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Me, Myself, and Irene
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
I've enjoyed all of the Farrelly Brothers movies I've seen that didn't star Jim Carrey. Of course, that only leaves two films -- "Kingpin", which I particularly liked, and "There's Something About Mary" (I missed "Outside Providence", but I think I join most of America in saying that) -- and although "Dumb And Dumber" left me kind of flat, I thought I'd give "Me, Myself, and Irene" a shot.
Jim Carrey is Charlie, a Rhode Island state trooper who seems pleasant enough, but ends up as the butt of seemingly every joke in the Ocean State. He somehow manages to stay sane when his wife Layla (Traylor Howard) gives birth to triplets obviously fathered by a Mensa-attending knunchuck-wielding dwarf chauffeur (played by Tony Cox, whose character sounds funnier on paper than he is on-screen), even raising the children on his own when his wife leaves him. Despite the constant mocking from everyone, Charlie seems to remain good-natured, although buried deep in Charlie's subconscious is the evil side of his personality, named Hank. One day, Charlie snaps and Hank is released, which is unfortunate for Irene P. Waters (Renee Zellweger), who Charlie is escorting back to...some place because of...something. I'm writing this review a few days after watching the movie, and the plot obviously didn't make that big an impression on me. These details are sort of minor, anyway. To sum it all up, Charlie/Hank and Irene are on the run, eventually teaming up with an albino with a questionable past. Sprinkled throughout is the sort of gross-out humor that's so chic nowadays...a sort of humor I don't particularly enjoy. This isn't because I'm easily offended or anything, but...well, kind of the total opposite. Because I'm not easily offended, there's no shock value, so the 'humor' never really leaves much of an impression on me. Although some of the same sort of humor appeared in "Kingpin" and "There's Something About Mary", there was more to those films than just gross-out comedy, and really, that sort of humor seemed a little fresher back in those days anyway.
So, no, I didn't laugh once during "Me, Myself, and Irene". Just picture a geeky guy with a completely blank expression on his face for close to two hours, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what the viewing experience was like for me. So basically, I'm saying that I already have a bias against the lead actor and a general dislike of the sort of comedy used in the film, so it shouldn't come as too big of a surprise that "Me, Myself, and Irene" didn't do a whole lot for me. I know plenty of people who did get a kick out of it, so I'll try to review this disc somewhat objectively...or whatever...yeah.
Video: I remember back when I first started frequenting DVD discussion forums, and everyone seemed to rag on Fox. Wow, are those days over... "Me, Myself, And Irene" features a beautiful widescreen-enhanced transfer, letterboxed to 1.85:1. The image is clear and detailed, and I was especially impressed with how rich and colorful some of the exterior shots appeared. Pretty typical of Fox's recent DVD output, which is, of course, praise.
Audio: After reviewing a couple of Columbia/Tri-Star discs right before "Me, Myself, and Irene", it's nice to see a disc that defaults to Dolby Digital 5.1. Although there are six channels, the center speaker is the focus of the audio, with other speakers and directional effects used very sparingly. Not particularly impressive, but hardly disappointing...just an uninteresting front-heavy comedy mix. Rounding out the other audio options are English and French Dolby Surround tracks, along with English and French subtitles.
Supplements: First on the menu are "trailers and TV spots", consisting of a pair of trailers and three different television ads. My favorite extra this time around is the video for "Breakout" by the Foo Fighters. When I first picked up their third album, "There Is Nothing Left To Lose", I instantly thought "Breakout" would be great for a movie soundtrack, although I thought it'd be better suited to play over the ending credits. Oh well. There aren't any other music videos, and I thought it was kind of odd that a previously released song got the video treatment and not any of the Steely Dan covers recorded specifically for the soundtrack. I'd have loved to have seen a video for Ben Folds Five's "Barrytown" (which I saw them perform on Letterman, I think).
Six "making of" vignettes ('vignette' quickly becoming one of my favorite words) can be viewed individually or branched while watching the movie. The vignettes are footage shot between takes. It's not really 'behind-the-scenes' footage in the usual sense, and there are none of the fluff interviews from those HBO: First Look featurettes. It's mostly just the cast and crew goofing around on the set, but it's still entertaining and worth a look. A traditional featurette is included, made up of the usual interviews, behind the scenes footage, and an extensive assortment of clips from the film. The featurette runs around half of the length of most featurettes I've watched, although it's not time-coded, so I can't give an official running time without starting it again, keeping track of time, etc., etc., etc. I'm sure none of you are that interested.
There's also a stills gallery, with shots of the cast, crew, and a series of production stills. On the DVD-ROM portion of the disc are storyboards, the screenplay, and web links. Among the final supplements listed on the "Extra Features" menu is a commentary with the Farrelly Brothers, which mostly seemed to be a list of which of their friends appeared in the movie and where. The Farrellys also contribute commentary to 10 deleted scenes, which can be viewed individually or in an extended branching version, similar to "X-Men", another Fox release. A yellow image of Hank will also appear throughout the film to announce the presence of a deleted scene, which can be viewed with the Angle button, and being a Toshiba SD3109 owner, the menu option to remove the icon didn't work. Although that's just a quirk with my player (and there is, of course, a way around that), it's worth noting that the Hank icon is really large and very unattractive. Not quite as unobtrusive as the icon on the "X-Men" disc.
When I got up to make a bowl of Frosted Flakes, an option to view a different menu interface came up, but I didn't notice any extra features on the Hank-themed menu. Maybe I didn't look in the right place or something. Hmm.
Conclusion: Okay, I didn't find "Me, Myself, and Irene" particularly funny, but a film that grosses $90 million must have plenty of fans somewhere. I don't typically go for Jim Carrey movies, and others who feel the same way might want to leave this one for a rental. Otherwise, the nice video, decent audio, and a slew of extra features make it worth a purchase, particularly during its week of release, when the loss leaders are sure to mark the disc down to below the $20 mark.
Jim Carrey is Charlie, a Rhode Island state trooper who seems pleasant enough, but ends up as the butt of seemingly every joke in the Ocean State. He somehow manages to stay sane when his wife Layla (Traylor Howard) gives birth to triplets obviously fathered by a Mensa-attending knunchuck-wielding dwarf chauffeur (played by Tony Cox, whose character sounds funnier on paper than he is on-screen), even raising the children on his own when his wife leaves him. Despite the constant mocking from everyone, Charlie seems to remain good-natured, although buried deep in Charlie's subconscious is the evil side of his personality, named Hank. One day, Charlie snaps and Hank is released, which is unfortunate for Irene P. Waters (Renee Zellweger), who Charlie is escorting back to...some place because of...something. I'm writing this review a few days after watching the movie, and the plot obviously didn't make that big an impression on me. These details are sort of minor, anyway. To sum it all up, Charlie/Hank and Irene are on the run, eventually teaming up with an albino with a questionable past. Sprinkled throughout is the sort of gross-out humor that's so chic nowadays...a sort of humor I don't particularly enjoy. This isn't because I'm easily offended or anything, but...well, kind of the total opposite. Because I'm not easily offended, there's no shock value, so the 'humor' never really leaves much of an impression on me. Although some of the same sort of humor appeared in "Kingpin" and "There's Something About Mary", there was more to those films than just gross-out comedy, and really, that sort of humor seemed a little fresher back in those days anyway.
So, no, I didn't laugh once during "Me, Myself, and Irene". Just picture a geeky guy with a completely blank expression on his face for close to two hours, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what the viewing experience was like for me. So basically, I'm saying that I already have a bias against the lead actor and a general dislike of the sort of comedy used in the film, so it shouldn't come as too big of a surprise that "Me, Myself, and Irene" didn't do a whole lot for me. I know plenty of people who did get a kick out of it, so I'll try to review this disc somewhat objectively...or whatever...yeah.
Video: I remember back when I first started frequenting DVD discussion forums, and everyone seemed to rag on Fox. Wow, are those days over... "Me, Myself, And Irene" features a beautiful widescreen-enhanced transfer, letterboxed to 1.85:1. The image is clear and detailed, and I was especially impressed with how rich and colorful some of the exterior shots appeared. Pretty typical of Fox's recent DVD output, which is, of course, praise.
Audio: After reviewing a couple of Columbia/Tri-Star discs right before "Me, Myself, and Irene", it's nice to see a disc that defaults to Dolby Digital 5.1. Although there are six channels, the center speaker is the focus of the audio, with other speakers and directional effects used very sparingly. Not particularly impressive, but hardly disappointing...just an uninteresting front-heavy comedy mix. Rounding out the other audio options are English and French Dolby Surround tracks, along with English and French subtitles.
Supplements: First on the menu are "trailers and TV spots", consisting of a pair of trailers and three different television ads. My favorite extra this time around is the video for "Breakout" by the Foo Fighters. When I first picked up their third album, "There Is Nothing Left To Lose", I instantly thought "Breakout" would be great for a movie soundtrack, although I thought it'd be better suited to play over the ending credits. Oh well. There aren't any other music videos, and I thought it was kind of odd that a previously released song got the video treatment and not any of the Steely Dan covers recorded specifically for the soundtrack. I'd have loved to have seen a video for Ben Folds Five's "Barrytown" (which I saw them perform on Letterman, I think).
Six "making of" vignettes ('vignette' quickly becoming one of my favorite words) can be viewed individually or branched while watching the movie. The vignettes are footage shot between takes. It's not really 'behind-the-scenes' footage in the usual sense, and there are none of the fluff interviews from those HBO: First Look featurettes. It's mostly just the cast and crew goofing around on the set, but it's still entertaining and worth a look. A traditional featurette is included, made up of the usual interviews, behind the scenes footage, and an extensive assortment of clips from the film. The featurette runs around half of the length of most featurettes I've watched, although it's not time-coded, so I can't give an official running time without starting it again, keeping track of time, etc., etc., etc. I'm sure none of you are that interested.
There's also a stills gallery, with shots of the cast, crew, and a series of production stills. On the DVD-ROM portion of the disc are storyboards, the screenplay, and web links. Among the final supplements listed on the "Extra Features" menu is a commentary with the Farrelly Brothers, which mostly seemed to be a list of which of their friends appeared in the movie and where. The Farrellys also contribute commentary to 10 deleted scenes, which can be viewed individually or in an extended branching version, similar to "X-Men", another Fox release. A yellow image of Hank will also appear throughout the film to announce the presence of a deleted scene, which can be viewed with the Angle button, and being a Toshiba SD3109 owner, the menu option to remove the icon didn't work. Although that's just a quirk with my player (and there is, of course, a way around that), it's worth noting that the Hank icon is really large and very unattractive. Not quite as unobtrusive as the icon on the "X-Men" disc.
When I got up to make a bowl of Frosted Flakes, an option to view a different menu interface came up, but I didn't notice any extra features on the Hank-themed menu. Maybe I didn't look in the right place or something. Hmm.
Conclusion: Okay, I didn't find "Me, Myself, and Irene" particularly funny, but a film that grosses $90 million must have plenty of fans somewhere. I don't typically go for Jim Carrey movies, and others who feel the same way might want to leave this one for a rental. Otherwise, the nice video, decent audio, and a slew of extra features make it worth a purchase, particularly during its week of release, when the loss leaders are sure to mark the disc down to below the $20 mark.
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