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Legally Blonde: Platinum Collection
MGM // PG-13 // November 9, 2004
List Price: $39.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Note: This package combines the previously released "Blonde" DVDs with a couple of additional, separate bonuses. The main reviews are taken from the reviews of the prior DVDs, while the new add-ons are discussed in the extras section.
The Movie:
"Legally Blonde":
Probably one of the biggest surprise hits of the year, "Legally Blonde" was one of the latest films in a series of progressively stronger efforts from MGM, who looks to be turning around their somewhat weak output of recent years. At the same time, the film also cemented the star status of Reese Witherspoon, who has been on the edge of really breaking out after a solid lineup of films like "Pleasantville" and "Election".
"Blonde" certainly won't be considered art, but as light comedies go, the film contains more spirit and energy than most in the genre, mainly thanks to Witherspoon's bold and occasionally near-perfect performance. Witherspoon plays Elle Woods, a somewhat ditzy sorrority sister who finds out that she's being dumped by boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis), who finds that he needs a "Jackie, not a Marilyn."
He's off to Harvard, but she won't let him go quite so easily. She works hard enough to get the kind of grades to be considered by the school and puts together a silly - but likable - video that sells the board on her admittance. Once there, she finds herself wildly out of her element, as her rainbow colored outfits and perky personality meet with mocking laughter by the Harvard students. The other problem she must contend with is new competition for her old boyfriend in the form of Vivian (Selma Blair).
As one might expect, Elle triumphs her way into a law group that assists in trying to solve a murder case. It's at this point where "Legally Blonde" goes slightly over the legal limit of believability, but "Blonde" works far better overall than it should have. Witherspoon's performance is marvelous, making a goofy character not only sympathetic, but charming. Unfortunately, some of the supporting performances are lacking in "Blonde"; had they been a little stronger, "Blonde" may have even worked a little better. Selma Blair, whose comedic talents were on display superbly in "Cruel Intentions", is forced to sit with an irritated look on her face for most of the time. Luke Wilson, whose dry humor in "Bottle Rocket" was great, is somewhat bland here.
Minor faults and criticisms aside, "Legally Blonde" manages to be fluffy and entertaining enough to be very entertaining more often than not, largely and almost completely thanks to the terrific performance from Witherspoon.
"Legally Blonde 2":
The Movie:
"You know what I thought when I first saw you?"
"That woman wears a lot of pink?"
The definitive unnecessary sequel, "Legally Blonde 2" will not assist the careers of anyone involved. The first film, which was mindless good fun (I guess), allowed Reese Witherspoon to turn on the charm and get the audience to root for her ditzy character's inexplicable success at Harvard Law.
Once again, Witherspoon plays Elle Woods, whose only interests seem to be fashion and being a lawyer, although she seems considerably more involved with the former than the latter. She's now planning her wedding to Emmett (Luke Wilson, whose deadpan delivery is welcome) and decides to find the parents of her annoying little chihuahua dog, Bruiser. When she finds out they're stuck in an animal testing lab, she tries to break them out, but to no success - she's working for a law firm who counts the company as a client. The firm gives Elle the boot, for the vague reason that she's not "serious".
So, she heads to Washington to try to pass a bill that would ban animal testing. Although she gains support from a former sorority sister who is now Congresswoman Rudd (Sally Field), it's no surprise that the rest of the office staff will come up with a series of one-liners to describe the explosion of pink that now finds itself in their office.
Once again, we get another "stuck up" crowd impressed with the sort of odd way that Elle seems to stumble upon new triumphs in her latest quest, which seems rather similar to the previous quest. Elle's attempts to stop animal testing is noble, indeed, but how has this idea been made into such a remarkably dumb film? The sequel continues the focus of the series on fashion and general materialism (congresswomen are bribed by haircuts), something that I'm surprised doesn't irritate more women, who are consistently told by the media that they need Prada bags and as many accessories as possible and not just to be themselves. The film's jokes occasionally hit, but they're mostly obvious, predictable and just not very funny.
As for Witherspoon, it can certainly be said that she tries her hardest, but the character's naive nature has started to irritate, with lines like, "Isn't bill writing super fun?" and "If we lose our voice, this country is in for a really bad haircut", as well as Elle's general surprise at how Washington works. Jennifer Coolidge tries to lend her comic abilities that've been honed in the Christopher Guest films, to some success. Bob Newhart and Sally Field, on the other hand, look lost (although few play confused for comedy better than Bob Newhart). Technically, I didn't care for the film, either; although I've never liked cinematographer Elliot Davis's work, "Blonde 2" looks dark and plain - odd in a movie that places so much emphasis on looks. Rolfe Kent's score loudly announces every emotional moment.
Once again, "Legally Blonde" ranked in the dollars at the box office, leading the way to what will obviously be a third film. Hopefully, some thought and creativity will go into Elle's third adventure, as this one's a much less interesting redo of the original.
The DVD
"Legally Blonde":
VIDEO: "Legally Blonde" is presented by MGM/UA in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen edition and an extremely cropped pan & scan edition. Both editions of the movie are shoehorned onto one dual-layered side of the disc, while some of the special features are on the flip-side. The 2.35:1 widescreen edition, while containing a few minor blemishes, is consistently beautiful. Sharpness and detail throughout the movie is quite good, as the movie maintained a consistently well-defined look that never veered into softness.
