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Wed. Feb. 7, 2001
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Art & Culture > Movie &Theatre > Archive
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Movie Review: Valentine
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After their latest release, Valentine, it is safe to say, by all accounts, that Warner Bros. will not be receiving many love letters from viewers this season. Even with its promising cast featuring Denise Richards (The World is Not Enough), David Boreanaz (the series, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer), and Marley Shelton (Sugar and Spice), Valentine was unable to keep moviegoers from wondering why, what, who, and how in the world did they get bamboozled into paying a fortune to see such a predictable and dry movie.
The film is based on a book written by Tom Savage about a tormented middle school-aged boy named Jeremy who grows up to be a serial killer named Jason. Sadly, this is about as creative as the film gets, so don't hold your breath in hopes of any clever twists and turns.
The four girls who ridiculed Jeremy - Kate (Marley Shelton), Paige (Denise Richards), Dorothy (Jessica Capshay), and Lily (Jessica Cauifiel) - are not aware that he is back in town until he starts sending each of them creepy valentine cards. A couple of bodies later, the movie transforms into a full-fledged slasher where people are being stabbed and hacked left and right; until, of course, an unlikely hero comes to the rescue and kills the masked murderer.
If the plot sounds a little too familiar, perhaps it is because its director, Jamie Blanks, also directed such films as Urban Legends and Urban Legends Two: Final Cut. Despite the mini cult following Urban Legends produced, Blank's new film Valentine is not met with open arms because it brings nothing new to the already flooded market of predictable "slasher" films.
Although Valentine is rather dry throughout, it does contain a moral lesson that can be found in many films that deal with torment and revenge. With an open mind, viewers may be able to cut through all of the mumbo jumbo and actually decipher the conceptual effects of child abuse and neglect that are apparent throughout the genre. For instance, here, the killer was pushed over the edge at a young age because his fellow classmates ridiculed him; in Scream 3, the murderer was neglected as a child.
As farfetched as it may sound, such concepts are present in such shallow movies; however, that does not, by all accounts, justify the extremely violent content typically associated with psychotic thriller movies.
Because Valentine does contain extremely graphic violence, profanity, and occasional unnecessary sexual content (all of which reduce its appeal), it has been given an "R" rating. Therefore, children are prohibited (appropriately so) from watching Valentine unless their parents accompany them. In addition, adults who cannot stomach gruesome violent acts should reconsider going.
The movie does contain, in addition to a cast filled with rising stars, some neat camera work that is unfortunately overshadowed by a script that is simple, too predictable and ridiculously slow at times. Valentine is yet another testimony to the saying that "the book is better than the movie."
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