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Blind Dating
Fox // PG-13 // February 5, 2008
List Price: $27.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Something of a poor man's "At First Sight," "Blind Dating" is one half a drama about a young blind man who undergoes an experimental procedure to restore his sight, and one half a romantic comedy so generic that if it had a bigger budget, John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale would be in it.
The film stars Chris Pine (better known these days as the new Captain Kirk in the upcoming "Star Trek" prequel) as Danny, blind since birth, now 22 years old. He laments that he is a virgin, but when his greasy older brother Larry (Eddie Kaye Thomas) offers to use his connections to get him a prostitute, Danny declines. After all, it's not about the sex, Danny explains, it's about the love. He just can't seem to find the right girl.
Such a statement as that in a romantic comedy is a sure sign than yup, within just a couple scenes Danny will indeed find the right girl, although he doesn't realize it just yet, natch. While visiting his doctor (the fantastic Stephen Tobolowsky) to prep for the aforementioned vision experiment, he clashes with the new receptionist, the lovely young Leeza (Anjali Jay, a familiar face to fans of the BBC's update of "Robin Hood"). These early arguments mean, of course, that they are indeed meant for each other.
But before they can connect, we must first sit through a string of jokey scenes in which Larry sets up Danny with the world's worst blind dates. (And yes, the movie makes a joke about the phrase, although it's wise enough to make fun of itself for using such a cheap punchline.) Danny bungles his way through evenings with oversexed maniacs, weepy freaks, and flaky bimbos, and at one point he even tries going the whole night pretending not to be blind, just so the trashy blonde won't think of him as a pity date. It's all about as funny as it sounds, which is to say, not really.
On the other side of the plot, Leeza is up to her neck in cliché as she finds herself stuck planning for an arranged marriage to a total Baxter. Her family doesn't understand that she's just not interested, although if they were more caring, we wouldn't have to sit through all the movie's cheap contrivances. Because yes, Leeza and Danny get together, and yes, they fall in love, and yes, Leeza waits until the screenplay demands its end-of-the-second-act conflict to reveal that she's getting married, which sends the two apart, although it's no spoiler warning to tell you that Danny wises up for the finale, which involves him racing against the clock to confess his love for Leeza.
Yeah, it's that generic.
But somewhere in between the break-up and the make-up, the script, from first-timer Christopher Theo, takes a sharp left turn and throws its characters back into that restore-his-vision plotline we all forgot about. Danny is outfitted with a microchip in his brain that's wired into a camera mounted on sunglasses, and the whole time the movie's dealing with his recovery and the problems therein, we're wondering how the movie got so off track. This plotline is ultimately unnecessary to the romance, and the ways Theo has to struggle to connect the two story angles leaves the entire film as something of a grand mess.
Granted, Pine has a certain charm that helps him keep many dismal scenes afloat, his chemistry with Jay is bubbly enough, and the supporting cast (which also includes Jane Seymour in the bafflingly peculiar role of a psychiatrist with a sexual compulsion) is plenty likable. But the script's a total wreck, and director James Keach (husband to Seymour and veteran helmer of many a limp TV movie) treats the whole thing as one overly bland enterprise. His direction is flat and the jokes are flatter.
Oh, and then the whole thing ends with KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See" playing over the closing credits, because yeah, that's this movie's idea of cleverness. Yikes.
The DVD
Video & Audio
"Blind Dating" looks decent enough in a perfectly passable anamorphic widescreen transfer, clear, crisp, free of defects. But here's the thing: the movie was shot and theatrically presented in the 2.35:1 widescreen format, but appears here in a cropped 1.78:1 version. The image isn't cramped in any noticeable way, and there is no disclaimer on the disc stating that the film has been "modified from its original version," but I can't find anything online to confirm whether or not Keach approves of this sort of "16x9 full frame" editing. So I have to assume the worst and give this disc low marks, just on the principle of the thing.
The soundtrack is presented in a thoroughly average Dolby 5.1 mix that balances the dialogue and music nicely. Also included is a descriptive soundtrack for the visually impaired (which makes plenty sense) as well as optional subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
Extras
"Behind the Scenes of Blind Dating" (5:04) is a quickie fluff piece that pads its lackluster interviews with a heavy supply of film clips. The whole thing, including those film clips, is presented in 1.78:1 flat letterbox.
16 deleted scenes (15:53 total) do little to enhance the story. These are either extensions of scenes, jokes that go nowhere, or little chunks character business that clog up the plot, and it's easy to see why they were cut. Oddly enough, these are presented in the original 2.35:1 flat letterbox.
The film's obnoxious trailer and a batch of previews for other MGM/Fox releases round out the set. A separate set of previews plays as the disc loads.
