10 Things I Hate About You – 10th
Anniversary Edition (1999/Disney Blu-ray
+ DVD) + 10 Things I Hate About You –
Volume One (Disney DVD)
Picture:
B/B-/B- Sound: B-/B-/B- Extras: C/C/C Film: B
TV Series: C
The Film:
10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 film loosely based on
William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew that starred the late Heath Ledger in
his fifth motion picture, as well as Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon Levitt (500 Days of Summer) and Larisa Oleynik
(The Secret World of Alex Mack). The film was insanely popular when it first
debuted and remains ranked a favorite for many teen comedy fans.
The story
is simple enough as it blends the more superficial aspect of teen comedies/
dramas with a classic Shakespeare story.
The film starts with AV geek Michael Eckman (David Krumholtz of Numb3rs) showing new student Cameron
(Joseph Gordon Levitt) around Padua
High School and
explaining the various clicks that exist.
While on the tour Cameron spots Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) and is
immediately taken by her beauty; Michael immediately crushes Cameron’s dreams
as he essentially informs him she is forbidden fruit and is not allowed to
date. Meanwhile back at the Stratford
household, Bianca’s shut-in, prudent sister Kat (Julia Stiles) has gotten an
acceptance letter from the far away Sarah Lawrence College; but her dreams of
freedom are crushed by her overly protective father who thought she should go
to college close to home. While Kat
refuses to date, Bianca desperately begs her father to allow her to date;
seeing an opportunity Mr. Stratford makes the rule, when Kat dates then Bianca
can date. Being an opportunist Cameron
who had been posing as a French tutor to get close to Bianca sets out to find
Kat a date in order to get Bianca for himself.
Michael
and Cameron together hatch a plan to get fellow classmate and ill tempered bad
boy Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to date Kat, but is
quickly scared off. Michael takes the
plan one step further by slyly convincing the schools narcissistic pretty boy,
Joey (Andrew Keegan), to pay Patrick to date Kat so that he could date
Bianca. At first hesitant, Patrick
agrees but to his chagrin Kat wants nothing to do with him. Later while at a party Patrick once again
tries to woo Kat, but after some disappointing revelations Kat gets drunk and
embarrassed herself by dancing on a table.
Patrick scoops Kat up and takes her home, only to find Kat once again
embarrassed when Patrick denies her drunken kiss. Meanwhile, after discovering Joey’s intentions
with her Bianca asks Cameron to take her home, only for her to share a kiss
with him. Though romance is in the air
Patrick (who has become smitten with Kat) must sacrifice himself on the altar
of teenage humiliation to gain her trust again; singing “I Can’t Take My Eyes
Off of You” in front of his fellow classmates at the school’s stadium. He gets in a bundle of trouble, but that is
only the beginning of this film’s teenage angst.
As you
may be able to tell from my in depth description of the film, I quite like 10 Things I Hate About You. It is a fun film that has the right amount of
both comedy and drama, not to mention that it is very well acted with a stellar
young cast. It was both Stiles’ and
Ledger’s fifth film and a launching point for the rest of their careers. In
many ways the film is cliché and predicable at best, but the glue of the film
is the cast. The cast works flawlessly
together, so much so that it almost makes you believe it could all be true. Even with a degree of predictability the film
has many powerful moments filled with emotion that could only be created by the
stars themselves. I like the film. I love the cast. And the soundtrack isn’t bad either.
The
technical features on the Blu-ray and DVD in the case of the 10th anniversary
film are quite nice. The picture on the
Blu-ray is pretty good as Disney did not go overboard with Digital Noise
Reduction, though there are moments of artificial sharpness. Overall the colors are bright and vibrant, with
inky blacks and a crisp image. There are
moments of grain but they are far and few in between. The sound is adequate in its DTS HD Master
Surrounds, but is far from the best as the audio comes mainly from the front
and neglects the rear surrounds. Most
disappointingly is the lack of power behind the film’s soundtrack as the bass
is lacking and the great tunes are never utilized to heighten the films
atmosphere.
The DVD
technical features are similar to the Blu-ray, but as with most cases the DVD
is a step down from what the Blu-ray has to offer. The DVD’s picture is a 1.85 X 1 Widescreen
that has adequate colors and detail, but nothing like the Blu-ray. The sound is a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
that (sadly) is practically on par with the Blu-ray; as it has the same flaws
and doesn’t utilize the soundtrack like it should. The sound is similar to the Blu-ray because
it is not the best, not because it is that good.
The
extras are sparse for this Blu-ray and DVD release as only two features are
offered here; no additional HD features are present. One is a 10
Things I Love About 10 Things I Hate About You: Ten Years Later, which
takes a look back to see why everyone loves the classic teen comedy; it is a
new featurette that contains interviews with the director, cast and
writers. The new featurette is nicely
done and presents the film well. Also
included are Deleted Scenes, as well as a Writer and Cast Audio Commentary
Track.
The Show:
10 Things I Hate About You being a great film wasn’t enough
for the major studios I guess and like many failed television series based on
movies (the 1990 Ferris Bueller the
series comes to mind) before it; I think 10
Things I Hate About You the series will go down in flames sooner rather
than later. Though renewed for a second
season to start in March 2010, the insanely uninventive series makes a mockery
of what was good about the film and adds on other aspects of dribble that
disappoint throughout.
The
series takes what fit nicely into a 97minute film and stretches it to
presumptively last seasons (though I don’t see that happening). It piles on the teen drama and is so ‘light
and fluffy’ that it destroys the emotion and power the film delivered. In all fairness I don’t think any version of
the film to television would have worked, because as previously mentioned you
shouldn’t mess with a good thing.
The
technical features of the DVD of the TV series are adequate at best. The picture is presented in a 1.78 X 1
widescreen that like the rest of the series is just adequate; with nothing too
stunning the colors are bright, there is no compression issues and overall is
crisp. The sound is a Dolby Digital 5.1
surround track that is mostly from the front as the dialogue driven series
makes little use of directionality or the rear speakers.
The
extras make my head hurt as there was little to hold my interest in the series
and the extras are even worse. The
extras include Bloopers; a Backstage
Pass (no thanks!); 10 Things I Hate vs. 10 Things I Love as
the cast answers not so crazy questions; Audio Commentaries that are far from
thrilling. Also included is the Pilot
episode of Make it or Break it; that I simply did not enjoy either.
All in
all I say stick with the original film.
The television series may slide by for a few seasons, but ultimately
offers nothing to the format.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
