5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
When a college piano prodigy tries to check his mother into rehab, he is taken hostage by her drug dealer and swept along on a wild adventure.
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Melissa Leo, Tracy Morgan, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Paul CalderonComedy | 100% |
Drama | 47% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
There are indie dysfunctional family "dramadies" that earn their quirks—Little Miss Sunshine, say—and others that put on airs of oddness, trying hard to seem original but coming off as derivative and too-cutesy. Why Stop Now drops with an empty thud into the latter category. Co- written and directed by screenplay veteran Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia, The Painted Veil) and newcomer Phil Dorsling, the film is an expansion of their 2008 short, "Predisposed," and like many festival shorts stretched out to feature-length, the expansion spreads the movie's ideas too thin.
Shot on 35mm, Why Stop Now retains its natural filmic look on Blu-ray, with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that shows no obvious signs of digital noise reduction or edge enhancement. While not the most dazzling high definition picture you'll see this year, the image has a strong sense of overall clarity—with visible skin and clothing textures—and colors that are dense and nicely saturated. There are no glaring compression or encode problems to report.
The film arrives on Blu-ray with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that's functional and unobtrusive. You can expect a modicum of ambience from the rear speakers—party clamor, wet acoustics in the recital hall, light outdoorsy noises, etc.—but the focus here is on the dialogue, which is always clean, balanced, and easily understood. In the background, composer Spencer David Hutchings' score prods the vehicle along with suitable clarity and expressiveness. The disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
Boasting an impressive cast—Jesse Eisenberg, Tracy Morgan, and Melissa Leo—Why Stop Now is interesting on paper but utterly forgettable in execution, a me-too dysfunctional family movie that's unable to strike a good balance between comedy and real feeling. Skip it, or—if you must—rent it.
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