I Hate Valentine's Day (2009) starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Stephen Guarino, Amir Arison directed by Nia Vardalos Movie Review

I Hate Valentine's Day (2009)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Nia Vardalos and John Corbett in I Hate Valentine's Day (2009)

I Kinda Hate this Movie

Genevieve Gernier (Nia Vardalos) is a florist who knows all about romance but she is not a romantic as she has a five date plan so that she finishes with a guy before the romance has gone and the awkward commitment has set in. She believes in the five date formula so much that she likes to meddle in her friends love lives so they follow suit. But then Genevieve meets Greg (John Corbett), a new restaurant owner who she meets when he wants to buy flowers for his air stewardess girlfriend oblivious to the fact that is code for having three boyfriends. Inevitably Genevieve and Greg start dating but after 5 dates she doesn't want to end things and is looking for some way she can keep on seeing Greg whilst saving face.

The old conundrum; was it the movie or the stars which made a movie just work? The answer is it is both and "I Hate Valentine's Day" proves this because after Nia Vardalos and John Corbett scored a hit with "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" they slumped to a miss with this. But it is not Nia Vardalos and John Corbett who are at fault here as whilst their characters are not as appealing as in the first movie the storyline itself lets this down completely. Not only is the whole thing about a person having a rule for dating just a cliche but it makes it obvious that rules have to be broken or at least bent. As such you know where it is going before the movie has even started.

So with no decent storyline to keep you amused you are left with the characters and I can only presume it was intended but the every happy Genevieve who says what she thinks and uses cliches is so annoying that even the usually appealing Nia Vardalos begins to grate. That fixed smile on her face looks so painful that the audience begins to share her pain it is that bad. As for John Corbett well he does nice guy like he has done nice guy in other romantic comedies.

And just quickly because "I Hate Valentine's Day" really did annoy me there is the comedy and there is a scene in a restaurant where people are forced to get up and sing karaoke with everyone being bad at it. It is such a horrible scene yet the movie is full of these horrible scenes which aim to be funny but have no comedy in them.

What this all boils down to is that "I Hate Valentine's Day" is a huge miss for the usually reliable Nia Vardalos and John Corbett. There is little in this movie which for me works and that goes for the characters as well which seem so wrong.


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