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LIONSGATE

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Dennis Dugan
Cast:
Maggie Grace, Diane Keaton, Jeremy Irons
Writing Credits:
Dennis Dugan

Synopsis:
A multi-story romantic comedy about the people who work on weddings to create the perfect day for a loving couple - while their own relationships are outlandish, odd, crazy and far from perfect.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
None

Runtime: 96 min.
Price: $21.99
Release Date: 2/2/2021

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director/Actor Dennis Dugan
• “A Celebration” Featurette
• Previews


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RELATED REVIEWS


Love, Weddings & Other Disasters [Blu-Ray] (2020)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (February 14, 2021)

If you take one look at the cover of 2020’s Love, Weddings & Other Disasters, you may exclaim “oh, Nancy Meyers is back!” However, the filmmaker behind “chick flicks” like and Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated played no part in this movie’s creation.

Instead, we find actor-turned-director Dennis Dugan at the helm of Disasters. That would be the same Dennis Dugan known for his association with Adam Sandler via flicks like Grown Ups and Happy Gilmore.

Dugan goes full rom-com here, as we follow the romantic travails of various characters. We meet Jessie (Maggie Grace), a wedding planner who gets the unfortunate reputation as the “wedding trasher” when she accidentally disrupts a marriage ceremony due to a skydiving mishap.

Tour bus guide Ritchie (Andrew Bachelor) uses his job to meet women, all in the hopes he’ll eventually land his own true love. He obsesses over a cutie he calls “Cinderella” because of her glass slipper tattoo.

Curmudgeonly celebrity caterer Lawrence (Jeremy Irons) goes through a blind date with Sara (Diane Keaton) that comes with its own issues. We find a few others as well, and we see the intersections of these folks along the way.

Though I alluded to the Nancy Meyers filmography earlier, Disasters demonstrates one overriding apparent influence: 2003’s Love Actually. Both offer multiple characters as they navigate the muddy waters of romance.

Actually became a box office hit worldwide and now seems regarded as something of a classic. I doubt anyone will remember Disasters exists a year from now.

I do respect Dugan’s attempt to branch out from his Sandler-centric filmography, though. He last made a Sandler-free movie via 2003’s National Security. (2006’s Benchwarmers didn’t feature Sandler, but it came from his production company so it falls under that umbrella.)

That said, I’d appreciate Dugan’s stabs away from the broad Sandler style of comedy more if Disasters offered an actual good movie. Instead, Dugan creates a poor example of the romantic comedy genre that brings nothing new or interesting to the table.

Disasters does enjoy a pretty good cast, especially with two Oscar winners involved. This becomes the first time Keaton and Irons worked together, and they seem horribly overqualified for the project.

Keaton plays a blind woman set up on a blind date, and that tells you about everything you need to know about the intelligence level on display here. In others words, smart, clever material remains in short supply, as Disasters opts for cheap, predictable gags and situations from start to finish.

The decision to include so many different characters turns into a total albatross. Even in the hands of a talented filmmaker, it would become difficult to balance the roles and develop them in a satisfactory manner.

Inevitably, Disasters favors some more than others, with the Lawrence/Sara and Jessie tales at the fore. Despite Bachelor’s presence on the cover art, Ritchie plays a surprisingly small part here, and others seem no more prominent.

Really, Disasters should’ve just picked one character as the focus and left it at that. With a mere 96 minutes at its disposal, it spreads itself awfully thin in its attempts to cover so many roles, and as a result, none of them become anything more than thin clichés.

This leaves Disasters as little more than a loose collection of comedy sketches linked together by a theme – and connected in a poor manner, as we find next to no amusement at any point. I’ve seen worse rom-coms, but that remains faint praise.


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

Love, Weddings & Other Disasters appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 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, Disasters 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 Disasters, it lacked a ton of ambition. The soundfield focused on music and ambience, though it opened up on occasion, mainly in terms of party 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 few extras appear, and we find an audio commentary from writer/director/actor Dennis Dugan. He provides a running, screen-specific look at story and characters, cast and performances, music, sets and locations, and related domains.

Dugan gives us a completely mediocre commentary. While he touches on a decent array of topics and manages some humor, he never makes the discussion especially insightful. Add to that too much praise and too many dead spots and we wind up with a fairly blah track.

A Celebration runs 15 minutes, 55 seconds and features notes from Dugan and actors Maggie Grace, Jeremy Irons, Andrew Bachelor, Diego Boneta, and Melinda Hill.

“Celebration” discusses story/characters and the project’s path to the screen, cast and performances, music, and Dugan’s impact on the set. We get a handful of decent thoughts here but the featurette mostly feels like fluff.

The disc opens with ads for Friendsgiving, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot and Guns Akimbo. No trailer for Disasters appears here.

An anthology look at the quest for romance, Love, Weddings & Other Disasters lacks what it needs to succeed. Despite a good – and occasionally overqualified – cast, the movie sputters and fails to find entertainment value. The Blu-ray offers very good picture as well as adequate audio and a few bonus features. This feels like a cheap attempt to remake Love Actually and nothing more.

Viewer Film Ratings: 2 Stars Number of Votes: 1
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