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WARNER

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Todd Strauss-Schulson
Cast:
Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam Devine
Writing Credits:
Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, Katie Silberman

Synopsis:
A young woman disenchanted with love mysteriously finds herself trapped inside a romantic comedy.

Box Office:
Opening Weekend
$14,247,758 on 3444 screens.
Domestic Gross
$48,791,187.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
English Descriptive Audio
French Dolby 5.1
Latin Spanish Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Latin Spanish
French
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
French
Latin Spanish

Runtime: 88 min.
Price: $35.99
Release Date: 5/21/2019

Bonus:
• ”I Wanna Dance” Featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Previews
• DVD Copy


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

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-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


Isn't It Romantic [Blu-Ray] (2019)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (May 22, 2019)

For a spoof of the rom-com genre, we go to 2019’s Isn’t It Romantic. As a child, Natalie (Alexandra Kis) adores Pretty Woman and allows the film to inspire her own fantasies.

However, her mother (Jennifer Saunders) stomps on those dreams, as she tells Natalie that plain, overweight girls like her don’t get to live out those romances. As a result, adult Natalie (Rebel Wilson) rejects love and she especially hates all the clichés of rom-coms.

When a mugger tries to rob her on a subway platform, Natalie bangs her head against a pole and knocks herself unconscious. When she awakes, she finds herself in an idealized world that offers the distinct scent of a romantic comedy.

Thus Natalie finds herself in a strange environment where absurdly handsome Blake (Liam Hemsworth) immediately falls in love with her and other tropes abound. Natalie needs to figure out how to work her way back to the real world.

Romantic hit screens precisely five days after What Men Want, a film that doesn’t seem terribly similar on first glance. While Romantic brings a “PG-13” parody of rom-coms, Want offers a raunchy “R”-rated look at the battle between the sexes.

However, the two boast a slew of similarities. Both take place under magical circumstances, and both heroines enter the fantasy side of the story due to head injuries.

Other parallels exist, but the most problematic one relates to the promotion of these films. As I complained when I reviewed Want, all its amusing moments showed up in its trailers, and unfortunately, the same goes for Romantic.

At least Want used alternate lines for its promos. Viewers who saw the trailers knew the situations and kind of jokes, but they got fresh dialogue.

No such bonus occurs in Romantic, so audience members will already be aware of all the potentially entertaining bits. With those exhausted, the film can’t find much to add to the equation.

Romantic exists as a “high concept” tale, essentially a parody of rom-coms with something of a Groundhog Day feel attached. No, Natalie doesn’t relive the same day, but ala the 1993 classic’s lead, she needs to figure out the secret way to escape her magical prison.

Groundhog Day did so with wit and cleverness, but Romantic couldn’t clever its way out of a paper bag – at least beyond its basic premise. The way in which the film turns rom-com tropes into literal reality offers promise.

However, as noted, once you see the trailer, you’ve seen all the creative moments you’ll find. With that ammo expended, Romantic takes the easy way out the rest of the time.

This means that a movie that aims to spoof rom-coms instead really becomes a rom-com – and not a very good one at that. Oh, it throws in a minor twist at the end that it steals from Frozen, but otherwise, the film often feels less like a parody and more like a run of the mill romantic comedy.

Honestly, I find it tough to locate anything noteworthy about the film. It comes with a decent cast, though I admit I continue to dislike Adam Devine. He seems less objectionable here than usual, but he just lacks the charm to pull off roles like he should.

As similar as they are, Romantic beats What Men Want in one way: running time. While Want clocked in close to two hours, Romantic wraps in a tidy 88 minutes.

And I thank whatever deity you choose for that, as a two-hour version of Romantic would’ve caused me to consider self-harm. A film without much cleverness, charm or wit, Romantic runs out of steam after a short period of time. It’s a dull, witless affair that falls far short of its goals.


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B-/ Bonus D+

Isn’t It Romantic appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a satisfactory presentation.

Overall sharpness seemed solid. A couple of wide shots looked a smidgen soft, but those were the exception to the rule, as the majority of the flick was accurate and detailed.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I noticed no edge haloes. Source flaws were absent, as the movie looked consistently clean.

Like most films of this sort, Romantic gave us an amber-tinted palette. Some teal appeared as well, but the golden feel dominated. Within those parameters, the hues were positive.

Blacks seemed deep and dark, while shadows showed good smoothness and clarity. I felt happy with the transfer.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Romantic, it lacked a ton of ambition. The soundfield focused on music and ambience, though it opened up on occasion, mainly in terms of party or street atmosphere. Nothing especially memorable occurred, though.

Audio quality was fine. Speech seemed natural and concise, without edginess or other issues.

Music offered good clarity and range, and effects worked well enough. They didn’t have much to do, but they appeared reasonably accurate. All of this ended up as a perfectly satisfactory soundtrack for this sort of movie.

A featurette called I Wanna Dance runs four minutes, 35 seconds and includes notes from director Todd Strauss-Schulson and actors Rebel Wilson, Adam Devine, and Priyanka Chopra.

“Dance” looks at elements connected to the movie’s big production numbers. Though we get some decent notes, this remains a pretty puffy piece.

Four Deleted Scenes fill a total of six minutes, 40 seconds. We get a twist on the standard “trying on clothes” montage, more of the initial date between Natalie and Blake, additional exposition between Natalie and Donny, and added discussion about Josh and Isabella. These tend to satisfy minor story beats but not much more.

The disc opens with ads for The Sun Is Also A Star and Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. No trailer for Romantic appears here.

A second disc presents a DVD copy of Romantic. It includes the featurette but not the deleted scenes.

As a genre parody, Isn’t It Romantic shows promise – for about its first five minutes. After that, it soon embraces that what it claims to mock and becomes an idiotic, irritating waste of space. The Blu-ray provides very good picture, adequate audio and minor supplements. Romantic gives us a thoroughly awful experience.

Viewer Film Ratings: 2 Stars Number of Votes: 1
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