The Feature:
I don't know about you, but I'm starting to tire of ensemble comedies based around dysfunctional families. Trailer trash for the sake of trailer trash is not indicative of good comedy. Now that I have gotten that off my chest, let me get on with my review of "Sordid Lives."

A woman has died tripping over the wooden legs of her married lover. With her funeral coming up, her family prepares by acting like stereotypical white trash (i.e. throwing someone's belongings outside of their trailer, and speaking with an over-the-top Texas drawl).

The movie is pretty much all dialogue, featuring a cavalcade of Hollywood B-list celebrities (Delta Burke, Beau Bridges, Olivia Newton-John, etc). There are four intertwined conversations; one featuring the deceased woman's sister and daughters, one with her lover drinking in a bar, her gay transvestite son and his therapist, and her grandson and his own therapist.

For you fans of "Sordid Lives", I'm sorry about the lack of detail in this review, but this movie left me utterly bored. I hate stereotypical characters. Sure, they may look great in a script, but when you're presented with the actual product, it's a different story.

Video:
"Sordid Lives" is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1. This movie was shot differently than most other movies, as it appears to look like a sitcom at times. Colors and flesh tones are right on, as well as the bright color clashes between the tacky outfits the actors and actresses are wearing. Overall, it looks really good.

Audio:
The audio is presented here in Dolby 2.0. It sounds as good as I expected, especially when you consider the movie is all dialogue. Everything sounds crisp and clean, and there are no audio dropouts whatsoever.

Menus:
Static DVD menu with the following choices: "Play Movie", "Language Selection", "Scene Selection", and "Special Features."

Extras:
"Sordid Lives" offers a pretty good selection of extras. The first one is a commentary by Director Del Shores, Producer Sharyn Lane, Bonnie Bedelia, Beth Grant, Kirk Geiger, Leslie Jordan, Rosemary Alexander, and Newell Alexander. This is a pretty entertaining commentary, as Del carries it all the way through, commenting on screen specific happenings. I did enjoy his pointing out of the various mistakes he made while filming the movie.

More extras include "Stories by Del Shores and Sharyn Lane", "Uncut Songs" ("Will the Circle be Unbroken" and "Coming Home" by Olivia Newton-John), 10 "Deleted Scenes" with optional commentary, and a bunch of "Interviews" with the cast and crew of the movie.

Final Thoughts:
Hey, your mileage may vary. I wasn't into this movie at all, but I guess there must be some "Sordid Lives" fans out there somewhere. For those fans out there, they will be happy to know that this movie was given the royal treatment by Fox, featuring really good audio/video, and an excellent host of extras. Unfortunately, all those goodies come with a price… The MSRP of "Sordid Lives" is an alarmingly high $34.99. Therefore, I'll give this a "Rent It."