7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.8 |
In this post-coming-of-age comedy, a piano player at a crossroads in his life returns home to his friends and their own problems with life and love. The high school reunion in a small Massachusetts town gives the group of buddies plenty of opportunities to try and sort out their views about women. From the former stud-turned-snowplow operator to the aspiring nightclub musician who escaped to New York, these clueless cads can only hope for some female guidance.
Starring: Matt Dillon, Noah Emmerich, Annabeth Gish, Lauren Holly, Timothy HuttonRomance | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
There are all sorts of dramatic tales and narratives and arcs out there. The beauty of the cinema medium is its ability to depict every single one of them multiple times over, with different perspectives and unique flavors, often with varying degrees of success. Chances are, if there's a subject that interests someone, there's been a movie made about it. The classic "coming of age" story is one of the constant staples of the medium, a subject that's been covered in countless films and, as always, to varying degrees of success. Director Ted Demme's Beautiful Girls is a story about a handful of young adults searching for their place in the world, living their lives only as they know how while on the path towards something, they hope, beyond the cards they've been dealt. The story as presented herein is told smoothly and cleanly, but there's not much of an original spark to it with precious few reasons -- mostly centered on the cast -- to choose it over all the other, similar films. It's fine at what it does, not too structurally complex or dramatically dull, but there's just not much in Beautiful Girls to set it apart from the pack.
Together again.
Beautiful Girls features a dull, uninspired transfer. The image is stable enough and offers adequate details and colors, but at its best it's not a significant improvement over standard definition. Details are flat, generally, with no life or heavy textures. Faces often appear particularly pasty, while clothes lack that tactile detailing often found on the best Blu-rays. Exteriors both night and day fare nicely enough, however. Colors are quite dreary, for the most part, even against blinding white snowy backdrops. The image is sometimes severely dull, never finding any vibrance even in the most diverse hues. Black levels and flesh tone are neither great nor disappointing. There's very little in the way of grain, but there is some heavy wear-and-tear over the opening titles. Some edge enhancement is visible in spots, but blocky backgrounds and banding are largely absent. This is a serviceable transfer but fans expecting more will be disappointed.
Beautiful Girls features an uninspired but adequate DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. There's decent presence to the opening music and, indeed, all subsequent songs. Generally, there's a fair front end spacing, clear instrumental playback, and quality vocals that hover in the middle. The track delivers some small but mood- and environment-critical elements well enough. A plow crunching over snowy streets, for instance, comes across well enough that the effect isn't mistaken for something else. There are a few good moments of true, precise ambient effects, such as in Stinky's bar or out on a skating pond. Otherwise, this one is largely all about dialogue. The spoken word is delivered clearly and intelligibly from movie start to finish. This is by no means reference material, but it gets viewers through the movie with no major issues.
Beautiful Girls contains two supplements.
Beautiful Girls isn't much of a cinema novelty -- these sorts of "finding one's place in the world in the company of old friends and in the comfort zone of the old stomping grounds" films are fairly commonplace -- but the picture pieces together a wonderful cast and strong performances that bring more definition to the film than it could ever find in the unimaginative script alone. There's not much of a reason to watch beyond the cast, and this is one of the better ensembles of the 1990s. Echo Bridge' Blu-ray release of Beautiful Girls delivers passably drab video and audio. Two extras are included. Rent it.
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