Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 19940 DVD
- Running time: 112 minutes
- Year: 2000
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 25 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English (for the hard of hearing)
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: 3 TV Spots, 2 Trailers, 10 Deleted Scenes, Featurette, Music Video, 6 Behind the Scenes sections, Production Gallery, Directors’ Commentary
Director:
- Peter and Bobby Farrelly
(Dumb & Dumber, Kingpin, Me Myself & Irene, Osmosis Jones, Shallow Hal, There’s Something About Mary)
Producer:
- Bradley Thomas, Peter and Bobby Farrelly
Screenplay:
- Mike Cerrone, Peter and Bobby Farrelly
Music:
- Lee Scott and Pete Yorn
Cast:
- Officer Charlie Baileygates/Hank Evans: Jim Carrey
Irene P. Waters: Renee Zellweger
Jamaal: Anthony Anderson
Lee Harvey: Mongo Brownlee
Shonte Jr: Jerod Mixon
Lt. Gerke: Chris Cooper
Whitey: Michael Bowman
Agent Boshane: Richard Jenkins
Col. Partington: Robert Forster
Layla: Traylor Howard
Limo Driver: Tony Cox
Motel Manager: Anna Kournikova
Narrator: Rex Allen Jr.
Jim Carrey excels in this comedy, Me Myself & Irene, a film I didn’t think I’d like half as much as I did given the lame duck that was Kingpin and I haven’t yet seen two of their other biggest successes to date, Dumb & Dumber and There’s Something About Mary.
He’s the only one who could take on the lead role as Rhode Island Police Officer Charlie Baileygates, a man who took the knocks of life the hard way eighteen years ago by never dealing with his problems, which began when his then new wife Layla (Traylor Howard) ran off with the black dwarf Limo Driver (Tony Cox) and left him with their children – three black triplets…
He meets Irene (Renee Zellweger) when having to take her back to her own neck of the woods for what seems like a standard duty, but there’s sinister measures afoot at the hands of the man she works for who’s in with the bad seeds and taking in a number of corrupt cops with him. When push comes to shove – though – and needs must when the devil drives, Charlie’s rage manifests in its only way out – by turning him into his split personality, Hank Evans… and it doesn’t help when they go on the run and he leaves his tablets behind…
There are some shocks and surprises, not because of the alleged racism or sizism, but at comedic moments such as when “Hank” gets his own back on his neighbour whose wife continually steals his newspaper for some lavatorial reading and, when out and about, he takes the place of a young mom’s newborn child…
I can’t fault the picture nor sound. Presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and anamorphic, artifacts are non-existant, the picture is pin-sharp with bold, bright colours. The average bitrate is 5.5Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s towards the last hour of the film.
The soundtrack is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and won’t give your system a workout but there are a few nice split-surround effects and music in the form of the Foo Fighters‘ Breakout and Smash Mouth performing an excellent cover of Steely Dan’s Do It Again.
spread further than first thought.
First up for extras is some 4:3 material with 3 TV Spots and 2 Trailers. The 10 Deleted Scenes extend quite a few of them with the new footage in colour and the kept-in parts faded to black and white.
The 6-minute Featurette is a brief combination of the usual film clips and cast/crew interview soundbites and there are six Behind the Scenes pieces of footage lasting 4-5 minutes apiece that are more like the B-Roll footage you see on Entertainment in Video DVDs. An extensive Production Gallery is also included.
I’m becoming an increasing fan of the Foo Fighters as their music is played to death on MTV2 (Sky channel 446) and their Breakout video is here as is a feature-length Directors’ Commentary from the Farrelly brothers.
The only low point is the number of chapters – 14 – which isn’t enough. Dialogue is in English only, but subtitles are provided in 11 languages: English, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. The menus have some not-so-subtle animation inbetween them combined with suitable sound effects.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.