5.1 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Two best friends -- one unlucky-in-love divorcee and the other a fun-loving bachelor -- have their lives turned upside down when they're unexpectedly charged with the care of 7-year-old twins while on the verge of the biggest business deal of their lives. The not-so-kid-savvy bachelors stumble in their efforts to take care of the twins, leading to one debacle after another, and perhaps to a new-found understanding of what's really important in life.
Starring: John Travolta, Robin Williams, Kelly Preston, Conner Rayburn, Ella Bleu TravoltaFamily | 100% |
Comedy | 97% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (1 BD, 2 DVDs)
Digital copy (on disc)
DVD copy
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
I don't profess to be a young man. Young at heart, maybe, but the gray snaking its way across my thirty-one-year old scalp and the grooves forming along my world-weathered brow suggest otherwise. Still, I'd like to think my taste in film is continually evolving; that, unlike my parents (who recently began draping bedsheets on their furniture), I'll never find pleasure in the inane antics and desperate humor of a comedy like Old Dogs, a clumsy alpha male in a new breed of "family film" that's neither appropriate for the whole family or particularly funny. Its convoluted setup is both ludicrous and derivative, its characters are contrived and terribly unlikable, and its wince-inducing gags -- heeeeelarious sequences involving drug trips, black-face, virtual reality misadventures, dying pups, Asian stereotyping, homosexual innuendo, and medical mishaps, among other less-mentionables -- are stranded in a strange PG-rated wasteland where laughs and good taste are scarce. Rightfully panned by critics, thankfully ignored by most viewers, Old Dogs should have been put down long before it limped into theaters.
I feel a montage coming on...
Overzealous contrast leveling and bronzed skintones notwithstanding, Old Dogs bumbles onto Blu-ray with a fit and faithful 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. Jeffrey Kimball's spray-on-tan palette, while far from beautiful, is accurately preserved with vibrant colors, flashy primaries, and deep, well-resolved blacks. His searing skies come dangerously close to assaulting the proceedings, but it all works well within the exaggerated confines of Becker's chummy comedy. More importantly, detail remains strong throughout. Edge definition is clean and satisfying, textures are sharp and refined (particularly during closeups), and delineation, though a bit unforgiving, is fairly revealing (minus a few scenes set in a dimly lit apartment). Witness the ravines that form along Williams' forehead, the tidy stitches on Travolta's suits, and the bristling fur on Green's gorilla. Some soft shots sneak in, sure, but each instance should be attributed to Kimball's original photography, not Disney's technical transfer. Likewise, source noise appears on occasion (a nighttime pan of the city is especially problematic), but artifacting, banding, aliasing, crush, edge enhancement, DNR, and other pesky nonsense is nowhere to be found. All things considered, Old Dogs looks as good as it should, and fans will be pleased with the results.
The same applies to Old Dogs' bombastic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. While the film's lumbering, blunt-force-trauma sound design didn't do much to win me over, Disney's lossless outing is commendable, powerful even, and continually gets the job done. Dialogue is crisp, intelligible, and nicely prioritized; LFE output lends weight and heft to every pratfall, jetpack, and exploding clay pigeon; and aggressive rear speaker support effectively spreads lunging penguins and noisy crowds around the film's already convincing soundfield. Moreover, directionality is precise (despite its artificial nature), dynamics are punchy, and pans are breezy and smooth. Inherent issues limit the impact of the experience -- John Debney's music is often either overbearing or underwhelming, and sound effects have been beefed up to heighten the gags they accompany -- but again, that's the nature of the genre beast. I doubt anyone will bemoan the technical quality of Disney's track, even if the soundscape it presents is primed to induce migraines. Suffice to say, the more you enjoy the film, the more you'll adore this Master Audio mix.
Whether you enjoyed the film or shook your head through every minute, Old Dogs' supplemental package isn't going to make Disney's chunky 3-disc release any more appealing. A filmmakers' commentary shows promise, but tanks in the first three minutes, and little else improves matters. Ah well, all of the special features are presented in high definition, so I suppose that's a plus.
It's fitting that Seth Green, trembling in the brawny embrace of an overly affectionate gorilla, has become the poster boy for the film's marketing campaign. I too felt trapped in the cumbersome grip of a rampaging animal; in my case the unwieldy, contrived, tasteless comedy that is Old Dogs. Oh well, at least Disney's AV presentation is on point. The Blu-ray edition boasts a snazzy video transfer and an able-bodied DTS-HD Master Audio track. If the studio's 3-disc release had a decent supplemental package, one that offered more than a dull commentary and a shortlist of expendable features, I might be suitably impressed. As it stands though, great picture and sound can't save Old Dogs from itself. Give it a rent if you must, just consider yourself warned.
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25th Anniversary Edition | Remastered
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