Music and Lyrics Blu-ray offers solid video and mediocre audio in this mediocre Blu-ray release
First you're hot, then you're not...and then you're Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant). So when the sizzlingest tween-queen on the charts asks the has-been '80s pop sensation to write her a song, he grabs for another chance at stardom. Problem: Alex can say it with music, but he sure can't say it with words. Enter Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), his beguiling if quirky plant lady, who has a green thumb for lyrics. Together, they go after songwriting success — and discover that if you want to write the perfect love song, it helps to fall in love. With Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore at the keyboard and Marc Lawrence directing, Music and Lyrics is a witty, wacky romantic comedy that faces the music...and laughs!
It's the combination of the two that makes it magic.
Perhaps no other genre in the history of motion pictures has struck more fear into the hearts of
males around the world as the "chick flick." Released on Valentines Day 2007, Music and
Lyrics is another in a rapidly growing list of "chic" chick flick romantic comedies staring either
Hugh
Grant or Drew Barrymore. As far as these types of films go, in the eye of this reviewer who
continuously teases his wife about her affection for such films, I must admit that Music
and
Lyrics is one of the more tolerable of the genre. I'd never choose to watch this type of film on
my own (I'd rather be watching something like I Am Legend or Full Metal Jacket or Monday Night
Football), but I was never pulling my
hair out in agony over this one as I have during a few others.
Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore sing the praises of the romantic comedy genre.
The film stars Hugh Grant (Notting Hill) as Alex Fletcher, one half of a washed up 1980s
pop sensation duo known as PoP!. While his band mate went on to bigger and better
things, Alex has found himself struggling in the music industry, almost lowering himself to
appearing on
a
celebrity boxing show entitled "Battle of the 1980s Has-Beens." His debut solo album has
sold so poorly that the same copy has been on the shelf at the record store he frequents for six
years. As fate would have it, however, pop diva and teen sensation Cora (Haley Bennett in her
film
debut) is a PoP! fan and asks Alex to write a song for her new album. He and his lyricist cannot
come up with anything, but the girl who suddenly replaces his usual plant waterer (people hire
other people to water their plants?) can. She is Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore, 50 First Dates) and though she is reluctant
at
first to write, she finally agrees and I'd bet an autographed Alex Fletcher CD that you can guess
what happens from here on out.
I've always been perplexed when it comes to romantic comedies. They are so predictable in
nature that even when I watch them with my wife I can tell her immediately what's going to
happen, and not just that the main characters are going to fall in love by the end of the movie.
This is the ultimate cookie cutter genre, and the only thing that changes is the setting. The
stories and characters are all interchangeable. That's not to say they are all bad. Like any genre,
you have your good and bad examples, and Music and Lyrics is one of the better ones if
only because it is mostly tolerable from a guy's perspective. There is a scene in the movie where
Alex is performing at a 20 year high school reunion. Every girl in the building is hovering around
the stage, yelling and cheering and vying for a chance to touch Alex. The men sit in the back of
the room, witnessing the event with glassy look in their eyes, wondering what the appeal is. This
was a fabulous scene and it sums up the movie and the genre perfectly. I'm glad the girls have
their movies. My wife has no problem watching most guy movies with me, and I'm very
fortunate in that regard. She can have her chick flicks, and if they all prove to be as tolerable as
Music and Lyrics from here on out, I'll be a happy man.
Warner's 1080p, 1.85:1 presentation of Music and Lyrics on Blu-ray proved to be a rather
typical looking high definition image. This one is merely "good enough" and will likely please its
target audience, but those looking for a 5 star knockout of a transfer will be
disappointed with this one. This is a wholly flat and uninspired image. It exhibits some softness
throughout but detail, clarity, and sharpness do not suffer too badly as a result. Flesh tones
appeared accurate but I felt that colors on the whole appeared drab and muted. I didn't note any
issues with black levels. This is one of those transfers that will forever be lost to obscurity, one that
is neither remarkable for its greatness nor one that is memorable for being a disaster. Like the
movie, it suffices in doing its job and nothing more. When it comes to a film like Music and
Lyrics, you really cannot ask for anything more.
You would think that a movie with the word "music" in the title would come with a high definition
soundtrack on Blu-ray, but once again Warner favors the lowest common denominator by suppling
only a
Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Even with the musical numbers throughout and the main attraction of the
Cora concert at the end, Music and Lyrics is a dialogue driven romantic comedy and as such
it sounds alright. Speaking of dialogue, it came across as well as I expected, never muffled and
always sounding natural and lifelike. The track offers very little in the way of ambience and
surrounds go virtually unused. Even the loud concert sequence at the end of the film is a
disappointment. Bass is nearly nonexistent and compared to real-life concerts on Blu-ray like Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour, the sound is tiny,
uninspired, and severely lacking in punch and authority that I expected. This is a disappointing
sound mix to say the least, and I don't think even an uncompressed track could have saved this
one from the depths of mediocrity.
Men, rejoice. There aren't many supplements here for your wife or girlfriend to force you into
watching. First up is the HBO First Look piece, Note For Note: The Making of 'Music and
Lyrics' (480p, 13:02). This is a typical studio sanctioned promotional piece that features the
cast and
crew talking up the movie with numerous clips thrown in throughout that, for the most part, recap
the entire movie. Next is a fictitious PoP! Goes My Heart music video (480p, 2:33). Finally,
a gag
reel (480p, 4:12) and several deleted scenes (480p, 11:07) finish off this short list of supplements.
Much like The Holiday, Music and Lyrics
is a tolerable chick flick that follows the same tired formula but manages to spice it up just enough
to pass as tolerable for male audiences. Your mileage may vary, but it's good for men to find one or
two girly movies that they can tolerate for those times when you want to impress the wife or
girlfriend by choosing to watch one of her movies on special occasions or for those
"whenever" moments to score a few points. Perhaps she'll return the favor by watching I Am
Legend and 28 Days Later with you as my wife did, both
on the same day no less. This disc is mostly a disappointment technically with less than stellar
video and subpar audio quality, not to mention the brevity of the supplements. Nevertheless, this is
a fun little movie that would be a great gift for that special girl in your life. Recommended as such.
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