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Our Very Own
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Damian Kissick (7th August 2007). |
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The Film
 The movie begins with the introduction of five teenagers from Shelbyville. The boredom that accompanies their small-town life becomes sidelined as the community is stirred by the possible homecoming of big-star Sondra Locke (a real-life actor, by the way) and soon this has the teenagers aspiring to rise to stardom as well. "Our Very Own" depicts the kid's struggle to find ways of entertaining themselves apart from taking nightly trips to Nashville and trying to discover paths that lead out of their town. The main character, Clancy Whitfield is played by Jason Ritter, a good honest kid dealing with the increasing tension between his parents Billy and Joan (Alison Janney and Keith Carradine) and generally hanging around with his friends. Every year the town puts on a variety show to accompany the annual horse show and this year, just like every year, rumors are spread that Sondra is returning home for the event. The five teenagers, excited at prospects of Sondra being their ticket out of Shelbyville, decide to do a musical tribute. It is at this point I wish to disclaim that like any good reviewer I have a vast capacity for acceptance of a film but despite this and my unwarranted efforts to enjoy "Our Very Own" I failed to find any redeeming qualities. Even the top acting : Ritter, Janney and Beth Grant : whom I felt were the best parts of the film, could not salvage the uninteresting hour and a half that this feature filled. Here I am, with those forehead creases you get when concentrating really, really hard in a fake manner, trying my very best to recall any significant event that conspired in this film and coming up empty handed. If anything actually progressed in this film at least I could spoil the ending for everyone but whatever the conclusion of this film, it is lost on me. At the end, the teenagers are back to their usual routine, albeit with some hope after finally seeing the starlet Sondra even if for a second and the Mr. and Mrs. Whitfield seem to be on the road to repairing their marriage after Billy's drinking problems almost kill him. But it all seems muted and missing any real climax or actual revelation for any of the characters. Ol' trusty IMDB adorns "Our Very Own" with a strong user rating of 6.7/10 (with only 101 votes, mind you) and the movie has garnered four awards (One for the actual film and the rest for the acting). A good rule of thumb is anything with a rating of 'C' or higher comfortably sits in the category of viewable. It would seem then, that it is my duty to defy those sources to establish my own rating of D+.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.85:1 this anamorphic transfer is a decent enough effort with a few flaws that hold it back a few steps. Overall the image appears natural and colors are well rendered, with skin appearing spot. However, the transfer is a bit too much on the soft side with sharpness taking a back seat in some shots (although it's not entirely bad but it is very noticeable), some grain is evident adding minor noise to the blacks that appear a little on the flat side.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track is included on this disc and as expected it's very front heavy with little to no activity in the rear channels aside from the occasional ambient sound or directional effect. The music makes use of the channels much more effectively than the rest of the track and dialogue is clear and distortion free. Other than that it's a fairly rudimentary 5.1 track that does the bare minimum. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Buena Vista has released this film bare of any supplements other than a selection of bonus trailers for: - "Underdog" which runs for 1 minute 20 seconds. - "Wild Hogs" which runs for 2 minutes 30 seconds. - "The Invisible" which runs for 2 minutes 30 seconds.
Overall
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