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Crazy On The Outside
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (6th June 2010). |
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The Film
 Tim Allen has offered me and most of my friends countless hours of entertainment. I’m not talking about "Home Improvement" (1991-1999) nor any of his films besides "Toy Story" (1995) or "Galaxy Quest" (1999). No, I’m talking about how much fun it is to tell “Tim Allen” jokes because of how unfunny they are. Nothing tickles my funny bone more than a bad Tim Allen grunt, or a compilation video of him talking about power tools. Tim Allen is one of those guys that I love because of how unfunny I think he is. "Crazy on the Outside" is Allen latest film as well as his directorial debut. I won't skirt the issue, and I’ll just tell you upfront that the movie is awful. However, with Tim Allen, there is two types of bad: The kind I love and the kind I hate. This film falls flatly in the latter category, teetering on the side of being nearly unwatchable. "Crazy on the Outside" follows the story of Tommy Zelda (Tim Allen), who is released from prison in the opening moments of the film. His sister (Sigourney Weaver) picks him up and tries to get his life back together by helping him restore their father’s painting business. Tommy is harassed by his old DVD-bootlegging partner Gray (Ray Liotta) whom is attempting to recruit him back into the business. Along the way Tommy tries to get back together with his ex (Julie Bowen) and starts to fall for his parole officer (Jeanne Tripplehorn). The biggest problem with this film is that it doesn’t seem to have any idea what it is trying to be. You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to come up with some sort of realistic demographic for this movie. I just have no idea who this is for. The film, rated 'PG-13' is far too tame for anyone seeking a raunchy comedy, but at the same time, the entire cast is over 40 and making references to Gili. Really, this is what a 'PG-13' comedy that should have been an 'R' looks like. Along the same line, the film clumsily wanders between being a “stupid” comedy, with potty and sex humor, but attempts to sprinkle in moments of ridiculous drama. It just doesn’t mesh well at all. The other big problem I had with this movie is that it just sort of grossed me out. I’m a huge critic of when actors turn directors, and I’m starting to doubt that it’s just a coincidence that the director, when acting in the film, is usually man handled by attractive women. There is one scene where the attractive Julie Bowen can’t keep her hands off of Allen, who is 16 years older than her. That sort of thing just rubs me the wrong way. If there was one positive thing about "Crazy on the Outside," it’s that Allen didn’t over-direct. While the director fell into the category of questionable-motives, he never falls victim to something I think is incredibly common with actors who direct. There was never an abundance of symmetrical shots, or slow mo, etc. He didn’t try to replicate the movies he had acted in, but plainly directed his film. In the end, this movie just literally had nothing going for it. Terrible script, terrible pacing, and terrible actors. I couldn’t recommend not watching this one enough.
Video
"Crazy on the Outside" is offered in a widescreen 1.85:1 high definition 1080p 24/fps transfer mastered in AVC MPEG-4 compression, and unlike the film, it was suitable. Since this is mainly a movie with people sitting around and talking, the film is never given a chance to pop, but for what’s here, I found it entirely above average. I noticed little-to-no noise nor grain, and the picture was extremely clear and polished. There was never a moment where I thought “Gah! That looks terrible!” though I may have been wrapped up in how terrible the movie was already.
Audio
"Crazy on the Outside" is served up with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, and much like the picture quality, the word that comes to mind again is “suitable”. The dialogue heavy movie comes through with all the flat jokes clear as an unfunny bell. The film’s annoying score never plays over the dialogue to the point of inaudibility, but really at that point it’s a lose lose situation. Like the picture, there wasn’t anything spectacular about this transfer either. It just sort of “is”. Optional subtitles included are in English and Spanish.
Extras
Fox included a few extras in the way of a short making-of featurette, a gag reel, a digital copy, and a DVD copy of the film. All of these are looked at further below. DISC ONE: First up is "Inside Crazy on the Outside" featurette, which runs for 2 minutes and 14 seconds. This quick making-of moves through cast members talking about how much they love working with Allen and Weaver, and just like that, it’s over. I’m not sure what the point of a feature like this is, as it doesn’t really serve any purpose to the whole experience. Then again, there seems to be a lot I don’t understand about this movie. Next up is a gag reel, which runs for 4 minutes and 57 seconds, and this is just what you would expect. Watch actors flub lines for 5 minutes, or stumble, or laugh. This sort of thing NEVER gets me going, even with my favorite movies, and here, it’s just some unfunny people being really unfunny while failing to stick to an unfunny script. DISC TWO: A second disc is a DVD included that offers a digital copy of the film, along with a standard definition version of the film.
Overall
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