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VALENTINE'S DAY |
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Ever since Edmund Goulding's 1932 classic "Grand Hotel" Hollywood has attempted -mostly unsuccessfully - to cast a movie loaded with stars
in separate, yet intertwining roles to create the movie of all movies. So why should Garry Marshall be any different. This time he targets a fairly safe subject that everyone is familiar with: Valentine's Day - the annual day of romance, overprice roses, overpriced candy, and overpriced dinners.
And he casts an dizzying all-star cast including: Jamie Fox, Julia Roberts, Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates,
Jessica Beil, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Shirley MacClaine, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher,
Hector Elizondo, George Lopez, Queen Latifah and probably a few others I'm forgetting. And that is it's main problem... trying to remember who the heck is who. The basic rule of thumb is, the more expensive the talent the smaller the less screen time. So we get snippets of Julia Roberts and Jamie Fox with more meaningful
character development going to the less expensive Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, and Ann Hathaway. |
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To Marshall's credit it works - not perfectly... but it works nevertheless. The story revolves around how this large group of characters are affected by Valentine's Day. We have teenagers considering having sex for the first time and teenagers who are totally not going to have sex but who think they are the bees knees.
To her credit Taylor Swift plays a perfect bimbo and grabs a sizable chuckle with her version of dancing! We have the teens interacting with an elderly couple who have been married for 50 years, but have they been faithful to each other all that time? Then we have their charge, a cute boy named Edison (Bryce Robinson)who has a thing for someone in his
class at school and pays a "lot of money" on roses to Reed (Ashton Kutcher) to deliver them. Of course Reed has just become engaged to Morley Clarkson (Jessica Alba) though he's best friends with
Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner) who is involved with the most dreamiest doctor. On a seemingly separate note we meet Holden (Bradley Cooper) who seems to be hitting
on Captain Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts) on a transcontinental flight to LA. She's on leave from active duty and has a 36 hour windo to visit her man.
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Then there is Kelvin Moore (Jamie Fox) a second string sports
announcer who is assigned by Susan (Kathy Bates - in a role that could have been played by anyone)
to do a fluff piece on Valentines Day. This affords him the opportunity to meet just about all the characters separately while chasing
down the top sport story as to whether a jock (Eric Dane) will retire or not! Again, by the miracle of Hollywood, most of these stories intertwine and
come together in the end - in a predictable manner. And that's the other shortcoming for "Valentine's Day" - it's very predictable. You can pretty much figure out
who is the scoundrel and whose heart will be broken as soon as you are introduced to the character. Fans who enjoy Shirley MacClaine will be annoyed by the brevity of her role. Surely, she didn't cost that much to cast... I would have rather seen less of
Anne Hathaway (or deleted her segments altogether) and more of MacClaine. Queen Latifah, once again sleepwalks through another role, one day she'll
learn the old adage "There are no small parts, only small actors." Yet for those looking for light entertainment and a way to burn off two hours, "Valentine's Days" works.
It'll provide you with a few Ha, ha, ha's and a few Tsk, tsk, tsk's.
It'll do the trick. --GEOFFREY BURTON COPYRIGHT © 2010 BY AFROTREK TRAVEL NEWS LLC |
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