DVD
REVIEW:
HEARTBREAK KID
12/23/07
The Heartbreak
Kid, yeah, my heart was a little broken. OK fine, maybe not
so drastic but I was disappointed with this comedy. With
names like Neil Simon, the Farrelly Brothers, and Ben
Stiller floating around you would think total quality. Not
in my book. Don’t get me wrong, I laughed and laughed hard
at times but overall this flick was too cookie-cutter, too
cliché, and too predictable. The script was far from
stimulating and there was a lack of freshness in the
storyline. It came across as a mass-produced, off the
assembly line movie. There are similarities between this
picture and Ben Stiller’s Along Came Polly but let me tell
you, Along Came Polly was much better. It was more
captivating, funnier, and had a much better cast than
Heartbreak. Again, this movie wasn’t necessarily bad, I was
just expecting it to be better.
Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller) is the next 40-year-old-virgin
except he’s not a virgin. He is a virgin to marriage though
and not by choice. It’s that he’s had terrible luck with his
love life. It’s so bad that he goes to a wedding and sees
that all his friends are married and the only singles table
at the reception is full of kids. By chance he meets Lila (Malin
Akerman) and begins dating her. She’s interesting,
affectionate, and very attractive. They seem to get along
just great. After receiving all kinds of pressure from his
best friend and his father, and realizing that his
biological clock is ticking, he jumps into marrying Lila
only after a few weeks of dating. On a side note, one of the
nicer aspects of this movie is the fact that Eddie’s father
is played by Ben’s father Jerry Stiller. A father and son
playing a father and son in a movie is not seen too often.
It was a nice touch. But poor Eddie gets to see Lila’s true
colors on their honeymoon and gets disillusioned with the
whole of idea of being married to her. The icing on the cake
is that while on their honeymoon, Eddie meets Miranda
(Michelle Monaghan) who seems to be Ms. Right. What to do,
what to do?
So as you could probably tell, this story does have
potential but the delivery was weak. There was room for a
lot more conflict for Eddie in his juggling of Lila and
Miranda. The scenarios were laid out too conveniently. The
characters were a bit stale and superficial. The only
characters that really had any depth at all were Eddie and
Miranda. They were also two of the better performances by
Ben and Michelle. It was a nice surprise to see Michelle in
this role having seen her last in MI:3. Big change of pace
there. Malin wasn’t bad either, especially after turning
into the psycho, weirdo wife. Carlos Mencia as Uncle Tito,
an employee at the Mexican resort where the honeymoon takes
place, was a refreshing touch to the film. These somewhat
decent performances along with the comical moments are the
only things that keep you engaged. Well, the visuals helped
too. From the streets of San Fran, to the beautiful
beachfront resort in Mexico, and even Eddie’s sports shop
were pleasing to the eyes.
Directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly are two of the biggest
names in comedy. They have an incredible track record but
hey, everyone is entitled to an off day, or off picture in
this case. Not that it was that bad, but they have
definitely done better. I’m sure they’ll jump back into
their standard form.
Movie
Review By Cine Marcos
cinemarcos@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
Widescreen Enhance for 16x9 TVs
AUDIO:
Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround - English Spanish French
Subtitles - English, Spanish
French,
BONUS FEATURES:
The DVD value in this release is weak. The only feature
worth watching is "The Farrelly Bros In The French
Tradition" and maybe a couple of the deleted scenes.
Commentary by the Farrelly Brothers
The Farrelly Bros. In The French
Tradition This is an interesting documentary
where Peter and Bobby Farrelly talk about their
background (16:35)
Ben & Jerry Ben
and Jerry Stiller talk about how it was working with
his father and vice versa (5:00)
Heartbreak Halloween The
producers talk about how they celebrated Halloween while
shooting the film (3:24)
The Egg Toss The
producers talk and explain who the use the egg toss game to
created a team atmosphere before and during the
shooting of the film (8:04)
Gag Reel (4:01)
Deleted Scenes A total of
six deleted scenes (7:27)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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VIDEO |
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