It’s Valentine’s Day and you’ve had your wonderful romantic dinner and in lieu of braving the chock-a-block crowds out on a Friday night, you decide to stay in with your significant other and turn on Netflix for some snuggles. But wait. What do you put on? There’s just so much to choose from!
Well fear not! Bahir is here to save the day with his quick top 10 Valentine’s movies to check out. Trust in him. He recently got married.
Oh, and don’t worry guys, this isn’t a list filled with sad soppy movies.
This will be fun. We promise.
1. Michael Bolton’s Big Sexy Valentine’s Day Special
Santa bumps into Michael Bolton and tells him that he needs 75,000 new babies by Christmas, and so Bolton does what Bolton does best. He hosts a telethon to inspire the world to make more babies. Yes, I’m serious. Kind of. This irreverent comedy from the guys at Lonely Island gets down to the brass tacks of it all. At 54 minutes, this is the shortest movie on the list, but it’s really good laugh.
2. Set It Up
Set It Up is a story as old as time. Girl bumps into guy. Girl sets up her workaholic boss to date guy’s workaholic boss so that they can work less and actually have a life. Guy’s boss dumps girl’s boss. Girl’s boss is distraught. Girl and guy get fired. Girl falls in love with guy. Classic.
3. Falling Inn Love
You gotta love a punny movie title. Falling Inn Love tells the story of Christina Milian (remember her?) winning the ownership of an inn in New Zealand, which turns out to be more of a fixer upper than she expected. As the movie progresses, she ends up falling in love with the hot local handyman and falling in love with New Zealand in general. This movie is as much a travel advertisement for New Zealand as it is a movie. The dialogue is cheesy and lame, the hunky handyman really isn’t much of an actor, and the storyline is predictable. And yet, it was charming enough, amusing enough, and beautiful enough (C’MON! IT’S NEW ZEALAND FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!) that the movie is more than watchable.
4. You’ve Got Mail
Ah, the 90s. When all the guys wished that the person they were online chatting with was Meg Ryan and not Bob, the bald fat guy in his boxers in his mom’s basement. You’ve Got Mail is an actual classic. Tom Hanks plays the owner of a book megastore (think Borders or Barnes & Noble) and Meg Ryan runs a bookstore on the corner. His megachain puts her little corner shop out of business. He teaches her life lessons of The Godfather. They fall in love. Man, the 90s were a strange time.
5. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
If you’re looking for something chaste and pure and true, then look no further than Susan Johnson’s fantastic adaptation of Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Lara Jean Song Covey is a Korean-American teenager who is obsessed with romance novels and John Hughes movies. She also has a habit of writing love letters to boys she has feelings for and then squirrelling them away in an old hat box that belonged to he mother. The letters get out, the boys read them, and the next thing you know, Lara Jean is living in a rom-com of her own. Hijinks ensue.
6. To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You
This one was released just in time for Valentine’s Day. The follow-up to the incredibly successful To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, this is the first of two sequels that were shot back-to-back. Picking up immediately after the events of the first movie, this one tries to take on the other side of “happily ever after”. It’s not quite as fresh or joyous as the first, but is nevertheless a charming watch. Why not watch both and make it a marathon?
7. Always Be My Maybe
This is another rom-com classic. Girl dates guy in high school. Girl goes on to become a famous chef. Dates Keanu Reeves. Guy grows up to be a loser. Stays home to work with his dad. Girl gets really famous. Dumps Keanu Reeves. Starts dating guy. Cliche? Maybe. Funny? Yes. Sweet? Diabetic.
8. Isn’t It Romantic
Ever wished your life was like a romantic comedy? (No, really.) Musicals and gay best friend included? Well through a quirk of fate (and movie magic) Rebel Wilson finds herself in one, with the hunk that is Liam Hemsworth falling head over heels for her. Isn’t It Romantic is a great twist on the tried and tested tropes of the romantic comedy. In fact, it leans hard into all the tropes of the romantic comedy genre and with surprisingly funny outcomes. If you’re looking for something funny that’s also a tad romantic, then this is the movie for the occasion.
9. Holiday in the Wild
Yes, this is technically a Christmas movie. (There is a disagreement in Goggler HQ about how bad this movie is.) I found it sweet and charming, and this is my list, so it makes the cut! Kristin Davis’ husband leaves her the night her only son leaves for college. She is devastated but decides to go ahead on the second honeymoon to Zambia that she had been planning to take her husband. In Zambia she falls head over heels for some elephants and, as one is likely to do, Rob Lowe. Yes the dialogue is cheesy. So cheesy in fact that if you weren’t lactose intolerant, you will be by the time the movie’s over. The movie is fun and light and perfect for a quick Valentine’s fix. (Come December, you can replace “Valentine’s” with “Christmas” and that’ll work too.)
10. La La Land
This is the one true stand out of this list. La La Land is not my favourite movie on this list. In fact, I actively did not like it when the movie was released. My feelings for it, however, have softened in the four years since it came out. This movie is on this list because unlike the others, this one doesn’t have a traditional happy ending. The girl doesn’t end up with the guy at the end. But they’re both okay with it. And if that isn’t the true message of Valentine’s Day, then I don’t know what is.
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