Side Out Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		1.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Side Out Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 9, 2022

Side Out is an agreeable little slice of 90s nostalgia, a film about life, love, and beach volleyball, presenting all three in surprisingly balanced fashion. The sun and sand and sportsmanship of beach volleyball certainly serve as the binding background, but the larger themes of family relationships, friendships, romances, and even dignity and doing what is right come to ultimately define the picture. This may not be a narrative, dramatic, or even beach movie classic, but it is an agreeably pleasant and still satisfying time capsule of a film that is set in simpler times but also reveals how the core of the human condition has really not changed in the thirty-plus years since its release.

Midwesterner Monroe Clark (C. Thomas Howell) moves to California in order to begin a new law career working for his uncle, Max (Terry Kiser). But rather than courtroom glory, he finds himself performing menial, but dangerous, tasks: serving eviction notices to overdue renters in some of the poorer communities. However, more than work, Monroe finds himself drawn to the beach scene, and the women in particular. One day, he's charged with serving notice to Zack Barnes (Peter Horton). The two of course do not hit it off right away, but they do hit one another in a barroom brawl. Meanwhile, Monroe has decided to take up beach volleyball alongside his new friend Wiley Hunter (Christopher Rydell). As he becomes more engrossed in the beach volleyball scene, he finds that his relationship with Zack slowly evolves in a positive way. Meanwhile, Monroe finds himself pining for local beauty Samantha (Courtney Thorne-Smith).

While Side Out has nothing particularly new or noteworthy on offer, the film does slide into that "comfortable" cinema category as it arranges its pieces with easygoing simplicity but also sustainable complexity. No, this will not change lives or shed light into life's big questions, but Writer David Thoreau and Director Peter Israelson nicely balance all the elements and arrange a movie that is enjoyably paced and with just enough narrative engagement and character depth, advancement, and interest to hold serve, so to speak. Altogether the result is an enjoyable film that finds structural rhythm in the balance and should please most audiences looking for something simple but not so simplistic as to lose all charm and sense of purpose.

In a movie like this it's vital that the cast looks good, and they look great. Everybody, and ever body, is beach ready: girls in bikinis and topless guys abound, and the hair is definitely 90s. But the cast is not just about the look. The actors get to the character essences, which may be shallow and rather fruitless when it's all said and done, but the cast does well to inject some necessary depth and personality into what could have been otherwise robotic, stock characters, which they would have been in a lesser film. In fact, it's the acting and the care and attention to detail that plays a big part in bringing Side Out to the land of cinema respectability rather than see it languish as some forgettable B-grade time waster (and there is no shortage of cheesy throwaway beach movies out there). This one's actually pretty good. It's too bad the Blu-ray doesn't look better with a video presentation befitting the film...

Side Out Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Goodness gracious. What a mess! Mill Creek brings Side Out to Blu-ray with a horrible 1080p transfer that challenges atrocious releases like The Freshman and Like Father Like Son for the title of "worst of the worst." Compression artifacts are presented in extreme density, defining the whole experience. Every element is little more than murky and chunky assault of compressed nastiness where every element -- faces, clothes, building, the beach -- are reduced to globs of digital morass. And when they are not, the wayward grain appears in full force with unnaturally sloppy, messy, and grossly processed output. This is a hideous image, and these complaints do not even touch on edge enhancement, poor detail and a general sense of softness, and terribly flat colors. Even the bright 90s tones which should leap off the screen are subdued and depressed, failing to offer more than cursory vitality and certainly no depth, nuance, or realism. Add in a fairly steady barrage of pops and speckles, and the image is practically unbearable beginning to end.

Side Out Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack proves its core value from the opening seconds. The track is very wide, and clarity is impressively good. The score is faithfully detailed and wide, effortlessly stretching to the furthest reaches across the front. Popular songs are likewise satisfying, well-spaced, and clear, certainly lacking that lifelike presence but doing well to fill up the front with good basic characteristics. Din on the beach is handled adequately, again with good space but lacking that transparent, full realism, due in large part to the limited nature of the original source material. Expect the track to lack the immersive fullness that would be found with a native 5.1 track and superior audio engineering. Dialogue is clear, not always center focused and sometimes a little tinny/metallic, but for the most part very serviceable overall, much like the track in its entirety.

Side Out Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are included with this Blu-ray release of Side Out. The main menu screen offers only options to play the film and toggle subtitles on and off. This release does ship with the studio's popular "retro VHS"-style slipcover that mimics the look of a rental box and video tape from the 1980s.

Side Out Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Side Out isn't a bad little movie, but this is a bad little Blu-ray. Its best quality is its two-channel lossless audio, which is merely adequate. There are no extras, and the video quality is...how to say it politely...not good. Skip it (even a decent-to-middling video presentation would have earned it a nice little recommendation, but the PQ is just too bad to warrant the purchase price. Maybe Sony will come to the rescue as it did with Like Father Like Son).