Real Life appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This wound up as a high quality presentation.
Sharpness appeared positive. The movie’s style left us with a handful of slightly fuzzy shots, but the vast majority of the flick boasted positive delineation.
I saw no signs of moiré effects or jagged edges, and edge haloes remained absent. Grain felt appropriate and the image lacked print flaws.
With a natural palette, the film displayed a good array of colors. Nothing here dazzled but the hues seemed appropriate for the movie’s style.
Black levels seemed solid, with dark tones that appeared deep and rich. Low light shots came across as concise. This was a pretty solid image.
As for the LCPM monaural soundtrack of Real Life,I thought the track sounded okay and not much more. Speech showed a little tinniness but remained acceptably distinctive and lacked problems with intelligibility.
Music failed to demonstrate much life. These components were concise and without flaws, but it didn’t show great range.
Effects fell into the same category. Those elements sounded fairly clean and weren’t distorted, but they never stood out as bright or rich. This was a listenable mix with no particular strengths.
How did the Criterion Blu-ray compare to the DVD from 2001? The lossless audio might’ve been a smidgen warmer than the DVD’s lossy track, but the nature of the material didn’t come with lots of room for improvement.
On the other hand, visuals showed a nice step up in quality, as the Blu-ray seemed better defined, cleaner and more vivid than the DVD. This wound up as a very nice upgrade.
A small collection of extras arrives. A new Interview with Writer/Director/Actor Albert Brooks runs 30 minutes, 25 seconds.
This chat offers Brooks’ thoughts about the film’s origins and development, cast and performances, inspirations, some specifics of the production and the movie’s release. Expect a lot of good insights related to the project in this terrific conversation.
Another circa 2024 piece, we find an Interview with Actor Frances Lee McCain. Her discussion goes for 14 minutes, 42 seconds.
McCain talks about her casting and performance as well as working with Brooks and aspects of the project and its shoot. Inevitably, McCain seems less informative than Brooks, but she gives us a good perspective on the film.
We also get the film’s trailer, and it’s a hoot. It consists of footage shot explicitly for the promo – and comes in anaglyph 3D to boot!
I guess – I didn’t dig up those red/blue glasses to test the image. Nonetheless, this becomes one of the funniest trailers I’ve ever seen.
We finish with a booklet that provides credits, art and an essay from critic AS Hamrah. It completes matters on a positive note.
As a spoof of documentaries, Real Life boasts immense potential, and it occasionally proves amusing. However, it seems thin on substance and feels more like a short stretched to feature length than a fully realized project. The Blu-ray offers strong picture, adequate audio along and a handful of bonus materials. Real Life ends up as a spotty comedy.
To rate this film visit the DVD review of REAL LIFE