Kissing Cousins (2008/Cinema Libre DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Feature: C-

 

 

Despite some potential, Amyn Kaderau’s Kissing Cousins (2008) is a very unfunny comedy with a mostly unknown cast in this tale of a womanizer who lands up pretending to be married with his female cousin as a joke.  They get drunk and when they wake up the next day, they do not know what happened.  From there, the whole project gets lost in its own dumbness and never works.

 

The actors seem to be doing more laughing off-screen and the exchanges between all seem constantly inauthentic and phony.  Even David Alan Grier seems out of his element, while Jaleel White seems outright lost.  It is had to say if I messed some jokes here, but I doubt it.  Except for being an odd idea to build any storyline around, this tired dud is clueless about anything and is best skipped.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is weak and it is hard to tell if this was filmed with a bad film transfer or is just plain old softer HD, but the weak image is annoying throughout.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is stretching out a soundtrack that sounds worse here in Dolby 2.0 Stereo and shows its budget limits.  You can still hear the dialogue well enough, but the sound is uneven.  Extras include the short “On Set, Off Script”, a behind the scenes featurette, cast/crew interviews and trailers.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo