The Heartbreak Kid Blu-ray delivers stunningly beautiful video and great audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Ben Stiller stars as Eddie, the 40-year-old confirmed bachelor who finally says "I do"
to the beautiful and sexy Lila (Malin Akerman). But during their honeymoon in
Mexico, the woman of his dreams turns out to be a total nightmare, and the guy
who could never pull the trigger realizes he's jumped the gun. Take home the
Farrelly Brothers' hysterical twist on boy-meets-girl, The Heartbreak Kid, and prepare
to have a blast!
The Farrelly Brothers have carved out a nice little niche for themselves in Hollywood over the
years. Their special brand of over-the-top, broad comedy has earned them critical praise,
box office success and their fair share of controversy. Their films manage to combine gross-
out
humor and great comedic performances with a nice sense of sweetness that has appealed
to audiences worldwide. As of late, however, the Farrellys haven't fared so well at the box-
office. Their last several films have been both critical and commercial flops and it seemed as
though the brothers had lost their way. The Heartbreak Kid looked to be their big
comeback to the comedic heights of such movies as There's Something About Mary
and the underrated Kingpin. Unfortunately, that was not to be and The
Heartbreak Kid is perhaps their biggest flop yet. Did audiences and critics miss the
mark entirely, or is The Heartbreak Kid really that bad?
Eddie wanders the streets of San Francisco
Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller) runs a successful sporting goods store and lives his life in a
constant state of fear over romantic entanglements. All of his friends are married or in
relationships and Eddie's randy father, Doc (Jerry Stiller), continually eggs him on about
finding a girlfriend. Along comes Lila (Malin Akerman): a free spirited environmental
researcher with a heart of gold. Eddie is smitten with Lila and the pair's romance blossoms,
until, Lila discovers that her job is transferring her out of the country. In a state of panic,
Eddie proposes to Lila and the two are quickly wed. Unfortunately for Eddie, Lila begins to
display some strange personality traits as the couple head off to Cabo San Lucas for their
honeymoon. By the time the two make it to Cabo, it's clear that Eddie's new bride is
completely insane. To say that Lila has a few personality kinks would be a severe
understatement. Eddie immediately starts looking for a way out of his hellish new marriage
and happens upon the beautiful and sassy Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), a teacher on
vacation with her tight-knit family. Eddie is smitten, but how can he get rid of that pesky
new wife of his?
Let's get this right out of the way: The Heartbreak Kid is not the trainwreck it has
been made out to be. In fact, it's pretty darn hilarious. It is often way over the top,
frequently disgusting and consistently full of big laughs. Perhaps audiences were turned off
by the film's gratuitous sex scenes, ample nudity or its reliance on foul-mouthed humor? Or,
maybe audiences just didn't like Ben Stiller's character. Eddie is not entirely likable in the
film as he's essentially a pathological liar and a complete coward. Whatever the reason,
there are things about the film that could easily sway an audience against it. Fortunately,
there are enough huge laughs and inspired moments in The Heartbreak Kid to more
than make up for any problems an audience might find in the film's characters or subject
matter. Fans of the Farrelly Brothers previous work will, more than likely, be very happy
with the film.
It's important to note that The Heartbreak Kid is not suitable for children,
as the movie easily earns its "R" rating . The film is filled with four-letter words, explicit
dialogue about sex as well as a pretty surprising amount of nudity. As always, parental
guidance is suggested.
The Heartbreak Kid arrives on Blu-ray sporting a surprisingly exceptional 1080p
transfer using the AVC Mpeg-4 compression codec in the film's original aspect ratio of
2.35:1. The film, despite its lack of success at the box-office, has been given the royal
treatment on Blu-ray and this outstanding transfer is vibrant while remaining very film-like. I
was immediately impressed with the film's bright color palette as well as the fine level of
detail displayed on screen. The Heartbreak Kid benefits from top tier
cinematography from Director of Photography Matthew Leonetti. He chose to film in bright,
colorful surroundings that bring an excellent sense of depth to the image. Even the film's
nighttime scenes are wonderfully lit with an emphasis on washes of color that make up
much of the background space in each shot. As is the case with any top tier Blu-ray
transfer, The Heartbreak Kid is free from any distracting picture anomalies. It's a
very positive sign that Dreamworks has chosen to give a title that had not performed well
for them at the box-office such a fine transfer. Highly recommended!
Continuing to impress in the quality department, The Heartbreak Kid features a
great Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack that eschews the front-loaded design of typical
comedies. The Heartbreak Kid actually has quite a bit of surround activity present in
this lively and well-recorded mix. Dialogue is perfectly presented without a hair of distortion
or hiss while the film's varied soundtrack is nicely positioned within the mix. There is a bit of
slapstick present in the film that allows for more frequent use of surround and ambient
effects and several sequences involving Eddie's run-ins with the US border patrol often
pump up the mix considerably with full-on action-style surround use. It all makes for an
inspired and refreshing sound experience that delivers on a level infrequently encountered
with comedies. Highly Recommended!
-Audio Commentary
-"The Farrelly Bros. in the French Tradition"
-"Ben & Jerry"
-"The Egg Toss"
-"Heartbreak Halloween"
-Deleted Scenes
-Gag Reel
-Theatrical Trailer
While not containing the greatest collection of supplements every delivered on video, there
are a number of entertaining features contained on this Blu-ray release of The
Heartbreak Kid. First up, is the entertaining and informative audio commentary
featuring both Peter and Bobby Farrelly. They speak at length on filming the movie while
dropping a few choice bits of comedy on their own from time to time. "Ben & Jerry" is a nice,
if a bit cheesy, short featuring Ben and Jerry Stiller having a nice father / son chat. Finally,
the
gag reel offers some awkward and hilarious moments. Other than that, we're left with
standard making-of featurettes and a handful of pointless deleted scenes.
The Heartbreak Kid was a colossal failure at the box-office that lead many pundits
to speculate that the Farrelly Brothers' brand of juvenile and gross-out humor was well past
its prime. While audiences might not have connected with the movie, I can't help but think
that The Heartbreak Kid got a bad rap. It's a funny movie with excellent
performances and a nice element of the absurd added in for effect. This Blu-ray edition of
the film features stellar audio and video and a somewhat lackluster package of extra
features. Ultimately, I recommend The Heartbreak Kid for fans of "R" rated comedy
who will appreciate the film's more adult themes and situations. Everyone else might want
to take a pass on this one.
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