Rumor has it that Rob Reiner used to make really funny, often moving films. I have no doubt he will do so again.
There is only one way for Sarah to find out the truth: Look up and talk to this Burroughs fellow. So far, so good, but it is at this point, about halfway through the story, that things turn overly sappy and overly serious, conditions from which the movie never recovers. Beau turns out to be a multimillionaire who made his fortune not in plastics, but in computers. He's so rich he's got a mansion on the coast in Half Moon Bay, a winery and vineyards in the Napa wine country, and a private jet to take him anywhere he wants to go. As he says, "Life should be a little nuts; otherwise, it's just a bunch of Thursdays thrown together." Apparently, old Ben succeeded beyond "The Graduate's" wildest imagination.
Needless to say, Beau insists he cannot be Sarah's father, that it is a physical impossibility; the two become intimate; and this cad succeeds at having affairs with three generations of the same family. And that's about it: the once naive and flustered Ben Braddock has turned into the rich and lecherous Beau Burroughs. Neither the story nor the characters are developed any further than what the average moviegoer could guess going in. Worse, what few laughs there are in the story's first-half buildup completely dissipate in the second-half resolution.
Director Reiner and screenwriter Ted Griffin throw in a few other movie references besides "The Graduate," including "Casablanca," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," and "Chinatown," titles that may also fly right over the heads of many younger viewers. What's more, the filmmakers try to evoke the same feeling of confusion and frustration felt by the main character in "The Graduate," but Jennifer Aniston's Sarah doesn't appear as seriously troubled as Hoffman's Ben Braddock; and the new film wraps things up with a predictably happy, complacent Hollywood ending, unlike the more appropriately ambiguous closing of the earlier film.
What we're left with in "Rumor Has It..." is a tribute to a much better picture by filmmakers who are clearly indebted to the earlier effort but cannot improve upon it in their quasi-sequel. Maybe Hoffman was lucky to have been too busy to participate in this affair.
Video:
With the HD/DVD combo you get the high-definition HD-DVD version of the movie in 1080p on one side of the disc and the standard-definition DVD version on the other side. The idea seems to be twofold: If you own an HD-DVD player and one or more SD-DVD players, you can play the movie in any of them. Moreover, if you want the movie today but you're thinking of buying an HD-DVD player sometime in the future, you are ready for it, while still being able to enjoy the film in your old player. For these conveniences, you pay a few extra dollars for the hybrid disc over the standard disc.
How do the two versions compare? Well, usually I can play an SD and HD disc side by side in two separate players for an instant back-and-forth comparison, but in the case of "Rumor Has It..." I had only the one disc. So first I watched a few minutes of the SD version, which is a high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer that the keep case says is in a 1.85:1 ratio. It looks fine, with bright colors, strong black levels, and fairly decent definition. It's a typically good WB product that I would rate about an 8/10.
Then I watched the entire movie in HD, and the standard-def picture didn't look so good to me anymore, even with a minute or so of lag time flipping over the disc. That's the trouble with ball games and comparisons, I suppose; somebody's got to lose, even when both sides are pretty good. Without a doubt, the HD picture is clearer than the SD, better delineated, with even stronger, deeper colors. It is not without blemish--I did not find the image quite as sharp as on some other WB high-def discs, and there is a fine grain present--but it is still quite good. Warner Bros. say on the keep case that is in a 1.78:1 ratio, and certainly both pictures fill a widescreen TV screen. If I were rating the HD video quality on an SD scale, it would be a 10/10. But as I am rating it on an HD scale, I'd say an 8/10 is about right.
Audio:
There isn't much to say about the audio. On the SD side we get Dolby Digital 5.1, and on the HD side we get Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1. Since there isn't much more to the soundtrack than dialogue and background music, I couldn't tell much difference between the two, except that maybe the DD+ sounded a trifle cleaner. It should, given its more advanced technology and played back through my Toshiba player's 5.1 analogue outputs. But, as I say, with source material so mundane, it's hard to tell. In any case, both the DD 5.1 and the DD+ sounded fine and provide a clear access to what is being said.
