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Betsy's Wedding
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // R // September 25, 2002
List Price: $9.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Those seeking an feature for a double-bill with the recent DVD release of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" may want to consider this 1990 feature, which Alan Alda wrote, directed and acts in. The film doesn't always succeed at comedy, but its terrific cast certainly does hold the interest for a fair amount of the running time, which is only 90 minutes and change.
Alda stars as Eddie Hopper, a real estate developer who finds early in the picture that his daughter, Betsy (Molly Ringwald) wants to get married to Jake Lovell (Dylan Walsh). She wants a small, intimate wedding. He wants a large, family affair at their house. His parents want to throw an expensive affair at the local luxury hotel. He refuses, even though he can't afford the wedding due to the fact that he's building a property and doesn't have the money for both.
Of course, this decision leads to problems that snowball out of Eddie's control. Eddie heads to his rich brother (Joe Pesci) for help and, in turn, he heads to the local mafia (Burt Young). The mafia don's nephew (Anthony Lapaglia) falls for Betsy's sister (Ally Sheedy), who also happens to be a police officer. While the romance between the Sheedy and Lapaglia characters is more interesting than the whole Betsy situation, it's odd that Betsy turns out to be a minor character in the entire proceedings. The whole time, the grandparents argue.
Most of the performances are good, although some (Alda) seem to be content to stand back and let the chaos try and go on around them. Pesci's funny, Sheedy's good and Lapaglia's superb. Ringwald (and especially Walsh, who practically fades into the background) are bland. Although the film does offer a lot of different characters, all of them are slight and it falls to the actors to try and fill them out. Some do, some don't.
It's those performances that are the reason why "Betsy's Wedding" occasionally hits the mark. The story isn't anything that's been done before, as it really just goes through the basic pre-wedding preparation cliches. As a result of the fairly thin story, the picture hits some slow patches in the middle, but overall, I thought it was okay.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Betsy's Wedding" is presented by Touchstone Home Video in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Although there are certainly some noticable problems with this transfer, it's a fairly enjoyable effort, considering it's a low-priced catalog title that's nearly fifteen years old. Sharpness and detail were standard, as the picture appeared crisp, but never particularly sharp or well-defined. Fine detail was never really presented.
The print used looked fairly clean throughout the show, although there were some scratches and marks that appeared during a few stretches. Light grain was also often present, although that could have been an intentional element of Kelvin Pike ("2001", "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back")'s cinematography. Edge enhancement was never an issue during the presentation, although some minor compression artifacts were spotted.
Colors, on the other hand, looked merely okay. Again, although this could have been intentional, the film's color palette looked subdued and rather bland at times. Black level seemed somewhat weak, while flesh tones looked decent.
SOUND: The film's soundtrack is a decent 2.0 offering that clearly presents music, dialogue and the occasional ambient sound. Nothing much, but it works.
EXTRAS: Nothing.
Final Thoughts: Alda has rounded up a fine cast for "Betsy's Wedding", but the performances are inconsistent and the story is thin. While it does have some memorable moments, those are in-between patches of rather slow going. Touchstone's DVD edition provides respectable audio/video quality and comes at the low price of $9.99.
Those seeking an feature for a double-bill with the recent DVD release of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" may want to consider this 1990 feature, which Alan Alda wrote, directed and acts in. The film doesn't always succeed at comedy, but its terrific cast certainly does hold the interest for a fair amount of the running time, which is only 90 minutes and change.
Alda stars as Eddie Hopper, a real estate developer who finds early in the picture that his daughter, Betsy (Molly Ringwald) wants to get married to Jake Lovell (Dylan Walsh). She wants a small, intimate wedding. He wants a large, family affair at their house. His parents want to throw an expensive affair at the local luxury hotel. He refuses, even though he can't afford the wedding due to the fact that he's building a property and doesn't have the money for both.
Of course, this decision leads to problems that snowball out of Eddie's control. Eddie heads to his rich brother (Joe Pesci) for help and, in turn, he heads to the local mafia (Burt Young). The mafia don's nephew (Anthony Lapaglia) falls for Betsy's sister (Ally Sheedy), who also happens to be a police officer. While the romance between the Sheedy and Lapaglia characters is more interesting than the whole Betsy situation, it's odd that Betsy turns out to be a minor character in the entire proceedings. The whole time, the grandparents argue.
Most of the performances are good, although some (Alda) seem to be content to stand back and let the chaos try and go on around them. Pesci's funny, Sheedy's good and Lapaglia's superb. Ringwald (and especially Walsh, who practically fades into the background) are bland. Although the film does offer a lot of different characters, all of them are slight and it falls to the actors to try and fill them out. Some do, some don't.
It's those performances that are the reason why "Betsy's Wedding" occasionally hits the mark. The story isn't anything that's been done before, as it really just goes through the basic pre-wedding preparation cliches. As a result of the fairly thin story, the picture hits some slow patches in the middle, but overall, I thought it was okay.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Betsy's Wedding" is presented by Touchstone Home Video in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Although there are certainly some noticable problems with this transfer, it's a fairly enjoyable effort, considering it's a low-priced catalog title that's nearly fifteen years old. Sharpness and detail were standard, as the picture appeared crisp, but never particularly sharp or well-defined. Fine detail was never really presented.
The print used looked fairly clean throughout the show, although there were some scratches and marks that appeared during a few stretches. Light grain was also often present, although that could have been an intentional element of Kelvin Pike ("2001", "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back")'s cinematography. Edge enhancement was never an issue during the presentation, although some minor compression artifacts were spotted.
Colors, on the other hand, looked merely okay. Again, although this could have been intentional, the film's color palette looked subdued and rather bland at times. Black level seemed somewhat weak, while flesh tones looked decent.
SOUND: The film's soundtrack is a decent 2.0 offering that clearly presents music, dialogue and the occasional ambient sound. Nothing much, but it works.
EXTRAS: Nothing.
Final Thoughts: Alda has rounded up a fine cast for "Betsy's Wedding", but the performances are inconsistent and the story is thin. While it does have some memorable moments, those are in-between patches of rather slow going. Touchstone's DVD edition provides respectable audio/video quality and comes at the low price of $9.99.
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