5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A comedy about what can happen when you love your phone more than anything else in your life.
Starring: Rose Byrne, Adam DeVine, Michael Peña, Alexandra Shipp, Justin HartleyComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Maybe you’ve seen that 1953 newspaper article quoting an executive from the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company which features some eerily prescient predictions about what phones of the “future” (within the context of 1953) will be like, just as eerily and presciently presented under the headline: There’ll Be No Escape in Future from Telephones. Lest anyone think that the article was so-called “fake news”, Snopes has deemed the article to be true. Mark R. Sullivan, the aforementioned executive quoted in the article, may have had any given smartphone in mind when he made his comments, but the headline of the article might be deemed to refer to the relationship between Phil (Adam DeVine), an unrepentant nerd working for a Buzzfeed like “listicle” website, and his new phone, which features an AI app named Jexi (voiced rather hilariously by Rose Byrne). Phil is, like many in his generation, seemingly surgically attached to his phone, so much so that he wanders cluelessly through an incredibly scenic San Francisco, and just as cluelessly smashes into a bike shop worker named Cate (Alexandra Shipp), which ultimately leads to the demise of that particular pre-Jexi phone. When he visits his local phone emporium, he’s confronted by a snarky saleswoman named Denice (Wanda Sykes) who provides him with his new device, which “houses” Jexi. Within seconds, Jexi, whose first statement is that she’s there to make Phil’s life better, asserts complete control over the hapless schlub’s existence, frequently insulting him outright for his “stupid” behaviors, but also urging him into taking a few chances along the way.
Jexi is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films and CBS Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. While
the IMDb once again comes up short on technical data, some of the supplements on this disc clearly show Arri cameras being utilized, and I'm assuming
things were finished at a 2K DI. This is a sharp, well detailed looking presentation that benefits from the beautiful surroundings of San Francisco.
Outdoor material pops very nicely, with some substantial depth of field in wide shots. Detail and fine detail levels are generally excellent throughout,
and the film is commendably free of a over aggressive grading or weird lighting choices (there's one raucous party that is the exception to this rule, but
detail levels are rather surprisingly strong even in that sequence).
Note: I had one kind of odd thing happen as I was checking out special features on this disc: at one point, the disc returned to the main
menu montage, but there were no menu options, just the underlying imagery. I had to stop the disc and reboot it to get things to return to normal
(meaning I had to go through the endless Lionsgate masthead, FBI warnings and the like).
Jexi features an effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that tends to provide the most noticeable immersion in some of the outdoor scenes, as in a kickball event Phil attends with his new co-worker BFFs. That said, a lot of the film takes place in smaller scale settings where surround activity can tend to be relatively tamped down. Dialogue, effects and score are all rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.
I hadn't really heard much about Jexi before watching it, and I was kind of surprised in doing some research after I watched it that it had failed so spectacularly at the box office and with the critical masses. This is certainly no masterpiece, but it made me laugh more consistently than some much higher profile supposed comedies over the past few months have. If you're a fan of the co-writer and co-directors' previous films The Hangover and/or Bad Moms, you're probably going to be in tune enough with the comedic sensibility here to enjoy Jexi despite its flaws. Fans of the cast may consider this an agreeable enough time passer as well, and for those who are considering a purchase, technical merits are solid.
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