|
|
The Movie:
It's a compliment to Sandra Bullock's charm and winning personality that audiences stick with her; she's definitely made some poor choices in the past couple of roles, but never has she made two bad choices in one movie - she both stars in and produced "Gun Shy", an embarassingly unfunny...well, I'm still not sure what to call it. She's a wonderful actress, but role after role recently have fallen quite short.
Liam Neeson(looking embarassed) stars as Charlie, a DEA agent who goes undercover to bust a mobster played by Oliver Platt(who deserves better roles than this). Charlie used to be one of the top agents in the field, but lately, he's been having quite a bit of stress, which has led to stomach problems. He visits a nurse named Judy(Bullock), who tries to cure his stomach problems in a way that I don't even want to get into in this review. Let me just say that it leads to some very stupid jokes.
Of course, the two fall in love. Barely makes any sense, and the two have no chemistry, but with this movie, who cares. The film is a badly edited mess; it goes from bad comedy to bad drama to bad action at a moment's notice and hardly any of it makes any sense whatsoever. The screenplay is hugely awful, going from situation to situation at a snail's pace. There are two or three funny bits, but the movie ruins them by poor timing.
I really don't know what Bullock saw in this movie or Neeson or really anyone else in this film liked about it. Almost every element in the film really doesn't work, and much of it is truly awful. It's a compliment to the actors that they actually try to go somewhere with this material. There are bad films that pass by quickly, but there are also bad films that are so terrible they become hypnotic as we wonder if it can really get any worse (it can). "Gun Shy" falls, heavily, in the second catagory.
The DVD
VIDEO: This isn't unwatchable, but it's definitely not Disney's best work recently; this is generally a rather soft, sometimes hazy looking image that has some other flaws to chat about. Again, images are adequately sharp, but could have been stronger. Same verdict on detail, which is good but not great. Colors are generally not too impressive, either but I think that was by intent. It's just generally a bland looking film.
The print used also could have been cleaner; there aren't a huge amount of marks on the print used, but certainly more than there should be for a newer film. Shimmering and some slight pixelation also appear now and then, as well. I just didn't get the "look" of this film, what the director was trying to go for. Whatever they were looking for, it didn't work. There was originally a full-frame edition also announced to be included on this disc, but it's not on the final product. Some of the film looks good, but all in all, not Disney's best effort.
SOUND: I didn't much care for the sound, either. Occasionally an action scene wakes up the audio, but after that, the sound collapses almost completely to being dialogue driven. There's really very little surround use at all, and the score doesn't make that much of an impression, either. Dialogue is clear and easily understood, though.
MENUS:: Simply the cover art used over again in the main menu background.
EXTRAS: Yes, there are the "forced" trailers that are on many Disney DVDs - only this time, there are 4 to skip through annoyingly.
Trailer: Really, it's the only extra we get. Full-frame trailer in Dolby Digital 5.1
Final Thoughts: Absolutely awful. Skip it.
Film Grade
The Film D-
DVD Grades
Video 81/B = (324/400 possible points)
Audio: 82/B = (328/400 possible points)
Extras: 65/D = (195/300 possible points)
Menus: 65/D = (130/200 possible points)
Value: 79/C+ = (237/300 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1214/1600
DVD GRADE:C/75%
FILM GRADE: D-
DVD GRADE: C
|