The Five-Year Engagement (DVD REVIEW)
The Five-Year Engagement
DVD
Review by Kam Williams
Raunchy Romantic Comedy Revolves around Wedding Day Delayed
This
underwhelming endurance test certainly trades in all of the anticipated staples
of any Judd Apatow production, if his sophomoric brand of humor suits your
taste. There’s the gratuitous male nudity, the coarse jokes with profanity
serving as punch lines (“Suck my bleeping bleep!”), and such suggestive sight
gags as a character simulating sex by gyrating his hips behind a carrot dipped
in whipped cream.
Much
of this comic relief arrives courtesy of an ethnically-diverse support team
comprised of an Asian (Randall Park), an East Indian (Mindy Kaling) and an
African-American (Kevin Hart). But beyond the skits falling flat, the
tortoise-paced picture has bigger problems in an abysmal script and romantic
leads with no screen chemistry.
The
oil-and-water casting of loose cannon Jason Segel opposite prim-and-proper
Emily Blunt has disaster written all over it. His Tom Solomon is a Sous-chef
who dreams of opening a restaurant in San Francisco,
while her Violet Barnes is a recent Ph.D. with hopes of landing a teaching
position at Berkeley
in Psychology.
Just
past the opening credits, she accepts his marriage proposal and puts on the
ring, although they both agree that it might be wise to delay tying the knot
until their careers have had a chance to blossom. That decision doesn’t sit
well with their aging relatives, but at least it means they won’t have to
decide right away whether to be married by a minister or a rabbi.
As
time passes, the protagonists find additional excuses to postpone the nuptials,
like when her sister Suzie (Alison Brie) is left pregnant after a one-night
stand with his best friend, Alex (Chris Pratt). Eventually, Violet and Tom
drift so far apart that it’s not much of a surprise when she sleeps with the
head of her department (Rhys Ifans) or when he’s seduced behind the salad bar
by a cute co-worker (Dakota Johnson).
“Can
this relationship be saved?” may be the burning question, but don’t expect to
care when you’ve never really been asked to invest emotionally in such an
unsympathetic pair of hesitant hedonists.
Fair (1 star)
Rated R for sexuality, nudity, coarse humor and pervasive profanity.
Running time: 124
minutes
Distributor:
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
2-Disc Blu-ray/DVD
Combo Pack Extras: Feature commentary by the director, a producer and the principal
cast; deleted, extended and alternate scenes; gag reel; Line-O-Rama;
Experiment-O-Rama; Weird Winton; Gonorrhea Trouble; Top Chef: Alex Eilhauer;
The Making of Five Year Engagement; The Making of Gastrocule; The Making of
Turkey; digital copy; BD-Live; pocket BLU app; uHEAR and more.
To see a trailer for
The Five-Year Engagement, visit:
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