(snap shots of the movies listed in the article / graphic by Bethany Collins)
Whether you think it’s a holiday made by greeting card companies or the Catholic Church as a feast day honoring St. Valentine, Valentine’s Day is something that many people either love or hate. However, most people can agree the movies can be top notch!
From rom-coms to horror, you can find just about anything that relates to the holiday. The best thing to do if you are single and looking to stay away from all the happy and sappy couples is get some Chick-Fil-A and watch a few of these movies.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) – This film is iconic in the world of rom-coms. Matthew McConaughey keeps his crown as the rom-com king of the early 2000s, while Kate Hudson brings the beauty and grace of her mother, Goldie Hawn. The film follows the story of advice columnist Andie Anderson, who takes on a story about trying to lose a guy in 10 days. On the other side of town, executive Ben Berry is working to get a big assignment. How can he do this? Make a woman (who is picked by the women also going for the assignment) fall in love with him in 10 days. From sweet moments of connection, to the heartbreaking realization of what they both have done, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is a Valentine’s Day must!
(Available for streaming on Prime, Roku Channel, YouTube, Google Play Movies, Apple TV, Vudu, and Paramount+)
Set It Up (2018) – Taking place in New York City, Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie Young (Glen Powell) are two underpaid assistants working for their grumpy, work-focused bosses. Wanting to better the way they are treated, they come up with a plan to make their bosses fall in love with each other. While the plan is successful, there is only one problem: they start falling for each other as well. Deutch and Powell make you love them and feel for them as they deal with the problems of their own feelings and keeping their bosses together.
(Available on Netflix)
Valentine (2001) – If you want a break from rom-coms and want some blood and murder, Valentine is the movie for you. Young Jeremy Melton (Joel Palmer) is a boy who is bullied and outcasted by everyone at his school. Years later, those who bullied him start to die off one by one.
(Available on Apple TV, Prime, Vudu, and Google Play Movies)
Sabrina (1995) – When you think of Harrison Ford, you would probably never think that he was in a rom-com in the 90s. “Sabrina,” follows the life of Sabrina Fairchild (Julia Ormand) who is the daughter of the wealthy Larrabee family’s chauffeur. Sabrina has had unrequited feelings for the Larrabee’s youngest son, David, (Greg Kinnear) for years. She gets the chance to go to Paris and comes back with a new glamorous look that makes David, who is engaged to be wed, fall for her. Linus Larrabee (Harrison Ford) is the eldest son and is trying to stop the relationship from happening as David’s marriage will bring the family’s company money. Linus then attempts to avert Sabrina’s affections towards himself instead to ensure David carries out his marriage with his fiancée, but Linus begins to truly fall for her. This is a movie that is an underrated classic.
(Available on Max, Hulu, Google Play Movies, Apple TV, and Vudu)
The Princess Bride (1987) – Known as a parody of fairy tales, this movie makes you feel all the emotions of a Disney princess story. The film is told as a bedtime story that a grandfather is telling his sick grandson. It follows Buttercup (Robin Wright) and her servant Westley (Cary Elwes), who mutters the iconic line every woman wishes her beloved to say, “As you wish,” to every request Buttercup asks him. He leaves to find his fortune overseas and promises to return one day to be a man she can marry. Unfortunately, his ship is attacked and he his presumed dead. Years later, Buttercup is betrothed to Humperdinck, the prince of Florin she doesn’t love. A few weeks before the wedding, she is kidnapped by three outlaws and is saved by a masked man named Dread Pirate Roberts, the same man who led the pirates who attacked the ship Westley was on. She pushes Roberts down a hill and regrets it when she hears him yell, “As you wish!” during his tumble. Follow the couple as they try to keep Buttercup from being forced to marry Humperdinck. From iconic lines of, “as you wish,” to Inigo Montoya uttering his famous threats, The Princess Bride is a movie worth watching.
(Available on Disney+)
