5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.4 |
Unemployed and newly-divorced Stephanie Plum lands a job at her cousin's bail-bond business, where her first assignment puts her on the trail of a wanted local cop from her romantic past.
Starring: Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara, Daniel Sunjata, John Leguizamo, Sherri ShepherdComedy | 100% |
Romance | 72% |
Crime | 4% |
Action | 3% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy (as download)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The last couple of years haven’t been especially auspicious for films dealing with bounty hunters. The inventively named The Bounty Hunter paired Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler as squabbling exes who were supposedly comically brought together when Butler’s character, a hapless bail enforcement agent, was charged with tracking down Aniston’s character, an investigative reporter who skipped a bond hearing on a minor charge in order to pursue a lead. Results were tepid at best, though the film managed to rake in considerable dough, probably mostly due to the star power of its lead duo. Now we have One for the Money, a film which posits Katherine Heigl and Jason O’Mara as (guess what?) squabbling exes (more or less) who are supposedly comically brought together when Heigl’s character Stephanie Plum, a down on her luck lingerie saleswoman begs for work at her cousin Vinnie’s skip tracing firm, and ends up getting the plumb (pun intended) assignment of bringing in her long ago boyfriend Joe Morelli (O’Mara), a cop who is wanted for apparently having shot an unarmed man. The one remarkable thing about One for the Money, which is otherwise a pretty relentlessly unremarkable film, is that it is based on a hugely successful franchise of novels by Janet Evanovich, one that would seem to be tailor made for a lighter than air series of crime thrillers featuring an inexperienced (and often inept) investigator who more or less stumbles into catching the bad guys. One for the Money was evidently optioned years ago and spent many a moon in development hell, and some wags might aver it may have needed a bit more time there to bake more fully, for while not an out and out disaster, the film is notably lacking in thrills or breeziness, two elements which regularly inform Evanovich’s writing.
One for the Money is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. This is generally a very sharp and appealing high definition presentation that offers some great location shots (Pittsburgh filling in rather surprisingly well for Trenton, New Jersey), and some good use of low key but effective interiors. The image boasts excellent clarity and even dimly lit scenes have very good shadow detail with little if any noticeable crush. There are occasional niggling artifacts that pop up, including some incipient aliasing and moiré on some of the car grilles, but otherwise this is a pleasing looking transfer that offers crisp, accurate and nicely saturated color, excellent fine detail, and an overall sharp and clear look that preserves a nicely cinematic feel, including natural grain structure.
One for the Money's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 performs exceedingly well throughout the film, capturing the movie's smaller scale dialogue driven scenes impeccably well and then upping the ante with some fantastic immersion and floorboard shaking LFE in some of the film's action sequences. Surround activity is quite consistent in these action sequences, with excellent use of surround channels to establish some nicely evocative sonic situations (the boxing gym is especially good in this regard). Gunshots zoom through the soundfield with appropriate aplomb, and fidelity is also top notch with regard to the film's score and source cues.
One for the Money is an odd case of having a lot of winning attributes, but never really gelling into anything that is remotely as entertaining as it should be. Heigl is an appealing performer, and she does decent enough work here establishing Stephanie Plum's pluck as well as her inherent incompetence, but the scheme Stephanie is assigned to uncover never really bristles with danger or excitement the way it should. There's simply not enough atmosphere of menace in this film to carry its supposed thriller elements along, which leaves One for the Money clinging tenuously to its comedic side, something it just barely manages to do. Evanovich fans may get more of a kick out of this offering than the public at large, but this is one of those "surefire" properties that pretty much misses the bullseye (much like Stephanie's own shooting skills). The Blu-ray offers superior video and audio, and an okay assortment of supplements. Fans may want to purchase it as a blind buy, but others would probably do best to check it out as a rental first.
2010
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2012
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