Nicholas Sparks' Safe Haven slammed by critics as 'tragi-romantic treacle'

NICHOLAS Sparks' latest chick flick hits cinemas today - just in time to strategically pull on the heart strings of the hopeless romantics.

NICHOLAS Sparks' latest chick flick, Safe Haven, hits cinemas today. Just in time to strategically pull on the heart strings of the film-loving hopeless romantics.

It's the author-turned-film producer’s eighth big-screen adaptation and we all had high hopes for it to be the next Big Romantic Drama.

But the highly-anticipated movie, as the title suggests, is being slammed by critics as exactly that - predictable and ‘safe’.

It's been widely peddled as ‘the next tearjerker from the director of The Notebook’, and yet reviews suggest it falls dreadfully short of the epic Gosling-McAdams swoon-fest that set the benchmark so high back in 2004.

Movie writer Leigh Paatsch gave the flick one-and-a-half stars out of five, calling it "another torrent of tragi-romantic treacle to gush forth from the pen of best-selling author Nicholas Sparks."

Julianne Hough plays a young woman with a dark past who starts afresh in a small coastal town where she meets Josh Duhamel, a single dad who's finally ready to pursue romance again after becoming a widower.

Sparks’ first and highest-grossing adaptation, Message in a Bottle, starring Kevin Costner and Robin Wright (1999), has a worldwide gross of $115 million to date - interestingly, it’s also his only other adaptation to be released on Valentine’s Day.

Since then, Sparks has handed us one romantic tragedy after the next, but safe to say there can only be one Notebook.

Movie critics website Rotten Tomatoes gave Safe Haven a dismal rating of 13 per cent, Dear John managed 28 per cent, while The Lucky One grabbed just 20 per cent.

While this formulaic 'boy-meets-girl, both fall madly in love' storyline is no doubt doing wonders for Sparks' bank account, it's clear that viewers have moved on and Sparks should do the same.

After all, The Notebook was nearly a decade ago - might be time join the pack and try vampire flick instead?

Here's 14 years worth of Nicholas Sparks' tearjerkers made into films:

Message in a Bottle, 1999 -A younger Kevin Costner as a grieving widower is dreamy in this role.

A Walk to Remember, 2002 - Any film starring Mandy Moore should be enough to deter viewers.

The Notebook, 2004 - The. Romantic. Drama. Of. All. Time.

Nights in Rodanthe, 2008 - Silver fox Richard Gere stars as a doctor who stumbles across an unhappily married woman. The two find love at the inn.

Dear John, 2010 -We love a good Channing Tatum flick, but this certainly is far from his best.

The Last Song, 2010 -Miley Cyrus in a serious role, enough said?

The Lucky One, 2012 -Zac Efron with a super weird ghost twist.

Safe Haven, 2013 - Wait and see for yourselves, if you dare.

@lottiewillis

The Lucky One

The Notebook

The Last Song