It’s A Boy Girl Thing (2006/Anchor Bay DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Film: C-

 

 

Though it had potential and a good attitude in the beginning, Nick Hurran’s It’s A Boy Girl Thing (2006) attempts to revisit and revitalize in some way the 1980s “body switch” cycle (Big, Vice Versa) may be twisting things by having persons of opposite genres (the well-cast Kevin Zegers and well-cast Samaire Armstrong) go through the transformation, but it rarely adds up to anything more than the previous films and the dialogue is eventually so silly that it is condescending.

 

Geoff Deane’s screenplay has other plotting problems, but the performances try to save this from being a total bomb.  That’s a shame, because there are some new laughs to be had with this scenario as the recent Freaky Friday remake proved when it was a moderate hit, but the makers cannot ultimately decide if they want to play it “politically correct safe” or go for new territory.  They choose the former and the result is an unnecessary disappointment.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is softer than one would have liked, cutting into some of the intended visual gags.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 sound mixes are even worse, with poor dialogue recording and compression.  The hit records make it more obvious the mix is flawed.  Extras include separate interviews with the leads, trailer, text bios, a making of featurette and a few other related pieces of interest to those who might enjoy the film.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo