[SIZE= 19px]Capsule/Summary **[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]The Lucky One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] adapts the popular Nicholas Sparks novel about a Marine Sergeant who, upon returning home from his third tour of duty in Iraq, seeks out a young woman from a photograph he found in a war zone. The film is beautiful to look at and the cast give performances that manage to elevate a lazy adaptation into a mediocre film. Video and audio quality are high, and special features consist of a handful of featurettes that are mildly informative but a bit shallow.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 24px]The Lucky One[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]Directed By: Scott Hicks[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]Starring: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner, Riley Thomas Stewart, Jay R. Ferguson, Adam LeFevre[/SIZE]
Studio: Warner Bros.
Year: 2012
Rated: PG-13
Film Length: 101 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.4:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Release Date: August 28, 2012
[SIZE= 19px]The Film **[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]In [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]The Lucky One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px], based on the popular Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, Zac Efron plays Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault. While serving in Iraq, he stumbles across a photograph of a young woman that piques his interest. When he picks up the photo, the place where he had been sitting when he noticed it is blasted by a mortar shell. He holds on to the photograph for the remainder of his tour, becoming increasingly convinced that it is a good luck charm as he survives multiple dangerous combat incidents without serious injury. Returning home after his third tour of duty, he decides to seek out the woman in the photograph. Based on structures observed in the background, he pins the location to a small town in Louisiana. Upon arriving, he learns that the woman’s name is Elizabeth Green. Beth (Schilling) is a divorced mother of a young boy named Ben Clayton (Stewart). She runs a kennel with her Grandmother, Ellie (Danner). Logan pursues work at the kennel, and is hired by Ellie despite initial reservations from Beth. Logan eventually ingratiates himself with Beth and Ben, but the budding relationship is complicated by Logan's inability to tell Beth about the photograph and the suspicions of Beth’s ex-husband, Keith (Ferguson), a hot-tempered local policeman who is also the son of a politically connected local Judge (LeFevre).[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Viewers who have seen any other cinematic adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel will know exactly what to expect with [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]The Lucky One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] which does little to elevate the romance tempered by tragedy formula that is characteristic of Sparks’ work. Whether inherent to the screenplay or an artifact of the film’s editing, [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]The Lucky One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] does little more than hit the major plot points, rarely taking a moment to develop its characters into anything but plot marionettes. With few exceptions, the major characters’ behavior is dictated more by the requirements of the inevitable next scene than by any established emotional or intellectual logic. The net results feels like an assemblage of cliches hung from the bones of a transparent three act structure.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]This failure to elevate the melodrama into anything deeper is a shame, because the film otherwise is technically well made and features an outstanding cast. Director Scott Hicks, working in conjunction with Cinematographer Alar Kivilo, fills the frame with eye candy, from opening to closing credits. The scenes set in combat zones that constitute the film’s opening convey the appropriate mix of heat and peril and have a gruesome beauty of its own (mixed with the obligatory night vision POV sequence that seems to be standard in every modern war film). The majority of the film takes place in a southern autumn that looks like every single hour is a “magic hour”.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Zac Efron, who established himself as a teen idol with the [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]High School Musica[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]l films and has not strayed too far from that persona since, makes a solid step in the direction of more adult roles, imbuing the introverted character of Logan with as much of an inner life as the screenplay allows. Taylor Schilling has reasonable on-screen chemistry with Efron, and helps the audience stick with the film through its cliche-ridden middle passage establishing the circumstances that have Beth feeling “trapped” in her small town life. Blythe Danner is the biggest overachiever in the cast, taking the wisdom-dispensing grandmother role that deserves little more than the generic central casting treatment, and finding a way to dial the smugness level down to “stun” from the screenplay setting of “kill” using only understated line readings and the occasional wry smile. Poor Jay Ferguson has the most thankless role in the film as the stereotypical redneck cop ex-husband using his kid and connections to manipulate his ex-wife. He is easily identifiable as the villain because he is the only cast member that does not look like a current or former underwear model. His role is borderline cartoonish, and late film attempts to humanize him seem half-hearted. Half-heartedness is death in earnest melodrama.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Despite the beautiful cinematography and overachieving cast, the end result is perhaps the most generic and forgettable cinematic Nicholas Sparks adaptation to date. (Full disclosure: This reviewer has yet to see [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Dear John[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] or [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]The Last Song[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px].) [/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]The Video ****½[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]This 1080p AVC-encoding is letterboxed to the film’s original 2.4:1 aspect ratio. The AVC-encoding renders the film’s golden autumnal tones accurately and with excellent detail and depth. Video artifacts are minimal (excluding certain intentionally fuzzy POV night vision scenes early in the film), with a hint of minor compression issues during some of the more detailed shots. This is nothing likely to be noticed by a viewer watching from any reasonable viewing distance. The bottom line result is an appealingly cinematic presentation. