day Stories (1080p, 6:27), is a short piece that features the cast and crew speaking on what they think of the holiday while recalling their best and worst memories of Valentines past. The Garry Factor (1080p, 5:03) features the cast heaping praise on the director. Also included is the Stary Here Forever music video by Jewel (1080p, 3:10), a blooper reel (1080p, 5:47), 14 deleted scenes with optional Director Introductions (1080p, 22:28), and an exclusive sneak peak at Sex and the City 2 (1080p, 2:49). Disc two contains both a DVD and iTunes-compatible digital copy of Valentine’s Day.
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