Yes Man – Blu-ray Disc Review

March 31, 2009 – 6:21 am - Posted by: Danielle Byington

Tags: BD-Live, Bradley Cooper, Digital Copy, Jim Carrey, Rhys Darby, Warner, Zooey Deschanel

has an average rating of 7.2 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 50gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 & Dolby Digital 5.1
are in Hi-Def with Digital Copy
–
– 2008
– 104 minutes
– Warner
–
This uses 20.8GB for the movie out of 28.6GB total.
Street Date: April 7th, 2009

Overall Verdict – Recommended

Buy it for $24.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Danielle Byington —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself is Directed by Peyton Reed (“Down With Love“, and a few episodes of the television shows “Upright Citizens Brigade“, and “Mr. Show“), with the writing credits of Nicholas Stoller, Jarrad Paul, and Andrew Mogel, who all three contributed to the screenplay, inspired by the book concerning saying “yes” to favors, requests, and opportunities, by Danny Wallace.

The story revolves around Carl (Jim Carrey), who is socially withdrawn in a passive aggressive manner, always finding excuses to dismiss himself from parties, nights out with friends, and casual acquaintances. After being convinced to attend a “Yes!” seminar, a convention similar to the self-affirmation types, Carl agrees to the covenant to continuously say “yes” to all favors, requests, and opportunities that present themselves to him in life.

Immediately after the seminar, a favor is asked of him; a homeless man asks Carl for a ride to the middle of a random park. Already a bit uneasy about the situation, the homeless man also request to use Carl‘s cellphone, which he chats away on from point “A” to point “B”, thoroughly draining the phone’s battery life. Also, upon letting the homeless man out of his vehicle at his requested destination, the passenger asks Carl for some extra cash, in which Carl gives to the man, not exactly in a willing manner, but simply for the fact that he feels he must continue to follow the “Yes”-pact.

After dropping off the man, Carl begins his return home, only to quickly run out of fuel. So, stuck in the middle of no where with a battery depleted cellphone, he begins his angsty walk to a gas station, bitterly ranting to himself in spite of the recent “yes” scenarios that have gotten him into this annoying situation. While filling his gasoline canister, he sees a lovely young woman, Allison (Zooey Deschanel) pull up for fuel on a Moped. He returns his attention to the act of fueling his canister, when she randomly photographs him. This strikes up a conversation between the two, and she offers him a ride back to his fuel-empty car. They seem to have chemistry developing, as having bonded over her mad driving habits, and just as she is leaving she unexpectedly kisses Carl.

With all of the seemingly meaningless situations that occurred all because of saying “yes”, Carl begins to sincerely believe that these events can lead to very great things, as he not only begins seeing Allison, but consistently says “yes” to all random opportunities that present themselves to him. However, the very random combination of “yes”‘s that Carl acts on, also lead to the appearance of a suspicious lifestyle when looked upon by others, bring him to doubt saying “yes”.

Overall, the film seems to have gotten some flack from audiences for its use of themes rather similar to “Liar Liar“, some scenes that are reminiscent to those in “Dumb & Dumber“, and not to mention several flashes of the more recent Warner catalog titles, such as Carl renting “300” at the video rental store, Norman‘s “Harry Potter” party, and so forth. However, audiences should not view the use of those subjects in the film in a negative way; the themes of the film similar to other movies Carrey has starred in are more of an appreciation for the actor’s history, and why should Warner not flaunt what they’ve got; especially when they own the rights, thus not having to gain permission or pay royalties out to others. Generally speaking, this film is very likable, especially if you are a fan of Carrey‘s particular humor, ending with a “4 Star Rating“.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the VC-1 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte, dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The video codec on this release offers an above average level of clarity. The intensity of detail is standard at times, and a bit lacking as far as other new releases on Blu-ray compare, with no significance on the usual topics, such as facial features, strands of hair, and wardrobe. However, the picture is bright, baring a somewhat vivid color palette at times with the many outdoors scenes shot in the Los Angeles area. The black level is solid, enhancing the color palette’s presentation, and offering a good balance as far as the fleshtones appear. No signs of Digital Noise Reduction (DNR), or Edge Enhancement (EE) on this Warner either. Overall, the video quality for this release is above average, and does justice for the comedy film, receiving a “4 Star Rating“.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in both Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround & Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps. The audio track on this release is not consistently fulfilling due to its content, however there are a few scenes that make more than decent use of the soundscape. For the most part, the rear channels frequently house harmonies of the score/soundtrack, and many ambient sounds provided by scenes crowded with extras; a good example of this is the “Yes!” seminar, playing mostly front heavy with the hyper electronica styled introduction, though lively filling the soundscape with the intense shouts of “yes” from the crowd. Other great examples through out the film that revive the 5.1 Surround include the performances of Munchhausen by Proxy, and the climatic Ducati scene accompanied by some fitting 1980′s music. Overall, the audio quality for the release does the film justice, not being underplayed for a comedy, and providing all of the significant to insignificant sounds necessary, earning a solid “4 Star Rating“.

Bonus Materials on this release are all presented in High Definition video, using Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound — except where noted otherwise.

• “BD-Live” is present on this release from Warner, and will be active upon street for users of a profile 2.0 player.
• Digital Copy is included of the film for both PC and MAC users. The digital copy is compatible with both iTunes and Windows Media.
• “Downtime On The Set Of Yes Man With Jim Carrey” (4 minutes) involves as you may assume some of the random hyperactive antics of Carrey off-camera.
• “Jim Carrey: Extreme Yes Man” (12 minutes) highlights some of the more intense stunts as seen in the film, that were mostly performed by Carrey himself, including the bungee jumping scene, and a bit of his own handling of the Ducati.
• “On The Set With Danny Wallace: The Original Yes Man” (9 minutes) involves the author of the book which inspired the movie coasting through the set talking to the cast about random “yes” opportunities they’ve encountered.
• “Future Sounds: Munchausen By Proxy” (5 minutes) introduces us to the quartet involving Zooey Deschanel as seen in the film. These are presented with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound.
• “Say ‘Yes’ To Red Bull!” (2 minutes) involves some clips of what the director refers to as Jim Carrey’s “method acting” while under the influence of Red Bull.
• “Yes Man: Party Central With Norman Stokes (Rhys Darby)” (2 minutes) gives us a brief tour of Norman‘s “crib” from the film, hosted by the character played by Rhys Darby.
• “Exclusive Munchausen By Proxy Music Videos” (15 minutes) includes clips of performances by Zooey Deschanel with the band Von Iva as seen in the film.
• “Additional Scenes” (8 minutes) includes 9 scenes.
• “Gag Reel” (6 minutes) involves bloopers and intentional goofs from the cast, especially, as you may imagine, from Jim Carrey. This is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound.

In closing, the bonus materials that supplement this film are overall satisfactory, providing about an hour of entertainment, and of course the HD presentation is nice as well, though the content of what is present is nothing heavily over the top.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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