Writer: Scot Armstrong, Leslie Dixon
Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Cast: Ben Stiller, Jerry Stiller, Michelle Monaghan, Malin Akerman, Carlos Mencia, Rob Corddry
Rating: R
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: December 26, 2007

If you asked me to recommend a movie that made you wish you were drowning on a sinking ship with no way to remove yourself from the agony until the movie was over, my reply would be to rent The Heartbreak Kid. This pathetic comedy makes Titanic seem funny, which for obvious reasons, it wasn’t. Of course, neither was The Heartbreak Kid. I am not quite sure why this movie wasn’t a successful one. It has all of the lackluster elements of a Hollywood blockbuster these days.

Ben Stiller plays the lead role and while I have seen him in good things, seeing him in this makes me think he knew it was going to suck so he decided not to try. Stiller once again teams up with the Farrelly brothers, who he worked with on There’s Something about Mary. With previous flops like Fever Pitch, Shallow Hal, and Stuck on You, it’s shocking that they would even let these two guys direct ever again. While it’s true they had some hits off of moronic comedies in the past, they keep making them and more often than not, they end up flopping better than a set of pancakes at Ihop.

Release Information:
The Heartbreak Kid is a loosely based remake of a movie by the same name starring the competent Cybil Shepherd and Charles Grodin. While the original was popular, this version could not manage to be any worse than it is. The HD presentation looks good, but with a poor movie wrapped around it there really is little point to the film. The movie will be available in standard widescreen, full screen, and HD formats on December 26, 2007, which alleviates anyone from the mistake of buying this for someone’s Christmas present.

The The Heartbreak Kid HD Plot
There were many things that could have been done to make this film funny and worthwhile. The Farrelly brothers chose to do none of those things. Instead, I am not sure what they did on set. For all I know they gave each other manicures while the filming went on without their watchful eyes on the actors.

The premise of The Heartbreak Kid is simple. Essentially, it’s a romantic comedy. Stiller plays a 40 year old bachelor that owns a sporting goods store. Eddie Cantrow lives his life hanging out with his single friends because his married ones end up sitting him at the kid’s table during events.

His dad, played by his real dad, Jerry Stiller, wants him to get married and so do the majority of his friends. At this point, I can’t help but think of something like The 40 Year Old Virgin except for the fact that the protagonist of Kid is not a virgin. He’s just a 40 year old bachelor with nothing to really offer. As you might have guessed, this particular movie is not funny at all.

Naturally, when Eddie meets a girl he thinks is beautiful, friendly, and fun to be with, he believes he should propose. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know much about her because he decides to propose after only six weeks. He doesn’t propose for a real good reason and it doesn’t appear that actual love has anything to do with it. From the looks of it, he picks Lila (Malin Akerman) to propose to because she is the best option, or so he thinks.

It only takes until the wedding night for Eddie to realize what a moron he really is. Lila is a sexual freak with annoying tendencies, mood swings, and no job. In short, she really is the perfect woman for Eddie, who was not smart enough to get to know his girl’s shoe size or anything else about her for that matter before getting hitched with her. Like all men, he becomes attractive to other women the moment he gets off the market.
While on his honeymoon with his new and crazy wife, Eddie meets Miranda (Michelle Monaghan) and he hits it off with her. Of course, he forgets to tell her that he’s married and he realizes that he needs to get rid of Lila. It won’t be as easy as Eddie is hoping, because the crazy ones never leave silently.

Even if the movie were relatable, which it isn’t thanks to poor direction and lack of effective storytelling, it would not be a movie that appeals to a wide range of people. It would be placed in the chick flick genre, which are popular with fans of romantic comedies. There is nothing wrong with that and it still could have received a good review, but in present form, The Heartbreak Kid is not even worth the DVD on which it was placed.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
The audio and video quality of this movie is fantastic. Of course, good quality on a movie you do not want to see is hardly helpful. The Heartbreak Kid uses 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video with a compression rate of 2.35:1, which was the theatrical ratio that was used. The colors are verdant and bursting with sharp imagery. There are a couple of issues, but nothing to serious.

The audio is provided in Dolby True HD 5.1 Surround Sound. The sound ends up being alive and incredibly dynamic. Everything sounds fine with no problems whatsoever. Considering the HD quality, this DVD looks and sounds as good as some of the Blockbuster HD movies that were released this year. It’s just the entire plot, the writing, the directing, and the overall story that fail.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
There are several features that were included on this disc. The features include audio commentary, the theatrical trailer, a gag reel, and deleted scenes. There are three featurettes including “The Farrelly Bros. in the French Tradition”, “Ben & Jerry”, and “The Egg Toss”. All of the featurettes are available in HD quality. While it was nice that so many features were included, it’s not exactly like people want to watch them when they are attached to one of the worst movies released in 2007.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
I try not to tell people flat out not to purchase or watch a movie, but I have to say if you can ignore one movie this year, skip The Heartbreak Kid. This movie absolutely disgraced the romantic comedy genre. The acting was sub-par, the directing was nonexistent, and the story, even being redone, was not worth the remake in the first place. It was absolutely terrible and there is no way that I could ever recommend this. While I would have loved to give this zero stars, the video and audio quality was good, so most of the star rating you see will come from that.

Overall Rating:

Technorati Tags: The Heartbreak Kid, HD DVD, Comedy, Ben Stiller, Romance, Chick Flick, HD DVD Review

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