The Open Road (2008/Anchor Bay Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture: B-/C+/C
Sound: B/C+ Extras: C- Film: C-
As part of a new and lesser cycle of road movies,
Writer/Director Michael Meredith’s The
Open Road (2008) was possibly a better attempt to pull such a film
off. The story about an estranged
father/son relationship is set off by illness.
They have Mary Steenburgen as a sick mom (Mary Steenburgen) who wants to
see her one-time husband and old major league baseball star (Jeff Bridges)
before she dies. That leaves it to her
son (ring his girlfriend along) to find him.
When they cannot fly, they have to ride.
Contrived and everything we have seen before, this could have been fun,
but they made one mistake. They cast
Rapper Justin Timberlake to play the son!
So how badly does this go?
On his 8th feature film as a fictitious character, he still
has not learned how to act and only still knows how to play… Justin
Timberlake. Against the superior casting
talent here, including the great Harry Dean Stanton and Ted Danson, he seems
very lost as if he is not in the same scene, or world, or storyline or
dimension. He does not seem like he is
happy to be there and is not making the best efforts to make this work. He does not even seem to care and the energy
level is subpart.
Not that the script is original, but with the right energy
and chemistry, this could have been fun.
Unfortunately, it is nine years later and he still has not learned how
to act. Again, producers seem to think
his name will add to the box office, but once again (in baseball terms) he is
eight for eight in that all of his acting is awful and all eight of his live
action appearances have been bombs, duds and (especially The Love Guru) embarrassments.
Better luck next time.
The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image looks the
best of three presentations we looked at, yet has too much noise
throughout. The DVD’s anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a little better than it’s 1.33 & 1 pan &
scan version that has less image area, more noise, weaker color and poorer
detail, but the widescreen version is color-limited (by choice apparently) and
detail challenged despite al the great scenery shot. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix is the default
highlight of both discs, even though it is not spectacular by any means, but
has a better soundfield than the DVD’s Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, which is too much
towards the front speakers too often and despite some surround moments and not
that impressive. The pan & Scan’s
mix is poorer with the little directionality there thrown out the window. Extras on both versions include a making of
featurettes and feature length audio commentary by Meredith and Bridges.
- Nicholas Sheffo