Final Thoughts
"Blind Dating" is a forgettable slice of hackneyed romance, and it's served up here on a crummy platter. Skip It.
The film stars Chris Pine (better known these days as the new Captain Kirk in the upcoming "Star Trek" prequel) as Danny, blind since birth, now 22 years old. He laments that he is a virgin, but when his greasy older brother Larry (Eddie Kaye Thomas) offers to use his connections to get him a prostitute, Danny declines. After all, it's not about the sex, Danny explains, it's about the love. He just can't seem to find the right girl.
Such a statement as that in a romantic comedy is a sure sign than yup, within just a couple scenes Danny will indeed find the right girl, although he doesn't realize it just yet, natch. While visiting his doctor (the fantastic Stephen Tobolowsky) to prep for the aforementioned vision experiment, he clashes with the new receptionist, the lovely young Leeza (Anjali Jay, a familiar face to fans of the BBC's update of "Robin Hood"). These early arguments mean, of course, that they are indeed meant for each other.
But before they can connect, we must first sit through a string of jokey scenes in which Larry sets up Danny with the world's worst blind dates. (And yes, the movie makes a joke about the phrase, although it's wise enough to make fun of itself for using such a cheap punchline.) Danny bungles his way through evenings with oversexed maniacs, weepy freaks, and flaky bimbos, and at one point he even tries going the whole night pretending not to be blind, just so the trashy blonde won't think of him as a pity date. It's all about as funny as it sounds, which is to say, not really.
On the other side of the plot, Leeza is up to her neck in cliché as she finds herself stuck planning for an arranged marriage to a total Baxter. Her family doesn't understand that she's just not interested, although if they were more caring, we wouldn't have to sit through all the movie's cheap contrivances. Because yes, Leeza and Danny get together, and yes, they fall in love, and yes, Leeza waits until the screenplay demands its end-of-the-second-act conflict to reveal that she's getting married, which sends the two apart, although it's no spoiler warning to tell you that Danny wises up for the finale, which involves him racing against the clock to confess his love for Leeza.
Yeah, it's that generic.
But somewhere in between the break-up and the make-up, the script, from first-timer Christopher Theo, takes a sharp left turn and throws its characters back into that restore-his-vision plotline we all forgot about. Danny is outfitted with a microchip in his brain that's wired into a camera mounted on sunglasses, and the whole time the movie's dealing with his recovery and the problems therein, we're wondering how the movie got so off track. This plotline is ultimately unnecessary to the romance, and the ways Theo has to struggle to connect the two story angles leaves the entire film as something of a grand mess.
Granted, Pine has a certain charm that helps him keep many dismal scenes afloat, his chemistry with Jay is bubbly enough, and the supporting cast (which also includes Jane Seymour in the bafflingly peculiar role of a psychiatrist with a sexual compulsion) is plenty likable. But the script's a total wreck, and director James Keach (husband to Seymour and veteran helmer of many a limp TV movie) treats the whole thing as one overly bland enterprise. His direction is flat and the jokes are flatter.
Oh, and then the whole thing ends with KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See" playing over the closing credits, because yeah, that's this movie's idea of cleverness. Yikes.
The DVD
Video & Audio
"Blind Dating" looks decent enough in a perfectly passable anamorphic widescreen transfer, clear, crisp, free of defects. But here's the thing: the movie was shot and theatrically presented in the 2.35:1 widescreen format, but appears here in a cropped 1.78:1 version. The image isn't cramped in any noticeable way, and there is no disclaimer on the disc stating that the film has been "modified from its original version," but I can't find anything online to confirm whether or not Keach approves of this sort of "16x9 full frame" editing. So I have to assume the worst and give this disc low marks, just on the principle of the thing.
The soundtrack is presented in a thoroughly average Dolby 5.1 mix that balances the dialogue and music nicely. Also included is a descriptive soundtrack for the visually impaired (which makes plenty sense) as well as optional subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
Extras
"Behind the Scenes of Blind Dating" (5:04) is a quickie fluff piece that pads its lackluster interviews with a heavy supply of film clips. The whole thing, including those film clips, is presented in 1.78:1 flat letterbox.
16 deleted scenes (15:53 total) do little to enhance the story. These are either extensions of scenes, jokes that go nowhere, or little chunks character business that clog up the plot, and it's easy to see why they were cut. Oddly enough, these are presented in the original 2.35:1 flat letterbox.
The film's obnoxious trailer and a batch of previews for other MGM/Fox releases round out the set. A separate set of previews plays as the disc loads.
Final Thoughts
"Blind Dating" is a forgettable slice of hackneyed romance, and it's served up here on a crummy platter. Skip It.
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