The Heartbreak Kid Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

The Heartbreak Kid Blu-ray Movie Review

Raunchy fun from the Farrelly Brothers.

Reviewed by Ben Williams December 16, 2008

The Farrelly Brothers have carved out a nice little niche for themselves in Hollywood over the years. Their special brand of over-the-top, broad comedy has earned them critical praise, box office success and their fair share of controversy. Their films manage to combine gross- out humor and great comedic performances with a nice sense of sweetness that has appealed to audiences worldwide. As of late, however, the Farrellys haven’t fared so well at the box- office. Their last several films have been both critical and commercial flops and it seemed as though the brothers had lost their way. The Heartbreak Kid looked to be their big comeback to the comedic heights of such movies as There’s Something About Mary and the underrated Kingpin. Unfortunately, that was not to be and The Heartbreak Kid is perhaps their biggest flop yet. Did audiences and critics miss the mark entirely, or is The Heartbreak Kid really that bad?

Eddie wanders the streets of San Francisco

Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller) runs a successful sporting goods store and lives his life in a constant state of fear over romantic entanglements. All of his friends are married or in relationships and Eddie’s randy father, Doc (Jerry Stiller), continually eggs him on about finding a girlfriend. Along comes Lila (Malin Akerman): a free spirited environmental researcher with a heart of gold. Eddie is smitten with Lila and the pair’s romance blossoms, until, Lila discovers that her job is transferring her out of the country. In a state of panic, Eddie proposes to Lila and the two are quickly wed. Unfortunately for Eddie, Lila begins to display some strange personality traits as the couple head off to Cabo San Lucas for their honeymoon. By the time the two make it to Cabo, it’s clear that Eddie’s new bride is completely insane. To say that Lila has a few personality kinks would be a severe understatement. Eddie immediately starts looking for a way out of his hellish new marriage and happens upon the beautiful and sassy Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), a teacher on vacation with her tight-knit family. Eddie is smitten, but how can he get rid of that pesky new wife of his?

Let’s get this right out of the way: The Heartbreak Kid is not the trainwreck it has been made out to be. In fact, it’s pretty darn hilarious. It is often way over the top, frequently disgusting and consistently full of big laughs. Perhaps audiences were turned off by the film’s gratuitous sex scenes, ample nudity or its reliance on foul-mouthed humor? Or, maybe audiences just didn’t like Ben Stiller’s character. Eddie is not entirely likable in the film as he’s essentially a pathological liar and a complete coward. Whatever the reason, there are things about the film that could easily sway an audience against it. Fortunately, there are enough huge laughs and inspired moments in The Heartbreak Kid to more than make up for any problems an audience might find in the film’s characters or subject matter. Fans of the Farrelly Brothers previous work will, more than likely, be very happy with the film.

It’s important to note that The Heartbreak Kid is not suitable for children, as the movie easily earns its “R” rating . The film is filled with four-letter words, explicit dialogue about sex as well as a pretty surprising amount of nudity. As always, parental guidance is suggested.

The Heartbreak Kid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Heartbreak Kid arrives on Blu-ray sporting a surprisingly exceptional 1080p transfer using the AVC Mpeg-4 compression codec in the film's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The film, despite its lack of success at the box-office, has been given the royal treatment on Blu-ray and this outstanding transfer is vibrant while remaining very film-like. I was immediately impressed with the film's bright color palette as well as the fine level of detail displayed on screen. The Heartbreak Kid benefits from top tier cinematography from Director of Photography Matthew Leonetti. He chose to film in bright, colorful surroundings that bring an excellent sense of depth to the image. Even the film's nighttime scenes are wonderfully lit with an emphasis on washes of color that make up much of the background space in each shot. As is the case with any top tier Blu-ray transfer, The Heartbreak Kid is free from any distracting picture anomalies. It's a very positive sign that Dreamworks has chosen to give a title that had not performed well for them at the box-office such a fine transfer. Highly recommended!

The Heartbreak Kid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Continuing to impress in the quality department, The Heartbreak Kid features a great Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack that eschews the front-loaded design of typical comedies. The Heartbreak Kid actually has quite a bit of surround activity present in this lively and well-recorded mix. Dialogue is perfectly presented without a hair of distortion or hiss while the film's varied soundtrack is nicely positioned within the mix. There is a bit of slapstick present in the film that allows for more frequent use of surround and ambient effects and several sequences involving Eddie's run-ins with the US border patrol often pump up the mix considerably with full-on action-style surround use. It all makes for an inspired and refreshing sound experience that delivers on a level infrequently encountered with comedies. Highly Recommended!

The Heartbreak Kid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Here's what's included:

-Audio Commentary
-"The Farrelly Bros. in the French Tradition"
-"Ben & Jerry"
-"The Egg Toss"
-"Heartbreak Halloween"
-Deleted Scenes
-Gag Reel
-Theatrical Trailer


While not containing the greatest collection of supplements every delivered on video, there are a number of entertaining features contained on this Blu-ray release of The Heartbreak Kid. First up, is the entertaining and informative audio commentary featuring both Peter and Bobby Farrelly. They speak at length on filming the movie while dropping a few choice bits of comedy on their own from time to time. "Ben & Jerry" is a nice, if a bit cheesy, short featuring Ben and Jerry Stiller having a nice father / son chat. Finally, the gag reel offers some awkward and hilarious moments. Other than that, we're left with standard making-of featurettes and a handful of pointless deleted scenes.

The Heartbreak Kid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Heartbreak Kid was a colossal failure at the box-office that lead many pundits to speculate that the Farrelly Brothers' brand of juvenile and gross-out humor was well past its prime. While audiences might not have connected with the movie, I can't help but think that The Heartbreak Kid got a bad rap. It's a funny movie with excellent performances and a nice element of the absurd added in for effect. This Blu-ray edition of the film features stellar audio and video and a somewhat lackluster package of extra features. Ultimately, I recommend The Heartbreak Kid for fans of "R" rated comedy who will appreciate the film's more adult themes and situations. Everyone else might want to take a pass on this one.