| FILM
Let me start off by saying I enjoy a great comedy as much
as the next person. My problem is that I do not feel most of the
movies that are written as straight comedies are very good. They
always seem to be trying to hard, and most of the time end up
being extended Saturday Night Live skits (both literally and figuratively)
or overly long half-hour sitcoms. That being said, There's Something
About Mary surprised me every step of the way. Sure it was filled
with some typical Farrelly Brother's, low brow humor (nothing
wrong with that), but every scene is so well thought out and set
up that that the laughs roll from start to finish. As with many
great comedies, jokes and comedy set pieces are set up sometimes
a half an hour ahead of the payoff, which makes the payoff even
funnier.
Of special note in this film are a whole cast of great performances.
The scene stealer of the whole movie is David White as Mary's
step dad. He delivers one great line after another. The more I
watch this movie the more impressed I am with both Cameron Diaz's
and Ben Stiller's performances. Both found that perfect balance,
and did not stray to far over the top in need of a quick laugh.
VIDEO
The video on this DVD is outstanding all around. No digital artifacts.
Great color. There are not a lot of night or extremely dark scenes
but everything is presented with a minimal amount of grain.
AUDIO
A simple but near perfect 5.1 Dolby Digital mix. Of course for
a comedy this does not mean tons of low bass or sound effects
swirling around you. Instead we have a solid atmospheric immersion.
All speakers are used quite effectively to highlight the comedy.
EXTRAS
Nothing too special in the way of extras. Nice animated menus,
which are always a plus and a very entertaining commentary with
the Farrelly Brothers. Much better than their commentary on the
Kingpin DVD where they both seemed a little dull and sluggish.
Here we get great details about each of the performances along
with some great insight into the process they use to develop and
tighten their films. (Each film usually starts at three hours
long and is whittled down with the help of test screenings) Both
the normal music video and karaoke video are pretty much throwaways.
SUMMARY
Although the Farrelly Brothers humor is not for everyone this
movie goes well beyond the gross out, low brow humor at its core.
This is definitely a DVD to have in your collection. Almost as
entertaining as the movie itself, was my mom telling me that she
had watched There's Something About Mary, along with my aunt and
grandma because they had heard it was supposed to be cute.
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