The Girls Night In Collection (Paramount/DreamWorks DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
This new
DVD set of modern romantic comedies is a very mixed bag and they pretty much do
not work. Only What Women Want was a big hit, though it is now the oddest to watch
as Gibson has become so highly controversial and some found his work here
odd. The films included, packaged in
nice, convenient slim cases are:
Forces Of Nature (1999) pairing Ben Affleck and
Sandra Bullock in a comedy that begins on an airline and lands up grounding the
audience with a lame script. Affleck is
about to get married, but is stranded and Bullock’s character helps him. Will they fall in love instead? I have a feeling the script would have been
changed after 9/11 to boot.
How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days (2003) has Kate Hudson trying to
get rid of Matthew McConaughey and he may not go away. Will she fail? Do you care? Even a decent director like
Donald Petrie could not make this film work, thanks to the screenplay by three
writers based on a book by two others.
Just Like Heaven (2005) is a bizarre love story
between a ghost (Reese Witherspoon) and new apartment tenant (Mark Ruffalo) who
has to deal with her telling him it is her place. When he starts to discover she’s a ghost, the
wackiness begins. Unfortunately, it
should have never started and the film never works.
What Women Want (2000) has Mel Gibson as a man
who suddenly can read women’s minds.
Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei and Lauren Holy are among his targets, but this
is another Nancy Meyers’ film that does not work and its a novelty long gone
ages the film quite a bit.
Win A Date With Ted Hamilton! (2004) has the egotistical title
character (Josh Duhamel) participating in a dating contest. The actor needs the good publicity, but
little does he know he might be in a love triangle with a supermarket clerk
(Topher Grace) who has not shared his thoughts with his friend (Kate Bosworth
from Superman Returns). As competent as
any film here, it lacks the star name pretense and does not try as hard to be a
romantic comedy. It ultimately was not
any better either.
The
anamorphically enhanced image on four of the five discs are surprisingly soft
and detail challenged, with flattening Video Black and other issues. Hamilton
looks more like it and is the only scope 2.35 X 1 disc, though it was shot in
Super 35mm film. These transfers just
recycle older DVD transfers, something that extends to the Dolby Digital 5.1
mixes on each. Ironically, DreamWorks
issued Forces Of Nature in the early
high definition D-VHS D-Theater format, but the DVD was always weak.
Extras
for each vary, will all but Women
offering deleted scenes, all but Heaven
offering trailers and even teasers, Heaven
and Date offering gag reels, text
notes on Forces, commentary by
Petrie on interviews, Keith Urban Music Video and making of featurette for Lose A Guy, a making of on Heaven and commentary, interviews and
behind-the-scenes featurette on Women. At least none of these are basic editions,
but this is a box you should only get if you want to give a gift or you like
most of the films.
- Nicholas Sheffo
