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Monte Carlo Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Matt Hough

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Matt Hough

Middle school and younger high school girls are likely to be thrilled with the romantic comedy Monte Carlo, but that doesn’t mean unfortunately that there will be anything of interest for the rest of us in this sun-soaked vacation romp. It’s a contrived, obvious teen romance with three sets of lovebirds to allow more for international flavor, but it’s not particularly funny or very original either. Production values are impressive enough to make it a step above a one hour special that one might see on The Disney Channel, but its subject matter doesn’t even measure up to the best of what can be found on basic cable.



Monte Carlo (Blu-ray + Digital Copy)
Directed by Thomas Bezucha

Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1   1080p   AVC codec
Running Time: 109 minutes
Rating: PG
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 5.1 French, Spanish
Subtitles: SDH, Spanish

Region: A

MSRP: $39.99


Release Date: October 18, 2011

Review Date: October 19, 2011



The Film

2.5/5


Grace’s (Selena Gomez) dream vacation to Paris after high school graduation is marred before the plane leaves the tarmac because her mother and stepfather demand that her rigid stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester) come along with her and best friend Emma (Katie Cassidy) as a kind of chaperone. Once in Paris, a potentially disastrous experience in the City of Lights turns around for the trio when Grace is mistaken for her doppelganger, spoiled heiress Cordelia Winthrop Scott, and offered an expense paid week in Monte Carlo in order to participate in a charity auction that Cordelia has no intention of attending. While at the resort, the girls each get involved with attractive guys: Grace with the wealthy Theo (Pierre Boulanger) and Meg with ex-rugby star and now world traveler Riley (Luke Bracey). Emma finds male companionship, too, but she’s still pining for Texas love Owen (Cory Monteith) whom she had a fight with the night before the trip began. But with Cordelia changing her mind and coming to Monte Carlo, Grace fears her budding romance with Theo will be tested since he hasn’t revealed to him who she really is.


This is one of the weakest comedies out there featuring people with identical looks being mistaken for other personalities. The screenplay by Tom Bezucha, April Blair, and Maria Maggenti adds no different flavors or colors to the overly familiar plot device, and Grace blows chance after chance to fess up and be herself (which could have been easily accomplished since she keeps dropping her fake British accent and boy friend Theo isn’t quick enough to figure things out on his own, pointing especially to his lack of smarts since this “Cordelia” is infinitely kinder and more giving than the rotten, entitled tabloid monster has ever been). To his credit, director Bezucha keeps things moving along and manages to make all of the terrific locations look spectacular and desirable even if he has to crib a bit from To Catch a Thief to find his own film’s most spectacular moment: a fireworks display over the glorious city skies (he even has the audacity to have one of the girls be watching the famous Hitchcock movie in French in the hotel room!). For all of its predictable romantic complications – the usual half truths, misunderstandings, near misses – the film still plays much too long; the basic story of the three girls looking for love could have been told in a tight ninety minutes.


Tween girls likely love the three leading ladies through their previous TV and film work, and while they all do their jobs acceptably, not one of them gives anything approaching an incandescent performance. Leighton Meester comes closest showing the most range in moving from the tightly wound spoil sport to the more open and free spirited Meg. Selena Gomez must navigate both the testy Cordelia and the more friendly Grace, but there’s not enough spiritedness in her playing to compare to what Patty Duke did in her television series or Hayley Mills did in The Parent Trap, just to think of two obvious examples of teenaged actresses who made their attempts at playing dual roles a lot more fun even though the differences between the two characters they each played were less severe. For the film to move out of its predictable romantic comedy rut, Gomez needed to radiate a truly charming aura, and she doesn’t. The male love interests all do decent jobs, but it’s really the ladies’ movie, so none of them are allowed to really register with a breakout performance. Andie MacDowell and Brett Cullen are completely wasted as Grace’s concerned parents. Catherine Tate gets in a few good barbs as Cordelia’s Aunt Alicia, the one person clever enough to figure out the game before the girls reveal all.



Video Quality

4/5


The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is faithfully represented here with 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. Color is excellently reproduced and shows outstanding saturation levels without ever blooming uncontrollably. Flesh tones are also completely natural and appealing. Sharpness, however, is only above average; the image lacks a crispness that the best high definition transfers deliver. Black levels are good, though, with more than adequate shadow detail. The few subtitles in the film are in white and are easy to read. The film has been divided into 28 chapters.



Audio Quality

3.5/5


The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is disappointingly frontcentric. The rear channels are used very little with only an occasional ambient sound like rain to be found there. With a bustling city like Paris and a resort area like Monte Carlo, there were many opportunities for surround envelopment that were not taken advantage of. Dialogue is firmly rooted to the center channel, and even Michael Giacchino’s score only occasionally drifts into the rear channels getting its greatest spread across the front soundstage only.


Special Features

3/5


All of the bonus featurettes are presented in 1080p.


There are seven deleted scenes which can be viewed separately or in one 6 ¾-minute bunch.


Monte Carlo Match Up” is a game which young girls can play answering a set of multiple choice questions to see which of the film’s three protagonists they are most like.


“Ding-Dong Delicious: The Boys of Monte Carlois a behind-the-scenes look at the three boy friends of the film’s leading ladies. Cory Monteith, Luke Bracey, and Pierre Boulanger all talk about their roles in the film with the ladies also weighing in with their opinions of the gents. It runs 5 ¾ minutes.


Monte Carlo Couture” is a 6-minute interview with the film’s costume designer Shay Cunliffe who talks about the array of wardrobe for each of the girls with their comments on their clothes also a part of the interview.


“Jet Setter’s Dream” details the three main locations for filming the movie: Budapest, Paris, and Monte Carlo. This runs 6 ¼ minutes.


“Backstage Pass” is a 3 ¾-minute vignette with the three leading ladies telling stories about various experiences on making the movie.


“Gossip with the Girls” finds the three leading ladies telling stories about how much they loved the various locations they shot on and some fun stories about working with the actors in the movie. This runs 6 minutes.


The film’s theatrical trailer runs 2 ½ minutes.


The disc opens with a trailer for Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer.


The disc is BD-Live ready. Along with the trailer, the only exclusive material on the website is “Who Says” music video sung by star Selena Gomez which runs 3 ¼ minutes.


The second disc in the set is the digital copy of the movie with instructions enclosed for installing on PC, Mac, and portable devices.



In Conclusion

3/5 (not an average)


Tween girls are likely going to find much to like with Monte Carlo, this TV-movie like romantic comedy made especially with them in mind. All other family members might need to look elsewhere for your evening’s entertainment.



Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC

 

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