Romancing You and Your Valentine

Romance by laser light? Valentine’s Day is one time of the year when even mediocre films, seen on laser, can add a rose-colored glow to the evening.

Several recent laser releases may not win any prizes for best picture of the year, but they can make your Valentine’s night a little more romantic.

“Frankie & Johnny” (Paramount, letterboxed), the 1991 romance by Terrence McNally based on his hit play “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” wants the audience to believe that superstar celebrity-actors Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer are ordinary working folks looking for love in a coffee shop. It’s a tribute to both actors that they almost pull it off, making the ex-con short-order cook and hard-boiled waitress believable as they take a chance, maybe their last, on each other. Director Garry Marshall and McNally opened up the play only slightly, but its observations on life and the possibilities of love remain.

“The Night We Never Met” (Miramax/HBO Video) is a piece of 1993 romantic fluff featuring an attractive ensemble cast of Matthew Broderick, Annabella Sciorra, Kevin Anderson, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Justine Bateman. The hackneyed plot centers around a time-shared apartment, 1990s style, where Broderick, a gourmet cook stuck behind the counter in a designer deli, and Sciorra as a young wife in a doomed marriage finally consummate an obvious relationship. It’s not “Sleepless in Seattle” (Columbia/TriStar, letterboxed), but enough like it--with so much time before kismet takes effect--to make for a romantic evening.

“Heart and Souls” (MCA/Universal, letterboxed) takes a page from “Ghost” (Paramount, letterboxed) with Robert Downey Jr. and Elisabeth Shue as the young couple being led to the altar by ghosts as disparate as Charles Grodin as a frustrated singer, Tom Sizemore as a two-bit burglar, Kyra Sedgwick as a young woman who lets the love of her life get away and Alfre Woodward as a single mother devoted to her kids. It’s silly stuff, but Downey and Shue are pleasant enough and Woodard is surprisingly moving in the role of a mother worried about the children she left behind.

Ivan Reitman’s “Dave” (Warner Home Video, letterboxed) features an endearing Kevin Kline in a dual role as a presidential look-alike who takes over the big House. He eventually wins over the President’s first lady, Sigourney Weaver, whose devastating look at the pretender naked in the shower is one of the funniest scenes in recent movies.

If watching love unfold through the eyes of an observant 10-year-old (Eliza Dushku) quickens your heartbeat, you may find 1993’s “That Night” worth the effort (Warner Home Video, letterboxed). Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell are the Romeo-and-Juliet star-crossed lovers who Dushku finally brings together.

All that notwithstanding, the best movie Valentine of the last few years is also available on laser. The 1989 “When Harry Met Sally . . . “ (Nelson, letterboxed), starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, should be at the top of any couple’s (or about-to-be-couple) viewing list. Warm, wry, touching romantic comedy doesn’t get much better. It’s not as fattening as chocolate and its warm glow lasts much longer than a dozen roses.