Extras:
The primary extra is obviously having the movie in two separate audio-video formats. Beyond that, there is little else but a widescreen theatrical trailer; twenty-five scene selections (but no chapter insert); English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Parting Shots:
"Rumor Has It..." seemed to have so much going for it, I was disappointed that the filmmakers didn't take it any further than they did and produced something as tired and tedious as this. You can just about guess everything that is going to happen and in what sequence from just the brief description I provided in my third paragraph above. Rumor has it that Rob Reiner used to make really funny, often moving films. I have no doubt he will do so again.
Needless to say, Beau insists he cannot be Sarah's father, that it is a physical impossibility; the two become intimate; and this cad succeeds at having affairs with three generations of the same family. And that's about it: the once naive and flustered Ben Braddock has turned into the rich and lecherous Beau Burroughs. Neither the story nor the characters are developed any further than what the average moviegoer could guess going in. Worse, what few laughs there are in the story's first-half buildup completely dissipate in the second-half resolution.
Director Reiner and screenwriter Ted Griffin throw in a few other movie references besides "The Graduate," including "Casablanca," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," and "Chinatown," titles that may also fly right over the heads of many younger viewers. What's more, the filmmakers try to evoke the same feeling of confusion and frustration felt by the main character in "The Graduate," but Jennifer Aniston's Sarah doesn't appear as seriously troubled as Hoffman's Ben Braddock; and the new film wraps things up with a predictably happy, complacent Hollywood ending, unlike the more appropriately ambiguous closing of the earlier film.
What we're left with in "Rumor Has It..." is a tribute to a much better picture by filmmakers who are clearly indebted to the earlier effort but cannot improve upon it in their quasi-sequel. Maybe Hoffman was lucky to have been too busy to participate in this affair.
Video:
With the HD/DVD combo you get the high-definition HD-DVD version of the movie in 1080p on one side of the disc and the standard-definition DVD version on the other side. The idea seems to be twofold: If you own an HD-DVD player and one or more SD-DVD players, you can play the movie in any of them. Moreover, if you want the movie today but you're thinking of buying an HD-DVD player sometime in the future, you are ready for it, while still being able to enjoy the film in your old player. For these conveniences, you pay a few extra dollars for the hybrid disc over the standard disc.
How do the two versions compare? Well, usually I can play an SD and HD disc side by side in two separate players for an instant back-and-forth comparison, but in the case of "Rumor Has It..." I had only the one disc. So first I watched a few minutes of the SD version, which is a high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer that the keep case says is in a 1.85:1 ratio. It looks fine, with bright colors, strong black levels, and fairly decent definition. It's a typically good WB product that I would rate about an 8/10.
Then I watched the entire movie in HD, and the standard-def picture didn't look so good to me anymore, even with a minute or so of lag time flipping over the disc. That's the trouble with ball games and comparisons, I suppose; somebody's got to lose, even when both sides are pretty good. Without a doubt, the HD picture is clearer than the SD, better delineated, with even stronger, deeper colors. It is not without blemish--I did not find the image quite as sharp as on some other WB high-def discs, and there is a fine grain present--but it is still quite good. Warner Bros. say on the keep case that is in a 1.78:1 ratio, and certainly both pictures fill a widescreen TV screen. If I were rating the HD video quality on an SD scale, it would be a 10/10. But as I am rating it on an HD scale, I'd say an 8/10 is about right.
Audio:
There isn't much to say about the audio. On the SD side we get Dolby Digital 5.1, and on the HD side we get Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1. Since there isn't much more to the soundtrack than dialogue and background music, I couldn't tell much difference between the two, except that maybe the DD+ sounded a trifle cleaner. It should, given its more advanced technology and played back through my Toshiba player's 5.1 analogue outputs. But, as I say, with source material so mundane, it's hard to tell. In any case, both the DD 5.1 and the DD+ sounded fine and provide a clear access to what is being said.
Extras:
The primary extra is obviously having the movie in two separate audio-video formats. Beyond that, there is little else but a widescreen theatrical trailer; twenty-five scene selections (but no chapter insert); English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
Parting Shots:
"Rumor Has It..." seemed to have so much going for it, I was disappointed that the filmmakers didn't take it any further than they did and produced something as tired and tedious as this. You can just about guess everything that is going to happen and in what sequence from just the brief description I provided in my third paragraph above. Rumor has it that Rob Reiner used to make really funny, often moving films. I have no doubt he will do so again.
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[release]18887[/release]