Flicks-a-saurus Rex

Valentine’s Day

Director – Gary Marshall

Starring – Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton
Kutcher, and Queen Latifah, (AMONG MANY OTHERS)

MPAA - Rated PG-13 for some sexual material and brief partial nudity

Here is another charming if not trite comedy about adults, well mostly, and a comedy that actually tries to make a distinction between love and sex, well mostly. I think this is a comedy that actually manages to bridge the gap between pre-teens fawning over the hottest actors, and adults looking for some decent entertainment. Usually mainstream films like this are so geared towards a teenage crowd that it is impossible for an adult to do anything but cringe. And while Valentine’s Day has its pubescent appeal in the face of the ever present Ashton Kutcher, there is still plenty for the older audiences.



What works well in this quaint, but charming film is the development of the characters. It seems the filmmakers wanted to do what was so masterfully accomplished in "Love Actually", and while coming up a bit short still managed to piece together a film with fun characters and decent development. While the acting is nothing to be impressed by, mostly because all the actors are just playing themselves in pretty standard situations – Kutcher as the goofy lover, Jamie Foxx as an egotistical sports anchor and so on – we still get to see a little bit of real acting with Julia Roberts, who is a stony career military woman on a long flight home (though I won’t ruin her story).



I also liked how we didn’t have to sit through an hour and a half of the same old cookie cutter love story with two ridiculously attractive actors who can’t keep their pants on. Instead we see a whole bunch of little love stories mixed with witty dialogue and all the little formulaic scenes are so much shorter and seem a little more interesting because we only see little bits and pieces of everyone’s story instead of long segments of over used plot.



Valentine’s Day is a simple and fun film. I still find Hollywood so frustrating in the prevailing perception that sex comes before love, and that message is far to prevalent in this film. Surprisingly enough the two sexiest teen stars of the film, Taylor Lawton and Taylor Swift, both their characters profess to have a relationship that is not sexual, though their prolific use of their tongues make you question that a little. I am saddened by the message of promiscuous behavior that is constantly sent to teenagers through films like this and others.

This isn’t a great movie, but it is a fun date flick that will have you laughing and holding the one you live tightly. For you singles… avoid it until you have someone… or don’t, not my problem. I will give this a 6 out of 10. It is indeed a lot of fun, but overall, not a movie to take for any artistic value.



Sex/Nudity - 6 out of 10 – A teen boy is seen naked in his girlfriend’s bedroom, he has a guitar covering hit midsection, and we see the side of his buttocks. The mother comes into the room and he is seen running out and down the street covering his body with the guitar and loose clothing. Quite a few couples are seen in varying degrees of undress in the morning after spending the night together. A woman operates a phone sex business and she is often on her cell phone talking to client in different accents and making whipping sounds. A man caresses another man’s face and hair. Quite a few women are seen in cleavage revealing out fits. A teenage couple talks about having sex. There are also other bits of sexual dialogue and innuendos.

Violence/Gore – 1 out of 10 – there is a comical domestic squabble on a news broadcast. A woman hits a man a few times.

Profanity – 4 out of 10 – 20 or so mild obscenities and name callings.