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When Harry Met Sally: Special Edition
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
It has become a little more rare for recent romantic films to work, either due to the lack of chemistry between the leads or predictability. We've seen it all before for the most part. It's also pretty amazing to watch Rob Reiner's "When Harry Met Sally", a romantic comedy with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan at their best - when compared to the moody, depressing "Story of Us" that Reiner directed a year or two ago.
Ryan and Crystal play - no suprises here - Harry and Sally - two students who meet at 1977 at University of Chicago when they share a drive across the country to New York where they have jobs in different fields waiting. The two of them obviously have that "annoyed flirting" going on, where they can't stand each other but there's an undercurrent of attraction.
The two meet and greet over the years, running into each other and gradually warming up to one another. But the question remains, can a man and a woman - just be "friends"? All of whom involved are really at their best here - Crystal, who offers a funny performance before a series of bad choices afterwards. He is good at hosting the Oscars, though. Although I've liked Ryan a little more in other roles, such as with Kevin Kline in "French Kiss", she's warm and engaging here. Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography is really excellent as well, before he went on to direct things like "Men In Black". And easily, this is Nora Ephron's best work, with her witty screenplay.
The DVD
VIDEO: Is this really from MGM? After a streak of mediocre or fair or even worse performances from the studio, they actually have done a really enjoyable job on "When Harry Met Sally". Not outstanding work by any means, but the image is generally well-defined and crisp with a minimal amount of flaws. Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography captures some beautiful shots of New York City, and those are easily the highlight of the presentation.
Sharpness and detail are generally very good, looking especially pleasing during some of the bright, outdoor sequences. Colors are beautiful, especially some of the fall colors in the outdoor shots (in Autumn in New York - but thankfully this isn't "Autumn In New York" I'm watching). There are a few little flaws, but certainly nothing that's going to prove distracting. A very minor amount of edge enhancement and a couple of little print flaws - just a couple of minor marks here and there. I'm glad MGM actually did some nice work here, although I would have liked to have seen how Tristar - the original studio who released the movie - would have done.
SOUND: "When Harry Met Sally" is presented in Dolby 2.0, and it's exactly what one would expect from an affair like this one. It's dialogue and music-driven, with the older tunes of the score sounding clear and crisp. The dialogue is clear and easily heard, although sometimes not as smooth and natural as some more recent soundtracks.
MENUS:: MGM does do nicely animated menus for some of their bigger titles, and "When Harry Met Sally" provides a nicely animated main menu, along with some slight animated transitions.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Rob Reiner. He should start off the commentary by saying "Hi, I'm director Rob Reiner, I'm going to be doing this commentary. See if you can find where I talk." Reiner occasionally pops up with a comment or two about working with the actors or the production in general, but the track is full of some lengthy pauses of silence.
Deleted Scenes: 7 deleted scenes are included, most of which are actually quite funny - the only reason I'd think these were taken out would be for either running time or that they don't really do that much to advance the movie.
Trailers: Trailers for "When Harry Met Sally", "This Is Spinal Tap" and "The Princess Bride".
Music Video: Harry Connick's "It Had To Be You".
How Harry Met Sally: A new 30 minute documentary about how the movie was made, this includes new interviews with director Rob Reiner, Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher and Billy Crystal, among others. Ryan has not been included, but older footage of her probably taken around the time of production is added in. Although I really haven't liked Ephron's movies that she's directed, she did provide an interesting commentary for "You've Got Mail"; she should probably have been included in the commentary track here to fill out the silence that Reiner tends to offer.
But, anyways, back to the documentary, which is generally a very good one. Ephron provides a lot of insight about the inspirations for writing the movie, Reiner talks about the experiences of production on the movie, and Crystal has plenty of amusing stories about how it all went. Definitely worth a look.
Final Thoughts: MGM does a fine job with "When Harry Met Sally", a cute romantic movie that's worth a look on DVD.
It has become a little more rare for recent romantic films to work, either due to the lack of chemistry between the leads or predictability. We've seen it all before for the most part. It's also pretty amazing to watch Rob Reiner's "When Harry Met Sally", a romantic comedy with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan at their best - when compared to the moody, depressing "Story of Us" that Reiner directed a year or two ago.
Ryan and Crystal play - no suprises here - Harry and Sally - two students who meet at 1977 at University of Chicago when they share a drive across the country to New York where they have jobs in different fields waiting. The two of them obviously have that "annoyed flirting" going on, where they can't stand each other but there's an undercurrent of attraction.
The two meet and greet over the years, running into each other and gradually warming up to one another. But the question remains, can a man and a woman - just be "friends"? All of whom involved are really at their best here - Crystal, who offers a funny performance before a series of bad choices afterwards. He is good at hosting the Oscars, though. Although I've liked Ryan a little more in other roles, such as with Kevin Kline in "French Kiss", she's warm and engaging here. Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography is really excellent as well, before he went on to direct things like "Men In Black". And easily, this is Nora Ephron's best work, with her witty screenplay.
The DVD
VIDEO: Is this really from MGM? After a streak of mediocre or fair or even worse performances from the studio, they actually have done a really enjoyable job on "When Harry Met Sally". Not outstanding work by any means, but the image is generally well-defined and crisp with a minimal amount of flaws. Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography captures some beautiful shots of New York City, and those are easily the highlight of the presentation.
Sharpness and detail are generally very good, looking especially pleasing during some of the bright, outdoor sequences. Colors are beautiful, especially some of the fall colors in the outdoor shots (in Autumn in New York - but thankfully this isn't "Autumn In New York" I'm watching). There are a few little flaws, but certainly nothing that's going to prove distracting. A very minor amount of edge enhancement and a couple of little print flaws - just a couple of minor marks here and there. I'm glad MGM actually did some nice work here, although I would have liked to have seen how Tristar - the original studio who released the movie - would have done.
SOUND: "When Harry Met Sally" is presented in Dolby 2.0, and it's exactly what one would expect from an affair like this one. It's dialogue and music-driven, with the older tunes of the score sounding clear and crisp. The dialogue is clear and easily heard, although sometimes not as smooth and natural as some more recent soundtracks.
MENUS:: MGM does do nicely animated menus for some of their bigger titles, and "When Harry Met Sally" provides a nicely animated main menu, along with some slight animated transitions.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Rob Reiner. He should start off the commentary by saying "Hi, I'm director Rob Reiner, I'm going to be doing this commentary. See if you can find where I talk." Reiner occasionally pops up with a comment or two about working with the actors or the production in general, but the track is full of some lengthy pauses of silence.
Deleted Scenes: 7 deleted scenes are included, most of which are actually quite funny - the only reason I'd think these were taken out would be for either running time or that they don't really do that much to advance the movie.
Trailers: Trailers for "When Harry Met Sally", "This Is Spinal Tap" and "The Princess Bride".
Music Video: Harry Connick's "It Had To Be You".
How Harry Met Sally: A new 30 minute documentary about how the movie was made, this includes new interviews with director Rob Reiner, Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher and Billy Crystal, among others. Ryan has not been included, but older footage of her probably taken around the time of production is added in. Although I really haven't liked Ephron's movies that she's directed, she did provide an interesting commentary for "You've Got Mail"; she should probably have been included in the commentary track here to fill out the silence that Reiner tends to offer.
But, anyways, back to the documentary, which is generally a very good one. Ephron provides a lot of insight about the inspirations for writing the movie, Reiner talks about the experiences of production on the movie, and Crystal has plenty of amusing stories about how it all went. Definitely worth a look.
Final Thoughts: MGM does a fine job with "When Harry Met Sally", a cute romantic movie that's worth a look on DVD.
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