It’s Valentine’s Day and you don’t have to deal with the 24 hours of constant reminders of how single you are, so congratulations! But here’s the deal: this holiday doesn’t exactly advertise itself as being terribly geek-friendly. At least not on the surface. I mean, sure, you could just watch Love, Actually again for the 3rd VD day in a row, or go classic with something like The Philadelphia Story, but there are a LOT of February 14th appropriate movies out there for the geek-inclined. Some of which even your non-geeky significant other would love. Without going into depth, here’s our list of the best Valentine’s Day Geeky Movies (and a few tv show episodes)
SCIENCE FICTION:
–Somewhere In Time: Christopher Reeve falls in love with a picture of woman and wills himself back through time to be with her. This is great, but be careful…IT GETS REALLY DARK.
–Earth Girls are Easy: Geena Davis falls in love with a furry alien played by Jeff Goldblum. Two other aliens played by (early in their careers) Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans. Wacky.
–Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Jim Carrey wants to forget his ex (Kate Winslet) and uses a machine to erase his memories, but he changes his mind mid-way and starts fighting back against it. A masterpiece.
–Safety Not Guaranteed: The one good movie by Colin Trevorrow with Aubrey Plaza playing an intern at a magazine who starts interviewing Mark Duplass who has put up an ad for someone to come time travel with him. Hijinx and sparks ensue.
–About Time: Tell your mate this one is written and directed by the same guy who did Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually, only it’s got Domnhall Gleeson using time travel to become involved with Margot Robbie. And it kinda rocks.
–Seeking a Friend for the End of the World: Maybe this one is better if you’re single, as it is the last day of Earth as Steve Carell and Keira Knightley have a post-other-relationships meet-cute, but too-late.
–The One I Love: Mark Duplass and Elizabeth Moss are a married couple who take a vacation to help deal with their troubles and end up dealing with multiple parallel versions of themselves. Don’t ask. Just watch.
–The Time Traveler’s Wife: This one is more treacly than I’d usually approve of for a list like this and it’s not as good as the book, but Eric Bana delivers in this sad time travel movie that has once again, Rachel McAdams stuck being the SO who DOESN’T get to travel through time.
–Starman: John Carpenter swings away from his usual more cynical/dark fare for this sci-fi romance between an alien played by Jeff Bridges and a widowed human (Karen Allen) that is basically grown up E.T. with sexy stuff.
–2046: If you want the super-arty take on sci-fi romance, Wong Kar-Wai has just the ticket with this anthology film with lots of love, trains, and Christmas.
–Her: Probably a double feature with Eternal Sunshine, this features Joquin Phoenix as a greeting card writer who falls in love with an AI voiced by Scarlet Johannson. Remarkable.
–Happy Accidents: Vincent D’nofrio is a great boyfriend but Marisa Tomei’s suspicions reveal (or do they) that he is a time traveler sent to protect her. Clever with some unexpected twists.
–“San Junipero” – Black Mirror Season 3, Episode 4: The most goddamn romantic and bittersweet thing I have ever seen on tv, watching Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis fall in love in this weird time-non-specific town is pure bliss.
HORROR
–The Fly – Geena Davis falls for the very sexy scientist Jeff Goldblum and they have the hot sex, but then he turns into a mega-gross thing and not so much. Sexy, stylish, scary, and totally heart-breaking.
–Warm Bodies – A zombie (Nicholas Hoult) starts to transform into a living person when he falls for a human girl (Teresa Palmer). Charming and funny.
–Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation is full of not just some pretty extreme horrific imagery but also lots of the sexy-sex as Keanu Reeves has blood nipple sex with a trio of vampirettes, and Gary Oldman is smoldering hot (when he’s not teh olds) as the titular villain.
–Spring: A European vacation love affair between an American man and an Italian girl who it turns out is far more than just human. Totally cool, gorgeous, and unlike anything else you’ve seen.
–Only Lovers Left Alive: Incredibly stylish and beautiful hipster vampires (Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska) listen to music, make love, and lounge around. And if you’re a Jim Jarmusch fan you’ll instinctively know that this is awesome.
–The Hunger: Super gothy and hot Catherine Deneuve as a vampire hooking up with David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. Beautiful looking film with a stellar soundtrack.
–Honeymoon: The cutest couple ever (Rose Leslie and Harry Treadway) take their honeymoon in a cabin in the woods but aliens are messing with people and uh-oh, Rose is acting weird.
–Life After Beth: Dane De Haan’s dead girlfriend is now a zombie (Aubrey Plaza). Can he still make their relationship work? Funny and VERY underrated.
–Candyman: That’s right, this super-squicky Clive Barker movie is also pretty romantic (in a horror movie sorta way) with Tony Todd’s ghostly hook-handed villain pining eternally for his lost-love.
–Bride of Chucky: Not terribly romantic, per say, but it was Jennifer Tilly’s entrance into this long-running horror series about a doll possessed by a serial killer that made these films good again. Goofy and fun.
–Thirst: The Korean master Park Chan-Wook made this vampire film about a Catholic priest who gets turned into a vampire and falls in love with his friend’s wife. Sexy and bloody.
