You Again (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) Reviews

Kristen Bell already struck out earlier in 2010 with the romantic comedy misfire When in Rome, but that film possesses almost a Preston Sturges-level of comedy compared to the complete misfire that is You Again. Juvenile, aggravating, and a complete waste of time and completely wasting the talents of a slew of talented actors, Andy Fickman’s You Again is almost torturous to sit through. You want it to work; you want it to be funny and worthy of the impressive line-up of wonderful ladies in the cast (not only Kristen but also Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Betty White, and Kristin Chenoweth), but the premise is overly familiar and the subsequent story and execution beyond feeble. It’s a handsome production, and everyone’s obviously straining to make the superficial material worth watching, but it’s a futile effort. This is comedy at its most uninspiring.

Career girl Marni (Kristen Bell) is horrified to learn that her beloved older brother Will (James Wolk) is about to marry the girl who made Marni’s life miserable in high school, a sadistic fiend and bully named Joanna (Odette Yustman) who has not only won her brother’s heart but effected a possibly phony persona of sweetness and sacrifice that has Marni’s mother (Jamie Lee Curtis), father (Victor Garber), and grandmother (Betty White) also completely snowed. Hoping to open their eyes before the wedding ceremony, Marni tries a series of maneuvers to reveal Joanna’s true nature, but she’s continually thwarted, aided in no small part by the appearance of Joanna’s aunt Ramona (Sigourney Weaver), a multi-millionairess entrepreneur who ironically was her mother’s nemesis in high school. But despite the setbacks, Marni still has some tricks up her sleeve to reveal the real demon inside Joanna.

The idea that a madly successful, confident, and masterful business woman like Marni would be reduced to the stuttering, uncommunicative nerd once she returns home plays a lot more comically on the page than on the stage as it’s ludicrous to construct the film around so flimsy a premise. Its house of cards would instantly come tumbling down if Marni would take ten minutes to sit down with the parties at hand and talk like a grown-up about what’s going on instead of resorting to the juvenile secretive antics we must endure here. And the character of Joanna is painted as such a monster (not just in the high school flashbacks but in some present-day scenes that show us she hasn’t really changed) that a third act reversal in behavior is so insulting to the audience that screenwriter Moe Jelline should be hanging a head in shame over such lousy writing. Director Andy Fickman lazily stages some slapstick scenes to zero effect: a bursting water pipe for Jamie Lee Curtis, a dunk in the pool for her and Sigourney Weaver, and the inevitable food fight between Kristen Bell and Odette Yustman. Bell, in fact, is game enough to undergo not only that indignity but also falling into a compost heap and having her hair cut and being bitten by fire ants so that she can return to appearing as a pimply-faced teenager all over again (I guess a wig and some make-up would be too much to expect someone embarrassed by her appearance would resort to). A couple of musical sequences are thrown in at random since Broadway musical star Kristin Chenoweth is part of the ensemble, but they don’t register with any more effect than the comedic or dramatic moments do. Everything’s a bust.

Kristen Bell does earn a pat on the back for enduring all of the slings and arrows of this outrageous picture (but didn’t she read the script?), but no one here is playing anything other than a caricature. No one seems able to see what’s right in front of his eyes until he or she is finally hit square in the face with the truth, and that’s difficult for even actors of the caliber of Sigourney Weaver and Victor Garber to be able to play. Odette Yustman has an impossible role to perform since it’s never quite clear exactly where her Joanna rates on the scale of demonic evil, but there is one actor who rises above the mundane material and makes something entertaining out of very little: Kyle Bornheimer plays Joanna’s ex-fiancé Tim with a terrific sense of lovelorn loss and angst that makes his few appearances in the movie quite the best thing on display in an otherwise tepid comic mixture. Look fast and you’ll also see cameo appearances by Dwayne Johnson, Cloris Leachman, and Patrick Duffy.

Video Quality

The film has been framed at its theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. The image (ironically enough for such a meager movie) is reference quality in every respect with perfect color saturation, exquisite sharpness, and flesh tones which always ring true and are very appealing. Contrast has been dialed in wonderfully to emphasize the picture’s great detail and lush colors. The film has been divided into 16 chapters.

Audio Quality

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is typically for a comedy very front centric with very little other than the music score by Nathan Wang (and the slew of pop songs on the soundtrack) wrapping into the surrounds. Dialogue is nicely recorded and is never hard to understand, always found residing in the center channel.

Special Features

All of the bonus features are delivered in 1080p.

“Following Fickman: On Set with the Director” shows the cast joking around on the set with the genial director of the movie making sure that any goo that they must endure will also be rubbed off on him. Stars Kristen Bell, Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kristin Chenoweth all proclaim their admiration for the film’s helmer in this 7-minute piece.

“Blooper Dance Party” is a series of physical and verbal mistakes set to music in this 5 ¼-minute featurette.

“Ask the Cast” finds Jamie Lee Curtis, Betty White, Kristen Bell, and Sigourney answering questions posed to them in less than serious ways. It runs 1 ¼ minutes.

“Funny or Die” has Kristen Bell, Betty White, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, and Odette Yustman sitting for a faux interview and making comments that eventually bring them all to storm off the set. This foolishness lasts 3 minutes.

There are eleven deleted/extended scenes which can be viewed together in one 27 ¼ minute group or individually. Director Andy Fickman provides introductions to each of the clips explaining their exclusions.

The disc has trailers for Secretariat, Disney Blu-ray 3D films, I Am Number Four, Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Gnomeo & Juliet, Bambi, and Tangled.

The second disc in the set is the DVD copy of the movie.

In Conclusion

Comedy is a very individual thing, and there may be those who find the absurd antics of You Again funny and endearing. For me, the movie is a complete pass regardless of its reference quality video.

Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC