Bride Wars Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Bride Wars Blu-ray Movie Review

This Chick Flick battles onto Blu-ray with fine results.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 3, 2009

Your wedding better watch it.

"Bridezilla" -- the word that strikes fear into the hearts of grooms, maids of honor, bridesmaids, friends, store clerks, wedding planners, pastors, and parents -- is taken to the next level in Bride Wars, the aptly-titled film starring Anne Hathaway (Passengers) and Kate Hudson (My Best Friend's Girl) as best friends who see their relationship torn apart when their dream weddings are scheduled for the same date. Something of a novel twist on the Chick Flick, Bride Wars isn't really a Romantic Comedy but rather a Romantically-themed Comedy that sees its leads tempt, tease, and torture one another in the name of the perfect wedding while forgetting that love, relationships, understanding, and compassion -- the key elements in any wedding, between husband and wife, or even lifelong best friends -- is what really makes each and every day the happiest day of one's life.

Nothing could ever come between us!

Best friends forever Liv (Hudson) and Emma (Hathaway) have always dreamed of June weddings at New York's famous Plaza and serving as each other's maid of honor. When their boyfriends each pop the question around the same time, the girls find themselves happier than ever before. They hire the famed wedding planner Marion St. Claire (Candice Bergen, The Sand Pebbles), the only woman in the city who can squeeze them into the always-booked Plaza. Marion is able to offer the girls two different June dates -- Liv takes the first Saturday in June and Emma the last. All is well until they receive word from Marion of a terrible mistake: the girls have accidentally been booked for the same day. When another of Marion's clients who was erroneously given Emma's date won't budge, the once-inseparable friends wage war on one another, determined that if they both cannot live their dream, neither will.

The latest in the recent batch of snazzy, trendy, funny, and entertaining Chick Flicks, Bride Wars engages audiences with slapstick humor, infectious dialogue, and a few tender moments that reinforce the importance of friendship even in the face of chaos. Like several of its contemporaries, including 27 Dresses, Made of Honor, and 13 Going on 30, Bride Wars is strong enough for a man, but pH balanced for a woman. There is no doubt as to the film's target audience, but Bride Wars features just enough testosterone in its many tit-for-tat war games, not to mention a fairly original plot and good performances from its leads, to make it a passable watch for the men in the audience, particularly those well-versed in the ways and means of modern marriage.

Bride Wars features solid and sometimes irresistible performances from Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. The pair seem to embrace their parts, revel in the absurdity of the experience, and focus their energy in all the right places, delivering sometimes gut-busting lines one moment and expressing heartfelt and dramatic overtones the next. While the movie's emotional bookends are ancillary to the crux of the film -- the back-and-forth, comically-inclined conflict between best friends -- they nevertheless merge rather effortlessly into the story and add just a hint of weight to an otherwise light-as-a-feather movie with no real purpose other than to entertain its audience and, for 89 minutes, help them to forget the troubles of the world outside the theater and revel in some good-old-fashioned slapstick comedy. Bride Wars features unobtrusive direction from Gary Winick, a typical New York setting that neither helps nor hinders the film, and a nice selection of popular music that does manage to add to most every scene it accompanies. Most importantly, though, the script is pitch-perfect for the tone of the movie. Dialogue ranges between "good" to "fantastic." It's mean-spirited and tasteless, but in a comedic, lighthearted, and tongue-in-cheek way that is never offensive or meant to be taken all that seriously. The end of the movie is never in question, though the exact circumstances surrounding the ending do manage to elude the audience until partway through the final act. Bride Wars isn't deep or mysterious, nor is it completely shallow and meaningless. It is certainly no The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or The Wrestler, but it's a solid all-around effort for what it needs to be.

