Valentine's Day
Metascore
34 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 33
  3. Negative: 15 out of 33
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  1. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Cliff Doerksen
    30
    Valueless as entertainment, it’s still useful as a disambiguation tool for those who confuse Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel, or Taylor Dayne and Taylor Swift.
  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Sheri Linden
    50
    Yet another Hollywood romantic comedy that's all but devoid of romance and laughs.
  3. NPR
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    75
    If Marshall is an unrepentant Tory on some issues -- Valentine's Day stumps for teen abstinence and marrying your best friend, and warns that career women may end up alone -- he is open-hearted and generously conciliatory on gay rights, and he implies quite casually that multi-culti coupling may be the surest way to dispose of racism.
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    It is a pleasant, undemanding movie that takes place over 18 hours on V-Day and considers Very Attractive People whose romantic destinies converge, diverge, and cloverleaf like the interstates threading through California's Southland.
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    There are lots of cameos, as well, too many to count. However, it is worth mentioning that singer Taylor Swift shows up in a couple of scenes, playing a vapid Valley girl, and she's very funny.
  6. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    75
    Manages to overcome its flaws and become a charming love letter to love itself -- and a pitch-perfect V-Day date film to boot.
  7. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    Valentine's Day is being marketed as a Date Movie. I think it's more of a First-Date Movie. If your date likes it, do NOT date that person again. And if you like it, there may not be a second date.
  8. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    50
    In sum it plays like 12 landlocked episodes of "The Love Boat" rammed together, though without the same rate of intercourse.
  9. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    There are so many romantic-comedy cliches crammed into Valentine's Day that watching it feels like surfing through the channels of an all-chick-flick cable service.
  10. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    The film's main problems are script-related. Most of the stories aren't merely perfunctory; they're superficial.
  11. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    In your typical subpar Hollywood romcom, there’s only one tedious love story to put up with. Well, Valentine’s Day (such a clever title) does a whole lot better than that: It offers 10 tedious love stories to put up with.
  12. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    50
    What might have seemed like a lively idea -- an all-star roundelay about love in Los Angeles -- is as fossilized as the wooly mammoths in the La Brea Tar Pits.
  13. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    38
    The film feels as calculatedly sentimental as one of those bland pink candy hearts.
  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Jen Chaney
    38
    Largely relies on stale gender stereotypes and tired comedy routines that don't elicit much laughter.
  15. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    38
    This is many lousy movies for the price of one.
  16. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Roger Moore
    38
    It’s an American "Love Actually" without the warmth that writer-director Richard Curtis stuffs into his all-star confections, without the wit, without much love, actually.
  17. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    Valentine's Day is a date movie from hell.
  18. New York Observer
    Reviewed by: Rex Reed
    25
    It’s a romantic piffle stuffed with so much candy that your skin could break out.
  19. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    0
    Less funny or romantic than your average colonoscopy, this cringe-inducing bore provides dubious employment for four Oscar winners, two nominees and a raft of TV performers.
  20. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    60
    The surprising thing here is how smoothly this over-iced cake goes down.
  21. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    50
    Valentine's Day is sugary, sappy and totally predictable. It's also what a whole lot of women are likely to want.
  22. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Mark Keizer
    50
    A classic case of being too much of a not-very-good thing.
  23. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    40
    There's far too much going on in Valentine's Day, and far too little of it is worth the trouble.
  24. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    20
    Aggressively unfunny and unromantic, Valentine’s Day’s chief concern appears to have been the corralling of its cast of a thousand stars; it seems far less attention was paid to what to do with that cast once assembled.
  25. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    0
    How you feel about Valentine's Day may depend on how you feel when someone really, really cute -- and someone you're really, really fond of -- gives you a nasty box of cheap chocolate on Valentine's Day, picked up at the corner Rite Aid and delivered with the price tag still attached.
  26. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    50
    The veteran Marshall has proved a quick study, serving up the pastiche with panache so the stars mostly shine, the story snippets mostly amuse and you'll barely notice all the empty spots where a plot used to be.
  27. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    50
    As gooey and lacking in protein as a chocolate holiday bonbon, Valentine's Day plays like a feature-length commercial produced by the Friends of the Valentine Promotional Society.
  28. Time
    Reviewed by: Mary Pols
    40
    The film skips along pleasantly, supremely confident in its own cuteness and utterly unapologetic about how shallow or contrived it might be.
  29. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Karina Longworth
    30
    Shoddy enough within its primary genre, Valentine's Day becomes deadly in its attempt to be a Los Angeles Ensemble Movie.
  30. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    30
    What it lacks in charm, humor, and intelligence, it makes up for in sheer volume.
  31. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    20
    A Garry Marshall movie has to be funny in order to be anything at all, and this one is so deeply involved with its pseudo-meaningful roundelay of beautiful but inexplicably lovelorn people as to be teeth-grindingly, mind-warpingly boring.
  32. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    20
    This might not be the Titanic of romantic comedies (it’s tugboat size), but it’s a disaster: cynically made, barely directed, terribly written. But quick: there’s still time to escape!
  33. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    25
    Explores love in all its myriad forms, from the sickeningly sappy to the cornball to the groaningly precious and obnoxiously cute.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
4.9 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 99 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 33
  3. Negative: 5 out of 33
  1. JennyC.
    7
    This film was quite enjoyable. It seems that Garry Marshall set out to make a simple, enjoyable date movie and he accomplished just that. I think the backlash has come due to the decency (lack of crudity) in the film and the fact that it is a huge ensemble cast that represents an easy target for critics to malign. The acting was good (Ashton Kutcher, who is sometimes insufferable, does especially well in creating the affable character Reed) and the stories are woven together in an interesting way.… Full Review »
  2. MarkMusic
    6
    Cliche, you know what will happen, generic romantic comedy, little superficial, you know the story, all the celebrities are just to get people to watch (Same with New Year's Eve which I liked more). Personally I have a love hate relationship with this. I mean it's a great movie in the Love Month (February), but any other month it's really just boring it's something you watch with your boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, kids, friends. But watching any other month it's really just eh. Watch it only in February.… Full Review »
  3. Trev29
    7
    This movie is pretty ridiculous and stupid. With all the different story lines it was hard not to find at least one of them to take a liking too. Some of the actors were horrible while others were much better. I still liked it though!… Full Review »
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