Valentine's Day (1998)
Detective Jack Valentine is reinstated from his desk job to go back onto the streets. His first assignment ends with the death of a mobster who was about to turn states evidence. The killing came as the mobster was with his girlfriend Alma. Jack suspects Alma of being involved - even more so when he finds her involved with one of the mob family, Michael. However he begins to fall for her himself and finds himself involved in the deadly game where not everything is what it seems.
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The Worst Film Ever
Such a frustrating disappointment
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Not really a very good movie. It was apparently never intended for theatrical release, nor is it a made-for-cable film. So, keeping in mind that it is a direct-to-video release, it is still not very good. Mario Van Peebles is low-key, even when his character should be more expressive. Rae Dawn Chong looks nice but, but seems to be mailing it in. This may be the fault of the material rather than the actress, though. Zehra Leverman has the most extensive, and the most (relatively) interesting role, and actually does okay with it. I am unfamiliar with her, and she seems to have had a somewhat limited career. Sadly, the film's only real redeeming feature is one quick boob shot from Miss Chong, and several quite nice nude scenes from Ms. Leverman, which are worthwhile, if you are into that sort of thing.
I like to exercise early in the morning on an exercycle, and I keep my mind off the time by watching a tension-filled movie. At 5 am, there are few good choices. This morning I watched Valentine's Day, and discovered that what little tension exists in this movie is the uncertainty about how bad it will get.Everyone in this movie seems to be dialing in their performances from Cliché Central except for the lead actress (which isn't Rae Dawn Chong, despite the billing on the poster and HBO). She is truly terrible -- she sounds drunk and/or stoned while giving monotone readings of her lines. Despite her extensive nude scenes with Mario Van Peebles, she fails to generate any energy at all. Simply put, she's boring as hell on screen.The story concept may have been interesting in the hands of a better writer, but where Someone To Watch Over Me managed to squeeze some entertainment, VD simply paints by the numbers. Randy Quaid's snarl isn't enough to inject life into this dog. Don't bother unless you have insomnia and are desperate for the cure.
This is on video under the title The Protector. The other reviewers are maybe a bit hard on this one, it's not bad for a TV flick, worth a few rental bucks if you like to see mob action (Ben Gazara is a pretty good aging mob boss), Randy Quaid is his usual self, Peebles is trying to be intense, and he's a good match for Stallone :-) . It's a step above the other recent mob movie Prisoner of Love, and the earlier one Montana. -Bob
I had to cut this movie some slack when I realized that it was a TV movie. Then I smartened up and thought they deserve what they get. This momentary lapse was perhaps caused by a vague bias towards Mario Van Pebbles. Its a bit of a shame he can't can't act any better. The movie is a cop-mob movie not an action movie. It has a couple of sex scenes which are fairly explicit, to distract you from the mediocre nature of the movie. While the makers didn't do a great job, they didn't screw anything up either. They played it safe.