Synopsis:

Sandra Bullock plays, Gwen Cummings, A successful NYC journalist who takes her passions to an extreme. Always ready to party, she drinks to excess and is also addicted to prescription medication. Her excesses have all been "accepted" until she ruins her sister's wedding day by destroying the wedding cake, making a toast that shamed everyone present and the final insult, taking the limousine on a drunken high speed drive through quiet Bedford, NY, crashing into a home and totally destroying the porch and first floor of the house. Realizing she is a menace to society in her current state, a judge sentences her to 28 days in a re-hab clinic in upstate NY. Instead of Vicadin, chanting is the drug of choice and instead of alcohol, warm hugs, prayers and singing are the order of things. Needless to say, she is out of her element and unwilling to stay in "geekdom". With an addicted boyfriend who enables her at every moment and a totally unreal approach to her problem, Gwen has her hands more than full. Not too mention the characters she meets in Re-hab! 28 days is a sobering look at life in the fast lane and all the problems that come with a speedy existence!

Audio:

The audio presented is in a decent 5.1 platform that really shines in the outdoor scenes for the film. The soundtrack for the movie is pretty engaging and provides great surround effect as well as some pretty decent LFE every now and again. The dialogue was clean and easily understood. The only dialogue problem I experienced came with the Director's commentary. For some reason, the dialogue track was a little loud for my tastes during the commentary. At times it was a struggle to hear the commentary because of the volume of the dialogue track. The commentary itself is actually fairly interesting. Betty Thomas-Director helms the commentary and provides an ample amount of info regarding the nuances of the film. The editor and Producer co-chair the commentary and spend more time giggling about the silliest things that they are more of detraction than a benefit to have on this particular track. It is screen specific and with Betty Thomas, the content is definitely worth listening to. She adds her own comedic spin every now and again however, unlike her co-chairs, she's actually funny!

Video:

The video itself is an incredibly clean print that is strikingly beautiful. The fleshtones are accurate and the colors themselves are well saturated. In all, I was very pleased with the widescreen/anamorphic transfer. I couldn't find any pixelation or flecking or any other chroma noise to speak of. Great transfer!

Extras:

Loaded disc alert! (Been a long time since I had one of those!) There's a lot of stuff on this disc! In addition to the commentary, there's an isolated music score. An instruction manual on making chewing gum wrapper chains, trailers for the film. An HBO Making of Special that lasts 15 minutes and has interviews with all of the cast & most of the crew (The best extra) talent files and lastly there's an episode of the ghastly soap opera "Santa Cruz-The lost episodes". How I wish they'd stayed lost! Almost forgot, Guitar guy has some songs that didn't quite make the cut that show up here as an extra. In order to understand "Guitar guy" you have to see the film. To understand his songs, you really need to be a Phoebe Buffet (Boofay) fan (FRIENDS). Just a side note.

Overall:

I didn't think I was going to like this one but I was pleasantly surprised. I am so not a fan of Sandra Bullock's previous work but found many reasons to enjoy her performance in 28 Days. It's tragic, it's funny, sad but most importantly, it's redemptive, showing the worth in all of us when we take the time to look at who we really are versus who we've become. Highly Recommended!