6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
As an asteroid nears Earth, a man finds himself alone after his wife leaves in a panic. He decides to take a road trip to reunite with his high school sweetheart. Accompanying him is a neighbor who inadvertently puts a wrench in his plan.
Starring: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Connie Britton, Adam Brody, Rob CorddryRomance | 100% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
What are your plans for the evening of December 20 this year? Will you be partying hearty, or anxiously watching a
clock’s hands tick the seconds by until the fateful moment of midnight arrives? Yes, folks, the latest apocalypse
we’ve all been facing is quickly approaching, this time on December 21, 2012, at least according to those highly
questionable “experts” who insist the ancient Mayans prophesied the end of the world on that day, something that
actual Mayan scholars tend to at the very least dispute vociferously. Those of you who are old enough may recall we
faced another apocalypse as 1999 transitioned to 2000, an epochal change that was supposedly going to send
us back to the stone age due to our collective computers’ inability to process the transformation to a new millennium,
since the original code writers had only allowed for clocks to deal with years starting with 19. (Isn’t it kind of ironic that
this is more or less the same idea, albeit from a technological standpoint, that informs the current obsession with the
supposed “end” of the Mayan calendar? After all if 19’s can’t roll over to 20’s, doesn’t time just stop?)
All of these real
or imagined worries are perhaps indicative of something buried rather deep in the human consciousness which most
people are loathe to really think about—namely, their own mortality. Suddenly when these (hopefully) faux
apocalypses show up, suddenly there’s a lot of soul searching and introspection going on, at least for those who are
willing to look at their lives and wonder what it’s all been about. That is the major conceit of the often wonderfully
funny Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, the debut directorial effort by Lorene Scafaria, whom some will
recognize as the author of and bit player in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. Scafaria also wrote Seeking a Friend for the End
of the World, and she brings the same native intelligence (and often briskly dark humor) to this project that she
also lent to the previous film. Steve Carell plays doleful insurance salesman Dodge (more about that name later), who
as the film begins is in a car with his wife, listening to a radio announcer calmly inform people that the world is going to
end in about three weeks due to a huge asteroid belt that is rapidly approaching Earth’s direction and which a space
mission has been unable to take out. Dodge’s wife (played by Carell's real-life wife Nancy) takes one look at him after
the announcement and just ups and
leaves the car right there, as if to say “There’s no way I’m spending my last three weeks alive with you.”
That sets the film out on its alternately hysterical and bittersweet journey as Dodge attempts to come to terms not just
with his own impending mortality (as if that weren’t enough), but also several major life choices he’s made through the
years.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Films (and Focus Features) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is an intentionally ironic light and bright presentation for the most part, one that travels the highways and byways of the eastern United States and presents one picturesque home after another, with everything popping quite brilliantly throughout this high definition outing. Contrast is consistent and solid, helping to prevent any lack of shadow detail when the film does dally in darker environments, and fine object detail is crisply delivered, especially in the film's many close-ups, where you can virtually count the pores in Carell's face at times. Colors are nicely robust and well saturated. There are one or two extremely minor stability issues in some passing shots of cityscapes (notably in the riot sequence), but they're quite negligible in the overall scheme of things.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that is quite subtle most of the time, but which is nonetheless highly effective and surprisingly immersive. The vast bulk of this film plays out in quieter dialogue scenes, with the majority of those being between Carell and Knightley, and as should be expected, those sound just fine, with absolute clarity and precision. What may surprise some listeners is how vivid the soundscape becomes in at least a couple of sequences. The riot scene is awash in great crowd noises spilling through the surrounds, and some equally great discrete channelization of dialogue as Carell and Knightley run panicked through the streets. The film's denouement (which I won't spoil for those who haven't yet seen it) also has some extremely effective sound design, including some aggressive LFE. The film's source cues (which include the repeated use of "This Guy's in Love With You", Herb Alpert's stab at vocalizing from 1968) also sound great.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is devastatingly funny at times, but it's a humor tinged with an overall melancholy, perhaps one reason some critics didn't really cotton to this piece. I personally found it absolutely wonderful for the most part, a near pitch perfect examination of two lost souls realizing they don't have much time to gain equilibrium, for better or worse. Those with a jaded sense of humor will probably get more of a kick out of this film than others who might want something less intentionally ironic, but for cynics like myself, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World comes Highly recommended.
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