This week is very special to me in many ways. For this reason, I wanted to talk about love, not only because of Valentine’s Day, but because of the person who made me love movies in the first place. Its hard to think that it’s been four years since my mom passed away and yet there will be always those distinct memories of her that I will never forget. One of those was her obsession of movies.

From “Beauty and the Beast” to “Star Wars” she watched them all, one of her most frequent websites she visited was imdb.com reading up on the latest movie news. I remember her telling me that she knew most of the storyline to “Pirates of the Caribbean 2” before the film had even come out. Her love for movies became mine and that’s something that I will cherish forever.

On that note let’s get into romance, I’m the type of guy who can enjoy a good love story from time to time, most recently I saw “500 Days of Summer” and I would recommend that movie to anyone.

I think I liked it so much because it was a love story, but didn’t incorporate the typical cliche story lines that other movies follow. Not that there’s anything wrong with those movies, history shows what ain’t broke don’t fix it, I’m just saying its a good change of pace to see a film like this that incorporates humor and romance like the show “How I Met Your Mother” does that both guys and girls can enjoy.

The idea of romance in movies, though, I do believe has been watered down. Every year there are trailers for movies that describe an emotional story of a couple who have been through a lot, but always in the end their love shines and if it’s not that, then either one or the other dies leaving the other person behind, its a two way road with these movies. I blame some of this dip in quality on what sex has become in the media.

Like I said before I believe that instead of thinking of original ideas writers and producers in Hollywood just think what would sell the most tickets? In this case, it is “let’s get two of the most highly attractive actors and actresses in the business right now, get them naked and some how weave a love story in between (‘Love & Other Drugs’ and ‘No Strings Attached’ anyone?).”

I’m basing this on speculation, but you decide for yourself from the looks of the trailers. My point is, girls when you are going to watch a romantic comedy or drama make sure its one with substance and a true heartfelt storyline and, trust me, any guy who you might be watching it with will more or less enjoy some aspect of it. I leave you this week with a list of good romantic films. Most of these come from many my mom liked and recommendations from girls I know, so enjoy.

• “Titanic”
• “The Princess Bride”
• “Serendipity”
• “The Notebook”
• “You’ve Got Mail”
• “While You Were Sleeping”
• “Sweet Home Alabama”
• “500 Days of Summer”
• “P.S. I Love You”
• “The Lake House”
• “Pride and Prejudice”
• “Dear John”
• “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”
• “August Rush”