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Relax... It's Just Sex
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Features: Widescreen Letterboxed - 1.85:1 Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.0 and 2.0). Theatrical trailer(s). Talent Bios. Bonus Footage Outtakes.
The Movie:
Years ago traditional relationship films followed a standard format: boy meets girl. These days, with wider acceptance of alternate sexuality the number of possible story lines has increased. 'Relax… It's Just Sex' explores just about every combination imaginable (boy meets girl, girl meets girl, boy meets boy etc.) as it follows the lives of a group of friends through the ups and downs of their intimate interactions.
Jennifer Tilly stars as Tara, a heterosexual woman who's intent on getting pregnant in spite of her boyfriend's reluctance. Meanwhile, Tara's lesbian friends Megan and Sarina (Serena Scott Thomas and Cynda Williams) are in the midst of a breakup over Megan's tryst with a man. Tara's best friend Vincey (Mitchell Anderson) is a failed playwright looking for love and her boyfriend's brother has just discovered he's HIV positive. These are heavy topics for a film that bills itself as a light comedy but 'Relax… It's Just Sex' manages to balance the weighty content with clever dialogue, an engaging plot and a frank, realistic approach to its characterizations. 'Relax… It's Just Sex' succeeds because it avoids the obvious stereotypes and resists the urge to go for cheap laughs. It's a funny film but it's also introspective, thought provoking and (in spite of its obvious low budget) finely crafted. That the characters are heterosexual, gay and lesbian is secondary to the fact that they're people struggling through the same defeats and triumphs that we all do.
The Picture:
Unfortunately this DVD release suffers from a number of fairly significant problems. The film elements used for the (non-anamorphic) transfer are far from pristine and show evidence of dust and scratches throughout, though not to the point of distraction. A bigger issue is the transfer, which is lacking in proper contrast and is very dark. Shadow details fade into deep black and the colors are under saturated. How dark is the transfer? Skip forward to the credits (red text on a black background) for a graphic example. They're almost unreadable.
The Sound:
The sound isn't much better than the video. You'll find both Dolby 2.0 Surround and Dolby 5.0 (no LFE signal) mixes both of which are murky, overly distorted and marred by pops and hiss. The musical score sounds reasonably good but the dialogue is way too hot and tends to overload when voices are raised.
The Extras:
Extras here are very limited. There are two trailers for the film as well as trailers for five other A Pix releases. Next up is a set of basic text screens with limited talent bios. Finally there's a collection of seven outtakes from the movie complete with clappers and time code. This bonus footage doesn't offer any insight into the production or the creative process. It doesn't even include any dialogue that isn't in the released film.
Conclusion:
'Relax… It's Just Sex' is a bold, funny and entertaining film that's crippled by a substandard DVD release. Even if you're a fan of the movie you may be tempted to avoid this disc. I'm going to decline a 'Skip it' rating based on the merits of the film and give it a reluctant 'Rent it' recommendation.
The Movie:
Years ago traditional relationship films followed a standard format: boy meets girl. These days, with wider acceptance of alternate sexuality the number of possible story lines has increased. 'Relax… It's Just Sex' explores just about every combination imaginable (boy meets girl, girl meets girl, boy meets boy etc.) as it follows the lives of a group of friends through the ups and downs of their intimate interactions.
Jennifer Tilly stars as Tara, a heterosexual woman who's intent on getting pregnant in spite of her boyfriend's reluctance. Meanwhile, Tara's lesbian friends Megan and Sarina (Serena Scott Thomas and Cynda Williams) are in the midst of a breakup over Megan's tryst with a man. Tara's best friend Vincey (Mitchell Anderson) is a failed playwright looking for love and her boyfriend's brother has just discovered he's HIV positive. These are heavy topics for a film that bills itself as a light comedy but 'Relax… It's Just Sex' manages to balance the weighty content with clever dialogue, an engaging plot and a frank, realistic approach to its characterizations. 'Relax… It's Just Sex' succeeds because it avoids the obvious stereotypes and resists the urge to go for cheap laughs. It's a funny film but it's also introspective, thought provoking and (in spite of its obvious low budget) finely crafted. That the characters are heterosexual, gay and lesbian is secondary to the fact that they're people struggling through the same defeats and triumphs that we all do.
The Picture:
Unfortunately this DVD release suffers from a number of fairly significant problems. The film elements used for the (non-anamorphic) transfer are far from pristine and show evidence of dust and scratches throughout, though not to the point of distraction. A bigger issue is the transfer, which is lacking in proper contrast and is very dark. Shadow details fade into deep black and the colors are under saturated. How dark is the transfer? Skip forward to the credits (red text on a black background) for a graphic example. They're almost unreadable.
The Sound:
The sound isn't much better than the video. You'll find both Dolby 2.0 Surround and Dolby 5.0 (no LFE signal) mixes both of which are murky, overly distorted and marred by pops and hiss. The musical score sounds reasonably good but the dialogue is way too hot and tends to overload when voices are raised.
The Extras:
Extras here are very limited. There are two trailers for the film as well as trailers for five other A Pix releases. Next up is a set of basic text screens with limited talent bios. Finally there's a collection of seven outtakes from the movie complete with clappers and time code. This bonus footage doesn't offer any insight into the production or the creative process. It doesn't even include any dialogue that isn't in the released film.
Conclusion:
'Relax… It's Just Sex' is a bold, funny and entertaining film that's crippled by a substandard DVD release. Even if you're a fan of the movie you may be tempted to avoid this disc. I'm going to decline a 'Skip it' rating based on the merits of the film and give it a reluctant 'Rent it' recommendation.
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