5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
At Princeton, an admissions officer gets involved with a less-than-model potential student.
Starring: Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Michael Sheen, Wallace Shawn, Nat WolffComedy | 100% |
Romance | 47% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Admission is a puzzling little romantic dramedy. Confused and unsure of its steps, with quirky indie aspirations and passive-aggressive tendencies, there are at least five different films vying for attention under its roof. One of those films is outstanding; smart, moving and memorable, with delicate performances and a sharp script. Four of the five, though, disparage and distract from the first, stamping out any spark that promises to sustain a flame. Most every clever moment is proceeded by a desperate joke or misplaced sight gag far beneath it, while too many resounding dramatic beats are almost immediately muffled by the thud of heavy-handed convention, both silly and lazy. All of which leads to a breezy then clunky, surprising then obvious, funny then irritating quasi-comedy that lives in fear of venturing out or taking a risk.
Admission features a perfectly quaint and comfortable 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer with no real issues to report. Colors are purposefully desaturated to soothing ends, with natural skintones, pleasant primaries and satisfying black levels. Nighttime scenes and low-lit interiors are a tad murky, sure, but contrast is otherwise dialed in without incident. And while detail isn't exactly razor sharp, edges are clean and refined, textures are filmic and nicely resolved, grain is intact, and delineation is decidedly decent. Better still, significant artifacting, banding, aliasing and the like are nowhere to be found, and ringing is kept to a minimum. All told, the presentation is proficient and pleasing, even though it isn't quite striking enough to place alongside top-ranked applicants marked "Accept".
Likewise, Universal's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is a solid, albeit slightly unremarkable lossless mix that's nevertheless more than qualified for the task at hand. Admission is a relatively quiet, conversational romantic dramedy, with clean, grounded voices and light, enveloping ambience. LFE output is restrained but assertive, rear speaker activity is subdued but convincing, and dynamics are mild but effective. More importantly, though, everything is as it was intended to be, from the reserved, front-heavy nature of the sound design to the airy effortlessness of the soundfield. It simply isn't the sort of lossless track that stands out from the crowd.
Fey and Rudd do their best to schmooze viewers in "Early Admission" (HD, 12 minutes), an extended studio EPK without much in the way of insight or commentary on the film or its production. A much too brief, much too trite featurette on an otherwise barebones disc.
Were Admission a Princeton applicant it would quickly be tossed in amongst the promising hopefuls too ordinary and underwhelming to compete with the cream of the crop. Fey, Rudd and their talented co-stars are wasted on an uneven script that lurches from one "funny" bit to the next, hurrying past the meat of the film in a desperate attempt to score one more cheap laugh that never really comes. Fortunately, Universal's Blu-ray release makes Weitz's unexceptional dramedy more bearable with a strong AV showing. A near-barebones disc is yet another disappointment among many, though, placing Admission somewhere in the middle of the stack.
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