L. A. Blues (2007/Entertainment Studios DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Feature: D

 

 

TV sitcom director Ian Gurvitz tires to strike out into feature length storytelling and gets nowhere in his 2007 feature debut L. A. Blues, another lame, tired, would-be hip, know-it-all look at Hollywood that never feels like Hollywood and is part of one of the worst such cycles we have ever seen.  He focuses on six friends (yawn!) and their lives, which he wrote and never works.

 

Dave Foley, Anthony Michael Hall and George Wendt are among the better-known names here, but this never adds up to anything worth seeing, wastes the actors and more often than not, takes place indoors on set-ups that seem extra phony and very unlike the real Los Angeles or any other city you can think of.  Stagy is the key word, in the phoniness that permeates this big disappointment.  Hope the actors do better next time.

 

The full screen 1.33 X 1 image is a poor, botched version of what is obviously a 1.78 X 1 frame and is fuzzy throughout.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is barely stereo and may be a generation or two down.  The only extra is a behind the scenes featurette.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo