BLU RAY REVIEW: HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU (New Line/Warner Bros.)
Mike LoManaco
Posts: 974
Studio Name: New Line Cinema/Warner Bros.
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Disc Information: Region 1 (U.S.); 1080p High Definition 16X9 2.4:1 (2.40:1); Region 1 (U.S.)
Video Codec: N/A
Tested Audio Track: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Director: Ken Kwapis
Starring Cast: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Justin Long
SYNOPSIS:
The most personally disturbing element of this long-awaited-film-by-Earth's-female-population for me was the notion that Justin Long is a hunk of a ladies' man and the uber-cool stud that everything wearing a skirt and having a pulse wants to get into bed...I just ain't buyin' it folks. To me, I still see Long as the college kid with the smokin' hot sister making hysterical faces as he's scared to death in Jeeper's Creepers or the computer geek in Live Free Or Die Hard...
If you can will yourself to sit through two hours-plus of this stereotypical playbook of what women "want" or what they think of guys who don't call them after a first date, you'll find an ultra-glamorous cast assembled for what was destined to be the next big Devil Wears Prada thing -- yet it doesn't quite hold up. Launched theatrically amidst a hoopla of media frenzy because it was based on a novel delivered by the team that brought us Sex and the City (Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo), He's Just NOT That Into You is one of those chick flicks which spirals and splinters into a plethora of different sub-stories, attempting to pull on the heart strings of every thong-wearing, single scene navigating, club hopping dimwit polluting our modern population; we've seen this all before, but I will attempt to break this situation down as succinctly as I can for all of you who cherish our reviews here on Club Polk...
The film is divided up by little screen notices announcing "If he doesn't want to marry you..." or "If he is sleeping with someone else..." and then attempts to delve into these areas via the all-star cast; this is yet another vehicle to announce to the world that men are absolute **** and that women will do just about anything to interpret the signals they are receiving from these jag offs -- yet, fellas, if you're like me, I have spent plenty of time doing the opposite in my dating years, and I can tell you that the flip side of the coin exists, too. Women are the exact duplicates in this **** franchise, and they can be just as mean with their mind games, misleading suggestions and claims that the guy they're going down on in the 2009 BMW 6 Series coupe is "just a friend"...especially if you've spent any time around the real smokin' ones as I unfortunately have. While some hookups have been fun, the reality painted in He's Just NOT That Into You does indeed have a parallel reality.
Pointing that out, people who have surfed the internet dating seas and who have been exhaustively set up on dates by friends, co-workers or your average pervert of a next door neighbor will be able to relate to the events that transpire here; we are introduced to a group of co-worker friends (Aniston, Connelly and Ginnifer Goodwin) having relationship mishaps of their own, while also in Baltimore, a sales ad exec for the Baltimore Blade (Barrymore) is dealing with an ad placed by real estate stud Kevin Connolly. What the ***k does this have to do with the price of milk, or with one another for that matter? Well, it gets a bit complex, but Aniston is dealing with her boyfriend Ben Affleck not wanting to marry her, while Connelly's husband is a pig that wants to f**k everything walking -- and does in the form of Scarlett Johansson -- and the absolute flake of the group, Goodwin, is dealing with guys who reject her left and right, but she continues to soldier on in the dating wars. Justin Long, in a role that annoyed me as much as if someone threw apple cider vinegar on a cut made to the chicken skin of my testicles, plays the manager of a Baltimore bar/restaurant who seems to get more **** than a toilet seat. Obviously, Long appeared in this with Barrymore because the two were an item in real life, but I couldn't buy his character. When Goodwin's character is stood up at his bar, Long gets into a strange kind of relationship with her in which he continues to offer her advice on why these men are doing these things to her.
Meanwhile, Kevin Connolly's character is in love with Johansson's flirty blonde girl character, and although they have shared some dates, she ends up falling for Jennifer Connelly's husband while they're on line at some supermarket. An affair develops, and after Connelly finds out, she still wants to save the marriage; needless to say, when he crosses the "lie line" by denying he was still smoking in their house, she demands a divorce. As I said, the film flashes all over the place with these little plots and sub-plots that splinter off, and the characters all end up having something to do with one another -- it's almost like Babel meets What Women Want. In a nutshell, Affleck ends up marrying Aniston even after she accepts that he won't marry her, Connolly ends up with Barrymore after she "falls" for him in some outdoor cafe and re-reads his realty ad, no one knows what really happens to the unstable and annoying Johansson, and Long ends up falling for Goodwin -- which you were able to see six miles away in a dense London fog.
Kris Kristofferson co-stars as Aniston's father, and there were some entertaining moments I suppose, but that pretty much sums this much-anticipated drama-on-the-rag up; I'll get to my recommendations and thoughts at the finale below. It went on way too long at over two hours given the subject material, and I can't see it past one viewing -- especially for male audiences.
VIDEO QUALITY:
While not overtly "eye-popping" in relation to some of the best Blu-ray transfers on the market, He's Just NOT That Into You boasted an extremely clean palate -- and I mean clean. I didn't detect a speck of film grain on this print, and the entire run from beginning to end looked like a slick, blemish-free visual treat.
It seems Warner Bros. teamed up with New Line Cinema for this release, and specifically, it seems as though Warner was more in control of the home video presentation and marketing -- be that as it may, the 1080p 2.40:1 presentation here was striking in terms of clarity; colors were a bit undersaturated but everything took on a natural, detailed exhibition. No grain. No noise. Very clean -- yet it was lacking some dimensional punch and eye candy that has adorned some of the more reference-grade titles that have been released.
AUDIO QUALITY:
The disc defaulted, finally, to the English TrueHD 5.1 track (there's also a standard Dolby Digital mix on the disc) and here's to hoping that Warner may be finally going in the right direction with launching their Blu-ray titles to allow the films to begin with the high resolution audio track engaged. There's nothing more annoying -- and you know I have complained about this in other reviews people -- than having to go into a disc's menu after the film has started to choose the TrueHD track because the Dolby Digital mix was the default. As for the TrueHD audio on He's Just NOT That Into You, it was largely unremarkable. Most of the film was dialogue, but this was rendered in an emotion-less and un-kinetic fashion, which required great jabs of the master volume control in the positive direction. I noticed this on the last TrueHD mix I sampled, Hotel For Dogs, which also carried a rather anemic audio track.
Even music and score didn't fare too well on this mix; this was far from stellar in terms of a memorable audio experience on BD.
SUMMARY:
We've seen it all before. We've heard it all before. Dating today sucks. You know something? It always has. Barrymore's character makes an interesting note to one of her friends in the film which summarizes the way in which we communicate today with the opposite sex, and it was completely true...that we have to send a My Space page to someone's iPod so they could look up the profile and then send an e-mail to the person's personal and business addresses so they could then possibly have a coffee conference over their respective iPhones. It's ridiculous. But those are the topics this film covers.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
I suppose this makes for a one-time-only rental if only to shut the mouth of your significant other who has been pining in your ear for months that it was your fault that you guys missed the theatrical launch, or that this may be a great opportunity for the two of you to snuggle on the sofa...beyond that? Don't buy it.
Thanks for reading, members, and as always, please fire away with any questions, comments or opinions on the technical specs of the BD release or the film itself!
Post edited by Mike LoManaco on
Comments
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The Mrs. has not brought this one up...and I def. won't!!...although, lotsa nice eye candy!Yep, my name really is Bob.
Parasound HCA1500A(indoor sound) and HCA1000(outdoor sound), Dynaco PAS4, Denon DP1200 w/Shure V15 Type V and Jico SAS stylus, Marantz UD7007, Polk L600, Rythmik L12 sub. -
The Mrs. has not brought this one up...and I def. won't!!...although, lotsa nice eye candy!
Indeed, Bob... -
For a chick flick I did not think it was that bad. A decent rental (considering I knew what I was getting myself in for going into it)
I would certainly not buy just based on the fact there is really nothing remarkable about the movie. (I rented the blu-Ray) Picture and sound quality were fine but nothing that really stood out. The movie itself was ok with some funny one liners.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (scale listed below), I would rate it a solid 5.0
1-3 being - Crap
4-6 being - OK (if you like this sort of movie)
7-10 being - Very Good (worth a watch this even if you typically don't like this sort of movie.)Mains.............Polk LSi15 (Cherry)
Center............Polk LSiC (Crossover upgraded)
Surrounds.......Polk LSi7 (Gloss Black - wood sides removed and crossovers upgraded)
Subwoofers.....SVS 25-31 CS+ and PC+ (both 20hz tune)
Pre\Pro...........NAD T163 (Modded with LM4562 opamps)
Amplifier.........Cinepro 3k6 (6-channel, 500wpc@4ohms) -
For a chick flick I did not think it was that bad. A decent rental (considering I knew what I was getting myself in for going into it)
If you're into "chick flicks" as a guy, you've got more issues than we have time or bandwidth to discuss on an open forum -- enough to say "it wasn't that bad" anyway! But in all seriousness, you do need to know what you are getting yourself into going into it.I would certainly not buy just based on the fact there is really nothing remarkable about the movie.
That's what my conclusions at the end of the review were supposed to convey...(I rented the blu-Ray)
As did I...Picture and sound quality were fine but nothing that really stood out.
Same concensus I found in the audio and video breakdown areas; the transfer was unbelievably CLEAN though -- just no noise, grain or artifacting. There seemed to be a lack of "pop" though, as 1080p should have...The movie itself was ok with some funny one liners.
To each his own, but as I pointed out, it is indeed one of those "been there, done that, dated these ridiculous women" vehicles that I rode on personally; their whining and plotting in the film got a bit tedious after awhile. :rolleyes: -
Mike LoManaco wrote: »I suppose this makes for a one-time-only rental if only to shut the mouth of your significant other who has been pining in your ear for months that it was your fault that you guys missed the theatrical launch..
How did you know? You must be psychic. -
fatchowmein wrote: »How did you know? You must be psychic.
I just assumed this is what every guy was hearing from their ball-and-chain master...:rolleyes:
