Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Two energy-drink salesmen, Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott), are sentenced to 150 hours of community service mentoring young kids after an unfortunate traffic accident. After one day on the job, Danny thinks spending 30 days in jail would be the better alternative when he's assigned to a 16-year-old boy, Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who has an obsession with medieval role playing. Meanwhile, Wheeler's youngling is a foul-mouthed fifth-grader named Ronnie (Bobb'e Thompson) who's just looking for respect.

Amazingly, I actually enjoyed this raunchy comedy. The prolific use of profanity gets a little tiresome—especially from the young Ronnie—but overall there are a lot of laughs. Some of the funniest exchanges are between Danny and Augie's parents, which don't include one bit of foul language. Nevertheless, the topics of discussion skew toward a male's point of view, and my wife didn't find it nearly as funny as I did.

Universal has consistently delivered solid video quality, and this VC-1 encode continues the trend with above-average detail—only a few scenes falter on long sweeping shots. Color saturation is exemplary with rich, lifelike hues. Flesh tones are accurate, black levels are solid—although rarely tested—and edge halos are kept to a minimum.

The soundtrack is very front-heavy, as you would expect from a comedy, but the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track excels when the music kicks in. Dialog is firmly rooted in the center speaker, and the surround channels are mostly silent but do provide some ambience from time to time.

The high-definition bonus features include deleted scenes, bloopers, a couple of "making-of" featurettes, and a pretty funny look at the adlibbing prevalent in the movie. Additional supplements include a commentary by director/co-writer David Wain, a PIP track with cast/crew interviews—available on the unrated version only—and some BD-Live exclusive features that won't be available until the release date but promise to include scene sharing, an additional featurette, and the ability to customize your own coat of arms to share with other users of Universal's BD-Live Center.

I commend Universal for offering both the theatrical and unrated versions of the film on the same disc, but I prefer the tamed-down version myself. My wife hated it, but from a male perspective, I thought it was crude yet funny and an improvement over the Apatow productions that have been so popular the past few years.

Release Date: March 10, 2009
Studio: Universal

Movie: 6/10
Picture: 8/10
Sound: 8/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-83

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 Amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics