Valentine Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 2.5/5

It had been a good 16 years since I last saw Valentine and wasn’t much of a fan. Seeing again now… and my opinion pretty much as not changed. This is a slasher movie that seemed to come out after the trend of the genre was dying down (so to speak) following the uptick created by Scream and spawned the likes of I Know What You Did Last Summer and a sequel, Urban Legend (from the same director as this, Jamie Blanks), not to mention the Scream sequels.

The set-up to Valentine follows a group of friends — Paige (DENISE RICHARDS), Kate (MARLEY SHELTON), Dorothy (JESSICA CAPSHAW) and Lily (JESSICA CAUFFIEL) — following the brutal murder of another one their friends (KATHERINE HEIGL in the obligatory recognizable face offed in the opening). Now each of the ladies begin receiving nasty and creepy valentines and are being hunted down by someone wearing a cherub mask. Who could the murderer be? Is it one of the ladies? Maybe Kate’s on-and-off alcoholic boyfriend, Adam (DAVID BOREANAZ)? Perhaps Dorothy’s new love. Campbell (DANIEL COSGROVE)?

This horror-thriller, as I mentioned before, was never my cup of tea. The horror elements, especially later on, became standard slasher fare though earlier on, the cherub-masked killer used a bow and arrow which was fun, but otherwise it was kind of a bland story, paper-thin characters for the most part (or clichéd in the case of Denise Richards’ slutty personality) and a mystery that once you know, and despite the passage of time I did remember the killer’s identity, that element goes out the window (whereas a movie like Scream still holds up). That said, I will say Jamie Blanks’ direction wasn’t half bad with some nice looking shots so it’s at least not a boring looking film…

Even with the lack of great character development, which isn’t too surprising from any slasher film, the acting at least wasn’t bad. Denise Richards looked like she was having fun as were Marley Shelton and Jessica Cauffiel while David Boreanaz looked like an actor who only was available for 10 days of shooting, though apparently off-screen he was a hoot. You’re not going to get incredible performances but as with Blanks’ own Urban Legends, they at least were having a good time, confirmed on the interviews included on this release.

Valentine was released back in February of 2001 but hardly made a splash at the box office making a mere $36.7 million worldwide off of a reported $29 million budget.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 4.5/5

This release comes with a matted slip cover while the interior is reversible revealing the film’s original theatrical artwork. This is packed with quite a bit so here we go…

Audio Commentaries:

• Director Jamie Blanks, Author Peter Bracke and Filmmaker Don Coscarelli serving as the moderator. This is a rather fun track recorded 18 years later obviously and Blanks recalls working on the film and we even get insight into his career, such as filming a trailer as an audition to direct I Know What You Did Last Summer, which he submitted a week too late.
• Director Jamie Blanks is the older commentary which is more on the basic side of things, yet still worth a listen for his perspective back then.

Interviews (TRT 2:30:54):

• Thrill of the Drill (9:41; 1080p) – Actress Denis Richards
• The Final Girl (13:54; 1080p) – Actress Marley Shelton
• Shot Through the Heart (23:03; 1080p) – Actress Jessica Cauffiel
• Writing Valentine (1:04:33; 1080p) – Co-Writers Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts
• Editing Valentine (27:50; 1080p) – Editor Steve Mirkovich
• Scoring Valentine (11:53; 1080p) – Composer Don Davis

There’s some really good interviews here, the three actresses were pretty fun, each of them having an appreciation for the movie and surprisingly, the writers’ one was pretty extensive. Strangely, however, and perhaps they didn’t have the time, missing is Jamie Blanks, but any info you wanted is contained on the commentary track.

Behind the Scenes (1:54:21; 1080p) is a collection of footage taken from more than 10 hours of video shot on the set. Rather impressive fly-on-the-wall material. You don’t get this kind of stuff on bigger budget films nowadays.

Vintage Featurette (8:18; 1080i) is from 2001 and the footage looks really rough.

Press Kit (17:21; 1080i) are just random promotional interviews with David Boreanaz, Denise Richards, Marley Shelton, Jessica Capshaw, Jessica Cauffiel and Jamie Blanks.

Deleted Scenes (8:40; 1080p) are nine scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut… and for good reason.

Club Reel Music Video (2:53; 1080i) with some kick ass early 2000s rock ‘n roll!

Some promotional material rounds things out: Teaser Trailer (0:40; 1080i), Theatrical Trailer (1:27; 1080p), 5 TV Spots (1:23; 1080i) and a Still Gallery (4:12; 1080p).

VIDEO – 4.0/5

AUDIO – 3.0/5

OVERALL – 3.5/5

Overall, Valentine for me, like Urban Legend, isn’t a slasher-horror classic but I will admit there are at least few fun elements and I suspect if you were to watch this in a group setting, the experience might be a better one. However, this “Collector’s Edition” is a near home run from Shout through their Scream Factory line and although the audio was tame to say the least, the video was more than adequate but the bonus features was amazing, and short of a feature-length making-of documentary, was almost perfect.