Blu-ray Movie Reviews

An overweight man leaves his fiance on their wedding day, only to realize years later that she's the one and only woman of his dreams. It's not easy to win back a woman after leaving her at the altar, but when an out-of-shape man finally realizes just what a mistake he's made, he vows to run a high-profile marathon in order to convince his ex-fiance that the rich and handsome man she's about to marry isn't the guy for her.

Simon Pegg has consistently been one of the funnier film comics I’ve seen lately. This one looked pretty dumb from the trailers but ultimately it had a great heart and some good laughs. While not as strong as his recent films with Nick Frost, you can’t help but love his mechanics. The story does take on more drama than I’m used to seeing from a Pegg film and it actually does a great job with it. While there is silliness to be found, I still had a pretty good time with this one.

New Line delivers a strikingly detailed HD transfer for this one. I was really impressed with the level of detail throughout the film, even in the longest shots. Fine object detail is superb and the sense of dimension is exquisite. Colors are a touch stylized but not off the charts and contrast is strong. One of the strongest titles I’ve seen from New Line yet.

The packaging indicates a Dolby Digital 7.1 soundtrack but the mix is in fact a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track. The soundstage does open up quite a bit throughout the film and adds some surprisingly cool touches to the surround soundstage. Dynamics are there when they need to be but I wouldn’t call this an aggressive soundtrack by any means. Dialogue takes center stage and has a very natural tone and balance within the mix. Overall I’d say this was a fun mix, but nothing really new.

Extras include a feature commentary with the director and lead cast along with some outtakes and deleted scenes. You also get the trailer. New Line also continues to support the digital copy craze on the second disc.

This was a fun comedy that actually had a lot more heart than I was expecting. New Line has done a phenomenal job with the video presentation and it’s great to see them continue to support 7.1 DTS-HD soundtracks.