In 10 Words or Less
A movie full of good stuff
The Disc
The film arrives on a single Blu-Ray disc, in a standard BD keepcase with a two-sided cover, with an animated menu offering the option to watch the film, select scenes, adjust the subtitles and check out the extras. The disc offers audio in English and French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 and an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio description track, while subtitles are available in English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) and Korean.
The Quality
The 2.40:1 1080p transfer is impressive across the board, with appropriate color, a consistently sharp, detailed image and nice fleshtones and black levels. There’s a wide variety of settings in this film, from clear city nights and cloudy days on the Pacific Ocean to ultra-modern apartments and the hills of Los Angeles, and they all look terrific, especially during the New York City scenes. Gluck’s put together some beautiful visuals, and the Blu-Ray brings them home without any noticeable problems like digital artifacts or noise (partially a result of the film having been shot digitally.)
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is pretty sweet for a romantic comedy, complementing the clear, center-focused dialogue with some strong music enhancement in the surrounds, and a good deal of atmospheric sound, filling the side and rear speakers with ambient noise from the scenes. Thanks to a light soundtrack (with the exception of a well-used ’90s hip-hop track) it’s not the heaviest presentation, but there’s nothing to really complain about either.
The Extras
Flipping over the box, I was surprised to see how many extras where included here, considering how most movies that aren’t mega-franchises or genre flicks get slim pickings when it comes to bonus features. The biggest extra is certainly the audio commentary, featuring Gluck, Timberlake and Kunis. It’s a fun track, as they get along great, are fast to poke fun at each other and have lots to talk about, with Gluck focusing on technical elements and the actors sharing tales from the set. If only all commentaries were so balanced and entertaining.
Up next is almost nine minutes of deleted scenes, which really should be watched, as some fun moments were left behind, including a look at a Ferris Bueller musical, more with the costumes at Grauman’s Theater, and additional moments with White and Harrelson (who had more stereotypically flamboyant bits that were cut.) You get more cut material in the six-minute outtakes reel, which ironically (if you watch past the credits of the film) make it seem like a very fun set. And for those of you who don’t know, JT does an impeccable Alec Guinness imitation.
The rest of the extras are exclusive to the Blu-Ray release, but DVD buyers shouldn’t feel too bad. “On the Set with FWB” is a five-minute featurette about shooting on-location in New York and Los Angeles, with interviews with Gluck, Timberlake and Kunis, and it talks about the iconic elements used in the film. It’s pretty polished, feeling like an EPK production, much like “In a Flash: Choreographing a Mob” the other nearly-six-minute featurette, featuring the main three and choreographer Ashley Wallen, as they talk about the big dance numbers. It’s good behind-the-scenes info, but your interest will depend on your interest in flash mobs, which for most people has to be waning.
The last BD-only extra on the disc, besides some trailers, is “Bonus Benefits,” a pop-up trivia track that recycles some of the info from the commentary, mixed with plenty of tangential information about things and ideas seen in the movie. If you’re giving the film another viewing, it’s a way to get a bit more out of the movie, so it’s certainly added value, and no one should complain about that.
This disc also offers access to an UltraViolet copy of the film, for streaming or downloading, but be careful, as your code to get that online copy is on the back of a sticker on the plastic wrapping around the case when you buy the disc. If you’re not paying attention to the very small print, you could easily throw this access code away.
source: dvdtalk
The movie releases on DVD & Bluray December 2