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FOX

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Ben Garant
Cast:
Cedric Yarbrough, Niecy Nash, Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, Carlos Alazraqui, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kerri Kenney
Writing Credits:
Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kenney

Synopsis:
Based on the hit Comedy Central series, the usual gang of idiot cops head to Florida for a police convention. After creating their typical chaos on the sunny sands of South Beach, they are called into action after terrorists poison all of the other visiting officers. Will Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon) and his pack of misfits save the day ... or destroy it?

Box Office:
Opening Weekend
$10.273 million on 2702 screens.
Domestic Gross
$20.339 million.

MPAA:
Rated NR

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Surround 2.0
French Dolby Surround 2.0
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
None

Runtime: 83 min.
Price: $29.98
Release Date: 6/19/2007

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director/Writer Robert Ben Garant and Writers Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver
• Audio Commentary with Lt. Dangle, Deputy Junior, Deputy Wiegel and Deputy Williams
• Audio Commentary with Deputy Garcia, Deputy Johnson, Deputy Jones and Deputy Kimball
• Extended Scenes
• Trailer
• Public Service Announcements
• “Fox Movie Channel Presents World Premiere”
• Previews


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Reno 911!: Miami - Unrated (2007)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (May 30, 2007)

While we’ve seen plenty of TV shows adapted into successful movies, this almost always occurs many years after the fact. Hollywood loves to take long defunct series and reworks them for the big screen. On occasion, a current program makes it to the multiplexes. Comedy Central’s Reno 911! stands as the latest show to jump to the silver screen.

As with the series, we meet Reno, Nevada’s incompetent police force. They get an invitation to go to a massive crime enforcement convention in Miami and gleefully head there. However, matters don’t go well on arrival. They find themselves off the necessary entry lists and also get stuck in a crummy, low rent motel.

After all this degradation, the Reno cops get their chance to shine when disaster befalls the convention. A bio-terrorism incident quarantines the entire Miami force and all the other police within a wide distance. This means that the Reno folks must take on the responsibility to patrol the entire Miami area all on their own. The movie follows their misadventures as they try to tend to all sorts of problems and maybe earn some respect along the way.

When I read comments about Miami, the general consensus was that newbies probably wouldn’t get much from it but fans of the series would dig it. My experience says otherwise. I don’t count myself as someone with great fondness for the show, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen. On the other hand, my friend Kevin adores Reno 911! and thinks it’s a real hoot.

Neither of us enjoyed Miami in the least. Kevin probably got a little more from it than I did, but not much. As we saw it theatrically, neither of us laughed more than two or three times, and we found a lot to dislike in this messy effort.

My second viewing doesn’t make me feel greater positivity toward Miami. Indeed, I might even like it less, as even the flick’s minor pleasures evaporate when seen again. One major problem comes from the freedom found here. On TV, the series needs to get creativity to push the envelope of good taste but still present something that won’t get them in trouble with the FCC.

With no such constraints, the folks behind Reno can offend to their heart’s content. Some may view that as a good thing, and sometimes it is. Take the South Park movie, for instance. It used its “R” rating to good advantage and added something special.

In this instance, unfortunately, Miami just turns into an opportunity to get disgusting. We find plenty of gross-out moments that attempt to shock but lack any real spark or creativity. Instead, the filmmakers hope to make us laugh just via the nastiness. That doesn’t work, and the result becomes painful to watch.

Even at only 83 minutes, Miami feels loooooong. Reno works best in small doses, as the more you see, the less entertaining it becomes. That turns into an issue even with the better episodes, so with material this uninspired, it’s even more of a problem.

It’s bad enough when I have to watch something terrible like Date Movie. It’s atrocious, but at least it’s not an actual disappointment, since no one talented worked on it. That’s not the case for Reno 911!: Miami. It possessed plenty of skilled folks behind it, though you couldn’t tell from the final product. Stupid and unfunny, this flick ends up as a dud.

Credits footnote: stick through the end of the movie’s text for a little bonus sequence.


The DVD Grades: Picture B-/ Audio B/ Bonus A

Reno 911!: Miami appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Though the transfer could look very good, it lacked consistency.

All of the issues related to sharpness. Much of the time the movie looked nicely distinct and accurate. However, more than a few shots became rather tentative and fuzzy. There was no rhyme or reason at work here, but the frequent appearance of ill-defined images led to distractions. No jagged edges appeared, but I noticed some shimmering and a little edge enhancement. No source flaws materialized, as the movie stayed clean.

Colors became a strong element. With the dynamic Miami setting, the flick offered a lot of vivid hues. The DVD replicated these well and gave us lots of vibrant tones. Blacks seemed deep and firm, while shadows were smooth and clear. Really, much of the transfer seemed very good, but the soft spots knocked my grade down to a “B-“.

