6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
Chicago Sun Times copy editor Josie Gellar (25), who was desperate to graduate from perfectionist copy editor to reporter, gets her chance when the goody owner orders the editor to cover the high-school scene by undercover. Josie, who was a frustrated, ridiculed nerd, gets a popular make-over from her drop-out, naturally funny brother Rob Geller. Both siblings find love and joys of youth again. But in Josie's case, it's sensitive bachelor teacher Sam Coulson, who enjoys sophisticated conversation. As the publication deadline approaches, the price of blowing their cover seems ever more daunting, yet inevitable unless she sacrifices her career.
Starring: Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Michael Vartan, Molly Shannon, Allen CovertComedy | 100% |
Romance | 75% |
Teen | 29% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.42:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: DTS 5.1
German: DTS 5.1
Italian: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Korean: Dolby Digital 2.0
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Turkish: Dolby Digital Mono
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: DTS 5.1
Japanese only available on Japanese menus setting.
English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Indonesian, Italian, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Turkish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Never Been Kissed is three films in one. A kind of rom-com holy trinity, if you will. First and foremost, it borrows the very 21 Jump Street-ish plot of having a young-looking twentysomething go undercover in high school to get the scoop on illegal activities perpetrated by the cool kids. Following from that, it takes an ugly-duckling-finally-becomes-a-swan arc and then crash lands in forbidden student/teacher romance territory. So, there you go. Three films for the price of one. Unfortunately, they’re three films we’ve seen many times before, and cramming them together into a single story only reinforces how unoriginal the entire effort is. Not that we expect most rom-coms to be original. This is the genre for which the term “formulaic” was practically invented after all, but still--these kinds of films need something to differentiate themselves from one another. (Let’s face it, their pithy, too-cute titles all start to bleed together after a while.) Never Been Kissed does have one thing going for it--Drew Barrymore, whose company, Flower Films, also produced the movie. She’s warm, funny, and energetic, not to mention the rare leading lady who’s willing to be self-deprecating for a laugh. Is it enough? Not really. Never Been Kissed has its momentary charms, but like most rom-coms from the late 1990s, it has definitely aged awkwardly.
LOSER
All of these late 1990s/early 00's rom-com reissues from 20th Century Fox have a similar look on Blu-ray; they get a modest bump in picture quality compared to their DVD counterparts, but probably not enough to warrant an upgrade unless you're a serious fan. That certainly goes for Never Been Kissed, which sports a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's suitably colorful and resolved without ever really wowing. I'm sure it has more to do with the source material than the transfer, but the picture is rarely sharp sharp; more often than not it sits in the middle ground, clarity-wise, neither particularly crisp nor especially murky. Even in close-ups, there's rarely a sense of finely resolved details and textures. Color is warm, though--usually suffused with a slight yellowish cast--skin tones are natural, and black levels/contrast are balanced well. The positive here is that the film has been treated faithfully--there are no signs of excessive DNR, edge enhancement, or other forms of filtering. You might notice some light noise mixed in with the visible grain structure, but there are no real compression issues or encode quirks. The print is clean too, with only a few errant white specks throughout the runtime.
The soundtrack also gets a modest boost by way of a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. We're in rom-com land, so don't expect action movie levels of sonic excitement, but the mix does a decent enough job of aurally conveying the film's hijinks and pop tunes. The real channels are used occasionally for quiet ambience--nightclub clamor, classroom chatter, etc.--but you'll hear little in the way of directional effects. The biggest use of the rear speakers is in giving some breathing room for the soundtrack, which consists of songs from Cyndi Lauper, De La Soul, Madonna, and others. Some of the music has a wide dynamic range, with bass interaction and clean highs, but most of the rest of the sound mix sits squarely in the middle range. Dialogue throughout is clean and easy to understand. The disc includes a large assortment of dubs and subtitle options; see above for details.
The lone bonus feature on the disc is a 2-minute theatrical trailer, in standard definition.
Never Been Kissed is a serviceable rom-com, light on laughs but filled with a kind of lovable good-naturedness thanks to the glowing Drew Barrymore and her highly pinch-able cheeks. Unless you're some sort of die-hard romantic comedy fan I don't really see any reason to upgrade from the DVD--the 1080p transfer is merely so-so, and there are no extras on the disc to speak of--but if you don't own the film yet and you want to, the Blu-ray is definitely your best bet.
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