Blu-ray Movie Reviews

An all-star ensemble cast comes together in "Valentine's Day", following intertwining storylines of a group of Los Angelinos as they find their way through romance over the course of one Valentine's Day.

With this director and this cast I was astounded that New Line couldn’t make even a remotely romantic film. Instead it has a jumble of stories that end up cutting into each other far too often and stealing any magic that might have resulted from the individual stories. No chemistry, no build up, no romance. If you’re looking for a great ensemble rom-com, Love Actually did it WAY better.

Most of the day and date titles being released on Blu-ray look great. Warner and New Line have been delivering solid releases but this one was a bit disappointing. Fine object detail didn’t seem to be in line with the better releases out there and I noticed some rather nasty posterization in some scenes. One of the sequences at the airport was so bad that I thought there was something wrong with my projector. Looking behind Jennifer Garner at the airport revealed a mess of overblown contrast and absolutely no detail in objects whatsoever. Then just a few seconds later, everything looked fine. I checked this on multiple displays and it was the same result. A new film like this shouldn’t have anything resembling this kind of issue. The soundtrack fares better but is pretty much the cookie cutter track that normally gets attached to this type of project. There are some more enveloping moments when the film’s musical selections kick in, but aside from that this is pretty dialogue driven.

Extras include interviews with the cast and crew and a look at the popular director. You also get some bloopers, a music video and the DVD release of the film along with a digital copy.

With a cast like this and typically a solid director this should have been an easy win for New Line. Instead you have one of the most unmoving romantic flops I’ve ever seen. There are too many good romance movies to waste your time with this one.