A surprisingly sweet teen comedy that keeps the sex under the covers and off-screen.
Every character has a journey to make in the course of this single evening, and though the arcs can be a little transparent and facile at times, for a teen comedy "Can't Hardly Wait" manages to rise a cut above the typical teen fare.
Video:
Sony has delivered a solid transfer (AVC/MPEG-4 codec) that looks clean and has no visible artifacts. I wouldn't call it visually dynamic, though. The colors are bright without seeming vivid, and the level of detail and black levels are strong, though I can't say that there's a great illusion of 3-dimensionality. But it's a clean- and sharp-looking picture that, despite looking a little soft in some scenes, is pretty solid overall. "Can't Hardly Wait" is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
Audio:
The audio is similarly solid, with the featured soundtrack an English, French, or Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 that has a nice, full-bodied tonal quality and a good balance. There's a lot of overlapping dialogue in this film, and the music could have drowned out the dialogue in a number of instances, but that never happens. It's an accomplished sound mix. An additional soundtrack option is Thai Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English, English SDH, French, Indonesian, Korean, Thai, Spanish, Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), and Portuguese.
Extras:
Two commentaries are provided, one recorded shortly after the film was released, and the other a retrospective that pulls in more of the cast. Both are freewheeling, which means that both will appeal to fans, but will also probably annoy them at times. The first annoys when Green lays a British accent on a bit thick, while the second annoys with the amount of laughter that drowns out anything useful that might be said. They're a mixed bag, really, that are fun for a while but then grow tedious. Kaplan, Elfont, and Green appear on both tracks, and are joined by producer Betty Thomas on the first track and by Facinelli, and Joel Michaely on the second.
The longest bonus feature is a near half-hour "Huntington Hills High Class Reunion," which is new to DVD/Blu-ray. Most of the cast (nope, not Love Hewitt) appears in the usual blend of talking heads and clips, with casting director Mary Vernieu sharing a few anecdotes to go along with the cast, and their speculations (since this is the "10 Year Reunion Edition") on what fates befell their characters after that night. That is, if there were a reunion, what kind of person would show up?
Then there's a just under 15 minute feature on "The Making of a Teen Classic." I hadn't heard of this film before I watched it, and wondered if I was the only person who apparently didn't know it was a classic. The ground that talking heads cover in this brief feature includes behind-the-scenes production tales, script-to-screen development, and on-set atmosphere. "The Life of the Party" (just under 10 minutes) basically has the same crew talking about their own lives, including the day/night that they graduated from high school. The bonus for HD fans is that all of these recently shot features are in High Definition.
Rounding out the bonus features is an average trivia track, a Smash Mouth music video ("Can't Get Enough of You, Baby"), and seven minutes of deleted/extended scenes that don't amount to much.
Bottom Line:
"Can't Hardly Wait" is a surprisingly sweet teen comedy that keeps the sex under the covers and off-screen, opting instead for a John Hughes-style exploration of the teen world. It's a little more intelligent and a little better than the average teen fare, and in Blu-ray it looks great.
Video:
Sony has delivered a solid transfer (AVC/MPEG-4 codec) that looks clean and has no visible artifacts. I wouldn't call it visually dynamic, though. The colors are bright without seeming vivid, and the level of detail and black levels are strong, though I can't say that there's a great illusion of 3-dimensionality. But it's a clean- and sharp-looking picture that, despite looking a little soft in some scenes, is pretty solid overall. "Can't Hardly Wait" is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
Audio:
The audio is similarly solid, with the featured soundtrack an English, French, or Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 that has a nice, full-bodied tonal quality and a good balance. There's a lot of overlapping dialogue in this film, and the music could have drowned out the dialogue in a number of instances, but that never happens. It's an accomplished sound mix. An additional soundtrack option is Thai Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English, English SDH, French, Indonesian, Korean, Thai, Spanish, Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), and Portuguese.
Extras:
Two commentaries are provided, one recorded shortly after the film was released, and the other a retrospective that pulls in more of the cast. Both are freewheeling, which means that both will appeal to fans, but will also probably annoy them at times. The first annoys when Green lays a British accent on a bit thick, while the second annoys with the amount of laughter that drowns out anything useful that might be said. They're a mixed bag, really, that are fun for a while but then grow tedious. Kaplan, Elfont, and Green appear on both tracks, and are joined by producer Betty Thomas on the first track and by Facinelli, and Joel Michaely on the second.
The longest bonus feature is a near half-hour "Huntington Hills High Class Reunion," which is new to DVD/Blu-ray. Most of the cast (nope, not Love Hewitt) appears in the usual blend of talking heads and clips, with casting director Mary Vernieu sharing a few anecdotes to go along with the cast, and their speculations (since this is the "10 Year Reunion Edition") on what fates befell their characters after that night. That is, if there were a reunion, what kind of person would show up?
Then there's a just under 15 minute feature on "The Making of a Teen Classic." I hadn't heard of this film before I watched it, and wondered if I was the only person who apparently didn't know it was a classic. The ground that talking heads cover in this brief feature includes behind-the-scenes production tales, script-to-screen development, and on-set atmosphere. "The Life of the Party" (just under 10 minutes) basically has the same crew talking about their own lives, including the day/night that they graduated from high school. The bonus for HD fans is that all of these recently shot features are in High Definition.
Rounding out the bonus features is an average trivia track, a Smash Mouth music video ("Can't Get Enough of You, Baby"), and seven minutes of deleted/extended scenes that don't amount to much.
Bottom Line:
"Can't Hardly Wait" is a surprisingly sweet teen comedy that keeps the sex under the covers and off-screen, opting instead for a John Hughes-style exploration of the teen world. It's a little more intelligent and a little better than the average teen fare, and in Blu-ray it looks great.
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[release]24423[/release]