Valentine’s Day on DVD
OK, it’s Valentine’s Day, and I’m sure that some of you folks out there have waited until the last minute to plan a romantic evening with your sweetie. (At least, I hope I’m not the only one.)
For your convenience, I’ve assembled a list of romantic movies that you can pop into the DVD player for a quiet evening of snuggling on the couch. I’ve even categorized them since I’m so thoughtful. (OK, and so I can more clearly decide the best game plan for my own Valentine’s Day.)
If you don’t already own these, they also make great gifts. (Yeah, I haven’t thought of a gift, either, and unfortunately, we already have most of these.)
And if you flame out on today’s celebration, you can always try this excuse: “I was planning something nice for the weekend, when we wouldn’t be so stressed.”
Bittersweet Treats:
- “Casablanca”(1942): Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman give up their passionate love affair to save the world from the Nazis. (Sigh.) A classic.
- “Like Water for Chocolate” (1992): Tita (Lumi Cavazos) and Pedro (Marco Leonardi) are desperately in love, but tradition prohibits Tita, the youngest daughter, from marrying, instead condemning her to a lifetime of caring for her tyrannical mother (Regina Torné).
- “Becoming Jane” (2007): Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) falls in love with roguish Irishman Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy) in this speculative romance. Austen never married, so that’s a hint that all will not go well.
- “Once” (2007): A Dublin street musician (Glen Hansard) and an Eastern European immigrant (Marketa Irglova) make beautiful music together, but she has a husband and he has a girlfriend. Will they become a duet or go their separate ways?
Rom-coms
- “Philadelphia Story” (1940): Katharine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant and others get involved in a love pentagon in this classic screwball comedy.
- “When Harry Met Sally” (1989): Hilarity ensues as Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan go from loathing to indifference to friendship to love.
- “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001): Brit Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) tries to improve her life and find love in this chick flick.
- “While You Were Sleeping” (1995): This fantasy is a personal favorite. Lucy (Sandra Bullock) forms a crush on a handsome man (Peter Gallagher), saves his life, is mistaken for his fiancee and falls for his charming brother (Bill Pullman).
Happily Ever After
- “Serendipity” (2001): Suspend your disbelief and just enjoy Jonathan (John Cusack) and Sara’s (Kate Beckinsale) efforts to find each other after their magical first meeting.
- “Stardust” (2007): This fairy tale for grown-ups has all the necessary ingredients: an enchanted kingdom, wicked villains and, of course, a happy ending.
- Ladyhawke” (1985): In this fantasy, a knight (Rutger Hauer) and his lady fair (Michelle Pfeiffer) must break the curse set on them by an evil bishop (John Wood). Fun and romantic, if you can ignore the synthy ’80s soundtrack.
Family-friendly (In case you have the kids on the couch with you.)
- Any of the Disney “princess” movies: The ones with the best heroines to go along with the romance are “Beauty and the Beast,” “Mulan” and “Aladdin.”
- “Shrek” (2001) and “Shrek 2″ (2004): Grumpy green ogre Shrek (voice of Mike Myers) and his Princess Fiona (voice of Cameron Diaz) discover that their love isn’t based on society’s rules of beauty. And that’s OK.
- “Princess Bride” (1987): Westley (Cary Elwes) refuses to let pirates, princes or even death come between him and his Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright).
Romance and bullets (If you prefer romance with a side o’ action.)
- “Desperado” (1995): It’s got Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek in it, so everyone’s got something quite nice to look at.
- “The Terminator” (1984): Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) travels across time to save Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) from the terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger). He travels across time for her! That’s romantic.
- “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (2005): Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have smokin’ chemistry as assassins on opposites sides.
-BAM
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