Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Andy Stitzer has gone 40 years without "doing it." Now his pals are making it their mission to help him score... fast! Can he survive their hilariously bad advice? Will he land in the arms of the way-too-experienced or the way-too-drunk? Or can he find true love where he least expects - from a gorgeous grandmother?

This was the first film from Judd Apatow that made me stand up and take notice. His comedies have been pretty hit or miss with me but this one had more hit to it. The comedy can be a bit over the top at times but that doesn’t stop it from making my stomach hurt from laughing. With a great cast and a raunchy style that holds no bars, this is always a fun treat. Universal has included both cuts of the film.

When this one was released on HD DVD it was a big disappointment. The image looked like a poorly upsampled DVD and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be any better on Blu-ray. Edge enhancement is rampant throughout and gives everything a glowing look. Sharpness is also exaggerated giving the image a hard look with unnatural detail and a flattened sense of dimension. Contrast and colors aren’t bad and the image does retain a nice sense of depth but the other issues are just so glaring that they take away from the experience. Still one of the worst looking HD presentations out there.

This Blu-ray release features a new DTS-HD Master Audio mix but it pretty much sounded identical to the previous Dolby Digital Plus mix on HD DVD. This is a dialogue driven film and the voice work sounds fine. Spatial cues are present from time to time and the film’s soundtrack does open up the mix here and there. Dynamics are pretty subtle but I didn’t expect much from this type of film.

On top of getting both cuts of the film, Universal has added quite a bit in terms of supplements. Using their U-Control interactivity you can turn on a picture-in-picture feature with interviews, commentary and behind the scenes footage. There are also a ton of themed featurettes that continue the laughs after the film. Lots of deleted scenes, a feature commentary with the director and principle cast and a great Cinemax sex cut are also included. Overall a great supplemental package from Universal.

It is really disappointing that this one couldn’t have looked better in HD. Universal delivers a sensational extras package for the film and you can’t deny how funny it is. But with the poor presentation, it makes for a hard recommendation.