Blu-ray Disc Review |
Me, Myself & IreneDistributor: 20th Century Fox Original Release: 2000 Length: 116 min Genre: Comedy Film Rating: R Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Colour/B&W: Colour BD Specifications: Resolution: 1080/24p Video Codec: MPEG-2 @ 38mbps Disc Size: BD-50 Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Subtitles: English, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean
Release Date: February 05, 2008.Film Rating: / Starring: Jim Carrey (Officer Charlie Baileygates/Hank Evans), Renée Zellweger (Irene P. Waters) Written by: Bobby Farrelly, Mike Cerrone, Peter Ferrelly Directed by: Bobby Farrelly & Peter Farrelly Jim Carrey is a Rhode Island state trooper who’s had one too many feet walked on him. This is Carrey’s second film with the depiction of the “nice guys finish last” scenario. 1994’s The Mask showed that any Ipkiss out there didn’t need a magical mask from the past to have a great personality, be the hero of the day and win the beautiful girl. Pure fantasy of course, but Me, Myself & Irene adds a reality: Charlie suffers from a split personality disorder – in a Farrelly Brothers way. Thus, Hank is born after Charlie reaches his breaking point from holding in all of his angry emotions after years of abuse from his cheating wife who eventually leaves him, and all the townspeople who take advantage of “the nice guy” personality Charlie possesses. That’s what happens when he doesn’t stand up for himself. Hank is the polar opposite from Charlie whose short temper gives him a foul mouth and causes him to do outrageously mean things to others for satisfaction. Oh, and he loves dirty sex too. Charlie’s only hope is his medication used to suppress Hank, but that proves to be ineffective after he’s assigned to escort Irene back to upstate New York on a (false) hit and run complaint. Charlie loses his medication in the mixed up chase from Irene’s crazy ex-boyfriend and the corrupt cops who follow. But Charlie (and Hank) both want Irene as they fall for each other, and will not let the ex-boyfriend get in the way.VIDEO QUALITY: 3.5/5 The video quality is respectable for this Blu-ray disc but not groundbreaking by any means. I couldn’t help to feel that the image should have been more detailed than what it displayed. The image is very smooth, almost too comfortably smooth. In fact, the first 10 minutes or so, especially during the title sequence, is a bit softer looking than the rest of the film. HD 3-D is still apparent when comparing it to the DVD (it’s never questionable if this disc looks better than a DVD – I find it a joke when I hear some say discs look no better than DVD because resolution is not the only factor) and this transfer eliminates any edge ringing and compression artefacts that DVDs are notorious for on big screens. The colour temperature is on the warm side and colours are tinted as such, sometimes making flesh tones appear a bit too warm (except in Whitey’s case). Black and white levels appear acceptable and the image is bright enough to enjoy in a mildly lit room if viewed on a front projector. Film grain is naturally pleasant. The aspect ratio is 1.85:1 and the “black bar” is mostly at the top of the screen for those of you who care to know.AUDIO QUALITY: 3/5 Hank tends to get into peoples’ face. His low and obnoxious voice is just about enough to make anyone take a step back from him. The soundtrack for this film is no different. Hanks voice is disappointingly displaced from Carry’s face. It’s forward and heavy. It’s ADR all the way and there is very little attempt to integrate it in whatever soundfield the audio engineers decided to create, which isn’t much. Actually, I don’t think the dialogue is synced very well to the lips of the actors. I have a habit of looking at lips when I watch people talk so any offset drive me insane. This comedy offers a run of the mill soundtrack that is driven by dialogue and supported by atmospheric effects. Exciting surround pans are of the helicopter or police sirens. The comedy has a fun music soundtrack and its mix of songs is presented mainly in the two front channels. Dynamic range is compressed making the soundtrack sound fairly linear. It doesn’t sound terrible, but it’s not exciting either.TACTILE FUN!! ZERO / TACTILE TRANSDUCER ON/OFF?: OFF Not much LFE at all. A bass shaker isn’t worth having for this film!SPECIAL FEATURES: 1/5 A special edition DVD was released in 2001. It had a few features on it and the only ones transferred to this disc are the deleted scenes (17.22). They are widescreen enhanced and not even close to SD resolution. The scenes have composite video artefacts and look heavily digitized; some are black and white and some have limited colour. Detail is the pits. Regardless, the optional Farrelly commentary will help explain why these scenes were cut, but it’s quite clear the Farrelly’s are happy with the theatrical version of the film. For more funny Farrelly talk, the disc also includes the audio commentary the DVD was blessed to have. Farrelly fans will love to hear the two talk and joke about the film as it’s full of information about the day-to-day development of the film. Two HD trailers are included from a lower resolution source. Two other HD trailers are included of two yet-to-be released Fox titles: Dodgeball and Dude, Where’s My Car?. Can’t wait for both of these flicks.IN THE END...Me, Myself & Irene is great for a few laughs but does feel a bit long for a comedy, clocking in at 116 min. The Blu-ray disc is a big step above DVD but falls short of the best high-def eye candy transfers. This and its standard-rate audio production makes the title great for a rental while only the biggest of fans will find reason to pick the title up for purchase. Michael Osadciw January 30, 2008.Review System
