Valentine’s Day Movies for Everyone

By Maria Martinez
Blog Content Contributor

Some people celebrate Valentine’s Day by gazing into the eyes of their romantic partner over candlelit dinners. Others are annoyed by any mention of the “made-up” holiday. But whatever your situation is, it is the perfect excuse to relax, sit back and watch a movie. I made a list of some of the best romantic movies for different kinds of personalities

For the ones who love the classics: Sabrina (1954)

There are a lot of Audrey Hepburn romantic movies I can think of, but Sabrina is definitely my favorite one. This movie, directed by Billy Wilder, is an enchanting fairy tale about a chauffeur’s daughter in love with the younger son of the master of the estate. Sabrina goes to Paris and comes back a polished princess, but her fairy tale has some romantic complications on its way to an unexpected, but happy ending. It truly is a Cinderella story.

For the ones who love musicals: West Side Story (1961)

If you love literature and music, this is the right movie for you. West Side Story is a modern-day, loose re-telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet tragedy of feuding families. This romantic musical, tells the tale of a territory war between rival teenage gangs in the Upper West Side of New York City in the late 1950s. This war starts because Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, have moved into the American gang, the Jets’, territory. But the romance begins when a young couple from dueling street gangs falls in love; they decided to cross battle lines.

For the ones who love sports: Fever Pitch (2005)

Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore in the same movie!? It’s a must see! This movie opens when Ben Wrightman (Jimmy Fallon), a young teacher, begins dating a workaholic businesswoman, Lindsey Meeks (Drew Barrymore). The two don’t seem to have a lot of the same interests, but they fall in love, regardless. Their romance goes well during the winter, until summer comes and baseball season begins. Lindsey soon realizes that Ben is completely obsessed with the Boston Red Sox. Though she tries to understand Ben’s passionate team loyalty, eventually it threatens to end their otherwise happy relationship.

For the ones who love foreign movies: A la Mala (2015)

This is literally my sister’s and I favorite Mexican movie. We watched it three times in a day, and we cried every single time. Maria Laura is a struggling aspiring actress. After her best friend hires her to flirt with her boyfriend to test his fidelity, Maria embarks on a lucrative new career. She starts getting hired by women across the city, but then Maria is given a gig that should be business as usual, until she ends up falling head over heels for her latest “job.” I totally recommend it!

For the ones who love Sci-Fi: The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)

Rachel McAdams has given us some of our favorite romantic movies of all times, like The Notebook and The Vow (which you should also totally watch on Valentine’s Day). Another great film is The Time Traveler’s Wife, which is about a Chicago librarian, Henry De Tamble (Eric Bana) who suffers from a rare genetic disorder that causes him to drift uncontrollably back and forth through time. On one of his “stays,” he meets the love of his life, Claire (Rachel McAdams), and they marry. But the problems and complexities of any relationship are multiplied by Henry’s inability to remain in one time and place, so that he and Claire are constantly out of sync.

For the ones who love the 90’s: 10 Things I Hate about You (1999) 

For everyone who wants to go back to the 90’s this is your movie to go to. How they talk, how they dress will take you back to those glorious days. Plus, seeing Heath Ledger singing, is something you wouldn’t want to miss. This is another modernization of William Shakespeare’s late-16th century comedy The Taming of the Shrew. It is retold in a late-1990s American high school setting. The story starts when, new student Cameron (Gordon-Levitt) is smitten with Bianca (Oleynik). But in order to get around Bianca’s father’s strict rules on dating, he attempts to get bad boy Patrick (Ledger) to date her ill-tempered sister, Kat (Stiles).

For the ones who love Rom Coms: Made of Honor (2008)

Who doesn’t love Patrick “McDreamy” Dempsey!? He does an incredible job in this movie. Tom (Dempsey) loves his life, until he realizes he also loves his best friend Hannah. But when Hannah gets engaged to a dashing Scotsman and asks Tom to be her maid of honor, Tom faces hostile bridesmaids, bridal showers, and bad hair days, all in an effort to pull off the perfect wedding and steal the bride. He’s a maid of honor with a plan.

For the ones who love horror: Warm Bodies (2013)

I am not a huge fan of horror movies, because everything scares me, but I really enjoyed this movie. It is about a terrible plague has left the planet’s population divided between zombies and humans. An unusual zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult) sees his walking-dead brethren attacking a living woman named Julie (Teresa Palmer) and rescues her. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and the pair embark on an unusual relationship. As their bond grows and R becomes more and more human, a chain of events unfolds that could transform the entire lifeless world.

And lastly, for the ones who hate Valentine’s Day (it’s okay, you are not the only one)

This is the ultimate anti-love film. (500) Days of Summer , reminds us that not all love lasts and that sometimes, something better is out there for you. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t. This movie takes the viewers into a twisted journey of highs and lows that doesn’t quite go where we think it will. Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an unlucky greeting card copywriter and hopeless romantic, is blindsided after his girlfriend Summer (Zooey Deschanel), dumps him. The movie shifts back and forth through various periods of their 500 days “together,” to try to figure out where things went wrong. This movie emphasizes the delicate nature of romantic relationships and how perception means everything.

I could have listed millions of other of my favorite movies Casablanca, The Proposal, Bridget Jones Diary, A Cinderella Story, Roman Holiday, One Day, etc.… But I would never finish. Tell me which are some of your favorite movies I should watch this Valentine’s Day.

Featured image by Maria Martinez