So you've decided to go the lame-ass "dinner and a movie" route for Valentine's Day, only you can't get even get a reservation at the 59 Diner and going to the movies these days just makes you wish you'd applied for that concealed handgun permit. Buck up, little camper, for even ordering a pizza and playing a DVD can win your way into that special guy/gal's pants heart by lowering their defenses with one of these tried-and-true scenes:

5. "As You Wish" -- The Princess Bride

Lost in the sappy romanticism of the Dread Pirate Roberts' "shocking" revelation to Buttercup that he was, in fact, her childhood flame are subtle hints of the fierce agrarian class struggle in Florin. Westley, a serf, was forced to couch his love for a member of the landed class in code lest he have his eyes put out with hot pokers.

4. "Gimme a kiss"/The Lobster Scene - Annie Hall

My childhood impressions of New York City were shaped by this movie and The Warriors, which is probably why I'm still terrified of going there. There are any number of great scenes in Annie Hall, though, which just makes you wonder what Allen did to turn audiences off to the idea of him as a romantic lead.

Oh, right.

3. "There's a magnificence in you, Tracy." -- The Philadelphia Story

They don't make 'em like this anymore. Not with two of the best actors of their generation in a romance that doesn't rely on Three's Company-esque misunderstandings and a madcap chase at the end set to "Gimme Some Lovin'," anyway.

2. Yes, That Scene -- When Harry Met Sally

I don't care that you've seen it a hundred times. I don't care if you're sick to death of Billy Crystal and his insufferable Yankees worship. I'm including it because seeing Meg Ryan's little performance in the theater made me realize two things: 1) That I had never heard sounds like that coming from a woman before, and 2) I was just too damn lazy to put forth the effort to change that.

1. "In Your Eyes" -- Say Anything

It isn't so much that nobody had ever employed similar tactics before -- the boombox held aloft is really just an extrovert's answer to the mixtape -- it's that the sensitive and independent Cusack was such a maddeningly perfect male. I think I speak for every zit-faced teenage boy who didn't kickbox and couldn't rock the trenchcoat over a Clash t-shirt without looking like a complete tool when I say: fuck you, Lloyd Dobler.

-- Pete Vonder Haar