DVD Reviews

Valentine’s Day - Blu-Ray Review

By June L. May 20, 2010, 1:37 GMT

$The starriest cast you may ever see sparkles in a hilarious and heartwarming romcom from the director of Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries. Stories crisscross, collide and boomerang in this look at a day in the life of love. There\'s a proposal. Flowers that didn\'t get sent. A big fat secret that\'s finally told. The$

The starriest cast you may ever see sparkles in a hilarious and heartwarming romcom from the director of Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries. Stories crisscross, collide and boomerang in this look at a day in the life of love. There\'s a proposal. Flowers that didn\'t get sent. A big fat secret that\'s finally told. The "I\'ll show up and surprise him" that ended up surprising her. Fights, kisses, wrong ...more

Who doesn’t LOVE a romantic story? Well, how about a film that has at least ten chances for love within its plotlines?

Add to that a large cast of favorite stars and you have the sweet treat that is Valentine’s Day.

Don’t be put off by reviews that compare this Garry Marshall film with his legendary movie Pretty Woman and come up with a negative opinion. We all know Pretty Woman is timeless romance, a sonnet to the power of true love, and a fairy tale in a modern setting.

Valentine’s Day is something different, and not meant to be a recapping of the earlier work, regardless of how popular remakes are today.

It is an ensemble story, a collection of diverse human beings revealed in a moment of time, reacting to the event that our society has deemed the day to celebrate love.

As in real life, there are differing approaches to romance, attitudes towards love, unique relationship experiences, familiar moments to relate to, laughter from a chuckle to an outright guffaw, and some tears mainly generated by human sweetness.

The combination of all of these things is what makes the film fun to watch.

As Valentine’s Day begins, we know nothing about the characters. We are dropped into the action at dawn and the movie ends after dark on the same day. It is rapid paced as the story move s from person to person, and the situations in their lives at that particular moment.

By gleaning bits of information it is soon evident that the disparate group is actually connected in many different ways, some of which are completely unexpected. I don’t know that Valentine’s Day has a message to impart, other than to illuminate how some people react to romance. There are no biases or hidden meanings, it is simply an entertaining film with some of today’s most popular movie stars.

Most of the performances are gleaming gems of excellence. For example Julia Roberts in portraying a woman in the military going home for a short leave uses subtlety and grace to give her character a dignity and forbearance that makes the audience ache for what she must be having to endure in life.

Ashton Kutcher is the everyman of the story, but with such goodness of heart that people wish Reed was their best friend. Queen Latifa gives a wonderful performance that shows another side of someone who could be judged over the top, and Anne Hathaway is sparkling and plucky, if somewhat unconventional.

Valentine’s Day on Blu-Ray is a very nice way to collect this film. Along with the Blu-Ray disc is an additional disc with a downloadable digital copy and a DVD version of the film. Of primary interest is the film commentary with director Garry Marshall in which he gives background and production notes as well as cast and crew anecdotes, all relating to the filming of Valentine’s Day.

“The Garry Factor” has interviews with cast members, having their turn speaking about Garry Marshall. There are deleted scenes which have the option of an introduction by the director, and there is a blooper reel. Jewel’s music video “Stary Here Forever” is included, and a featurette “The Stars Confess their Valentine’s Stories has a blend of best and worst Valentine’s memories from the cast and crew.