Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

They Came Together Blu-ray Movie Review

Stop calling them Shirley.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 29, 2014

Stupid comedy is hard, and stupid spoof comedy is even more difficult. Case in point: perhaps the most iconic stupid spoof comedy of all time, Airplane!. For virtually the entire running time of this beloved film, one juvenile gag after another—some verbal, some physical, all resolutely “dumb”—cascade over each other with frenetic hilarity, leaving some viewers out of breath from laughing. Now, some may argue with the description “stupid” or “dumb”, and by using those terms I intend absolutely no disparagement toward the very smart creatives like the Zucker brothers. But let’s face it—films like Airplane! are not exactly models of Noel Coward levels of wit and sophistication. And that’s part of their allure, isn’t it? They Came Together aims for the giddy heights of Airplane! (as evidenced from several pull quotes slathered across the case of this Blu-ray) but fails to really take flight, despite the promising genre of rom-coms providing grist for the skewering mill, much as disaster films did for Airplane! decades ago. Part of the problem with They Came Together is that the Zuckers set the template so inexorably for this type of parody that David Wain and Michael Showalter (Wet Hot American Summer) struggle to do anything innovative with the genre. Instead, we’re treated to a series of appropriately lame brained gags that sometimes hit their mark, but just as frequently don’t. Results are too haphazard here to ever generate a consistent tone of hilarity, but if accepted on its own slapdash merits, They Came Together offers enough amusement to coast by on, helped immeasurably by the innate charm and charisma of stars Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd.

One gambit that Wain and Showalter indulge in and that is perhaps not completely to the film’s tonal benefit is an incessant “wink” that is aimed rather overtly at the audience by Rudd and Poehler from almost the first scene. Think about Airplane! as a contrast—part of the hilarity of that film is that the dunderheaded characters all exist within the context of the film and never (or at least rarely) come close to anything like breaking the fourth wall. Here in They Came Together the whole set up is like a massive put on from the get go—Joel (Paul Rudd) and Molly (Amy Poehler) are at a dinner with some friends and begin to recount their romantic history, insisting their lives aren’t anything like a rom-com, and then of course proceeding to move through an incessant series of rom-com conventions.

They Came Together doesn’t quite have the breakneck pace of Airplane!, but it makes up for that relative calmness with a kind of manic intensity, where both jokes that fall completely flat and those that actually deliver a solid punchline are delivered with similar gusto. Some of the gags here are just plain weird—why, for example, have Joel and Molly meet cute on Halloween with both of them wearing Ben Franklin costumes? Had that been used in a Zucker brothers film, it would have paid off with some sort of connective gag, but here, it’s—just a gag. Other Zucker-esque comedy is more successful, as when Molly, finally starting to recognize a bit of chemistry with Joel after experiencing hate at first sight, tells him he can’t kiss her because her “Aunt Flo” is visiting. Joel, suitably confused, asks why her being on her period would make any difference, at which point we see there’s an actual matron standing in the corner, Molly’s real life Aunt Flo. Yep, stupid as all get out— but also reasonably funny.

The large and colorful supporting cast includes a sadly underused Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper as the focal couple's dinner mates, as well as everyone from Christopher Meloni as the dimwitted boss at Joel's corporate candy manufacturer to Judge Judy herself, Judith Sheindlin, in a weird but funny cameo. Michael Ian Black has some good moments as the fly in Joel's career ointment, though the character wears out his dubious welcome almost immediately.

Poehler and Rudd are so effortlessly charming here that the film is able to achieve a certain lightness simply due to their participation. But this is not the nonstop laugh-a-thon that Airplane! was (and continues to be). Instead the film almost seems to dissolve into its own genre conventions, getting subsumed by the very “rom-com-ness” it seeks to be making fun of. The Zuckers and their collaborators were no slouches at playing dumb, and in fact that’s what makes so many of their relentlessly silly films so enjoyable. It’s smart stupidity (for want of a better description). Wain and Showalter are perhaps too innately intelligent to simply let the “stupid” completely take over, and so They Came Together only intermittently connects with its inner village idiot. When it does, there are decent if not uproarious laughs to be found. When it doesn’t, the film simply comes off as too smart for its own good.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf had an at least relatively more positive overall reaction to They Came Together during its theatrical release. You can read his review here.

They Came Together Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

They Came Together is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shot digitally with the Arri Alexa, They Came Together is kind of like Molly's little candy shop in the film—bright, colorful and a lot of fun to watch. The palette here is wonderfully varied, with everything from the spun sugar environs of Molly's "Upper Sweet Side" store to the more sleek high tech world of Joel's corporate offices presented with clarity and excellent sharpness and detail. New York is "kind of like another character" (as the stars repeat ad infinitum here), and director Wain and DP Tom Houghton make good use of locations (though some stock footage may have been utilized for a couple of establishing shots). Contrast is strong, helping the film to navigate some of the nighttime and more dimly lit interior shots. There are no issues with artifacting or image instability.

They Came Together Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

They Came Together features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that may surprise some listeners with how relatively restrained it is, especially considering the Manhattan (and environs) locations that play such an important part in the film (almost like another character, have I mentioned that?). That said, there are decent if not overwhelming uses of discrete channelization for some of the urban foley effects, and the good news is that dialogue is always very cleanly presented. Fidelity is fine, though dynamic range is fairly limited.

They Came Together Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director and Co-Writer David Wain and Producer and Co-Writer Michael Showalter. This is a perhaps surprisingly straightforward affair, with relatively little of the raucousness on display that the film itself includes. There's quite a bit of information here on the rather long gestational process, as well as some aspects of the shoot.


• They All Came Together Featurette (1080p; 23:59) is a standard EPK with some enjoyable enough interviews.


• San Francisco Sketchfest Table Read (480i; 1:43:58) is a 2012 table read. Video quality here is middling at best.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:24)


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 34:23)

They Came Together Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I kept waiting for They Came Together to really blast off into the comedic stratosphere, but instead this film simply hovered like an energetic puppy caught in midair as it desperately attempts to get your attention. There's about an evenly split 50/50 ratio here of jokes that land and jokes that just sit there, and my hunch is whether or not you end up really liking this film will have a lot to do with how much you enjoy Poehler and Rudd. While never at the giddy levels of the best Zucker films (and their offspring), They Came Together is reasonably amusing and benefits immensely from the innate charms of its two stars. Technical merits here are generally strong (especially the video), and They Came Together comes Recommended.