Meet Charlie Baileygates, a 17-year veteran of the Rhode Island police force. Charlie is mild-mannered, hard-working, always helpful, and a devoted and loving father to three sons. Unfortunately, Charlie has Split Personality Disorder, and when he runs out of his medication; meet Hank Baileygates, Charlie's hyper-sensitive alter-ego. Hank's got a filthy mouth, drinks like a fish, breaks skulls and loves dirty, dirty sex. Charlie and Hank have nothing in common with the exception of Irene Waters, a beautiful woman on the lam with whom they have both fallen in love. Now, Hank/Charlie must wage war - with himself - for the confused Irene's affections.
For more about Me, Myself & Irene and the Me, Myself & Irene Blu-ray release, see Me, Myself & Irene Blu-ray Review published by Sir Terrence on March 6, 2008 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
When I sat down to review Me, Myself and Irene, and was expecting the absolute worst. I was expecting another really dumb comedy with Jim Carrey doing a bunch of silly stupid faces, overacting, and generally filling the screen with the kind of antics that makes me sick to my stomach. They do not wear well over time. I was pleasantly surprised that this movie is not that kind of movie. Though the story line is still diffused and often muddled, it still connected, entertained, and made me laugh to the point of uncontrollability. The interesting thing to me is Jim Carrey is not the main source of laughs in my opinion. It is the sons, the midget, props, and the situations that really get the most laughs, not Carrey's silly antics.
Me, Myself and Irene had a budget of $51 million dollars, and it made $90 million at the domestic box office, and $58 million internationally. This movie is not for the faint-hearted, and it's not for kids. (If you've never seen a Farrelly movie, you'll need to know this!) This is not laden with "Oscar-quality" performances, but just something to watch when you want to laugh and not think. The plot and storyline are so out there, it is impossible to take it seriously.
The film follows Charlie Baileygates(Jim Carrey), a Rhode Island state trooper taken advantage of by everybody throughout his life; and even after marriage, his wife deserts him for a African American midget limo driver, who is really a college professor and member of the Boston chapter of Mensa doing an experiment. The little professor beats Charlie up, eventually steals his wife, has an affair with her, and leaves Charlie to raise their three highly intelligent but profanity-spewing mixed-race sons(Anthony Anderson,Mongo Brownlee, Jerod Mixon). After some time and a few really negative events, his anger builds up and Charlie develops a rude and violent split personalitied individual named Hank. Believing that Charlie needs a vacation, the force tells him to escort a beautiful girl named Irene(Renee Zellweger)to Upstate New York. When some hitmen come after Irene's life, Charlie (and Hank) are called on to save the day. However the battle is not only with the hitmen, Charlie is also battling with Hank for contol of his body and mind. Charlie, Irene, and Hank must team up to foil the hitmens plan to kill Irene.
Me, Myself and Irene comes to Bluray as a 1080p, MPEG-2 encoded video sporting a 1:85:1 aspect ratio, and spread out on a BD-50 disc. It has, to these eyes, the most natural looking picture quality I have seen on bluray so far. It's not punched up in any way, but just natural, pleasing to the eye, and easy to watch. There is no CGI that I noticed, and no post processing tricks at all. There is the occasional grain and dirt here and there, but nothing distracting, and no wow moments either. The video does appear at bit soft at times, and there is the sometimes-noticeable edge enhancement that is visible, but these are just minor distractions. Black levels and contrast are solid and natural, however the video can seem a little flat on the screen. On occasion colors do stand out a bit, especially reds, but it never appears punched up, or in your face. Other problems I noticed included halos, some jaggies that occasionally pop up, but were not noticeable over the entire presentation. This is a very natural presentation that just does not wow the viewer, but is definitely a step up from the DVD release.
As unexciting as the video is, the audio is even less exciting. The film is presented in DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround (48kHz/16-bit), but Fox probably didn't need to go through the effort. "Me, Myself & Irene" suffers from typically boring comedy sound design. It is a largely dialog driven movie with very few sound effects. There is very little music, but what is there is well rendered. The surrounds are seriously underutilized, as is the LFE. There are a few split channel discrete effects, however the sound was mostly confined to the front hemisphere.
Both the narrative dialog, and the dialog spoken by each character are very clear, and very present in the room. This is a very conservative mix that serves the movie well, but does not hit you over the head at any point.
The DVD had quite a few extras and fluff, but Fox has chosen to shunt these and pare down the bluray release. There is a commentary track featuring the Farrelly brothers. They seemed to be having a great time talking about production incidents, their friends and family in the film, and offering a little insight into the overall production of the movie.
There is 12 minutes of deleted scenes presented in standard definition. There are ten scenes that include commentary by the Farrelly Brothers. There were really fun to watch, and was actually the best of the extra's on DVD.
Lastly, there are two Me, Myself and Irene trailers, both in HD, and trailers for The Simpson's, Speed, and Dodge ball.
Me, Myself and Irene really surprised me. What I was expecting, and what I received were polar opposites. I expected a comedic disaster, and what I got was a very funny, charming, and definitely what you see is what you get presentation. No bells, no whistle, just a natural presentation that just happened to be very funny. This is the kind of comedy I like to see Jim Carrey in, a comedy where the laughs are spread around, and not so much focused on Carrey. The sons are scene-stealers for sure, as every scene they are in, you are assured a good laugh. I could definitely recommend this as a rental, but would have reservations recommending this as a purchase.
Blu-ray Bundles/Box Sets with Me, Myself & Irene (1 bundle)
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