PCP on DVD - The Vow

I am not as big of a fan of romantic films as my wife.  Conversely, she is not as big of a fan of sci-fi or violent action films as I am.  So, I am willing to watch movies like The Vow with her as a fair trade for making her put up with some of the movies I want to watch.  Sometimes these movies are awful, and sometimes they are good.  The Vow fortunately was serviceable as a cliched romantic film.  So, in honor of Valentines' Day, here's my review of a decent movie to check out for tomorrow's holiday.

The Vow - 2012, rated PG-13.  My rating:  7 out of 10.  

Channing Tatum had a huge and busy 2012.  He was in Haywire, Magic Mike, The Vow, 10 Years, 21 Jump Street, and GI Joe Retaliation (which was originally scheduled for 2012 but pushed back to 2013), plus he also hosted Saturday Night Live once as well.  These films were diverse in their subject matter, and I actually enjoyed his performances in those that I have seen.  Rachel McAdams is great in romantic roles (The Notebook) but I'll always love her for Mean Girls.  Putting the two of them together in this film was obvious Valentine's Day bait for audiences.

In case you never saw one of the trailers, The Vow is the story of a young married couple that has to overcome a massive change in their relationship - McAdams' character suffers a traumatic brain injury as a result of a car crash, and has amnesia erasing her entire relationship with Tatum from her brain.  This forces Tatum to have to win her back, as in her brain she's been rewound to a time period when she was still engaged to a different guy.

It's a story that you can probably guess the ending based solely on the movie poster and/or the trailers, but at least it has its enjoyable moments along the way.  Plus, it was filmed here in Chicago, which is always a plus for any movie as far as I'm concerned.  So, if you are stuck looking for a movie to watch for Valentine's Day this week, you could definitely do worse than this one.  (For a list of movies to avoid on Valentine's Day, click here).