plus 3, Movie Review: Star-studded cast can’t save ‘Day’ - Northwest Herald

Movie Review: Star-studded cast can’t save ‘Day’ - Northwest Herald
Jessica Alba is getting plenty of action these days in different movie ... - Longview Daily News
Hindu nationalists target movie starring Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan - Chicago Tribune
Next 'Spider-Man' movie goes 3D - Independent

Movie Review: Star-studded cast can’t save ‘Day’ - Northwest Herald

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 09:56 PM PST

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By JAKE COYLE - The Associated Press

"Valentine's Day"

1-1/2 stars

Rated PG-13 for some sexual material and brief partial nudity

Running time 2 hours, 1 minute

Written by Katherine Fugate

Directed by Garry Marshall

Starring Jennifer Garner, Jamie Foxx, Julia Roberts, Patrick Dempsey, Anne Hathaway

"Valentine's Day" might boast the most shirtless dudes we've seen in a movie since "300." Ironically enough, the often bare-chested "Twilight" star Taylor Lautner isn't one of them.

If this Hallmark card of a film didn't already make it clear, the beefy bodies of "Valentine's Day" does: This is a movie aimed squarely at women and, one supposes, their unfortunate accompanying dates.

The star-studded, plainly named film begs for puns. Should we expect a "Flag Day" sequel? But then again, this is a year that will see a movie simply called and simply about "Babies." Moviegoers comfortable ignoring the calculated ploy of "Valentine's Day" will likely enjoy its easy predictability and general cheerfulness.

Set in Los Angeles, the film begins with the baritone voice of a "DJ Romeo Midnight" announcing that in honor of Valentine's Day, he's going to play "the songs you love and the songs you love to love to." He barely spins a winner the rest of the movie, but, then again, the aphrodisiacs are in the cast.

We have Ashton Kutcher, as a pink-clad florist, paired with his reluctant fiancée, played by Jessica Alba. Jennifer Garner, a teacher, is matched with a cheating Patrick Dempsey. Anne Hathaway, paying the bills as a phone sex operator, is falling for Topher Grace.

Teen love is represented in the pairs of Emma Roberts and Carter Jenkins, and Lautner and Taylor Swift, making her feature film debut as a bouncy airhead. Our elderly couple is Shirley MacLaine and Hector Elizondo. We also get a little puppy love in a fifth-grader played by Bryce Robinson.

Our freelancers include Jamie Foxx as a cynical sports reporter, Kathy Bates as his boss, Eric Dane as a Brett Favre-esque retiring quarterback, Queen Latifah as his agent, Jessica Biel as his publicist, George Lopez as a happily married man (whose wife is the only one virtually left out of the movie's pairings), Bradley Cooper as a jet-set businessman, and his airliner seatmate Julia Roberts, absurdly playing an Army captain on leave of duty.

Many of these luminaries will – not unlike real-life Hollywood – play musical chairs on one fateful Valentine's Day. Cynicism will be defeated and love will triumph. Teenage sex will be treated fearfully. The kindness of airline workers will be relied on to fathom the importance of a dramatic moment. But – gasp! – who is our unlikely homosexual couple?

To say that "Valentine's Day" is overstuffed would be an understatement. Not only does it ooze stars like clowns spilling out of a tiny car, but it's gauzily wrapped in roses and red-and-white cards.

To his credit, director Garry Marshall juggles the many overlapping story lines successfully, though "Valentine's Day" is obviously strained by the excess. Marshall is a funny man who has, in a long career, made some excellent movies ("The Princess Bride") and some lamentable ones ("Runaway Bride").

The screenplay by Katherine Fugate, working from a story by her, Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, has obvious similarity to 2003's "Love Actually" but little of the wit. Most successful is the chemistry between Grace and Hathaway, but with so many swings, that's a pretty low batting average.

"Valentine's Day" is exactly what it professes to be: An overdose of sentimentality. One certainly can't mistake it, like one confused fifth-grader in the film does, for anything related to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. But the reference is enough to make one wish for "Scarface," or, if love is still on the menu, "Some Like it Hot."

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Jessica Alba is getting plenty of action these days in different movie ... - Longview Daily News

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:11 PM PST

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Jessica Alba didn't get a lot of Valentine's Day cards when she was young.

Before you start feeling sorry for the stunning star of "Valentine's Day," her lack of romantic mail was caused by attending 11 different elementary schools.

"I was never really in one place for too long. I was always the new kid," Alba says - joking that many of her classmates didn't know her name and would have had to write "new kid' on the envelope.

Since exploding onto the acting scene in 2000 with the TV series "Dark Angel," Alba's become a marquee regular from "Fantastic Four" to "Good Luck Chuck." Her role in "Valentine's Day" has her playing the love interest to Ashton Kutcher, one of many storylines in the new Garry Marshall movie.

These days, the 28-year-old actress' Valentine is husband Cash Warren. Alba says the couple's 19-month-old daughter makes celebrating a challenge.

"I like to plan things with my husband when we have time to do it," she says. "Frankly, now it's just a nice excuse to go on a date with my husband."

Being a wife and a mom isn't all that keeps Alba busy. She's worked the last few years to land as many different film roles as possible. Along with "Valentine's Day," she has three movies - "Meet the Fockers Sequel," "Machete" and "An Invisible Sign of My Own" - scheduled to be released this year.

"When I first got launched into the spotlight I was on an action TV show and everyone kept telling me I was going to get pigeonholed into this action genre thing," Alba says. "This past year I focused on working with good directors and doing good material. I didn't necessarily want to be the main character in these movies. I just wanted to learn and have fun and explore things I haven't been able to."

What she's discovered is it's a lot harder to do a love scene than a big-action stunt because love scenes require revealing emotions. Despite how she may appear on screen, Alba says she has never been an extremely confident person.

Her confidence has grown in recent years because the roles she's picked have pushed her as an actress.

"Ten years ago, I was more worried about making everyone around me happy and concerned about whether people liked me or not because I was always the new kid," Alba says. "Now I just don't care. I'm really easy going. If hoity-toity Hollywood people don't like me, I don't care. I care about my family mostly, my friends, and that's it."

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Hindu nationalists target movie starring Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 03:41 AM PST

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Next 'Spider-Man' movie goes 3D - Independent

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 11:51 PM PST

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The new Spider-Man plans to swing closer to cinema audiences.

The next Spidey movie will be filmed in 3D and is scheduled for release on July 3, 2012, Sony Pictures announced.

The fourth film in the series is being directed by (500) Days of Summer filmmaker Marc Webb following the departure of Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire, the director and star who worked on the previous three Spider-Man films.

Production on the next film, which will focus on a younger version of the superhero, will begin later this year.

Press Association

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