Roger Ebert HATES "Valentine's Day"

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Dave

Dave

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[IMDB]0817230[/IMDB]

A HUGE cast can't apparently save this movie from being a trainwreck. Roger Ebert's full review is here and ends with the line:

\\"Valentine's Day\\" is being marketed as a Date Movie. I think it's more of a First-Date Movie. If your date likes it, do not date that person again. And if you like it, there may not be a second date.
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Damn. I was hoping it was going to be a little good. My wife wants to go see it.

Critics Reviews

[SIZE=-1]Boston Globe Wesley Morris[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]"...attention Costco shoppers: Quantity here runs a distant second to quality." [/SIZE] C-

[SIZE=-1]Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]"I won't even attempt to describe the plot." [/SIZE] C [SIZE=-1]Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]"The crisscrossing, oh-she's-related-to-him! narratives make The Longest Day look like a chamber piece." [/SIZE] C [SIZE=-1]

Filmcritic.com Chris Cabin[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]"...excruciating..." [/SIZE] D+

[SIZE=-1]Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]"Like a lot of Valentine's Day gifts, showy and easily forgotten." [/SIZE] C [SIZE=-1]

New York Times Manohla Dargis[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]"...neither romantic nor remotely comedic..." [/SIZE] D-

[SIZE=-1]Rolling Stone Peter Travers[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]"...a date movie from hell.[/SIZE] D
 
Baerdog

Baerdog

I had this movie pegged as a cheap Love, Actually ripoff from the first time I saw a trailer for it. It appears I was correct.
 
Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

It's the same thing as "he's just not that into you". A bunch of mega-stars with a shitty script thrown together for the one weekend that people will see anything remotely like a romantic comedy.

The AV Club wrote
Haphazardly toss in 15 more subplots, half a dozen wacky canine-reaction shots, a wall-to-wall soundtrack of romantic golden oldies, and an adorable young moppet who just wants to have flowers delivered to the girl of his dreams, and you have a fluffy soufflé of shameless sentiment and sitcom wackiness executed with the kind of flailing desperation that’s generally accompanied by an overactive laugh track. Valentine’s Day looks like Marshall’s director’s magnum opus of pandering schlock. Decades into his career, he’s finally achieved his lifelong dream of roping half of Hollywood into helping him make an unofficial cinematic adaptation of Love, American Style.
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http://www.avclub.com/articles/valentines-day,38117/
 
Covar

Covar

Did one reviewer say something bad about The Longest Day? That movie was nothing short of amazing!
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Jessica Alba was in Sin City. That was good.

And I saw Valentines Day. The short review would be "Love Actually did it already, and did it better."

Still, if the film gets the lady friend all gushy and romantic, it's all right in my book.
 
Steve

Steve

Yesterday the radio station I was listening to played a clip from the movie with Taylor Swift. It sounded like a 13 year old girl wrote it. Luckily my wife has no desire to see it so I'm happy.
 
Shawn

Shawn

Saw it with the girlfriend yesterday. It's bad, but not horrifically bad. Cut out the stories about the love-sick, 7-year old, asshole kid, and the highschool dumbasses, and maybe you'd have a passable movie.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

MindDetective;341351][QUOTE=bhamv3 said:
Jessica Alba was in Sin City. That was good.
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Not really.[/QUOTE]

It was good, but it wasn't supposed to be. It was a supposed to be a bad movie, but they accidentally made a good one. It was amazing. All those good and bad actors, all acting badly with badly-written lines and over-styled bad cinematigraphy from a bad comic, and somehow they made a good movie. It's such a bizarre experience.
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

escushion;341353][QUOTE=MindDetective;341351][QUOTE=bhamv3 said:
Jessica Alba was in Sin City. That was good.
Click to expand...
Not really.[/QUOTE]

It was good, but it wasn't supposed to be. It was a supposed to be a bad movie, but they accidentally made a good one. It was amazing. All those good and bad actors, all acting badly with badly-written lines and over-styled bad cinematigraphy from a bad comic, and somehow they made a good movie. It's such a bizarre experience.[/QUOTE]

Again, I disagree. I don't think it was really that good for all the reasons you state it was "supposed" to be bad.
 
Shawn

Shawn

Sin City was a different style of movie that just happened to work well with the material provided in the comics.
Keep in mind that Frank Miller hated Hollywood for a long time. Ever since what they did to his Robo-Cop 2 script in fact. He refused to allow any of his work be turned into a film or show knowing what atrocities would be done with it.
Robert Rodriguez adressed this problem by filming a ten minute scene from the Sin City comics, using the black and white style to mirror the illustrations from the novel, and gave it to Frank Miller with the promise "If you don't like this, it's yours to keep. If you do, I'll make a movie in this style with you as assistant director". Miller loved the scene which became the opening sequence of Sin City with Josh Harnett. Rodriquez also quit the Screen Writers Guild so that he could add Frank Miller's name as co director.
You don't go through that kinda trouble if you were planning on making a BAD film.
It's different. Not bad. And I love it.
 
Calleja

Calleja

Well, if you count "campy" as a synonym for "bad" (which it can be), lots of people want to make bad movies. Sky Captain is a great example. I love that movie though, campyness CAN be good.

So, to recap... "campy" can be "bad" but it can also be good.

How's that for a little afternoon word play?
 
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