Hitch (Blu-ray)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

As with other Sony discs I've looked at, the quality varies throughout the film and there are several "hiccups" where there's a noticeable gap, the kind you get when a dual-layered SD-DVD switches from the first to the second layer. Unfortunately, at least one gap comes at a crucial moment, when Hitch is giving his big, sincere, win-her-back speech. Come on, tech people, can we work a little harder to bury those moments in scene transitions?

Audio: The 16 bit, 48kHz main audio is English PCM 5.1 (uncompressed), with additional options of English 5.1 (compressed), and French (compressed) 5.1. So far, at least on the Sony Blu-ray products, the audio has been more consistently stronger than the video quality, which can vary significantly not just from disc to disc but also within a film. But the sound on this one (and presumbably other discs) will vary with your connection, I've discovered. Using the 5.1 analogue connection, the sound is rich and full, but with more center speaker emphasis and de-emphasized rear speakers that will force you to make adjustments. With the optical connection the sound is brighter and livelier—more dynamic, to my ears—which is one reason I prefer the optical connection on my Blu-ray player so far.

Extras: The SD release was surprisingly bare bones, and these Blu-ray bones have even less meat. The SD release had five featurettes: one that focused on the dance lesson that Hitch gives Albert, with previously unseen footage and on-screen comments by the director and his two stars. In "Love in New York City," we learn how romantic Tennant and his crew think NYC is, and see several of the 75 locations that were used as on-location sets—including Ellis Island. Pop-ups give romantic trivia about the city (e.g., dinner and a movie in NYC costs $135, highest in the nation, and there were 170 Central Park weddings in 2004). In "Hitch Style," the costume designer talks about Smith's wardrobe and the NYC look they were trying to achieve. "Dating Experts" trots out all sorts of folks employed in the dating business, including a psychiatrist/therapist who was brought onboard to confirm that the males and females in the film were conforming to typical behavior. Confidence is the most attractive attribute an individual can have, they all agree, and Hitch's quotes are used as springboards for discussion and lead-ins to talking heads' remarks. In "Will Smith's Red Carpet Race," the shortest of the featurettes, we see Smith cover some quick ground in England as he shoots for the Guinness World Record for most public appearances in 12 hours by a film star.

Now, the glitch in the Blu-ray "Hitch" is that you only get two of those five short features: the dance segment and the dating experts segment. Haven't studios figured out what collectors want by now? I have to say that I'm not going to get rid of my SD-DVD version of "Hitch" precisely because of the extra extras. But how many cabinets do these movie moguls think we have in our houses? And while we're on that topic, the industry had a chance for a fresh new packaging start that would speak to the people who buy tons of DVDs every year. Space is a problem, as you collectors know, which is why I was hoping that the new format would inspire a compact case on the same order of CDs. While the Blu-ray cases are sexy (if you ask me), with their slimmer and slightly shorter clear blue plastic cases, or else they look like video rental cases (if you ask my wife), the industry could have done us all a favor had they made it easier to store these things. Now, because of a disappointing number of features on the first round of discs, not only do we still have bigger cases, but we also have the dilemma of whether we keep both versions and clog up those cabinets with duplicates. This is no way to win a format war, people, no matter how many studios (currently 160+) have backed Blu-ray.

Three deleted scenes and an Amerie music video are also MIA on this disc, but we do get the short, tightly edited blooper reel that appeared on the original release.

Bottom Line: Tennant said he wanted to make "a glossy, good-looking, fun movie," and it looks even glossier and is just as fun in Blu-ray. I prefer the natural look of the Blu-ray to the original release, but I'll be keeping the SD-DVD because it has more extras that help you appreciate the film.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---