On certain occasions—say, while doing one's business in the bathroom—your typical movie fan reflects on all the rotten movies he has seen in his lifetime. Such reflection is valuable, as it informs film criticism in general: Rotten films act as points of reference. For every good film, there is a bad film. For every brilliant cinematic vision, there is a big ol' wet celluloid turd. One such turd is The Man Who Loved Women.

From director Blake Edwards, this remake of Truffaut's L'Homme qui aimait les femmes stars Burt Reynolds as Robert Fowler, a hip Southern California playboy on the verge of a midlife crisis. Apparently, his insatiable hunger for and success with legions of hot babes (e.g., Kim Basinger, Marilu Henner, both looking young and fine) has poor old Fowler a bit depressed. He ends up on the couch of therapist Marianna (Julie Andrews), to whom he lays out his life and his obsession with all things female. Obviously, she ends up falling for him. I think I've made it sound much better than it actually is.

Although I've never seen the Truffaut original, I hold no doubts that this remake is an unspeakably atrocious attempt to capture some successful but elusive element of something that worked in France. The performances are self-conscious and feeble, and the writing is lazy.

Columbia/Tristar presents The Man Who Loved Women in a mediocre anamorphic transfer of the film's original 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio. (The flip side contains a butchered full-frame version that I didn't even consider viewing.) The print appears excessively grainy, and colors appear washed out. Detail is wanting. I've seen non-anamorphic transfers that better this one.

The disc provides only the original mono audio track. The track gets the job done for this dialog-centric film—and nothing more.

Nothin'.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.