The Movie:

Gabriel Iglesias is far from an edgy comedian, but his act is full of enough honesty and vulnerability to distance him from ending up as a cookie-cutter, typical "family-friendly" comedian who merely regurgitates a line-up of hacky jokes punctuated by a forced catchphrase. Yes, his nickname is Fluffy, which caught on by his legion of fans, which he brings up a considerable number of times during his stand-up act depicted in The Fluffy Movie, but instead of relying on simple jokes with simple punch lines, he bares his many fears and insecurities to the audience in relatable and sometimes even hilarious ways.

As a man who dealt with weight issues all of his life, I was touched with the honest way he described his struggles with losing weight after his doctor told him that if he didn't come down from the morbidly obese 425 pounds, he would be dead within two years. After his last chance at losing a considerable amount of weight through a gastric bypass surgery falls through, he describes in vivid detail a moment all of us find ourselves in, crying alone in our car out of sheer hopelessness.

How far Iglesias is willing to confess from this moment on represents his willingness to let his fans into his life and find humor organically through his personality, instead of extracting it from cheap jokes. He could have easily created a lame punch line to close out a moment of considerable pain in his life, yet he decides to confess that what he did to make himself better immediately after that moment was to order a bunch of fast food from a drive through. Bear in mind that he was indulging in the very same thing that was making him feel hopeless.

He understands that's how addiction works. Overeating might not be a sexy addiction, and we all know that a similar story about drugs told by a hip, edgy comedian would have looked a hell of a lot more alluring than a family-friendly "fluffy" comedian in a Hawaiian shirt affectionately trying to make his audience laugh via his life stories and squeaky voice.

The Fluffy Movie is a very typical comedy special where the reason it got a theatrical release is connected to the popularity of the performer more than the technical details involved with the production. The concert film was taped in San Jose where Iglesias delivers his energetic act in front of an impressive backdrop that resembles The Golden Gate Bridge.

Apart from a misguided and unnecessary opening skit showing Iglesias' conception and childhood (It can't be an accident that he's shown renting Eddie Murphy: Raw as a kid, since Raw created the "Skit before the comedy special" craze), the rest of the film's almost two-hour runtime is devoted to Iglesias' set. You would think that would have been enough time to squeeze in a bunch of material, but Iglesias' long-winded stories allow for a handful of subjects. Basically, the entire special consists of his weight problems, his stories dealing with his son and the time he met his absentee father after 30 years.

The fact that these stories lack any considerable edge says a lot more about the viewer than the performer. In my case, after listening to Doug Stanhope describing the time he helped his mother kill himself in excruciating detail, Iglesias' obviously painful yet eventually heartwarming story about accepting his father back into his life sounds a bit too saccharine.

The Blu-Ray:

Video:

The Fluffy Movie's 1080p presentation is incredibly clean and crisp, and should make the viewer feel like they're participants in the performance itself. The opening skit has some questionable lighting choices, such as a bar drenched in so much red, that even the excellent HD presentation almost shows some color bleeding. The majority of the film sticks to Iglesias' set and it's as good a filmed modern stand-up special as we can get.

Audio:

The DTS-HD 5.1 presentation is what we can expect from a stand-up film to a tee, Iglesias' performance mostly sticking to the front channels, with some surround presence coming from the audience reactions. The performance can be heard very clearly. The audio mix during the opening skit is a bit more complex.

Extras:

Unfortunately, there aren't any extras present, apart from some Previews. The combo package comes with the film on DVD and digital copy. A quick look at the DVD showed a strong standard definition presentation. There are two versions of the film that are offered on the Blu-Ray, Theatrical and Extended. I watched the extended version, which is about 13 minutes longer.

Final Thoughts:

Ignoring my jaded experience with and preference for edgier, more potty-mouthed stand-up, The Fluffy Movie is a much better choice for family entertainment than anything from, say, The Blue Collar Comedy idiots. Nothing groundbreaking on display here, but a good time is promised, especially for Iglesias' fans.

Oktay Ege Kozak is a film critic and screenwriter based in Portland, Oregon. He also writes for The Playlist, The Oregon Herald, and Beyazperde.com