I am not a big proponent of Valentine’s Day. I am not a big fan of holidays in general for that matter. It just seems that we, as a culture, take great ideas and over think them to the point that we destroy all the fun in them. Look at Sundays for instance – a day of rest. We have found a way to make it the most stressful day of the week in one way or another. For those of the believing persuasion, it is a day of heightened expectation and rushing, for those that are of the unbelieving persuasion, it is a day of lowered expectation and grousing that everything is closed.

Don’t even get me started on Christmas or Super Bowl Sunday.

But out of all of them, Valentine’s Day is probably the worst because fully half of the population loves it, and the other half hates it, and everyone dreads it.

Anyway, enough ranting, let’s see some videos in no particular order.

Wedding Singer – Airplane Serenade

This first scene is from a movie that I am slightly embarrassed to say that I liked. But I am in good company since it is a guilty favorite of many. It was even turned into a full on musical, but I haven’t seen that. I can’t imagine it works since the movie relied heavily on music as a mood establisher and to add additional music on top of that just seems like overkill. However, I love this scene and thought that it was played just about perfectly.

L.A Story – Inevitable

Unlike most of the people from my generation, I am not a big fan of the Stand-up comedy of Steve Martin, but I love his movies. It just seems when he made the leap from the mic to the screen he became a completely different artist. One that understood art. And I love L. A. Story for that specifically. Here was a performer walking the line between commerce and art, and delivering an intensely personal story with those closest to him in life (at the time).

Stanger Than Fiction – Whole Wide World

I really loved this movie, but honestly, I was only just liking the movie in general somewhat until this scene came on. All my character compatibility issues disappeared in this one tender scene. I mean, I know that life doesn’t work that way, right. I know that. But, I also always hope that it does just a little bit. That one signal can go out and find a return signal on the same wavelength and all those other concerns are managed. Plus Will Ferrell is a god.

The Fisher King – Chinese Restaurant Double Date

Set aside for a moment that Robin Williams is congenitally unable to deliver subtlety in anything he does, he nails this scene with Amanda Plummer. And the intimacy that slowly grows between Jeff Bridges and Mercedes Ruehl as they watch these two crazy people fall in love right in front of them is perfect. Seriously, though, Jeff Bridges should have an academy award for Best Actor for his performance in this film.

She’s Having A Baby – This Woman’s Work

This is probably my favorite movie of all time, and it is really hard to explain why other than mumble something about where I was in my life when I first saw it and how the characters’ dreams and goals resonated with mine at the time. But the whole movie leads up to this one scene where the main character, played by Kevin Bacon, finally realizes what he has in Elizabeth McGovern and has remained unsaid the entire movie. I think it is a tragedy that John Hughes quit directing films just when he was getting interesting as an artist – between this and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, I would have loved to see where he would have taken us.

Happy Valentine’s everyone, may you get from this day what you hope it can give you.