A few inconsistencies also affected the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Reno 911!: Miami, though it generally worked well. The main issues related to speech, which could be somewhat rough and brittle. The lines always remained intelligible, though, and they seemed reasonably natural much of the time.

The rest of the track sounded very good. Music was lively and dynamic, and effects followed the same path. Those elements showed nice clarity as well as solid low-end response.

Though the soundfield wasn’t especially involving, it opened up matters in a useful manner. Music offered very good stereo imaging, while effects broadened across the spectrum. Much of the movie stayed with general atmosphere, but a few sequences became more active. We got scenes with cars, helicopters and an exploding whale to open up the track and use the surrounds. Overall, this was a perfectly acceptable mix.

As we shift to the extras, we find a whopping three separate audio commentaries. The first presents director/writer Robert Ben Garant and writers Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver, all of whom sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion. They give us a light overview of the production with plenty of humor along the way. We find info about cast, characters and performances, the loose nature of the project and improvisation, sets and locations, and various tidbits from the shoot.

The commentary offers a nice combination of facts and fun. All three provide a lot of amusing remarks, and they interact very well. That doesn’t mean the track is a non-stop yukfest without any depth. Instead, it mixes the two sides to give us a decent glimpse of the production and entertaining cracks. It’s an enjoyable chat.

The next two tracks include “in character” commentaries. One features Lt. Dangle, Deputy Junior, Deputy Wiegel and Deputy Williams, while the second includes Deputy Garcia, Deputy Johnson, Deputy Jones and Deputy Kimball. Both offer similar material as the actors watch the flick in character and react to it as thought the events actually happened. Of course, they bring a tongue-in-cheek attitude to the proceedings, so expect some remarks that reflect their understanding of the unreality involved.

This sort of chat can be painful to listen to, but these prove pretty enjoyable. Of the two, the first one works the best. It goes off onto a number of bizarre but hilarious tangents that make it consistently hilarious. The track with Garcia and the others has its moments, but it’s much more screen-specific and doesn’t have nearly as many clever, witty bits. Both are worth a listen, but I definitely prefer the one with Dangle and the rest; it’s hilarious.

Six Extended Scenes fill a total of one hours, seven minutes and 45 seconds. We find “Wiegel and Dangle In Hotel” (6:46), “Whale on the Beach” (11:26), “Terry’s Jet” (3:39), “Cruise Ship Terminal” (1:23), “Spoder’s House” (20:52) and “Bus Ride” (23:39). The first four aren’t terribly interesting, as they don’t give us anything special compared to what we see in the final flick. At least “Whale” shows more of Irina Voronina and her spectacular breasts.

As for the two long clips, however, they prove quite entertaining. Essentially these are long, uncut reels that let us take a ringside view of the improvisational process. “House” is very amusing, largely due to Mindy Sterling’s great performance as Spoder’s mom. She and Patton Oswalt interact wonderfully to make this more amusing than anything in the released flick. “Bus” isn’t quite as good, but it’s still pretty solid. Honestly, I had a lot more fun with these than I did with Miami itself.

The first four clips can be viewed with or without commentary from Lennon, Garant and Kenney-Silver. They tell us a little about the clips and throw in more funny remarks. They make their commentary enjoyable as always.

Under Public Service Announcements we get four clips that run a total of four minutes, 36 seconds. These apparently ran as teasers prior to some summer 2006 movies. Since X-Men 3 comes up a lot, I’d guess some of them cropped up before its screenings, though I kinda doubt the exceedingly profane “Shut the Fuck Up” ran in front of the “PG-13” movie. Anyway, these act to “warn us” about various illegal or rude behaviors and are pretty funny.

Fox Movie Channel Presents World Premiere lasts five minutes, eight seconds. As implied by the title, we go to the movie’s Hollywood premiere. The actors come to the event all in character, which makes it more interesting than the usual promotional piece.

The DVD opens with an ad for Epic Movie. The set also includes trailers for Miami, Family Guy and Grandma’s Boy.

I wanted to like Reno 911!: Miami and I expected to like it, but I didn’t. Monotonous, moronic and mostly unfunny, the movie fails to show the series’ strong points and suffers only from its weaknesses. The DVD presents decent picture and audio along with a really fun collection of extras. Though I didn’t care for the movie, I’d have to recommend this disc to Reno 911! fans just for the supplements; they’re so entertaining that they overcome the flaws of the flick itself.

Viewer Film Ratings: 3.7272 Stars Number of Votes: 11
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Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main