Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past (2009/Warner Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture:
B-/C Sound: B-/C+ Extras: D Film: D
Matthew
McConaughey continues to take the easy paychecks playing the male bimbo and at
this rate, he is the only sub-A star who can play the same character over and
over again, so I guess we will get stuck with more bad, unfunny, would-be
romantic (read unromantic) comedies (read unfunny) like Mark Waters’ Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past (2009)
making me think he ought to work with John Waters instead.
The
formula is like a flavor of Kool-Aid that should be discontinued. Take a profession of some sort where you can
make some money (photographer here) and have time to socialize, add
McConaughey, shake well and hope it does not look like every other bad such
film he has made. Make him a guy who
cannot commit, is a little bit of a wiseass and show he is immature, as if not
committing makes one automatically idiotic.
Then hire a female lead that looks good on camera (Jennifer Garner) as
the woman who can change his life by challenging him on the most juvenile level
and you get another feature film waste of time.
Michael
Douglas has a cameo (stealing his scene), plus Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert,
Robert Forster and Anne Archer also get hired with a budget that is more than
this script and project ever deserved. I
never bought Garner and McConaughey, plus this is so boring. The old adage applies…
If you’ve
seen one bad McConaughey comedy, you’ve seen them all.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is weak and detail-challenged
throughout. There is a slight noise
throughout as well and the anamorphically enhanced widescreen DVD is much
worse. The 1.33 X 1 pan and scan version
on the DVD is just slightly worse, but does not get a C- because the widescreen
is that bad on the DVD.
The Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 mix is also weak throughout with dialogue that is not as clear as it
should be, even though this is dialogue-based.
Notice I did not say words like “joke” or “funny” but the Dolby Digital
5.1 mix in the DVD’s versions are even poorer and weaker due to that old
codec’s compression. Extras are only on
the Blu-ray and include BD Live functions, additional scenes and three
featurettes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
