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.
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Director Andy Tennant cut his comedy teeth on the Mary-Kate and Ashley vehicle "It Takes Two" (1995), and a gentle, cute/sweet tone has been part of his comic repertoire ever since—whether it was Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek trying to make marriage work after a whirlwind courtship ("Fools Rush In," 1997), Drew Barrymore hoping to grab the glass shoe and a charming prince ("Ever After," 1998"), or Reese Witherspoon finding out that you can go home again, though you'll have to choose between two loves and two lifestyles ("Sweet Home Alabama," 2002). It's all about optimism, and the inherent belief that, somewhere, there's someone for everyone.
That's the message in "Hitch," too. Will Smith plays Alex Hitchens, the legendary Date Doctor who has no office, no business phone, and no yellow pages listing. What he does is CIA secret, and his clients come to him only through word-of-mouth. But the Date Doctor won't take just anybody. There's one big requirement: the guy has to really love the woman before Hitch will take the case and help coach the guy so he can win the woman of his dreams. Sexist? Sure. But it's also a fun, sweet comedy that produces more "aws" than belly laughs.
The comedian formerly known as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air joins forces with Kevin James, the King of Queens, who plays the matchmaker's biggest challenge. It seems that Albert Brennaman (James) isn't just a nerdy overweight accountant who has a hopeless crush on his firm's biggest client, society heiress Allegra Cole (played by supermodel Amber Valletta). The guy also dances like a geek, eats like a klutz, and talks like someone you'd run from instead of toward. But he's basically a nice guy and he's sincere about his love for Allegra, so Hitch agrees to show him the way to her heart. As with all Hitch's clients, this involves equal amounts of coaching and staged coincidences. Whether it's helping his client save his fair lady's dog or something less dramatic, the Date Doctor is an expert in giving fate a nudge.
You'd expect some Robin Williams-style antics from these two, but Tennant seems to have reined them in so that it plays out like an understated comedy rather than a broad one. The screenplay is the thing, and the two comics work well within the structure. They seem to get the tone, and stick with it. There are comedic moments, of course, where each man goes off, but those moments are short and never feel overdone.
As Albert and Allegra continue to warm to each other, things heat up for Hitch when a turkey he refuses to help reveals his identity to the rag that gossip columnist Sara Melas (Eva Mendes) works for. That's doubly bad, because Hitch had been attracted to her and had been trying to save some of the Date Doctor magic for himself. Kevin Bisch's screenplay follows the romantic comedy formula to last drop of love potion: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, and gets the girl in the end. You can see it coming a mile away, but it's the struggle that makes these films fun to watch, and the four principal actors have a natural charisma that makes each of their characters not just believable, but engaging. If you like the actors, you'll like this film. Even the minor characters are worth watching—especially Julie Ann Emery as Sara's best friend. For me, it's always the hallmark of a decent film when the minor characters impress you.
Video: "Hitch" is presented in High Definition widescreen (2.40:1), 1920x1080p. Rating the video on the first wave of Blu-ray discs is going to be tricky. You almost start to feel like an Olympic judge, hesitant to give high marks early and leave no room at the top for future releases that are clearer. It goes without saying that 1080p (or in the case of my TV, 1080i or 720p) is going to be sharper than a 480p standard disc. But how much sharper will it look when the SD-DVD was mastered in High Definition?
I gave the SD-DVD version of this film a 9 on video, because compared to other SD-DVDs it looked sharp. I wrote at the time of my review that the colors were vibrant, but when you see this print alongside the new Blu-ray disc, the whole notion of color (and picture quality) starts to blur. The first thing you notice is that the Blu-ray version has less color saturation and less visual intensity. Is that bad? Well, it appears to have been deliberate for this release, because other Blu-ray discs come closer to the original SD-DVD release. Does the Blu-ray color look more natural? Yes. Does it also look as if it borders on being washed-out? Some people might think so, but in terms of color modulation I actually prefer the new Blu-ray print after watching both versions several times. So how come it scores less? Well, because of the comparison base. Now we're comparing Blu-ray to the highest quality High Definition discs we've seen on SD-DVD, and to other Blu-ray transfers (which are yet to come). And frankly, it took me a while to decide that it was a sharper picture.
To gauge sharpness, I did a frame-by-frame comparison for about 20-30 minutes and kept thinking to myself, yes, the Blu-ray is sharper and shows more detail. But it wasn't so clearly superior that I could tell right away. As my wife said, if you have to keep looking at it over and over again, doesn't that mean the difference isn't significant? To my eyes and hers, maybe. To a videophile who lives and breathes bit-rates and pixels, maybe that person could tell more of a difference. The original got the SD/Hi-Def treatment, and so that may have made the gap seem less. What we're left with, ultimately, is the condition of the master. The title credits have blemishes and flecks of dirt even on the Blu-ray version, and some of the soft-focus scenes in Blu-ray are noticeably grainy (yes, they're supposed to be slightly blurry, but the Blu-ray makes the grain even more noticeable).
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[release]18574[/release]