Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

You, Me and Dupree Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf June 23, 2014

2006’s “You, Me and Dupree” arrived in theaters during a time when Owen Wilson could do little wrong. Graduating from Wes Anderson appearances to major studio films, Wilson was coming off such smashes as “Wedding Crashers” and “Meet the Fockers,” with hungry studios eager to build comedic vehicles for the star. While enthusiasm was pure, quality was lacking. “You, Me and Dupree” is perhaps the worst of the bunch, and not because it’s offensive or simply unfunny, it just doesn’t even try to be anything but a predictable comedy lacking the energy to color outside the lines. And there’s Wilson in the middle of the malarkey, trying to whine and wince his way around material that never had a pulse to begin with. Perhaps the production was launched with good intentions, but it lands with a tremendous thud.

It’s a special time for newlyweds Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson). After enjoying a wonderful wedding in Hawaii, the pair settle into their life together, with Carl taking on additional responsibilities at his land developer job, with boss, and Molly’s father, Bob (Michael Douglas), watching him closely. In need of help is Dupree (Owen Wilson), Carl’s affable but careless best friend who’s recently found himself homeless and jobless. Welcoming his pal into his house, Carl is hoping that Dupree will be inspired to change his life, while Molly is hesitant to embrace the weirdo, finding his presence causing strife in her marriage. While Carl suffers at work, Dupree alternates between ambition and destruction, ignoring adulthood for as long as possible before his buddy completely loses his patience.

The key question that needs to be asked about “You, Me and Dupree” concerns the houseguest of the title. Is he a buffoon? A harmless ne’er-do-well? Or is Dupree a genuine monster out to dismantle Carl’s life? He’s a bit of everything, but the screenplay by Michael LeSieur treats the character as a lovable teddy bear who exists in a man-child fantasy where good intentions are all that counts and children are his social and intellectual equals. Trouble is, Dupree isn’t cute, he’s mentally unstable, refusing of learning from his mistakes or recognize how his actions hurt others. During the course of the movie, Dupree disrupts Carl’s marriage, burns down part of his house, and intentionally botches vocational opportunities to secure a leisurely life for himself. It’s difficult to laugh at such a damaged, mean-spirited individual, especially when Wilson flips on the high beams of quirk, laboring to transform the transient’s habitual boobery into endearment.

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo don’t exactly help the cause, masterminding depressingly repetitive slapstick sequences that reinforce Dupree’s stupidity and general tactless demeanor (he’s eventually busted masturbating in Carl’s living room). Seth Rogen also appears as another of Carl’s friends, only instead of being charmingly hopeless, this guy is completely submissive to his overbearing harpy of a wife, encouraging a string of jokes concerning his desperation to live life to the fullest, only to be shut down by his nagging spouse. If this were 1956, maybe the premise would’ve worked. The Russo Brothers bring little verve to the picture, relying on Wilson to nail punchlines and physical comedy, while Dillon is also offered room to be silly, which isn’t his forte. Hudson is eye candy, not a character, with more attention paid to her rear end than Molly’s genuine feelings about Dupree. And there’s Douglas, who’s the only real spark of the feature, but the writing doesn’t match his charisma, trying to sell the creepiness of Bob’s repeated attempts to emasculate his son-in-law, including a scheme to persuade Carl to get a vasectomy, thus preventing Molly from having his child, possibly triggering their divorce. Oof.

There’s also an entire subplot concerning Dupree’s love for Lance Armstrong that takes on a whole new meaning in 2014. The goon worships the disgraced cyclist, trying to live by Armstrong’s motivational words and match his inspirational life. I’m not criticizing “You, Me and Dupree” for such a fixation, only to note that it’s fascinating to see how times have changed. Perhaps the screenplay could’ve used a few shots of performance enhancing drugs before cameras rolled.

You, Me and Dupree Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation is above average for a Universal catalog title, with only a minor amount of filtering detected. It's a sharp viewing experience. Detail actually survives throughout, with welcome textures on faces (the contours of Wilson's nose really pop here) and costuming, and interior activity also brings out particulars in set dressing. Colors are bright and crisp, with rich primaries that capture vivid blue skies and red clothing, and the opening scenes in Hawaii carry a lush sense of greenery. Skintones are correct. Blacks are in good shape, largely avoiding crush as distances are preserved, and contrast is reasonably consistent, with a few mildly muddy passages.

You, Me and Dupree Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix shows some welcome heft, offering a basic but enveloping sense of atmospherics, with neighborhood activity contributing to some mild directional movement, along with golf swings and speeding cars. Soundtrack selections sound full and fresh, with sharp instrumentation that creates mood without distortion. Dialogue exchanges are sharp and accurate, managing extremes in temper quite well, while the group dynamic during "Guys Night" excursions is satisfactorily separated. Low-end isn't taxed in full, but what's here is tasteful, adding some rumble to airplane flybys and bass-heavy music.

You, Me and Dupree Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary #1 features director Anthony and Joe Russo.

• Commentary #2 features producer Scott Stuber and screenwriter Michael LeSieur.

• Alternate Ending (1:04, SD) offers closure for Rogen's character, also supplying a slightly less frenzied resolution for Dupree. It can be viewed with or without commentary from Anthony and Joe Russo.

• Deleted Scenes (6:18, SD) are brief snippets of comedy, displaying Dupree's bargaining technique at an airport ticket desk, Carl's enthusiasm for his Bruce Lee Poster, Molly's realization that Carl and Dupree are idiots, and Bob's continued evisceration of Carl's building project. They can be viewed with or without commentary from Anthony and Joe Russo.

• "Dupree's Memoirs" (18:32, SD) is a BTS journey broken down into bite-sized pieces of information, focusing on such topics as Hawaiian locations, Lance Armstrong worship, Harry Dean Stanton's cameo, characterization, Asian pornography, and the Joe and Anthony Russo directorial dynamic. Interviews with cast and crew share platitudes and underline the obvious, leaving the informational value of these featurettes minimal, outside of some on-set footage.

• Outtakes (3:52, SD) is a standard collections of mix-em-ups, with emphasis on giggle fits and flubbed lines.

• "Spoof Trailer" (2:07, SD) imagines the movie as a horror film.

• An actual Theatrical Trailer has not been included.

You, Me and Dupree Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There is a happy ending to this debacle, with the Russo Brothers managing to survive "You, Me and Dupree," slipping into lauded television work on shows like "Community" and "Happy Endings," reemerging earlier this year with "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," one of the best superhero movies of the bunch. It's an impressive career turnaround for the duo, who've effectively washed off the stink incurred from this failure, transforming themselves into formidable blockbuster moviemakers. In a movie without jokes, they managed to have the last laugh.