There are your classic Valentine’s Day rom-coms and then there are these movies. Give The Notebook a break this year and binge watch these underrated gems instead.
1. Moonstruck
Cher and Nicolas Cage might sound like a weird couple on paper, but give this one a shot. Cher plays a bookkeeper named Loretta who falls in love with her fiance’s estranged younger brother aka Nicolas Cage.
2. Benny and Joon
A young Johnny Depp at the peak of his looks plays another weirdo (this time he’s a Buster Keaton impersonator) who charms a mentally ill woman played by Mary Stuart Masterson. Worth it for the theme song alone – “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by the Proclaimers. I know I’d definitely walk that far for that face.
3. Just Friends
Did you harbor a massive crush on your high school bestie? Well, fat Ryan Reynolds did. After becoming a hot shot music executive, he gets stranded in his hometown after a big snow storm and runs into the girl of his dreams, Jamie. All the while, he’s stuck entertaining an insane client played by the hilarious Anna Faris.
4. Lars and the Real Girl
Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams? So overrated. Ryan Gosling and a blow up doll? That’s the real love story. Gosling finds love on the internet with a humanoid sex doll named Bianca who he drags around town, insisting that everyone treat her like a real person. Because that’s totally normal…
5. Harold and Maude
Fellas, maybe you should give that older lady a chance… and when I say older, I mean reeeeaaally older. Like 70+ older. It worked for Harold. The filthy rich teen is obsessed with death and meets his match in Maude, a septuagenarian that he meets at a funeral.
6. Overboard
When my high maintenance boss falls overboard off her yacht, my first instinct is to claim her amnesiac self at the hospital and convince her she’s my wife too! Overboard kind of sounds like the plot of a bad Law & Order episode, but it’s so much better than that. Plus it stars real-life couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, so you know the chemistry is off the charts!
7. Splash
Tom Hanks and a mermaid? You’d basically have to be a communist to hate that combination. Hanks falls in love with the mermaid he met as a child and has to keep her out of the hands of the US military, who want to dissect her. Will they escape to her underwater mer-kingdom, or is Darryl Hannah as good as sushi? Dun, dun, dun.
8. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Michael Cera is Scott Pilgrim in this comic book adaptation that pits him against his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes. Among them are a super-powered vegan, manipulative record executive and a half-ninja. And you thought your boyfriend’s ex was bad.
9. Safety Not Guaranteed
“Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed. “ Brb, making this my tinder bio.
10. Flipped!
This one has a familiar formula: the girl Bryce Laski can’t stand as a kid turns out to be the one for him. The cute 1950’s setting and soundtrack will make you long for simpler times where you never had to agonize over texting your crush.
11. Little Manhattan
Pre-pubescent Josh Hutcherson is a wonder to behold. We all had our first love and Rosemary Tellesco was his. Watch him try to karate chop his way into her heart. It’s the reason the heart eyes emoji was invented.
12. Heartbreakers
Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt are a mother-daughter con artist duo, scamming gullible rich men left and right. But what happens when J Love falls in love during their last con? Mom schemes to keep her on the team, of course.
13. It Could Happen to You
I never realized how much I actually liked Nicolas Cage until writing this list. His honest cop promises to share a lottery ticket with a down-on-her-luck waitress played by Bridget Fonda after he can’t leave her a tip. When he wins, he stays true to his promise. But in the end, the money never mattered… it’s all about the love! Why hasn’t this happened to me yet?