There were some concerns though. While none of the following distracted largely from the viewing experience, they did add up to make the picture quality somewhat less than it could be. A couple of light traces of pixelation and edge enhancement are visible, but there really weren't that many print flaws. Light grain inconsistently appeared, but other than that, there were only a few speckles and a stray mark.
The film's vibrant color palette was rendered uniformly well, as colors appeared bright, rich and well-saturated, with no instances of smearing or other problems. It's unfortunate that the widescreen and cropped pan & scan editions had to be crunched onto one side of the DVD, and that a pan & scan version had to be included at all. Still, the anamorphic widescreen version comes out fine, looking good and, aside from a few minor faults, boasting good image quality.
SOUND: "Legally Blonde" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and often suffers from "comedy audio". In other words, although there are some opportunities for at least moderate surround use, the majority of the audio stays firmly rooted in the front speakers. Surrounds only pop in to provide support for the music and score, but really don't offer anything else. Still, although the audio lacked activity, it did provide fine quality. The score came through crisply, sounding bright and lively, while dialogue was clear and easily understood.
"Legally Blonde 2"
VIDEO: "Blonde 2" is presented by MGM in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Previously discussed irritation with the movie's look aside, MGM's transfer presents the film fairly well. Sharpness and detail are standard and consistent, not appearing remarkable, but not appearing soft or hazy, either.
Some moderate amounts of edge enhancement appear at times and become somewhat distracting. No compression artifacts were seen, though. The print appeared about as crisp as one would expect from recent fare, but I did notice a speck or two in a couple of scenes. Colors - aside from Elle's pink - seemed a little flat, but otherwise decently presented here.
SOUND: The film's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack isn't too much more exciting. Surrounds aren't called into play much at all, with only a couple of scenes putting the rear speakers to use for music. Audio quality is perfectly fine - dialogue is clear and easily understood - that's about all there is to it.
EXTRAS:
"Legally Blonde":
Commentary: The first commentary track is from actress Reese Witherspoon, who's joined by director Robert Luketic and producer Marc Platt. I've mentioned countless times in the past that some commentaries are plagued by an overabundance of praise - "You're good". "No, you're good!" This first "Blonde" track is a prime example of this fault, as the three participants seem to think many scenes are their favorite moments and that everyone was wonderful to work with. Platt and Luketic stop the track cold several times to lavish praise on their lead actress whose joined them for the discussion, as well. The track was not a total wash-out, as the three occasionally chimed in with some interesting information about filming a particular scene, a location, some production obstacle or working with the actors. They also provided good energy and certainly seemed willing to talk, as there isn't much in the way of blank space during the track. I simply would have liked to have heard a little more in-depth discussion of what it took to make the movie.
Commentary: This is a second commentary from various memebers of the film's crew, including cinematographer Anthony Richmond, costume designer Sophie de Rakoff Carbonell, production designer Melissa Stewart, screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith and animal trainer Sue Chipperton. While this track was somewhat drier, I still found it considerably more intresting than the other commentary, as these folks combined provided more in-depth details about the making of the movie than the three on the other track offered. Richmond's discussion starts off the track and although his chat about the film's cinematography is very technical, I found it pretty fascinating. The costume and production designers provide a good understanding of the lengths they went to achieve the film's vibrant look, while the screenwriters did a nice job discussing the changes they made from the novel and their general ideas about the story and characters. While still not one of the best tracks I've listened to lately, this was a very nice mix of information and a little fun now and then.
Fact Track: Colored bars bring up various tidbits throughout the picture, which makes for an enjoyable pairing with one of the commentary tracks.
Deleted Scenes: 8 deleted scenes are presented in rough form with introductions from director Robert Luketic. There are some fun moments sprinkled throughout these scenes, but they don't push the plot forward or are unnecessary.
Inside Legally Blonde: While this documentary starts off interestingly enough by having the writers, producer, novelist and director explain, step-by-step, the way that "Blonde" went from script-to-screen. Things then start to become a little unfocused and heavy into "praise mode". It all starts to come into focus again towards the end, as a discussion of the characters and story proves to be mildly intresting, as Witherspoon provides interview footage, as well.
Trailers/Etc.: Trailers are provided for "Legally Blonde" and "Princess Bride: Special Edition". There's also a music video for Hoku's "Perfect Day".
Also: "The Hair That Ate Hollywood", a short featurette about the film's "blondeness" and the joys of being blonde.
"Legally Blonde 2":
EXTRAS: Extras include a commentary with actresses Jennifer Coolidge, Alana Ulbach and Jessica Caulfiel, "making of" documentary "Blonde Ambition", 6 deleted scenes, a gag reel that's actually quite funny, trailers, Leann Rhimes music video, ad for "The Sims" video game.
Bonus:
The set offers an additional promo DVD that includes a 6-minute promotional featurette that looks at the upcoming "Beauty Shop". The featurette was fairly thin, but amusing and offered some decent interviews from the cast and behind-the-scenes clips.
The set also includes the "collectable box", as well as a pen that resembles Witherspoon's in the film, a notepad and word magnets.
Final Thoughts: "Legally Blonde: Platinum Collection" is a cute repackaging in time for the holidays. Those who have someone in the target audience on their holiday gift list may want to check it out, although one will save buying both "Blonde" DVDs separately, as the films have been repriced lower since their release.
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