Stars:
Charlie Sheen, Angie Harmon, Denise Richards, Rosanna Arquette, Barry Newman,
and Jon Lovitz
Writers:
Daniel Margosis and Robert Horn
Director:
Steve Rash
Feature
length: 93 minutes
Extras:
Audio Commentary By Director Steve Rash, Production Notes, Cast and Crew
Biographies and Credits, Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 and English and Dolby Surround 2.0
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions and Spanish Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 21
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound and Dolby Surround 2.0 Sound
Year
of DVD Release: 2002
Home
Video Distributor: Artisan Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Charlie
Sheen stars as a wealthy Wall Street playboy whose shallow girlfriend (Denise
Richards) dumps him after he loses his job due to huge client losses from giving
bad financial advice. Unable to get a job elsewhere as a broker, Sheen takes
over his ex-girlfriend’s advice column and wins the heart of her editor (Angie
Harmon.)
“Good
Advice” would have been to rewrite the screenplay. This is a comedy that is
not only unbelievable, but also completely unsympathetic. Practically every
character is as shallow as one can imagine so when bad things happen to those
who we are supposed to think deserve it, I think the viewers won’t care. In
fact these characters are so wooden that there is nothing to celebrate at the
end because all we have is an unsympathetic broker who successfully lies his way
into a job as an advice columnist so he can continue being a shallow guy.
Again
the golden rule of the DVD universe applies here, which is “If your movie is
bad, make the DVD great.” Artisan Home Entertainment has done an outstanding
job with both the anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and full-framed (1.33:1)
transfers that are available on the dual layered DVD. The colors are on target
with no bleeding, no grain, and no anomalies. An English Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround Soundtrack and an English Dolby Surround 2.0 Soundtrack are provided as
listening options along with a choice of English Closed Captions for the hearing
impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded on to the dual layered DVD as
well. Director Steve Rash provides a feature length audio commentary too for
those who might actually like this movie enough to want to listen to what he has
to say.
Cast
and Crew biographies and credits and production notes that can be read on screen
are included along with a (1.33:1) home video preview trailer for “Good
Advice.” Additional trailers for other DVD titles available and coming soon
from Artisan Home Entertainment include “Dr. T & The Women,” “Novocaine,”
“Picking Up The Pieces,” “National Lampoons Van Wilder,” “The Rambo
Trilogy Box Set,” and the “Frank Herbert’s Dune: Special Edition: 3-Disc
Set,” which features a 6 hour cut of the film with 30-minutes of never before
seen footage, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Soundtrack options, and an outstanding
anamorphic widescreen transfer. The scenes shown in the trailer alone look
better than the previous letterboxed transfer. This set has a street date of
June 11, 2002.
The
interactive menu screens for “Good Advice” are well rendered with animated
newspaper page turning like animation and some full motion video added and all
are easy to navigate. I did not
care for “Good Advice,” but I will concede that in terms of DVD production,
Artisan has done a great job. So my advice is rent it first. “Good Advice”
will debut on DVD-Video day and date with a VHS counterpart on Tuesday, May 23,
2002.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.