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Jennifer's Body: Unrated
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (14th April 2010). |
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The Film
 Being an avid watcher of films, I believe in the power of redemption. If a filmmaker produces a terrible film, I try to not hold it against any of their future projects. This applies to my viewing of "Jennifer’s Body," the second feature length film written by Diablo Cody. I’ll just say I hated "Juno" (2007). I don’t get why it’s smart, why it’s funny, and why people liked it so much. That being said, I was looking forward to "Jennifer’s Body" quite a bit. Supposedly a throwback to the likes of "Heathers" (1989) or "Student Bodies" (1981, which this film’s poster is a callback to), I was looking forward to the revival of the “girls killing each other” genre. I was hopeful that a movie being written by Diablo Cody didn’t mean I would have to sit through arbitrary cultural references, stupid puns, and an entirely lame attempt to be witty and/or funny. Looks like all my hopes have been dashed. "Jennifer’s Body" tells the story of two girls. They are Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and Jennifer (Megan Fox). They are best friends (They have a BFF necklace! Can’t see that joke being irrelevant in ten years!). One night Needy and Jennifer go to see a cool “indie” band called Low Shoulder. The bar the show is at burns down, and the band kidnaps Jennifer and sacrifice her to a demon to become successful. For the rest of the movie, Jennifer flirts with boys at the school, lures them away from seeing eyes, then devours them. Needy is conflicted as to whether she should protect her friend, or stop the killings. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with the plot of the movie, but I’m going to dock it major points for wussing out on the violence. Every kill is a quick cut away, and I know some will say that this movie wasn’t about the violence, but it at least would have held my attention. This movie played more like a 'PG-13' horror movie that happened to have a ton of swearing. Everything I hated about "Juno" is present in "Jennifer’s Body." You have characters saying “Jell-o” instead of “jealous”. Jennifer tells Needy at one point to “Move on dot org!”. Wow. Haven’t heard about that site in two years. This is where my main problem with Cody’s movies lie: It seems as though by giving characters clever puns concerning current day topics (myspace and wikipedia are both mentioned in the movie), or old cartoons, this some how amounts to a joke. Well, it doesn’t, at least not for me. There are some decent parts to the film, particularly the first two minutes or so, setting up the mythology of the town, and the first scene you see Jennifer after her botched sacrifice. These two scenes set the tone for an extremely awesome horror/comedy film, but completely fails to deliver on anything else, wrapping up with one of the laziest deus ex machinas I’ve seen in a while. "Jennifer’s Body" isn’t a complete failure, just a massive one. It isn’t funny, it isn’t scary, it isn’t gory, and you’d figure these would be the departments that would be the most taken care of. I’m just over Diablo Cody. Will I give her another chance? Of course I will. But man, after this, "Juno", and "The United States of Tara" (2009-Present), giving any of her movies a chance is pretty damn generous. The disc includes both the original "Theatrical" cut and an "Unrated" cut that has been re-edited.
Video
"Jennifer’s Body" is presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 1080p 24/fps HD picture mastered with AVC MPEG-4 compression, and there is little to nothing to complain about here. Considering how dark the movie is (picture, not tone), I was impressed with the complete lack of gain and noise. The movie was low budget to a degree, but comes off looking more expensive with the great picture quality here. My only complaint is that the entire film has the same color tone, and never had a chance to show off the transfer in terms of bright and popping colors.
Audio
"Jennifer’s Body" is presented with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, as well as French, Portuguese and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. This audio track is probably the most impressive aspect of the film, and almost fooled me that I was watching a real horror movie. The sound is crisp and clear, offering up every single detail that may be used to get you into the movie. It’s obvious that the sound designer had a better idea of what makes a good horror movie than Diablo Cody. Optional subtitles are included in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese and Thai.
