The popular stance for men to take is to hate Valentine’s Day. Hell, I know women who talk smack about it. I hear a lot about how it is a holiday made up by the card companies, and blah blah blah. Similar arguments are made about every other holiday, and they are all specious: I mean, all holidays were made up out of thin air, if you look back far enough. Single people hate VD because it reminds them that they are alone, and while I understand it, no one is forcing them to celebrate, so they can feel free to shut up. Men in relationships who hate it do so because a) they don’t like their significant other or b) they are tired of a SO who treats it as “Give a Woman a Gift” Day (which is probably also the reason some women hate it: they feel it makes them all look like high maintenance harpies). I happen to be in a relationship in which we celebrate our love for each other every day, and enjoy VD as a day when we get to be extra mushy... and make the people around us puke even more than usual. Also, any holiday that involves getting candy can’t be all bad. Of course, I am not here to be your Dr. Phil. This site, like 95% of my personality, is devoted to movies, and that is what I am going to talk to you about.

If you have known me for more than five seconds, then you know that I hate romantic comedies. I try to take every movie on its own merits, but the standard “romcom” is just so formulaic: boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, everyone learns a lesson, and much shagging is had. It’s like magnetic poetry: just shuffle the location, love triangle elements, and various quirky best friends around on the giant studio refrigerator, get Nora Roberts to write the screenplay, Joel Schumacher to direct it, and find a place to shim in Hugh Grant, and you’re guaranteed to at least break even. To paraphrase the inglorious basterd Henry Rollins, it’s like being on a roller coaster that you have been on a million times before. There ain’t a goddamn minute where you don’t know exactly what is coming, but you do it anyway just to say you did.

Well, funk that noise, I say. Let’s change things up a little this year, and try to watch a better class of romantic movie. This is not a scientific list, nor are the films in any particular order. They are mostly horror, though that was not by design. I pretty much just write as stuff comes into my head. I bet you couldn’t tell.

Anyway:

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Angela Mac   |67.142.161.xxx |2009-02-12 22:05:15 Haven't read it yet -- but wanted to jot this down before I forgot. Was trying to remember the romantic movie you were raving about once. FINALLY occurred to me what it was... and that it was not a film -- though, damn, it was easily a hundred times more effective than plenty of films I've seen: The episode of Buffy, where late in the evening, the school was undergoing a sort of time-slip -- a love affair from the past that had ended in chaos was replaying itself again and again. Somehow Buffy and Angel became possessed by the ghosts. It gives me shivers, just thinking of it. The demon inside Angel was cast aside, and, for just a moment there was glimpse of.... *sigh* So, your mission has to be: Watch Maude... then re-watch that episode. Oh. Maybe buy some kleenex first.

Zombie Boy   |SAdministrator |2009-02-12 22:48:45 You're thinking of "I Only Have Eyes for You," and that is among my top favorite Buffy episodes, right along with Hush and the one where she dies.

Sam Says...   |67.164.18.xxx |2009-02-13 05:27:30 Your taste in movies are so different from mine most of the time! I actually, really, like that though. You plant seeds that I would never even take a second glance at and sometimes those seeds grow into something I just have to consume, ya know? Thank ZB... and Happy Friday the 13th.

Chasing Aimee   |67.190.219.xxx |2009-02-13 06:58:57 I love so much of this list!!! Not being a horror movie person, I won't watch those ones, but the rest is fab. Hard to ever go wrong with Shaun. You haven't seen Harold and Maude??? I am so pleased that you had it on your list but I'm amazed that you haven't partaken. It's totally up your alley. I LOVE that movie!!! I'll break down and finally watch Chocolat, although everything in me tells me not to. And the fact that you included Unleashed is amusing to me since, when I begrudgingly watched it with the Mister, I commented several times about the love story being the major theme and him thinking me crazy. LOL Momento is another nontraditional love story that is really great... Just sayin.

Zombie Boy   |76.23.140.xxx |2009-02-13 11:04:24 Sam: Happy F13 to you, too! I hope you decide to take a chance on some of these films. With the one notable exception, I will vouch for them all. Aimee: I guess I just tend to see the romance in everything. I am such a girl. I hope you reconsider about Braindead, though. You might be surprised by how much you enjoy it. That goes for Chocolat as well. And Momento is maybe the most tragic romance ever captured on film.

Misty  - Great picks!   |63.83.137.xxx |2009-02-13 14:54:09 You never cease to amaze me...I would have never guessed that you liked Chocolat or Orgasmo...lol. I'm very intrigued by this Dellamorte, Dellamore movie. Your discription got me curious. Also, the Mr. Vengeance one...I've only seen the...well, I don't remember which one I saw...oh yeah: Oldboy! I can't believe you let me watch the middle one first...lol. I liked Oldboy, as sick as it turns out in the end...I like being surprised! So, i suppose I'd better find a copy of Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance now, since I no longer have netflix.

Ben Bussey  - One to add...   |77.102.194.xxx |2009-02-14 16:25:38 Jackie Brown. One of the most beautiful, understated and overlooked love stories of 90's cinema. Seriously, every time I watch that I want to slap Robert Forster in the face at the end and shout, "what the hell's the matter with you?! Go with her for Christ's sake!!"

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