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A Few Words About A few words about...™ My Best Friend's Wedding -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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Back in the summer of 1997, when I first saw P.J. Hogan's My Best Friend's Wedding theatrically, I was hooked from the main title sequence, and everything continued on an upswing for the next 100 minutes or so.

Before male readers get bent out of shape at the prospect of my recommending a "chick flick," give this a chance.

My Best Friend's Wedding has the most important function of cinema going for it.  

A great screenplay.  Here's the setup, courtesy of Roger Ebert.com :

"When she dumped Michael as a boyfriend in college, Julianne made him her new best friend. And they made a pact: If they were still single at 28, they'd marry each other. Now they're almost 28. And Michael is in Chicago. And wants Julianne to call him. She's touched. She has always really loved the guy. But he's not calling to propose. He's calling to explain he's engaged to be married in three days--to a junior at the University of Chicago, whose father owns the White Sox and a cable TV empire."

The new Blu-ray from Columbia (Sony) is so highly resolved, (it was shot by Laszlo Kovacs), that I felt that I was viewing the film in 4k.

The Blu-ray is typical of Columbia, which means absolutely perfect in every way.  Color, densities, black levels, whites, film grain, shadow detail.  All dead-on.

For those who've never experienced the film, I highly suggest that you give it a try.  It's a fun, occasionally mean-spirited way to spend a couple of hours.  The film is charming.

Image - 5

Audio - 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Highly Recommended

RAH

 

Tama

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Amazon is advertising this title as 4K and another poster on another message board stated it differes from his U.K. Sony release from a few years ago image wise when compared. So it may well be a new 4K scan. :)

Edit. Sorry RAH I see you meant it looked so great it was like watching in native 4K. :)
 

Tom Logan

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Hogan's previous film, Muriel's Wedding, is an even better movie, also about fixating a bit too much on other people's weddings.
 

classicmovieguy

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Tom Logan said:
Hogan's previous film, Muriel's Wedding, is an even better movie, also about fixating a bit too much on other people's weddings.
"Muriel's Wedding" actually works on several levels. It's a biting satire on middle-class Australian life in the 90's, and a coming-of-age story. I actually cannot sit down with that film anymore, as I find it quite depressing.
 

Mark-W

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Interesting comments. I think much of Muriel's Wedding deals with very dark issues, but I always found the outcome to be
uplifting and less fairy-tale like than many a director would've done
. I love it for that.
classicmovieguy said:
"Muriel's Wedding" actually works on several levels. It's a biting satire on middle-class Australian life in the 90's, and a coming-of-age story. I actually cannot sit down with that film anymore, as I find it quite depressing.
 

Mark-W

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I do enjoy this film. I also tend to think of it as the film where middle-American females saw Julia Roberts, their on-screen surrogate, with her hunky and wise gay pal
comforting her
and those middle-American women started thinking, "I need a Rupert, too."


Flash forward almost 20 years, and the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills talk about gay men like we're their playthings, which got them a scolding just this week from Bravo's Andy Cohen:




As I recall at the time, this film coincided with Julia calling Rupert the new Cary Grant in several interviews, and there was talk of him working on becoming a bigger star and even rumors of Julia and Madonna fighting over him. (Apparently in 1997, Andy wasn't around to scold them about neither owning Rupert.)


Then Rupert made that film with Madonna which I think most of us would like to forget.
Robert Harris said:
Back in the summer of 1997, when I first saw J.P. Hogan's My Best Friend's Wedding theatrically, I was hooked from the main title sequence, and everything continued on an upswing for the next 100 minutes or so.


Before male readers get bent out of shape at the prospect of my recommending a "chick flick," give this a chance.


My Best Friend's Wedding has the most important function of cinema going for it.


A great screenplay. Here's the setup, courtesy of Roger Ebert.com :


"When she dumped Michael as a boyfriend in college, Julianne made him her new best friend. And they made a pact: If they were still single at 28, they'd marry each other. Now they're almost 28. And Michael is in Chicago. And wants Julianne to call him. She's touched. She has always really loved the guy. But he's not calling to propose. He's calling to explain he's engaged to be married in three days--to a junior at the University of Chicago, whose father owns the White Sox and a cable TV empire."


The new Blu-ray from Columbia (Sony) is so highly resolved, (it was shot by Laszlo Kovacs), that I felt that I was viewing the film in 4k.


The Blu-ray is typical of Columbia, which means absolutely perfect in every way. Color, densities, black levels, whites, film grain, shadow detail. All dead-on.


For those who've never experienced the film, I highly suggest that you give it a try. It's a fun, occasionally mean-spirited way to spend a couple of hours. The film is charming.


Image - 5


Audio - 5


Pass / Fail - Pass


Highly Recommended


RAH
 

Matt Hough

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I remember at the time there was a fair amount of talk for an Oscar nomination for Rupert for this film, but when nominations came out, he was left off the ballot. A shame since it was a very ingratiating performance. Many folks I knew resented that his performance was left off while Greg Kinnear's performance as a gay man in As Good as It Gets was included. That didn't bother me: Kinnear's role was bigger and more central to the film, and it's not like there was only one slot available for a gay role. Four other men were nominated that year ahead of Rupert: Robert Forster, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Williams, and Burt Reynolds. I really couldn't say that any of them were undeserving.
 

