ROMCOM Valentine's Day is being tipped as the next Love Actually, with its tried and tested formula of intertwined romantic storylines and a collection of famous faces being shot by cupid’s arrow.
But the comparisons between this film, brought to us by the director of Pretty Woman, and the Hugh Grant love fest couldn't be more misguided.
Despite A-listers including Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba and Ashton Kutcher gracing the screen, Valentine’s Day simply failed to live up to the sum of its parts.
Put another way, imagine a Michelin Star chef spending hundreds on the freshest and most exotic ingredients and then serving up overcooked scrambled eggs on toast.
Packed-full of terrible love clichés and predictable storylines, the film left you impatiently fidgeting in your seat and willing the torture to end. It did eventually finish but only after two hours of overcrowded romantic plots which have been done a million times before.
With lovers chasing each other to the airport, best friends falling for each other and kids declaring their undying love for classmates (amazingly similar to Richard Curtis' Love Actually) it was frustratingly boring with very few laugh-out-loud moments.
The characters were difficult to connect with, the romances were predictable and it was only Julia Roberts’ ability to act which saved one particular sequence from falling flat like the others.
The audience was treated to imaginative lines including, “I married my best friend” and “it’s not you it’s me”. No really.
This is definitely one to save for DVD rental or even a terrestrial viewing as it was painful to sit through at points.
Some stand-out individual performances helped this one limp towards the finishing line, as actresses Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Gardner and the fabulous Julia Roberts shone.
But it is a shame director Garry Marshall couldn't replicate his work from his 1990 classic.
In fact, he didn’t get anywhere close. The rest of the cast have Julia Roberts to thank for my generous two stars.
Valentine’s Day (12A) is in cinemas from February 12.
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