How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days on Blu-ray Disc Review
By Rachel Cericola
The Film
Andie is
Composure magazine's resident "How To" girl. This does not involve soldering or stripping a deck. Instead, she is churning out crap. Of course, she's destined for bigger and better things. No, she's not going to cover the war, weather emergencies or even the local homeless shelter. Instead, she gets the task of "
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days."
Ben (Matthew McConaughey) is an advertising exec with his own assignment. Get a woman to fall in love with him and he'll land the account of a lifetime. The time frame? You guessed it -- 10 days. Conniving coworkers (Michael Michele and Shalom Harlow) knowingly choose Andie as his mission, and the mayhem begins.
Well, the cruelty, we should say. After all, Ben really gets the poop-end of the stick. While he is sending flowers and cooking up lamb dinners, Andie is unleashing the needy girl's guide to dating.
She takes over his medicine cabinet, buys a wussy dog for him, cries over dead plants, and creates a "family album" full of Photoshopped potential offspring. Scared yet?
The only thing Andie could do worse is make him sit through this movie. Whatever happened to getting ahead from hard work? Well, that doesn't make for an entertaining 115 minutes. This was only
slightly better, though.
Like Andie, Hudson seems destined for better things as well. However, this 2003 comedy started the downfall of a once budding acting career. It's success also spawned a second rom-com (
Fools Gold) for Hudson and McConaughey. That's not to say that
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is a horrible movie, but there are no surprises either. Still, only the true rom-com fan can survive.
The Picture
Despite its venomous nature, this is a romantic comedy, which means there are plenty of pretty colors in this 2.35:1 transfer. Most of the
Composure staff is fashionable, with dress colors aplenty popping. Hudson's hair is a bold, textured blonde and despite the unnatural coloring of both McConaughey and Bebe Neuwirth, skintones are right-on. Other notable images include the uniforms and action at the Knicks game, as well as the red, glittery hair of Mrs. DeLauer (Liliane Montevecchi). Considering there are so many colors, diamonds and outdoor scenes, though, there just didn't seem to be all that much detail.
The Sound
There's nothing like Dolby TrueHD -- to hear
traffic. It's a romantic comedy, which means there isn't that much noise for the surrounds. However, aside from the city surroundings, there is some other sound action, at the game and during more than one cocktail party. The best and worst sound moment, however, is the appearance of Marvin Hamlisch. The classic composer sounds fine, although barely noticeble thanks to Hudson and McConaughy's horrible duet over his performance.
The Extras
For a chick flick,
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days has a good amount of extras. "How to Make a Movie in 2 Years" is like most making-of featurettes in that it completely overthinks this goofy film. None of the actors appear; however, it's worth hanging into the 17-minute runtime to see and hear thoughts from Michelle Alexander and Jeannie Long, longtime friends and authors of the cartoon book that inspired the movie. The two are also the main focus of "Girls Night Out," in which the ladies talk about trolling for guys.
Final Thoughts
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days regurgitates just about every page from the rom-com playbook. Two people that don't want to fall in love do anyway -- who knew? Um, everyone. Still, Hudson and McConaughey managed to make it work and rake in $177 million. If you like all of your romantic comedies wrapped up into one super-sappy package, this one will definitely be worth a rental. All others should learn how to lose a Blu-ray in 10 seconds.
Where to Buy:
Product Details
- Actors: Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Adam Goldberg, Michael Michele, Shalom Harlow
- Director: Donald Petrie
- Audio/Languages: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (French, Spanish)
- Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Region: A
- Number of Discs: 1
- Rating: PG-13
- Studio: Paramount Pictures
- Blu-ray Disc Release Date: August 25, 2009
- Run Time: 115 minutes
- List Price: $29.99
- Extras:
- Commentary by Director Donald Petrie
- How to Make a Movie in 2 Years
- Why the Sexes Battle
- Girls Night Out
- Music Video: "Somebody Like You" by Keith Urban
- Deleted Scenes
