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New Guy, The
Columbia/Tri-Star // PG-13 // August 13, 2002
List Price: $27.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"The New Guy" brings nothing new to the table, prefering to work from the scraps of teen movie cliches. It reaches a point where it could have come to an acceptable ending, then keeps going. Some of it is completely absurd and disbelief often has to be suspended. All that aside, "The New Guy" surprisingly is able to work around some of these faults. While it's certainly not flawless, the picture actually has its charms.
DJ Qualls ("Road Trip") stars as Dizzy, a high school Senior whose dreams of finally advancing up the high school food chain in his final year are quickly dashed when an incident that can not be described not only embarasses him, but gets him thrown in prison. Taking advice from a fellow inmate (Eddie Griffin), Dizzy gets himself thrown out of school, changes his image and comes up with a new name (Gil) for a new school. Somehow, Gil manages to go back to the prison to get advice, but the whole prison thing really doesn't make much sense
After some difficulty getting noticed, he finally knocks out the school bully and catches the eye of both the school's most popular cheerleader (Sunny Mabrey) and the bully's girlfriend (Eliza Dushku). The following scenes - Gil turns his back on his old friends, bully seeks revenge - are predictable and the film tended to not offer much in the way of surprises.
The performances, however, aren't half bad. Dushku has been better in other movies, but she's actually very enjoyable playing a sweet character. For fans of the actress, a montage where she tries on swimsuits should be worth the price of a rental. Qualls also makes a fairly entertaining geek hero, as he did in the scenes he had in "Road Trip". Griffin walks through his scenes, but he still manages to get a few laughs thanks to his excellent timing. Zooey Deschanel (who looks different than she did in "Big Trouble" and other recent fare) is fun and charming, as usual. Cameos include Vanilla Ice, Henry Rollins, Gene Simmons, Tommy Lee and skateboarder Tony Hawk. Hawk is funny enough in a little part that maybe he should try acting more often.
Overall, "The New Guy" is forgettable fare with a few nice moments scattered throughout. The cast - and the audience - deserve better, fresher material.
The DVD
VIDEO: "The New Guy" is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 full-frame by Columbia/Tristar. The picture quality is generally very good, although there were a few flaws that started to become more noticable during the last few scenes in the film. Sharpness and detail were good, if not stunning. While the picture maintained a nice, crisp appearance, it never showed nice depth or fine detail to the image.
The picture actually maintained a fairly fault-free appearance for most of the picture, keeping edge enhancement to a bare minimum, while the print remained clear. However, during some of the late scenes in the picture, I noticed a few moments that seemed to have a handful or noticable marks or dirt. No pixelation was spotted. The film's natural-looking color palette remained crisp and well-rendered, with no smearing.
SOUND: "The New Guy" is presented by Columbia/Tristar in Dolby Digital 5.1. As expected, this really maintains a "comedy" soundtrack presence throughout, almost completely driven by the front speakers. Aside from a few moments of music, the surrounds were pretty much silent. Audio quality was fine, as dialogue, music and effects were crisp and clear.
MENUS: Basic, non-animated main and sub-menus.
EXTRAS: Not a whole lot: trailers for "The New Guy", "Mr. Deeds", "Spider Man", "The Animal" and "XXX" are included, as is a music video for "I'm Just A Kid" by Simple Plan.
Final Thoughts: "The New Guy" is infrequently pulled up towards average by a cast that seems interested in livening up otherwise very mediocre material. Unfortunately, aside from a few moments, the film is largely forgettable and occasionally, a little bland. An early teen audience might find this an okay rental, but I don't think anyone outside that age range would find much - if any - enjoyment in "The New Guy".
"The New Guy" brings nothing new to the table, prefering to work from the scraps of teen movie cliches. It reaches a point where it could have come to an acceptable ending, then keeps going. Some of it is completely absurd and disbelief often has to be suspended. All that aside, "The New Guy" surprisingly is able to work around some of these faults. While it's certainly not flawless, the picture actually has its charms.
DJ Qualls ("Road Trip") stars as Dizzy, a high school Senior whose dreams of finally advancing up the high school food chain in his final year are quickly dashed when an incident that can not be described not only embarasses him, but gets him thrown in prison. Taking advice from a fellow inmate (Eddie Griffin), Dizzy gets himself thrown out of school, changes his image and comes up with a new name (Gil) for a new school. Somehow, Gil manages to go back to the prison to get advice, but the whole prison thing really doesn't make much sense
After some difficulty getting noticed, he finally knocks out the school bully and catches the eye of both the school's most popular cheerleader (Sunny Mabrey) and the bully's girlfriend (Eliza Dushku). The following scenes - Gil turns his back on his old friends, bully seeks revenge - are predictable and the film tended to not offer much in the way of surprises.
The performances, however, aren't half bad. Dushku has been better in other movies, but she's actually very enjoyable playing a sweet character. For fans of the actress, a montage where she tries on swimsuits should be worth the price of a rental. Qualls also makes a fairly entertaining geek hero, as he did in the scenes he had in "Road Trip". Griffin walks through his scenes, but he still manages to get a few laughs thanks to his excellent timing. Zooey Deschanel (who looks different than she did in "Big Trouble" and other recent fare) is fun and charming, as usual. Cameos include Vanilla Ice, Henry Rollins, Gene Simmons, Tommy Lee and skateboarder Tony Hawk. Hawk is funny enough in a little part that maybe he should try acting more often.
Overall, "The New Guy" is forgettable fare with a few nice moments scattered throughout. The cast - and the audience - deserve better, fresher material.
The DVD
VIDEO: "The New Guy" is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 full-frame by Columbia/Tristar. The picture quality is generally very good, although there were a few flaws that started to become more noticable during the last few scenes in the film. Sharpness and detail were good, if not stunning. While the picture maintained a nice, crisp appearance, it never showed nice depth or fine detail to the image.
The picture actually maintained a fairly fault-free appearance for most of the picture, keeping edge enhancement to a bare minimum, while the print remained clear. However, during some of the late scenes in the picture, I noticed a few moments that seemed to have a handful or noticable marks or dirt. No pixelation was spotted. The film's natural-looking color palette remained crisp and well-rendered, with no smearing.
SOUND: "The New Guy" is presented by Columbia/Tristar in Dolby Digital 5.1. As expected, this really maintains a "comedy" soundtrack presence throughout, almost completely driven by the front speakers. Aside from a few moments of music, the surrounds were pretty much silent. Audio quality was fine, as dialogue, music and effects were crisp and clear.
MENUS: Basic, non-animated main and sub-menus.
EXTRAS: Not a whole lot: trailers for "The New Guy", "Mr. Deeds", "Spider Man", "The Animal" and "XXX" are included, as is a music video for "I'm Just A Kid" by Simple Plan.
Final Thoughts: "The New Guy" is infrequently pulled up towards average by a cast that seems interested in livening up otherwise very mediocre material. Unfortunately, aside from a few moments, the film is largely forgettable and occasionally, a little bland. An early teen audience might find this an okay rental, but I don't think anyone outside that age range would find much - if any - enjoyment in "The New Guy".
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