A big fat Greek flop!
I Hate Valentine's Day (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:4
Rotten:21
Average Rating:3/10
Consensus: This boilerplate comedy lacks ingenuity or humor and features mediocre dialogue that sounds less like conversation and more like stand-up shtick.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: After the mammoth success of MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING in 2002, Nia Vardalos and John Corbett reunite for this unromantic-sounding romantic comedy. As the owner of the Brooklyn florist Roses for... After the mammoth success of MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING in 2002, Nia Vardalos and John Corbett reunite for this unromantic-sounding romantic comedy. As the owner of the Brooklyn florist Roses for Romance, Genevieve (Vardalos) should welcome the love-centric holiday. But heartache has kept her from serious relationships, and she has obeyed her romance rule: never go on more than five dates. New restaurateur Greg (Corbett) can’t follow any rules when it comes to dating--he doesn’t know how male-female relationships are supposed to work, so he stays unmarried. When the two pair up, they try to stick to Genevieve’s five-date mandate, but they didn’t count on love entering the equation. Writer-actress Vardalos makes her directorial debut with I HATE VALENTINE’S DAY, which also stars Stephen Guarino, Zoe Kazan, Judah Friedlander, Rachel Dratch, and Jay O. Sanders. [More]
Starring: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Stephen Guarino, Amir Arison
Starring: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Stephen Guarino, Amir Arison, Zoe Kazan, Gary Wilmes, Mike Starr, Jason Mantzoukas, Judah Friedlander, Rachel Dratch, Jay O. Sanders
Director: Nia Vardalos
Director: Nia Vardalos
Screenwriter: Nia Vardalos
Story: Nia Vardalos, Stephen David, Ben Zook
Producer: William Sherak, Jason Shuman, Madeleine Sherak
Studio: IFC Films
Reviews for I Hate Valentine's Day
It's like eating a plain Hershey's bar on that supposedly most romantic day of the year. It may soothe your sweet tooth for a brief bit, but you'll still be longing for Godiva.
I found it to be really one note. This is not authentic modern courtship.
Everyone who's ever seen a movie knows where this is headed... but getting there is breezy, fun, and most importantly, well-executed.
An unspeakable nadir in the career of its writer-director-star, My Big Fat Greek Wedding’s Nia Vardalos.
All I Hate Valentine's Day adds up to is an awkward, ritualized date between moviegoer and a still-learning triple hyphenate.
What it lacks in laughs -- there are none -- it tries to make up for by ladling on stale clichés, such as Vardalos' two stereotypically gay assistants and a desperate younger female friend who stalks guys.
For I Hate Valentine's Day, Vardalos has chosen to direct. And that's a mistake that only compounds the ones in her screenplay.
The movie is set up as a valentine to Vardalos. She should try sending herself flowers.
You might blame Nora Ephron, whose screenplay for When Harry Met Sally established the formula that I Hate Valentine’s Day runs into the ground. Compared with this, Ms. Ephron is Chekhov.
An indie romantic comedy even worse than most of the bigger-budgeted but almost invariably rotten Hollywood examples of the genre.
Nia Vardalos wrote, directed and stars in this clunky, unfunny and plodding mess. She doesn't write dialogue, she writes shtick. Her direction seems awkward and amateurish, her acting is more like mugging.
Given the inevitable response to this equally regrettable rom-com, she can expect to loathe Independence Day, too.
Is it too pat to say I Hate This Movie? That's about the level of creative energy Vardalos applies to a film that manages to be every bit as bad as My Life in Ruins.
By the time the end credits hit, there's joy emerging not from the outcome of the Genevieve/Greg romantic tango, but the feeling of relief to know the film, and Vardalos's insipid direction, has finally come to a close.
Put it this way: Children who see this film at an impressionable age risk inhibiting their social growth.
Vardalos calls her film "the ultimate indie experiment," and if that's what is meant by ham-fisted pacing, writing, and acting, this is as ultimate and as indie as it gets.
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