Posts Tagged ‘lars and the real girl’

I just received the Lars and the Real Girl DVD today in the mail. I got home from work at 5:30, went to my chiropractor’s from 6 to 7, watched the Seattle Mariners finally win a game (what is going on with their bullpen/offense?) and then squeezed in a trip to Costco. Got back at 8:40 with intentions of writing a bit on my new novel (I’m on chapter 2), and debated about watching the special features for Lars and the Real Girl before starting. It could eat up an hour of my time, I thought, but maybe I should pop in the DVD just to check things out…

First off, Lars and the Real Girl is a great movie. Seriously, it’s one of the best movies of 2007. Ryan Gosling is great, and the story is tragically uplifting and heartwarming without ever being sappy. It’ll make you laugh and even cry (well, if you’re into crying at movies, which I’m not), but more so it will just make you laugh. It’s also a lighthearted romantic drama, and works on that level as well. You can read my full Lars and the Real Girl movie review here.

However, the Lars and the Real Girl DVD sucks. My concern about wasting too much time watching the special features was not worth it, as the two movie trailers included on the DVD plus the time it is taking to write this DVD review more than account for the total number of minutes you should spend watching the special features.

The DVD includes a deleted scene that – I’m pretty sure – is only 1.3 seconds long. Wowzer, too bad that got cut!

There’s a small, 10-minute featurette about the movie, of which I only watched half of because I realized just how dull, uninformative and promotional it was.

There’s also a six-minute segment about the “real girl” in the movie (i.e. the sex doll) that is mildly amusing, as Gosling, in an interview, gets upset with her, tears off his mike and storms off, leaving the “real girl” to fend for herself. Still, is it really worth watching? No.

And that’s about it. 16 minutes of special features, only 0.76 minutes of which are worth your time. Lars and the Real Girl is a great movie, but if you’re into special features, the DVD is a waste of whatever material DVDs are made of.

I’ve spent the weekend writing movie reviews for a slew of films that I’ve seen over the past week or so. In total, I’ve written eleven movie reviews over the last 48 hours, and I’m definitely looking forward to not writing anymore for a couple of days. The reviews include: Day Watch (2007), Hairspray (2007), License to Wed (2007), We Are Marshall (2006), Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Waitress (2007), Talk to Me (2007), The Nanny Diaries (2007), First Snow (2007), Stardust (2007) and I Know Who Killed Me (2007).

Coming soon… High School Musical 2 Extended Edition, and a DVD review of Lost: Season 3.

I’m not going to post them all at once so as not to overwhelm you all, so here are the four reviews I’ve made public thus far:

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

The only theatrical release of the eleven reviews, Lars and the Real Girl is a surprisingly good and entertaining film that is both sad (it’s about a delusional young man who falls in love with a sex doll) and funny (it’s about a delusional young man who falls in love with a sex doll). Starring Ryan Gosling, the movie is terrific and boasts a great but relatively unknown supporting cast. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud scenes, and overall the picture is very heartwarming and engaging. While I doubt it’ll get much Oscar recognition, it certainly is one of the best movies of 2007. Read the full review…

Day Watch (2007)

The sequel to Night Watch, Day Watch is a Russian film that boasts absolutely spectacular visual effects on a budget of – brace yourself -only $4 million. The visuals are enough to make it worth it, but unfortunately the story is so convoluted and weird that it’s hard to figure out exactly what the director was intending. Add on the fact that the movie isn’t nearly as exciting or action packed as it should have been, Day Watch really isn’t anything special. Read the full film review…

Hairspray (2007)

A funny and lighthearted musical starring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah and others, Hairspray works as an entertaining piece of work that balances goofiness and social commentary relatively well. The real star of the show is… the star of the show, Nicole Blonsky, who has never been in a feature length movie before. Read the full film review…

The Nanny Diaries (2007)

Coming to DVD this Tuesday, The Nanny Diaries stars Scarlett Johansson as a young woman who foolishly takes a job as a nanny for an uber-rich woman (Laura Linney) and her husband (Paul Giamatti), who are only referred to as Mrs. and Mr. X respectively. The parents, engrossed in their fortune and social “responsibilities”, complete neglect their child, and Johansson is afraid that if she quits, the son will be lost forever. The comedy and the drama work well together, and the result is a relatively lighthearted, funny and cute picture.  Read the full film review…