7 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Joanna Stayton is a super-rich spoiled brat, over-bored you might say. Dean Proffitt is a struggling carpenter who should know how to handle brats since he raised four of them. One night Goldie goes overboard on her yacht, loses her memory, and winds up in Dean's world. Then the sparks begin to fly.
Starring: Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Edward Herrmann, Katherine Helmond, Mike HagertyComedy | 100% |
Romance | 57% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
English, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Garry Marshall is one of the old school comedy giants of Hollywood, a man whose work in television goes back to such stalwart series as The Dick Van Dyke Show and Make Room for Daddy. Marshall of course went on to great renown for his efforts on Happy Days, and was able to move into feature films starting with several efforts that ran the gamut from parodies like Young Doctors in Love to more critically acclaimed, if financially disappointing, outings like Nothing in Common, until he was accepted as a bona fide A-lister with Pretty Woman in 1990. In fact, as is to be expected in a career as long lived and far reaching as Marshall’s has been, there’s actually a rather wide disparity in quality in a lot of Marshall’s output. For every television classic, there’s the haunting memory of Me and the Chimp. And in films, Marshall’s best work has sometimes been eclipsed by lighter fare that actually plays more like a television sitcom. That’s exactly what viewers should expect, and what they get, in Overboard, an okay, and often enjoyable, romp with Goldie Hawn as an amnesiac rich bitch who is given her comeuppance by the carpenter she’s recently fired, played by Hawn’s real life main squeeze Kurt Russell. There’s nothing very remarkable about Overboard, but it delivers a few laughs and is easy to take as it meanders its way to its expected happy ending.
Glub, glub, glub. Overboard was never a particularly attractive film to begin with, and aside from receiving an anamorphic transfer on this new Blu-ray, there's unfortunately not a lot of good news about this AVC encoded transfer in 1080p and 1.85:1. While this print doesn't have the egregious damage that the previous SD-DVD exhibited, there are still occasional flecks and speckles. The worst thing about this transfer is the overwhelming grain which devolves at times into digital noise, which crops up especially in exterior shots of Dean's dilapidated house. The initial shots of this house in midrange almost look like a swarm of insects are covering it, and strange as it may seem, every midrange shot of the house for the entire film suffers from this same anomaly. Colors are okay, nothing more, with adequate but far from eye-popping saturation. The overall look of the film is depressingly soft and mushy, with less than crisp contrast and unstable black levels. Yes, it's a step up from previous home video releases, but really not by much, aside from its correct aspect ratio.
No surround mix here, but a perfectly serviceable lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix makes the most of the ubiquitous source cues and live music performances which fill the film. Dialogue and underscore are both handled very well, and the frequent ambient environmental sound effects are also well mixed and offered with good fidelity here. Everything is easy to hear, albeit almost resolutely placed front and center for the bulk of the film. Even for a stereo mix, this is a fairly narrow soundfield, with very few if any discretely directional effects placed throughout the movie. Dynamic range is excellent, and the low end on the film is surprisingly robust, adding a bit of sonic "oomph" to the proceedings.
Only the Theatrical Trailer is included as an extra, and in fact this budget priced release does not even sport a main menu. The film loops back to the beginning after it ends.
Overboard is enjoyable enough if taken on its own unambitious terms. Hawn is a hoot, especially in the opening scenes, and she and Russell have great on screen chemistry. The film itself is a mishmash, a sort of warmed over sitcom that has just a hint of the smarmy in its main conceit. This Blu-ray transfer has a pretty shoddy looking image, but fans of the film will probably delight that at least it's framed correctly in this presentation. If you're a Hawn or Russell fan, you could do worse than to spend a couple of hours with this film, but it's certainly no masterpiece.
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