My Best Friend’s Girl - Unrated (2008/Lionsgate Blu-ray + DVD-Video)
Picture:
C+/C Sound: B- Extras: D Feature: D
Dane Cook
was at a point in his career where he could find a great script and watch his
comedy star take off or find lameness and regress, which is exactly what
happens with the highly unfortunate Howard Deutch would-be comedy My Best Friend’s Girl (2008) in one of
the dumbest, unfunniest things anyone involved will ever participate in. Cook plays yet another jerk talking inappropriately
to everyone and adding in a big helping of being a sex jerk. Yawn.
Now
supposedly comes his match in Kate Hudson, another comic acting talent in
search of a good script that never seems to materialize, but playing the title
character. Then we get the funny
sidekick character, played by Jason Biggs, who also has not had a hit in a
while and Alec Baldwin shows up as Cook’s equally crude dad, almost stealing
some scenes by default. Jordan Cahan
wrote the script (which is, Surprise!,
his first) and deserves as much blame as anyone, but the 112 minutes here are
hard to take, seeing so much talent slowly implode. Skip it.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image looks awful, though reportedly shot on
film, is so grainy and noisy that it is one of the poorer Blu-rays I have seen
lately. With that aspect ratio and this
noise, you’d think it was an all-digital shoot.
About as bad as Bangkok Dangerous,
the anamorphically enhanced DVD looks even worse with more noise, less
definition and no point. I guess the
darker look was supposed to make the jokes more realistic?
The DTS HD
Master Audio (MA) lossless 7.1 mix is the default highlight of the Blu-ray, but
is shocking not much better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 EX mix on the DVD, offering
a flat soundfield and very unimaginative mix.
Add the image and this expands what a dud this is, but you do get a
shocking amount of extras, including a Blu-ray exclusives Digital Copy disc so
you can download a copy of the film for PC and PC portable devices, plus MixLog
enhancements to enjoy the film more, that is, if you actually like it. Both versions offer two feature length audio
commentary tracks (one by Deutch, the other by Biggs, Cahan and Producer Greg
Lessons), extended/deleted scenes and four making of featurettes.
With
friends like this… oops! Another cliché. With this film, guess it’s contagious.
- Nicholas Sheffo
