Jersey Girl Blu-Ray Review
As time goes on, their relationship grows and he proposes. Before the opening credits are finished, they are married and expecting their first child. It's easy to forget, but once upon a time.. before a series of bad films, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were THE buzz couple; stories about them hanging around and booking their films together were a big deal. That is, they were a big deal until both Jersey Girl and Gigli died at the box office, as well as in their films, as happened here.
Gertrude makes her way to the hospital to give birth to their first child, and the procedure doesn't go according to plan. The child is born and is in fantastic health, but Jennifer Lopez character, Gertrude dies during child birth. Struggling to deal with this new reality, Ollie uses his father - played by George Carlin - to help manage the newborn child while he balances his job.Stressed and worried about coming to work, Ollie's first big announcement comes with a little known music act. Will Smith - or as he calls him "The Fresh Prince" is giving away a model house that appeared on one of their albums. The Fresh Prince, Ollie thinks, has a music career that is stalled, and as a music flack he doesn't understand why he's being bothered with it.. he's a non-factor. Informed that he has a film coming out called "Independence Day", he tries to pan the project off on the film division in his PR firm but is told that Smith wants his music and film careers to stay separate.
On the day of the big presentation for Smith at the Hard Rock Cafe, Ollie's father announces he's "had enough" and that he must straighten out his life and put his child first.. stressed with a child and career, Ollie melts down in the Hard Rock, insults the press and his client and finds himself without a job.
At this moment, at least for me, the film loses all of it's momentum and becomes a series of implausible outcomes, bad to horrible advice and cliches that simply don't make much sense.To sum the film up into short segments: Ollie becomes poor. Ollie moves in with Father. He becomes a street worker (I guess his education worthless and he had no money saved and no life insurance on Gertrude), raises a daughter, renounces sex for the next seven years until he meets Liv Tyler in a video rental store. A relationship blooms but he still can't give in. He gets offered a chance at a high paying job to go back to what he was doing as a PR broker.. and decides it's not worth it if it will take him away from his kid and returns to be a street crew worker.
It is hard, at times, for me to sum up how much of the storyline is simply wrong; their are assumptions made here as to what makes a "good" parent that are completely at odds with reality. Ollie points out that getting back his old job and career would mean he could pay for college for his daughter, good schools.. but in the end, it's the time away from her that he can't give up, so living poor and in his fathers home is more amenable.That said, the film has some great moments, and all of those seem to flow from Kevin Smith's unique writing style that is often absent. Affleck and Tyler have some solid moments and the final production of "Sweeney Todd" as performed for an elementary school is a blast.
But this uneven production never really finds its legs and it is easy to see why so many view this as one of Kevin Smith's lesser works. This film was designed to be a "multi-quadrant" film that would attract daters and others and drive up box office. It is different from other Smith works in that it played relatively safe with all of the choices. But as a result, it lacked anything to make the film really special or memorable.
There are directors who are known for their blockbusters, major successes that make them sought after for their box office prowess - Michael Bay, etc. There are also directors who make arthouse films that may not make major box office, but are well respected for their artistic merit and meaning,from Woody Allen, Kathryn Bigelow, etc. It's a very rare director that falls into both camps, blockbusters with critical appeal.. the Steven Spielberg of the world.Kevin Smith doesn't match any of those groups; his first work "Clerks" was a rousing success based on it's low budget but also his writing, the ability to take a scene and make it feel real even while stuffing characters full of monologues. Clerks won Smith quite a bit of praise, and made sure he stayed employed. While Mallrats wasn't a success, Chasing Amy recaptured that underground feel that Smith had and brought most of his audience home.After Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay & Silent Bob Strike back, Jersey Girl became Smith's first real attempt at a mainstream film and his first non-R effort rated effort.
Studio: Miramax
Distributed By: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA
Subtitles: English
Rating: PG-13
Run Time: 1 Hr. 42 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer)
Region: A
Release Date: 5/7/2013
MSRP: $14.97
The Production Rating: 3/5
As time goes on, their relationship grows and he proposes. Before the opening credits are finished, they are married and expecting their first child. It's easy to forget, but once upon a time.. before a series of bad films, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were THE buzz couple; stories about them hanging around and booking their films together were a big deal. That is, they were a big deal until both Jersey Girl and Gigli died at the box office, as well as in their films, as happened here.
Gertrude makes her way to the hospital to give birth to their first child, and the procedure doesn't go according to plan. The child is born and is in fantastic health, but Jennifer Lopez character, Gertrude dies during child birth. Struggling to deal with this new reality, Ollie uses his father - played by George Carlin - to help manage the newborn child while he balances his job.Stressed and worried about coming to work, Ollie's first big announcement comes with a little known music act. Will Smith - or as he calls him "The Fresh Prince" is giving away a model house that appeared on one of their albums. The Fresh Prince, Ollie thinks, has a music career that is stalled, and as a music flack he doesn't understand why he's being bothered with it.. he's a non-factor. Informed that he has a film coming out called "Independence Day", he tries to pan the project off on the film division in his PR firm but is told that Smith wants his music and film careers to stay separate.
On the day of the big presentation for Smith at the Hard Rock Cafe, Ollie's father announces he's "had enough" and that he must straighten out his life and put his child first.. stressed with a child and career, Ollie melts down in the Hard Rock, insults the press and his client and finds himself without a job.
At this moment, at least for me, the film loses all of it's momentum and becomes a series of implausible outcomes, bad to horrible advice and cliches that simply don't make much sense.To sum the film up into short segments: Ollie becomes poor. Ollie moves in with Father. He becomes a street worker (I guess his education worthless and he had no money saved and no life insurance on Gertrude), raises a daughter, renounces sex for the next seven years until he meets Liv Tyler in a video rental store. A relationship blooms but he still can't give in. He gets offered a chance at a high paying job to go back to what he was doing as a PR broker.. and decides it's not worth it if it will take him away from his kid and returns to be a street crew worker.
It is hard, at times, for me to sum up how much of the storyline is simply wrong; their are assumptions made here as to what makes a "good" parent that are completely at odds with reality. Ollie points out that getting back his old job and career would mean he could pay for college for his daughter, good schools.. but in the end, it's the time away from her that he can't give up, so living poor and in his fathers home is more amenable.That said, the film has some great moments, and all of those seem to flow from Kevin Smith's unique writing style that is often absent. Affleck and Tyler have some solid moments and the final production of "Sweeney Todd" as performed for an elementary school is a blast.
But this uneven production never really finds its legs and it is easy to see why so many view this as one of Kevin Smith's lesser works. This film was designed to be a "multi-quadrant" film that would attract daters and others and drive up box office. It is different from other Smith works in that it played relatively safe with all of the choices. But as a result, it lacked anything to make the film really special or memorable.
Video Rating: 4.5/5 3D Rating: NA
Audio Rating: 4.5/5
Special Features Rating: 2/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Reviewed By: MattCR
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