Most of you watched in horror as we went through our first round of the trilogy of terror. Round 2 in this Romantic terror-thon is coming right up. In this chapter, we explore two godparents who get thrown together after a baby devours her parents whole. Scared yet? No. How about the parents were thrown into Hell to act as Oprah’s personal foot massagers and the couple of Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel have to pick up the pieces? There we go. Let’s explore this mess shall we?
It is the year 2007. I was starting a new relationship. AHHHHHHHHHH. Oh wait, that’s not supposed to be scary but apparently it was for Holly Berenson (played by Katherine Heigl) and Eric Messer (played by Josh Duhamel). They go on a first date and everything goes horribly wrong. This leads to a disastrous ending where the actual date doesn’t even get started. Why did they even try to go out on the date? Well it had something to do with their best friends.
Their best friends as it turns out are the couple of Peter (played by Hayes MacArthur) and Alison (played by Christina Hendricks). We fast forward to the wedding of Peter and Alison Novak. Holly and Eric are the maid of honor and best man respectively. Eventually, the Novak family has a little daughter named Sophie (played by the Clagett triplets).
All the while, Holly and Eric stay involved with the Novak family. Holly in her professional life runs a bakery (where I bet they serve spoooooky cupcakes) while Eric does sportscasting for the Atlanta Hawks (who would be better baking spoooooky cupcakes). The two friends fight constantly but are always there for little Sophie. However, one night Holly receives a very terrible phone call. Uh oh, here we go. Hopefully they got the carnage on tape!
Unfortunately by the time Holly makes it to the hospital, we learn that the Novaks have passed (I’m sure Oprah was thrilled!) on to a better place due to a horrible car wreck. Eric soon makes it to the hospital too and consoles Holly while they grieve. *sniff* *sniff*, I always cry when a beautiful redhead bites the big one. It is truly a tragedy. Anyway, they decide to spend the night at the Novak’s house since there is much to discuss regarding the estate. (including a DirecTV subscription).
The next morning, Holly and Eric wake up wearing their departed friend’s bloody clothes! Okay, that’s not true but it would have been a great hook. As it turns out, the departed couple left their child to Holly and Eric which is possibly scarier than anything else. So now, Holly and Eric who basically hate each other have to learn how to at least tolerate each other and raise a baby. Can this even possibly work? Or could the two who hate each so much possibly fall in love?
Oh stop, because nothing like that would ever happen in a romantic comedy. The ending could be predicted twenty seconds into the movie and you would be absolutely correct. How they get there is basically one cliché after another. It just happens to involve one drooling baby as fodder for a series of jokes. There is also a suitable cast of supporting characters including the likes of Josh Lucas and Will Sasso.
But honestly, I can’t get through it without laughing and I don’t mean in the funny way either. I mean, good lord is this movie over yet way. The movie also runs 114 minutes long which by my watch is about 112 minutes too long. Seriously, they could have shown Christina Hendricks for 2 minutes in scantily clad lingerie and I would have went home a lot happier. Actually, I would have petitioned for a sequel at that point.
Video
The video is in 2.40:1 widescreen presentation in 1080p resolution. Bright stars and plenty of good scenery give the video presentation an excellent grade. It’s colorful but it is expected now for the most part. I do applaud the movie going the extra aspect but it doesn’t really do much for the story or anything else in this film. I guess I should just be glad that it looks good.
Audio
For the audio portion, we get a 5.1 English DTS-HD track (also included are 5.1 tracks for French, Spanish and Portuguese). The movie is a hundred percent dialogue and it is crystal clear. Don’t expect too much oomph or any surrounds involving baby upchuck. The speakers don’t get a workout but you’ll be able to hear all of the annoying dialogue word for word. Subtitles are included for English SDH, French and Spanish.
Special Features
- Automatic Trailers: Blu-Ray and WB Insider Rewards.
- A Survival Guide to Instant Parenting 7:12: This featurette mostly serves as a way to introduce the parents who live in the neighborhood even though they really don’t get that much screen time.
- Katherine Heigl: Becoming the Best Mom Ever 5:56: The leading actress puts the movie through its paces. We take a look at how she got the part and what she went through for the movie.
- Josh Duhamel: The Triplet Tamer 5:16: There is an old adage mentioned by W.C. Fields: “Don’t work with children or animals”. (or a large purple dinosaur) Josh didn’t quite listen to that. He was out there a couple of weeks before the movie started to get acquainted with the triplets and make sure he bonded with them. Nice touch.
- Deleted Scenes 14:42: Deleted Scenes done right. I have to admit this is an awesome collection of 11 deleted scenes. Unfortunately, the movie would have still been a cliched mess but at least there is PLENTY to enjoy here.
- DVD + Digital Copy: A DVD and Digital Copy to enjoy in case you like coasters and other things we shouldn’t spend the extra $5 for.
Final Thoughts
Trial number 2 has come and gone. I have but one more tale to spin in my romantic trilogy of terror. This tale involved a car crash, baby spewage and Katherine Heigl attempting to act anything besides annoying. She didn’t do too well. But we survived and even though I still think Josh Duhamel has a lot of potential, he continues to waste it doing the worst type of film of all, the romantic comedy.
At least here, he put 110% into the film and even though it was a cliche sess pool, he proved his chops. The disc is a nice treat for those who do like the movie with even a very meaty deleted scenes section. Watch it if you dare. For me, I now need to get ready for the final chapter. Stay tuned, loyal fans.