Extras
"Jennifer’s Body" is a packed 2-disc set that is bursting at the gills with bonus content, this includes two audio commentaries, deleted scenes, a gag reel, two featurettes, video diaries, a montage clip, PSA, bonus trailers and a digital copy of the film. All of which is discussed further below. DISC ONE: First up we have an audio commentary track for the "Theatrical" cut by director Karyn Kusama and Diablo Cody. This was a bit of an awkward track, as Kusama was very open and engaging, while Cody seemed to chime in only after Kusama had said something. Kusama seems to be doing her best to discuss the film, but Cody’s additions seem to rarely extend past “Mmm hmm.” “Yep.” and “Me too”. Also, this commentary track has a few massive spots of dead air where neither say anything. Next up we have Karyn Kusama's own audio commentary track on the "Unrated" cut, and I have to say that as a person who is interested in all things film, I found this to be much more engaging. While I didn’t agree with her that the film succeeded in pretty much every area, Kusama seems to have knowledge of what makes a good comedy/drama, and as far as I can tell, tried her damndest to make something out of this movie. This commentary track actually has made me want to look out for Kusama’s next film in hopes that one day she lands a better script than this and "Ćon Flux" (2005). Next up we have some deleted scenes. These scenes must have mostly been trimmed to keep the movie from approaching the two hour mark, as the quality here is comparable to pretty much anything else in the movie. They are: - "Dead Boys" which runs for 1 minute and 8 seconds. Here, Needy is encountered by Jennifer’s victims earlier in the film. - “Jennifer Check is Gross” which runs for 3 minutes and 32 seconds. At a funeral for one of Jennifer’s victims, some gothic kids have some snarky parting words. - "Needy Confronts Jennifer" which runs for 1 minute and 59 seconds. Here we have Needy trying to convince Jennifer to stop killing. - "Who’s Cindy Crawford?" which runs for 34 seconds. Cultural reference: Check. - "Needy Faces the Band" which runs for 5 minutes and 32 seconds. Following the film’s big final battle, we get to see more of what Needy exactly did following these moments. - “Ass, Gas, or Grass”, which runs for 1 minute and 9 seconds. Here we get a creepy old man. Next up we have a gag reel, which runs for 4 minutes and 55 seconds. It’s a gag reel. Next is the featurette "Jennifer’s Body: The Dead Pool" running for 14 minutes solid. Here we have cast and crew dissecting the theme of perceived female cruelty, and how that message is portrayed in the film. All of this leads up to an examination to the big battle at the swimming pool, and how this moment in the film characterizes what the movie itself is trying to say. Also included are some video diaries from multiple cast and crew members. Here, each of the people were given a camera, and told to just film around the set. What we get are pretty standard antics, people jibing one another on set, and so forth. The video diaries are: - Megan Fox and Johnny Simmons, which runs for 2 minutes and 37 seconds. - Amanda Seyfried, which runs for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. - Diablo Cody, which runs for 4 minutes and 15 seconds. - Dan Dubiecki, which runs for 3 minutes and 1 second. Next up is a perplexing video called "Megan Fox is Hot" and runs for 56 seconds. It is literally just a montage clip from the film in which Megan Fox “acts sexy”. That’s it. I was confused by this. Also included is the Megan Fox “Peer Pressure” PSA that was released on the internet to advertise for the movie. Running at 40 seconds, I actually found this to be really funny, and was one of the many reasons I had high hopes for the film. If only this type of humor was used as a blueprint for the film to begin with. Next is "Fox Movie Channel Presents: Life After Film School with Writer Diablo Cody" featurette, which runs for 26 minutes and 26 seconds. Here we get three screenwriting students asking painfully rehearsed question to Cody, after which she gives back the answers you always hear from everybody. “Be yourself. Don’t listen to anyone.” All that crap. Surprisingly, Cody came off as genuine in this, and seemed to acknowledge she was just saying stuff people have already heard. Lastly are some bonus trailers, and they are for: - "Gentlemen Broncos" which runs for 2 minutes and 23 seconds. - "All About Steve" which runs for 2 minutes and 22 seconds. - "Whip It" which runs for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. - "Fame" which runs for 2 minute and 13 seconds. - "(500) Days of Summer" which runs for 2 minutes and 22 seconds. - "Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side" (1:10) - "Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead" (0:43) DISC TWO: This is a digital copy of the film.
Overall
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