By Jerry Cutler

 Valentine’s Day was directed by Garry Marshall and written by Katherine Fugate with a story by Fugate, Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein. It was produced by Mike Karz and Wayne Rice and executive produced by Toby Emmerich, Samuel J. Brown, Michael Disco, Diana Pokorny and Josie Rosen.  I sincerely believe that all of the above had a story line to pitch that was accepted and woven into the jumble that opens today.

In order to attract movie-goers, a host of today’s happening actors were sought after and signed.

Wisely, there are an overabundance of celebrities in the mix whose presence should bring some nice box office returns. Among the stars are Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jamie Foxx, Patrick Dempsey, Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Queen Latifah, and Taylor Swift for today’s teenie boppers.

For the rocking chair set, Shirley MacLaine and Hector Alizondo as an old married couple get involved in a ludicrous love story that ends, appropriately enough, at an outdoor screening of an old movie starring a young MacLaine at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

The stories are intertwined and I found myself trying to remember the pairings of lovers for each fleeting segment. After a while, I gave up and tried to concentrate on the stars that were involved with a modicum of interesting plot lines without linking them to a lover.

Perhaps, Marshall, thanking his femme fatale in Pretty Woman for a lucrative movie-directing career, Julia Roberts’ story was the most tender and Topher Grace, who should be a major star, and Anne Hathaway’s, the most interesting.

 Overall, there are too many stories and characters to make Valentine’s Day a very good movie. It isn’t a “massacre,” and will serve as good movie faire for the younger and less critical.

2 Bagels out of 4