Sometimes getting a guy to watch a romantic movie is like trying to get them to admit that they like to sometimes listen to Adele and that her songs make them cry, but there are some movies that you can trick them with.
Like most men, I am not a fan of the overtly romantic movie. Love stories tend to bore me unless they involve something exploding at some point, which can be very frustrating for the woman in my life, and for the women in the lives of many men like me. When you, ladies, decide to put in a DVD of a heart-wrenching romantic tale that will leave your heart a-flutter and clutching the tissue box, you usually have to negotiate with the male part of your life. If they will sit there and watch your love story, you will sit there and watch their western, or war movie or horror flick the following weekend.
However, there are ways that you can camouflage your romance. That’s right, Hollywood has helped you by disguising some movies as mindless action, sci-fi or horror and, within that, lies a love story. Often, the love story is so consumed by the plot that your guy might not even realize that it’s happening at all. As such, here is a list of guy Valentine’s Day movies that you can keep in your arsenal.
The Crow - Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson, Sofia Shinas, Michael Wincott. The story of a man who is brutally murdered by thugs and then comes back from the other side to wreak unholy revenge against those same gangsters. It is, in all senses, a superhero movie. Brandon Lee is fantastic as Eric Draven, the rock and roller who ends up murdered and then comes back to set things right. The action is non-stop and the dark, gloomy sets are right out any goth-kid’s handbook for proper set decoration. Your guy will love all of the shooting, maiming and killing. However, at the very heart of it is a passionate love story. You see, Eric ‘s fiance, Shelly, was also murdered that night. The entire vengeance he is wreaking is because they stopped them from getting married and murdered her as well. All Eric wants is to get his revenge so that he can slip into the afterlife with Shelly and live eternally in her arms and in love.
The Abyss - Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn. Yes, this is a sci-fi classic from James Cameron and the movie that brought CGI first into the mainstream. It is about a bunch of deep-sea people who find out that there are aliens living in the huge and endlessly deep trench upon which their underwater house sits. There are dazzling special effects, some really bad bad guys, intense action and lots of edge-of-your-seat thrills. However, at the very heart of this story are the characters portrayed by Harris and Mastrantonio. They play a married couple that is trying to somehow hold their marriage together despite intense differences of personality and the fact that one of them is on the bottom of the sea and one of them is miles above on land. If you watch the movie, their marriage is what routinely saves the day. Harris’ character at one point even prevents a door from closing because of his wedding ring. Heck, by the end it’s their love that saves the entire planet from alien destruction.
Braveheart - Mel Gibson, Patrick McGoohan, Sophie Marceau, Angus Macfayden. What? Yes, one of the bloodiest and most intense war movies is, at its very heart, a love story. William Wallace is a man who decides to bring about Scottish independence and bring down the entire British empire in the process. What follows is a series of violent and bloody battle scenes so intense that, at times, the camera lens itself ends up covered in stage blood and mud. But, why does Wallace decide to take on the British? Because they killed his father? No, when he returns to Scotland he just wants to become a farmer. He then falls in love with a woman and when he violates the British rule that says the local lord gets to bed his wife first on their wedding night, the British lord tries to make an example of him. It is this that sets Wallace off and he spends the rest of the film doing what he does not because he feels Scotland has great rulers, but he wants revenge for what happened to is lady-love. He sees images of her in the woods, carries a small piece of cloth she gave him with him everywhere he goes. He even sees her at the end when they are torturing him to death as a kind of angel. In some ways, this movie is a lot like The Crow even to the point of funky make up on the male lead’s face.
Blade Runner - Harrison Ford, Darryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young. One of the sci-fi classics of all time. It stars Harrison Ford as a retired Blade Runner, a man once charged with hunting down Replicants which are fake people created with a 3-year life span, superhuman abilities, and a violent temper. When several particularly violent Replicants end up on earth, Ford’s character is whisked out of retirement to bring them down. It is filled with some of the greatest special effects ever and has created an image of the future Los Angeles so iconic that it has been repeated time and again. However, what is truly at the heart of the story? The fact that Ford’s character has fallen in love with an advanced Replicant played by Sean Young. She steals his heart, makes him question his job and his own existence and is the only thing he truly wants to come home to when the case is over.
Casablanca - Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claud Rains. The classic movie that is routinely listed as the best movie of all time, a title which it alternates with Citizen Kane. It has everything a guy could want. It has Bogart at his most Bogart-iness. It has Nazis and horrible villains. It has intrigue and mystery. It has Nazis getting shot. But, it is also one of the most romantic movies ever filmed. As Bogart’s Rick has come to Casablanca to try and forget his love for Bergman’s Ilsa. He has successfully forgotten is altruistic past when the movie starts and he seems to be callous and uncaring, just trying to make a buck in a place where spies, Nazis and the Allies all meet at the same place. Then, in walks Ilsa and his entire life is turned upside down. Will she fly off or will she stay with Rick? Will he declare his love for her and leave with her or decide to stay and join the resistance and fight the Nazis? If you don’t already know, you haven’t been paying attention to pop culture and movies since the 1940s.
Photo courtesy of Morguefile,com
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