In Good Company (HD-DVD)
Picture: C- Sound: B Extras: C- Film: C-
Topher
Grace keeps trying to get a foothold in feature films, but always plays a
smarmy type instead of stretching and though Paul Weitz’s In Good Company (2004) tries to twist this a bit, it is the same
difference resulting in Grace coming across as James Spader-lite with Spader
having nothing to worry about. Here, his
character competes with one played by Dennis Quaid and gets wackier when he
dates his daughter, played by Scarlett Johansson.
Weitz and
his brother Chris are very talented, but just cannot make this work and Grace,
who has talent to offer somewhere, is still stuck in typecasting hell well
after Spider-Man 3’s mixed
response. Sadly, Johansson is once again
reduced to being “the girl” and will make you want to see Lost In Translation or one of her Woody Allen films
immediately. I guess this was supposed
to me a smart commercial move for all, but it is too boring on arrival to
matter.
The 1080p
VC-1 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image replaces Warner’s Lethal Weapon 1 as the poorest
performing HD-DVD we’ve ever seen and we have seen just about every one
literally ever made as of this posted.
What a mess! We checked this one
on several machines and I would not be surprised if some customers who bought
it tried to return it as defective. The
Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix is subtle and just clear enough to hear, even if you
cannot see much. Extras include two
featurettes, deleted scenes and Weitz/Grace audio commentary.
- Nicholas Sheffo