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]The Audio ****[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]The film's sound mix is provided courtesy of a DTS-HD MA lossless 5.1 multi-channel encoding. The sound design uses the surround field sparingly, and usually for subtle effect, reserving the surrounds for music and and an ambient bed of sound effects. Opportunities for a more aggressively immersive audio experience present themselves during the early combat sequences, but they are only partially exploited (mainly via extra LFE “oomph”). The mix is conveyed faithfully by the encoding on the disc. Alternate language Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are available in French, Spanish, and Portuguese.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]The Extras *½[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]All extras are presented in 1080p AVC-encoded video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio unless otherwise noted below.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]When the disc is first played, the viewer is greeted with the following promos presented in AVC encoded 1080p video with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio:[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Zac[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Efron[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Becomes[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]a[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Marine[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] (6:12) Focuses on the research and work that actor Zac Efron put in to convincingly play a young Marine Sergeant. It includes some behind the scenes footage of the training he went through prior to the film. Efron demonstrates what seems like honest humility when discussing the task of playing a Marine Sergeant, which is a good thing considering how much of the Director and Producers’ comments amount to singing his praises. On-camera comments are provided by Zac Efron ("Logan"), Senior Military Advisor James Dever, Director Scott Hicks, Producer Denise DiNovi, and Producer Kevin McCormick.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Watch[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]the[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Sparks[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Fly[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]- The[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Romantic[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]World[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]of the[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Lucky[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] (6:24) focuses on the origins of the story, the enthusiasm for adapting it to a film, some of the history that the producers have with adapting previous Nicholas Sparks novels, and footage and discussion of Sparks’ visit to the film’s set. On-camera comments are provided by DiNovi, McCormick, Efron, Author Nicholas Sparks, Screenwriter Will Fetters, Taylor Schilling ("Beth"), and Blythe Danner ("Ellie"). Some of the interview segments features Efron and Sparks discussing the novel and film while seated together.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Zac and Taylor's Amazing Chemistry[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] (4:56) Focuses on the two leads both individually and together. In addition to the constant stream of happy compliments from talking heads that the featurette’s title suggests , there is also some brief discussion of their casting including snippets of screen test footage. On camera comments are provided by Hicks, Efron, Danner, McCormick, Schilling, and DiNovi.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]SD DVD[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] A copy of the film on SD DVD is also included in this multi-disc set. The DVD includes DD 5.1 audio tracks and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. It includes the same [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Zac and Taylor’s Amazing Chemistry[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] featurette as the Blu-ray and no other extras. When the SD DVD is first played, it includes following promos presented in 4:3 letterboxed video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound:[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Ultraviolet Digital Copy[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] The disc also comes packaged with an access code for an Ultraviolet Digital Copy of the film. This allows users with a Flixster account to access a streaming version of the film on computers and certain tablets and mobile devices. It also allows viewers with Flixster Collections software to download a copy to their computer's hard drive. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]Packaging[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]The Blu-ray and SD-DVD discs are enclosed in a standard-sized Blu-ray case with hubs on both inside covers to secure them in place. The only insert is a single-sided sheet with information on how to redeem an Ultraviolet digital copy. The hard case is enclosed in a slipcover that reproduces the same cover art with the addition of some promotional graphics concerning the inclusion of the SD DVD and Ultraviolet Digital Copy. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]The Lucky One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] adapts the popular Nicholas Sparks novel about a Marine Sergeant who, upon returning home from his third tour of duty in Iraq, seeks out a young woman from a photograph he found in a war zone. The film is beautiful to look at and the cast give performances that manage to elevate a lazy adaptation into a mediocre film. Video and audio quality are high, and special features consist of a handful of featurettes that are mildly informative but a bit shallow.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 24px]The Lucky One[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]Directed By: Scott Hicks[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]Starring: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner, Riley Thomas Stewart, Jay R. Ferguson, Adam LeFevre[/SIZE]
Studio: Warner Bros.