–Cat People: There’s a 1942 and a 1982 version of this film about a woman who turns into an actual giant cat when she gets angry or sexually aroused. They both have their charms and both are pretty sexy.
–A Chinese Ghost Story: Criminally underappreciated series outside of China, this crazy supernatural fantasy has a beautiful ghost who is supposed to trap and kill unwary travelers with her charms, falling for one of her intended victims. Funny, romantic, and kinda bat-shit insane.
–Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl: When you want your celebration of love to be a massive insane-o gore fest, trust director Yoshihiro Nishimura to deliver the goods as these two monster ladies fight it out over a dude.
–Bug: Directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist) this great bottle film about a waitress (Ashley Judd) and a possibly totally insane guy (Michael Shannon) hooking up and enabling each other’s madness has been unfairly ignored. Great stuff.
FANTASY:
–The Princess Bride: No duh, right? The greatest romantic fantasy comedy film ever. Maybe the greatest romantic comedy ever. Maybe the greatest comedy ever. Have fun storming the castle!
–Edward Scissorhands: That’s right, I listed a Tim Burton film. Because this love affair between the normal Winona Ryder and the weird sharp-fingered Johnny Depp is Burton at his best and most morbidly-sweet.
–Splash: Tom Hanks falls for a mermaid played by Daryl Hannah. Very funny hijinx ensue. John Candy gets the stand-out line of the film which is a Swedish dick joke.
–Stardust: If it’s fairy tales that you’re into, this deeply romantic one from the mind of Neil Gaiman and director Matthew Vaughn, should do the trick, featuring Charlie Cox collecting a fallen star to give to his supposed true love, only to fall in love with the star (Claire Danes).
–The Shape of Water: This lustrous, heartfelt, but also kinda disturbing love story featuring Sally Hawkins falling in love with a gill-man while dodging the craziness of Michael Shannon, is being hailed as one of Guillermo Del Toro’s best and it’s still in theaters.
–What Dreams May Come: If you feel like crying for two straight hours, here ya go: Robin Williams is dead and explores the afterlife, visiting with his dead children and hoping his still-living wife (Annabella Sciorra) can learn to cope. Visually unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
–The Purple Rose of Cairo: Mia Farrow falls so madly in love with a movie star, that the character steps off of the screen and into the real world to be with her, leaving the rest of the characters of the film eternally waiting for the plot to resume. Very funny and sweet stuff.
–Midnight in Paris: Owen Wilson discovers what love is really about by time traveling in Paris and hanging out with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dali and more. For my money, Allen’s funniest and best film.
–Enchanted: An animated Disney princess gets transformed into Amy Adams and pushed into the ‘real’ world where she falls for a guy that isn’t your typical Prince Charming. A great meta-Disney fantasy that is much much better than it sounds.
–Wings of Desire: The art-house Wim Wenders masterpiece about an angel who falls so deeply in love with a human that he renounces his wings and immortality in order to be with her. Yes, they made a mediocre American remake of this. Watch the original.
–Just Like Heaven: Reese Witherspoon is a doctor who gets in a serious car accident and ends up haunting her old house where a new tenant (Mark Ruffalo) has moved into and they start to fall for each other. Which is funnier than you’d think.
–Ladyhawke: Maybe THE defining movie for an (older) generation who are into fantasy-romance, Matthew Broderick is a thief who helps a knight (Rutger Hauer) and his true love (Michelle Pfeiffer) who have a curse on them where he’s a wolf at night and she’s a hawk during the day.
–Ghosts of Girlfriends Past: I don’t care how many people try to decry this Matthew McConaughey/Jennifer Garner flick about a playboy who has a Christmas Carol-esque experience to teach him about love, it’s kinda awesome. There, I said it. Suck it, haters.
–Beautiful Creatures: That really surprisingly good YA adaptation that no one went to go see. Which is a shame. It’s some solid southern gothic, magical, romantic stuff featuring the new Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich).
–Groundhog Day: Oh, you thought I forgot. I mean, there’s no denying there’s something creepy about a guy who can relive every day until he figures out exactly how the right way is to get you in bed, buuuuut, it’s Bill Murray and he DOES learn his lesson. One of the comedy greats.
–Peggy Sue Got Married: Francis Copolla directs Kathleen Turner in this cute film where a woman who is dealing with her husband’s (Nic Cage) infidelity, time travels back to high school to see what would happen if she had pursued a different guy.
SUPERHERO
–Deadpool: No, seriously. The absolute devotion of Ryan Reynolds to Morena Baccarin in this REALLY fuckin’ funny movie is goddamn romantic as hell. They are THE unconventional cinematic couple. The most punk-rock romantic film, maybe ever.
–Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: Not ‘technically’ a super-hero film, not ‘technically’ a video-game adaptation, we’ll just call it a romantic action comedy and one of Edgar Wright’s best.
–Crisis on Earth X – CW superhero-verse crossover in 2017: You get to see Iris and Barry Allen get married AND Oliver Queen and Felicity tie the knot as well. Totally two-fer fan-shipping heaven.
–Superman: That’s right, the original with Chris Reeve. They REALLY focused on making the romance between him and Margot Kidder pop here and you know what? It works.
