Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Julie & Julia (1 Viewer)

[Richard Gallagher]

 

[PatW]

Great review. Will be a blind buy for me, but with Meryl Streep you can't go wrong.

 

[Kevin EK]

Great review, Rich.

I just remembered that Stanley Tucci gave us Big Night, a gourmet film that resulted in LOTS of viewers immediately going out to eat after watching the movie!

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK

Great review, Rich.

I just remembered that Stanley Tucci gave us Big Night, a gourmet film that resulted in LOTS of viewers immediately going out to eat after watching the movie!

Tucci grew up in the same town as me and graduated from the same high school. Alas, he is twelve years younger than me and I do not know him.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Excellent review to an excellent film, Rich!

This disc would SO be mine today...but I am finding the prices for this release ($25 to $28) to be WAY too high on release day.

I will be exercising restraint and waiting for this to show up on sale down the road or in the used bin at one of my local stores.

But make no mistake, this is a delightful film with another solid performance from Streep and marvelous work by both Tucci and Amy Adams. I thought Ephron did a terrific job weaving the two stories into one.

 

[Rachael B]

You make it sound good Rich but I won't be buying a copy till I can get it for $20 or less. I'll be simmering till then....

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Watched this on rental the other night and really liked it. I'll probably pick this up at some point when the price is much more attractive...

_Man_

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon /forum/thread/295606/htf-blu-ray-review-julie-julia#post_3635976

Watched this on rental the other night and really liked it. I'll probably pick this up at some point when the price is much more attractive...

Amazon has just lowered the price on this to $19.99 (probably matching a bestbuy.com price).

But, hurry. I wouldn't expect it to stay there too long.

 

[Rachael B]

I'm getting a copy. I exchanged a duplicate BD set I got for Christmas for credit and I'm getting Julie And Julia in the deal.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Good for you, Rachael. Let us know how you like it.

 

[Edwin-S]

Started out slow for me, but picked up steam as it progressed and finished up as a decent enough nights entertainment. In my case, it's a one watcher, not enough to attract repeat viewing. I found the Julia Child half of the story to be most compelling. Streep was quite impressive. She really seemed to catch the essence of Julia Child's character; although, ocassionally, it seemed like she was straining to maintain Child's vocal mannerisms. The rest of the cast did a good job as well, with Tucci coming in a close second portraying Child's husband. There was an unresolved thread near the end that left one with a bit of a sour taste about Child. I found it a bit jarring considering the relatively sympathetic portrayal of her.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I bought it for 19.99 from Amazon and will try to watch it this week.





Crawdaddy

 

[Rachael B]

Originally Posted by Richard Gallagher

Good for you, Rachael. Let us know how you like it.

I really liked the movie. It's such an odd story. If you tried to tell me that this plot was a good 'un for a film, I'd probably say you're k-k-k-kray-zee. I liked the Julia side of the film more than the Julie side. The "&" part glued the story together just enough. Meryl was terrific, Sometimes I thought some of the close-ups made her look too pretty compared to the real Julia. I'll enjoy watching this one again in a year or two when my memories fade a bit.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Edwin-S

There was an unresolved thread near the end that left one with a bit of a sour taste about Child. I found it a bit jarring considering the relatively sympathetic portrayal of her.

Edwin,

Let's remember she was 90 years old at that time. Who's to say what old age might have affected her state of mind and personality by then.




Crawdaddy

 

[Edwin-S]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford




Edwin,

Let's remember she was 90 years old at that time. Who's to say what old age might have affected her state of mind and personality by then.




Crawdaddy

You make a good point. When you take her age into consideration her action becomes more understandable. I should have thought of that myself. My bad.

 

[mattCR]

There was an unresolved thread near the end that left one with a bit of a sour taste about Child. I found it a bit jarring considering the relatively sympathetic portrayal of her.

Julia Child had real problems with what she thought was "cashing in on her name" She had been subject of people for a long time trying to attach her name as "endorsing" a product or not; Julia Child had been very open from the early 80s on that she wouldn't endorse or back any product with her name, and that it had to stand on it's own merits. She would have lost her mind at all the chefs now who sell their own cookware ..

Julia wasn't as bashing of Julie's efforts as you'd think.. she had acknowledged she hadn't read it. It was relayed to her that someone was going through all of her recipies to recreate her book. And she was concerned that someone was simply cashing in on her efforts. And she said it. I went back through and read the actual blog (it's archived at Salon.Com, you can look it up) and I have to admit, I hav ea much more "eh" feeling about the author of the book after reading the blog then I would from the movie. Lots of events left out of the movie didn't paint her in quite the "good" light, and it did seem a bit of an "attention gimmick".

Still, I enjoyed the movie, and Streep was phenomenal in it.

 

[Rachael B]

By the time my grandma was 90, there were days she wouldn't speak English, just Swedish.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Nora Ephron took a lot of liberties with the Julie character in the sense of making her more likeable and sweet.

The film did a poor job with the issue raised by Edwin. It was the way it was left unexplained and unresolved which lead me to discover much of the same facts about it as mattCR.

But, like Matt, I enjoyed the film immensely. Streep & Tucci were both excellent. And I like Amy Adams a lot anyway.

 

[Robert Crawford]

There is an excellent featurette on the BRD that gives you a good sense about Julia Child and the points that Matt brought up her deep concerns regarding people cashing in on her name. She really didn't concern herself making money because she could've made a lot more money if she wanted to by marketing herself even moreso and allowing her name to be attached to different products for endorsement purposes.

By the way, I really liked the movie and thought the performances were very good. Right now, I have a deeper appreciation for Julia Child than I had when I use to see her show on television back in the 1960s and 1970s.




Crawdaddy

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford

There is an excellent featurette on the BRD that gives you a good sense about Julia Child and the points that Matt brought up her deep concerns regarding people cashing in on her name. She really didn't concern herself making money because she could've made a lot more money if she wanted to by marketing herself even moreso and allowing her name to be attached to different products for endorsement purposes.

By the way, I really liked the movie and thought the performances were very good. Right now, I have a deeper appreciation for Julia Child than I had when I use to see her show on television back in the 1960s and 1970s.

Glad you liked it, Robert! My copy is on its way from amazon.

I had the chance to watch, last weekend, an episode of Julia Child's show which aired on my local PBS affiliate. It featured Jacques Pepin. What a hoot to watch the two of them prepare a full meal together. Their chemistry was awesome. They had so much fun and really played off of each other's personalities. It was great fun and took me back to my memories of her old show.