Witless Protection (Lionsgate DVD-Video +
Blu-ray)
Picture:
B/A- Sound: B/A-
Extras: C Film: D
I can
respect the target audience that Larry the Cable Guy has found over the past
few years with his successful troupe known as the Blue Collar Comedy Tour,
which includes other comedies like Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall. However, in the past few years Larry has
tried to make the crossover into film and taking on lead parts, which was
primarily a spin-off of his comedy routine to begin with. How long can that same character
re-appear? I’m afraid to know the
answer, but it appears like we might get a long succession of downright awful
attempts at humor, the latest being called Witless
Protection, which comes after classics like Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector and Delta Farce. When will the
pain end? The numbers don’t lie though
either as this film was a sincere box office flop and has only made back about
half of it’s budget at this point, which is a heavy indicator that people have
moved on, even the die-hard Larry fans.
Again I
respect the work and fame that he has brought to himself, I mean how many
people do you know who can make millions of dollars off fart humor and phrases
like “Gitter Dun?” There are even times
when his comedy routine works in other formats, like providing the voice for a
tow truck in the phenomenal Pixar animated-feature Cars for example. So I think
there is potential for Larry’s work to have fresh delivery, but these recycled
comedies are not going to work and ultimately tear down and diminish the years
of development that went into his character.
I am just
amazed that I found this film even more of a disaster than Joe Dirt, which is an accomplishment in and of itself, but even
more shocking is that veteran actor Yaphet Kotto would even be involved somehow
with this trainwreck!
For those
that actually found the film funny though the Blu-ray is certainly the way to
go, although it’s not a huge performer necessarily, but is superior in all
aspects to the DVD.
Both the Blu-ray and DVD feature the film in a 1.78 X 1 anamorphic transfer
with the Blu-ray being a 1080p HD transfer that looks very sharp and
crisp. While the film won’t be nominated
for any Cinematography awards, a quick A/B comparison between the DVD and the
Blu-ray quickly demonstrate the superiority regardless of the actual content.
The Blu-ray takes the DVD to the cleaners in the audio department as well and
the DVD only has to offer a standard fare Dolby Digital 5.1, while the Blu-ray
has both a Dolby 5.1 EX mix and DTS-HD 7.1 mix that is quite phenomenal, which
again shines despite the material. The
DTS-HD on the Blu-ray shows just how much for fidelity, depth, and overall
character there is in a sound mix when the full advantage can be taken and
Blu-ray shows all that it has to offer.
There are
a handful of special features as well, but nothing that I would really call
‘special’ necessarily.
- Nate Goss
