Valentine's Day

Jessica Alba. Kathy Bates. Jessica Biel. Bradley Cooper. Patrick Dempsey. Jamie Foxx. Jennifer Garner. Topher Grace. Anne Hathaway. Ashton Kutcher. Queen Latifah. Taylor Lautner. George Lopez. Julia Roberts. Taylor Swift. All of these celebrities, and more that I know I'm missing, come together for a movie about a group of people and their journey through the most romantic day of the year, Valentine's Day.

I'm not even going to begin to match of all these people up like they are in the film. The plot of the film is very basic. It's about all of these people, and more, and their interactions, blunders and successes throughout one day. Of course, that has to be made interesting so that one day happens to be Valentine's day. I hear that there will be a sequel about these people on New Year's Eve. Should be interesting to see how that is handled... Anyway, the celebrities that shine in this film. Jennifer Garner stars as an elementary school teacher who is best friends with Ashton Kutcher and involved with Patrick Dempsey. She really likes him but little does she know that he's married. Garner shines the brightest in this film. The way that she plays her character is beautiful and moving. Next up is Julia Roberts who plays a woman in the military who sits next to Bradley Cooper on a 14 hour plane ride home. Neither one of them have very much screen time at all but Roberts is great in her role. Ashton Kutcher proposes to Jessica Alba in the opening scene of the film and the rest of the film is their story from there. Kutcher is ok in his role. He tries to get a lot of emotion out of his character and sometimes it works a lot better than other times. Kutcher has probably the most screen time of anyone. Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway are dating in the film with Hathaway hiding a dirty, but funny, secret. Again, like Kutcher, they are both just ok. Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner are dating in the film, both playing high school students. Let's get one thing straight. Swift cannot and should not act. Her character is not funny and their story line is very lost on the film. Did I have a favorite story? Not really but I liked it most when Garner, Roberts, Kutcher or Cooper were on screen. The other celebrities have supporting roles, if that even exists in a film like this. That's where the film starts to run into problems. When a film like this has so entertainers, one would think that it would be very entertaining. And with all of these celebrities in it, it's not really that entertaining. Sure it has some laugh out loud moments and some moments that get to your heart that will have those "movie criers" reaching for the tissues. If you're not laughing or having your heart strings pulled at, the film really isn't doing anything. The film was at least 20 minutes too long and I found myself wondering when it was going to end. All of these characters live out just one day that feels like a least a week. There are too many different stories happening in the film. Ones that I connected with kept me entertained. Ones that I didn't connect with had me yawning. That's the shot that these kinds of scripts take. Usually a film is one, maybe two, plots. With those, it's a pretty basic opinion about the film. What did I think about that one plot? With movies like this, it's harder to have one opinion about 10 (or however many it is) different plots. The film takes a chance that you're going to like all of those plots. Which is harder to get someone to like than the one that films usually revolve around. In this case, a lot of the plots fell short. The film isn't particularly entertaining all the time. The film has too many hollowed out parts that left me feeling like I was watching a very boring film about random peoples lives.

Where Valentine's Day succeeds is getting you to laugh and getting you to cry. Or at least, feel sad. Otherwise, it falls pretty flat. It is saved by the moments that you'll remember and the few stars that do a really excellent job but it is brought down too much by the moments that you'll just forget to remember, which is most of the film. If a film is going to have this many celebrities, I would expect it to be one of the films that is filled with hundreds of "Remember when.." or "Wasn't it funny/sad/great when..." moments that you'll be talking about for weeks. Unfortunately, most of film is quite forgettable. Valentine's Day will make you feel a lot of different things, which is great, it's just that those feelings are placed in a film which is just a bunch of A and B list celebrities coming together for something that really isn't all that entertaining.

Final Verdict: C-