Year: 2012
Rated: PG-13
Film Length: 101 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.4:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Release Date: August 28, 2012
[SIZE= 19px]The Film **[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]In [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]The Lucky One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px], based on the popular Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, Zac Efron plays Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault. While serving in Iraq, he stumbles across a photograph of a young woman that piques his interest. When he picks up the photo, the place where he had been sitting when he noticed it is blasted by a mortar shell. He holds on to the photograph for the remainder of his tour, becoming increasingly convinced that it is a good luck charm as he survives multiple dangerous combat incidents without serious injury. Returning home after his third tour of duty, he decides to seek out the woman in the photograph. Based on structures observed in the background, he pins the location to a small town in Louisiana. Upon arriving, he learns that the woman’s name is Elizabeth Green. Beth (Schilling) is a divorced mother of a young boy named Ben Clayton (Stewart). She runs a kennel with her Grandmother, Ellie (Danner). Logan pursues work at the kennel, and is hired by Ellie despite initial reservations from Beth. Logan eventually ingratiates himself with Beth and Ben, but the budding relationship is complicated by Logan's inability to tell Beth about the photograph and the suspicions of Beth’s ex-husband, Keith (Ferguson), a hot-tempered local policeman who is also the son of a politically connected local Judge (LeFevre).[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Viewers who have seen any other cinematic adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel will know exactly what to expect with [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]The Lucky One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] which does little to elevate the romance tempered by tragedy formula that is characteristic of Sparks’ work. Whether inherent to the screenplay or an artifact of the film’s editing, [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]The Lucky One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] does little more than hit the major plot points, rarely taking a moment to develop its characters into anything but plot marionettes. With few exceptions, the major characters’ behavior is dictated more by the requirements of the inevitable next scene than by any established emotional or intellectual logic. The net results feels like an assemblage of cliches hung from the bones of a transparent three act structure.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]This failure to elevate the melodrama into anything deeper is a shame, because the film otherwise is technically well made and features an outstanding cast. Director Scott Hicks, working in conjunction with Cinematographer Alar Kivilo, fills the frame with eye candy, from opening to closing credits. The scenes set in combat zones that constitute the film’s opening convey the appropriate mix of heat and peril and have a gruesome beauty of its own (mixed with the obligatory night vision POV sequence that seems to be standard in every modern war film). The majority of the film takes place in a southern autumn that looks like every single hour is a “magic hour”.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Zac Efron, who established himself as a teen idol with the [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]High School Musica[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]l films and has not strayed too far from that persona since, makes a solid step in the direction of more adult roles, imbuing the introverted character of Logan with as much of an inner life as the screenplay allows. Taylor Schilling has reasonable on-screen chemistry with Efron, and helps the audience stick with the film through its cliche-ridden middle passage establishing the circumstances that have Beth feeling “trapped” in her small town life. Blythe Danner is the biggest overachiever in the cast, taking the wisdom-dispensing grandmother role that deserves little more than the generic central casting treatment, and finding a way to dial the smugness level down to “stun” from the screenplay setting of “kill” using only understated line readings and the occasional wry smile. Poor Jay Ferguson has the most thankless role in the film as the stereotypical redneck cop ex-husband using his kid and connections to manipulate his ex-wife. He is easily identifiable as the villain because he is the only cast member that does not look like a current or former underwear model. His role is borderline cartoonish, and late film attempts to humanize him seem half-hearted. Half-heartedness is death in earnest melodrama.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Despite the beautiful cinematography and overachieving cast, the end result is perhaps the most generic and forgettable cinematic Nicholas Sparks adaptation to date. (Full disclosure: This reviewer has yet to see [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Dear John[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] or [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]The Last Song[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px].) [/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]The Video ****½[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]This 1080p AVC-encoding is letterboxed to the film’s original 2.4:1 aspect ratio. The AVC-encoding renders the film’s golden autumnal tones accurately and with excellent detail and depth. Video artifacts are minimal (excluding certain intentionally fuzzy POV night vision scenes early in the film), with a hint of minor compression issues during some of the more detailed shots. This is nothing likely to be noticed by a viewer watching from any reasonable viewing distance. The bottom line result is an appealingly cinematic presentation. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]The Audio ****[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]The film's sound mix is provided courtesy of a DTS-HD MA lossless 5.1 multi-channel encoding. The sound design uses the surround field sparingly, and usually for subtle effect, reserving the surrounds for music and and an ambient bed of sound effects. Opportunities for a more aggressively immersive audio experience present themselves during the early combat sequences, but they are only partially exploited (mainly via extra LFE “oomph”). The mix is conveyed faithfully by the encoding on the disc. Alternate language Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are available in French, Spanish, and Portuguese.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]The Extras *½[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]All extras are presented in 1080p AVC-encoded video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio unless otherwise noted below.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]When the disc is first played, the viewer is greeted with the following promos presented in AVC encoded 1080p video with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio:[/SIZE]
Warner Blu-ray 3D Promo (1:49)
Rock of Ages Blu-ray/DVD Trailer (2:22)
[SIZE= 15px]Zac[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Efron[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Becomes[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]a[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Marine[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] (6:12) Focuses on the research and work that actor Zac Efron put in to convincingly play a young Marine Sergeant. It includes some behind the scenes footage of the training he went through prior to the film. Efron demonstrates what seems like honest humility when discussing the task of playing a Marine Sergeant, which is a good thing considering how much of the Director and Producers’ comments amount to singing his praises. On-camera comments are provided by Zac Efron ("Logan"), Senior Military Advisor James Dever, Director Scott Hicks, Producer Denise DiNovi, and Producer Kevin McCormick.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Watch[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]the[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Sparks[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Fly[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]- The[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Romantic[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]World[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]of the[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Lucky[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]One[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] (6:24) focuses on the origins of the story, the enthusiasm for adapting it to a film, some of the history that the producers have with adapting previous Nicholas Sparks novels, and footage and discussion of Sparks’ visit to the film’s set. On-camera comments are provided by DiNovi, McCormick, Efron, Author Nicholas Sparks, Screenwriter Will Fetters, Taylor Schilling ("Beth"), and Blythe Danner ("Ellie"). Some of the interview segments features Efron and Sparks discussing the novel and film while seated together.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]Zac and Taylor's Amazing Chemistry[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] (4:56) Focuses on the two leads both individually and together. In addition to the constant stream of happy compliments from talking heads that the featurette’s title suggests , there is also some brief discussion of their casting including snippets of screen test footage. On camera comments are provided by Hicks, Efron, Danner, McCormick, Schilling, and DiNovi.[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]SD DVD[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] A copy of the film on SD DVD is also included in this multi-disc set. The DVD includes DD 5.1 audio tracks and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. It includes the same [/SIZE][SIZE= 15px]Zac and Taylor’s Amazing Chemistry[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] featurette as the Blu-ray and no other extras. When the SD DVD is first played, it includes following promos presented in 4:3 letterboxed video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound:[/SIZE]
Warner Blu-ray Promo (1:53)
Dark Shadows Blu-ray/DVD Trailer (2:29)
Rock of Ages Blu-ray/DVD Trailer (2:20)
[SIZE= 15px]Ultraviolet Digital Copy[/SIZE][SIZE= 15px] The disc also comes packaged with an access code for an Ultraviolet Digital Copy of the film. This allows users with a Flixster account to access a streaming version of the film on computers and certain tablets and mobile devices. It also allows viewers with Flixster Collections software to download a copy to their computer's hard drive. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= 19px]Packaging[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 15px]The Blu-ray and SD-DVD discs are enclosed in a standard-sized Blu-ray case with hubs on both inside covers to secure them in place. The only insert is a single-sided sheet with information on how to redeem an Ultraviolet digital copy. The hard case is enclosed in a slipcover that reproduces the same cover art with the addition of some promotional graphics concerning the inclusion of the SD DVD and Ultraviolet Digital Copy. [/SIZE]
