You, Me & Dupree (HD-DVD/DVD Combo format)
Picture: B/B- Sound: B/B- Extras: C Film: C
Carl
(Matt Dillon) has just wed his beautiful girlfriend Molly (Kate Hudson) and
intend to enjoy their Hawaiian honeymoon and come back home to live in their
new house to make it into a home. Everything
seems set, but Carl has a best friend in Randy Dupree (Owen Wilson) who is so
down and out at the last minute that the newlyweds allow him to stay at their
place temporarily. Unfortunately, he
becomes the houseguest from hell in directors Anthony & Joe Russo’s You, Me & Dupree, an obvious comedy
from mid-2006 that is everything you’ve seen before and worse.
In this
cycle of “houseguest from hell” films, the film will either work at least to
some extent (What About Bob?, Bringing Down The House) or not (Houseguest) and this film is sadly the
latter. Casting an actor already
considered annoying by some in Owen Wilson is also obvious, and though there
are a few laughs to be had from his performance, the Michael Le Sieur
screenplay and Russos keep dropping the ball over and over just when thing
might pick up.
This is
not the debut of The Russos, whose Welcome
To Collingwood was no gem either, but one would at least expect some growth
as filmmakers, even on this commercial plane.
Even Michael Douglas as Carl’s father-in-law cannot save the film,
though he does steal several scenes.
Overall, You, Me & Dupree
just never works and once the cheap laughs are gone, the film from your memory
also evaporates.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is better than the slightly faded
anamorphically enhanced standard DVD side.
Not that Charles Minsky, A.S.C., did such a memorable job, but there was
not much memorable to shoot and the comedy is shot and edited in a standard way. However, the film is shot in a standard,
sufficient way for its attempt at comedy.
The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix on the HD-DVD side is a little better
than the standard Dolby Digital 5.1 on the regular DVD side, lacing various hit
records into the instrumental music. The
combination is fine either way, though the HD is a step up overall.
Extras
include the U-Control function that accesses stills and picture in picture
footage as you watch exclusive to the HD side, while you also get a spoof
trailer, Dupree’s Memoirs, deleted
scenes, outtakes, alternate ending and two feature length audio
commentaries. One is by producer Scott
Stuber and writer Le Sieur, the other by the Russos. Better luck next time guys!
- Nicholas Sheffo