Bride Wars Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bride Wars scratches and claws its way onto Blu-ray with a quality 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer. The transfer offers solid detail throughout most of the movie; up-close shots of the lace on a wedding dresses, for example, reveal intricate textures. The girls' flowing hair stands out nicely, too, each strand seemingly visible in close-up shots. Outdoor cityscapes are also nicely detailed. Nevertheless, detail isn't quite as impressive in a few scenes. The interior shots of Emma's school look a bit flat, though in its defense the setting appears naturally pedestrian and uninteresting. Colors in such scenes and throughout the movie, however, are sufficient, particularly the blues of the lockers and trim that adorn the school's hallways. Like many films of this sort, though, colors are warm but not overly vibrant. There is a noticeable red and golden push to the palette. Flesh tones take on a rosy appearance in most instances. The print is practically blemish-free with only one or two small white speckles noticed, and the image is nicely rendered on Blu-ray with a quality cinematic look and feel, finished off by a noticeable but unobtrusive layer of grain. Still, the transfer is above-average and captures the intended look of the film nicely.

Bride Wars Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bride Wars features a quality DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Rich, satisfying music accompanies the opening credits with a small bit of rear channel support playing against the crisp, delightful, and incredibly clear presentation across the front, with a good, thick layer of bass thrown in for good measure. Popular music throughout shines in similar fashion. Otherwise, the track is mostly front-heavy and uninteresting with little in the way of atmosphere, save for a raucous sequence as heard in chapter 18 during a bachelorette party that belts out the beats from every corner of the listening area, alongside a hefty amount of bass. The film is primarily dialogue-centric, the soundtrack highly typical of films of this sort. Dialogue is presented without any discernible hiccups, and considering the inherent qualities of the track, this lossless offering sounds about as good as one might expect of it.

Bride Wars Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Bride Wars and Blu-ray tie the knot, the result a three-disc set. Disc one begins with Something Old, Something New, and What That's Gonna Cost You, a pop-up trivia track that keeps tabs on Liv's and Emma's wedding expenses (including a few "miscellaneous" items meant to make their weddings extra-memorable) as well as some basic facts on weddings and marital custom history. Next up are a collection of seven deleted and alternate scenes (1080p, 7:04) and two improvisations (1080p, 2:47). Meet Me at the Plaza (1080p, 6:47) is a very brief piece that looks at the use of the famous New York Plaza as a central location and plot device in the film. The Perfect White Dress (1080p, 4:37) examines the importance of the wedding dress to modern matrimony with particular emphasis on the dresses of designer Vera Wang. In Character With Kate Hudson (480p, 2:14) and In Character With Anne Hathaway (480p, 3:23) feature the actresses discussing their characters in the film. Man Den (1080p, 4:13) is a comical piece showing how the men of the movie cope with being in a Chick Flick and their attempts to remain manly in the midst of the experience. Maid of Honor (1080p, 4:23) looks at how a man tackles the role usually reserved for a lady. Amanda-Cam (1080p, 4:14) features the not-so-happy character sharing words of wisdom with the brides-to-be and remembering the night of the wedding while in a drunken stupor. Concluding disc one are 1080p trailers for Marley & Me and The Pink Panther 2.

Disc two of this three-disc set features a standard-definition DVD copy of the film, presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Bonus features on this disc include carryovers from the Blu-ray: three deleted scenes (3:47) and The Perfect White Dress (4:38), and trailers for Marley & Me, Legally Blonde, The Pink Panther 2, and Burn Notice: Season Two). Disc three contains a digital copy of Bride Wars. Replayed on a second generation iPod Touch, the film's many popular music beats retain a peppy, clear, and nicely-defined edge, and dialogue, too, is adequate but sounds a bit detached, kind of like a mediocre drive-in presentation. Visually, the image is solid, with good colors and detail and only minimal blocking in most scenes.

Bride Wars Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bride Wars never really captures the imagination like Director Gary Winick's best effort, 13 Going on 30, but for a straight genre picture, this one is a relative success. Funny, and sometimes infectiously so; to-the-point; featuring above-average performances from its leads; dramatic when need be and in just the right dosage; and well-paced at a brisk 89 minutes, Bride Wars makes for a solid all-around outing that doesn't raise the bar for films of its kind but certainly accomplishes all that is asked of it. Likewise, 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release is more than adequate. Featuring a quality cinematic transfer, a lossless soundtrack that delivers all that is required of it, and several extras -- including DVD and digital versions of the film -- Bride Wars' Blu-ray release should please fans of the film. Innocent, charming, and sometimes even curiously appealing, Bride Wars makes for a great date night movie. Just be cautious of scheduling conflicts.