Thomas T

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Matt Hough said:
I remember at the time there was a fair amount of talk for an Oscar nomination for Rupert for this film, but when nominations came out, he was left off the ballot. A shame since it was a very ingratiating performance. Many folks I knew resented that his performance was left off while Greg Kinnear's performance as a gay man in As Good as It Gets was included.

I'm not saying I agree but I suspect many people would think it's harder for a heterosexual (Greg Kinnear) to play a gay man than for a gay man (Rupert Everett) to play a gay man hence Kinnear's nomination and not Everett's.
 

Mark-W

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To be fair, I think this is accurate, like gorgeous women getting ugly or dramatically playing down their looks on screen and winning and Oscar (e.g. Charlize in Monster), which also has a long tradition. The conventional wisdom also was that the gay must die (e.g. Tom Hanks), or be punished somehow for being gay (double Oscar bonus points for Hillary Swank for Boys Don't Cry), neither of which happen to Everett.
Thomas T said:
I'm not saying I agree but I suspect many people would think it's harder for a heterosexual (Greg Kinnear) to play a gay man than for a gay man (Rupert Everett) to play a gay man hence Kinnear's nomination and not Everett's.
 

classicmovieguy

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Mark Walker said:
To be fair, I think this is accurate, like gorgeous women getting ugly or dramatically playing down their looks on screen and winning and Oscar, which also has a long tradition. The conventional wisdom also was that the gay must die (e.g. Tom Hanks) or be punished somehow for being gay, neither of which happen to Everett.
A happy exception to this is when Robert Preston was nominated for his joyous role in "Victor/Victoria" (1982).
 

OliverK

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Tama said:
Amazon is advertising this title as 4K and another poster on another message board stated it differes from his U.K. Sony release from a few years ago image wise when compared. So it may well be a new 4K scan. :)

Edit. Sorry RAH I see you meant it looked so great it was like watching in native 4K. :)

It is certainly derived from a 4k scan and also available via Sonys 4k Unlimited service on the FMP-X1 and FMP-X10.


There is also a 4k DCP available for theatrical exhibition:

http://www.parkcircus.com/films/15774-my-best-friends-wedding
 

willyTass

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that link in the first post ,when i Pressed it ,takes me to the OLD Sony UK version of the blu ray on amazon for some reason ,
 

Thomas T

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Mark Walker said:
or be punished somehow for being gay (double Oscar bonus points for Hillary Swank for Boys Don't Cry), neither of which happen to Everett.

Sorry to nitpick but being transgender is not the same thing as being gay but your point is taken.
 

Will Krupp

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Mark Walker said:
I do enjoy this film. I also tend to think of it as the film where middle-American females saw Julia Roberts, their on-screen surrogate, with her hunky and wise gay pal
comforting her
and those middle-American women started thinking, "I need a Rupert, too."

PERFECTLY said, Mark! While it did give rise to the lamentable trend of "Gay Men as Accessories," it's such a wonderful movie (and how refreshing Rupert's character was in 1997!) that I'll forgive it most anything. This is the first time I remember really really unreservedly "liking" a Julia Roberts movie (STEEL MAGNOLIAS doesn't count!) and her wonderfully and refreshingly AWFUL character was like a breath of fresh mean air.


Kevin and I (and his friend Kristen, you could almost HEAR the the wheels spinning in her head) had SO much fun at the movie we tried to prolong it by grabbing a quick bite to eat after this one and heading right back to the same theater to catch a double header (MEN IN BLACK) to keep the momentum going. It didn't quite work but the only other movie that ever prompted me to want to do that was 9 TO 5 way back at Christmas 1980 when I was 13.


I had this on VHS and DVD but never got around to getting it on blu-ray so this will be a cool treat.


Thanks!
 

bluirv

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I've had this title for over a year from Amazon UK and I also think it's a fine transfer.


You can pick it up from Amazon UK for about $10 including shipping. And yes--it's Region Free! :)
 

Mark-P

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bluirv said:
I've had this title for over a year from Amazon UK and I also think it's a fine transfer.


You can pick it up from Amazon UK for about $10 including shipping. And yes--it's Region Free! :)


Unfortunately I imported it a while back and now regret having done so as this new 4K-sourced transfer is a huge improvement from what I'm hearing. :(
 

Robert Crawford

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Mark-W

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Also, I picked up this title this week at Costco for $12.99. I was going to wait to buy, but that was too good of a deal with the new 4K remaster.
 

Aaron Silverman

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This movie never quite worked for me. . .in many ways it's a lot of fun, but the protagonist is SO rotten until the very end that it just left a sour taste.


Rupert Everett was definitely the highlight of the film. It's a shame he hasn't been working as much lately (I think he's been busy with political activism).
 

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