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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL 50:55)
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
  • None
  Extras
  • Deleted scenes
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Featurette
  • Behind the scenes footage
  • TV spot
  • Awards/Nominations

Say it Isn't So

20th Century Fox/20th Century Fox . R4 . COLOR . 95 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Once again we’re reviewing the same movie twice, as 20th Century Fox re-release Say It Isn’t So, but this time it's new, improved, comes dual layered, has special features and an audio commentary, but better still it's now available for retail sale!

This actually puzzles me a bit though, surely Fox are aware that people might be silly enough to endure this film once on overnight loan, but having this movie to own - to taunt you forever - just sounds like a nightmare, forking out hard earned money to take home a DVD like this one, especially when considering the not-so-special features are less than ordinary to say the least? Seriously, what were they thinking? Work harder in the DVD department and release it all in one go, cross your fingers and hope that some hapless clown picks up the box and says ‘ooh look, it's by the guys that did There's Something About Mary, this should be good’ and then stooge them, stooge them for all they're worth!!!

*takes breath*

Let's move on, shall we?

Say It Isn’t So comes from the master ‘dick and fart joke’ producers that brought us There’s Something About Mary, Shallow Hal and Dumb & Dumber, to name just a few. Might I also add the fact that the Farrelys decided to stick to the producer's chair for this film and neither wrote nor directed this cheesy flick. Instead they decided to pass on this big gig and hand the director's chair over to their long time second unit/assistant director James B. Rogers, who has since gone on to direct the second helping of American Pie. The film certainly does lack the Farrely Brothers' flair, with all the characters having a desperate shortage of charisma and presence, but then again that might just be Chris Klein.

So let's try and picture this, we dress up a rag-doll that looks like Chris Klein and give him a goofy name like “Gilly Noble”. Gilly lives as a relatively happy dog catcher, living the life of an orphan bachelor, with no girlfriend and no knowledge of his parents. This all changes after an accident-prone hairdresser in a push-up bra accidentally chops off his ear and a romance ensues. Now insert problematic twist: Gilly’s new love, a love he just consummated, is actually with his sister. Sounds a little twisted doesn’t it?? But trust me, you ain’t seen nothing yet!!

"Do you know what God says about slamming your sister?... DON'T"

From here the madcap adventures really do begin, and for me to reveal any more of the storyline will only ruin what little originality there is left in this script. Just take my word for it when I say it's rude, crude and terribly offensive - which equals some typical Farrely like comedy.

  Video
Contract

The video transfer on this disc is quite similar to that of the rental release. After further inspection I’ve picked up many more film artefacts, and in comparison with other films of its era (the olden days of 2001) its sharpness and clarity is actually pretty ordinary. The film is presented with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is widescreen enhanced. Aliasing doesn’t cause any major pains and the shadow detail is quite nice.

The colours are all life-like and well rendered, although I would refrain from using the typical words such as vibrant or radiant. Overall it’s a nice transfer without any major faults, however it still falls well short of reference material.

The layer change has been placed perfectly, possibly the most impressive part of the transfer. Sitting at the 50:55 mark the change is at a still shot of a phone where the audio is silent. So apart from an extended still shot of the phone before it rings you wouldn’t even noticed the change, truly brilliant work.

  Audio
Contract

The sound on Say It Isn’t So is presented as a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The audio on this disc is actually very ordinary, but this isn’t to say that it’s bad. The audio just doesn’t sound very special, there are a few effect shots in the film (although only a couple) but the soundtrack is never really pushed for brilliance.

The dialogue is always clear and there don’t appear to be any syncing problems. The backing music is made up of a well-mixed collection of new and old, mainly featuring rock and pop music from the past few years or so. Overall it does the job, but not a drop more.

  Extras
Contract

The extras are a different issue all together, with the words ‘flat out disappointing’ coming to mind. I’ll take a different approach this time, I’ll start with the worthless extras and work my way up.

So in that case lets start with the featurette which is nothing more than a four minute trailer consisting of a brief intro by Orlando Jones which was cut and used for half of the TV spots, which I’ll get to in a second. This extended trailer as I shall now call it consists of all the snippets from the film as used in the theatrical trailers as well as a few behind the scenes shots and a few very brief interviews with some of the cast and crew. Although it offers about as much insight into the film as I could stomach it was still on the cruddy side of ordinary.

Next off the rank is the theatrical trailer which is transferred at a slightly lower quality than the film itself, but still looks reasonably good. Typical for a theatrical trailer it contains about half of the story line and three quarters of the jokes. This of course is followed by half a dozen or so TV spots which are all basically the same shorts edited with all the same jokes in different orders. It was bearable after the first two, but was just painful thereafter.

And now last, and only a notch above least, is the audio commentary starring director J.B. Rogers and Chris Klein. This is one of those annoying commentaries where two people are commentating, but they're not together, rather there are two separate commentaries edited together. It's generally far more entertaining when the commentators can interact among themselves, and in this modern era of tele-conferencing you would be forgiven for thinking it could be possible, no matter what the scenario was. Anyway, this appears to be pretty common these days so I suppose I’ll just have to wear it and get back to reviewing this one.

J.B. Rogers, the movie's director, gives a reasonably interesting insight into the film, spending most of the time revealing useless trivia about who was played by whose old school pal, etc, etc. Chris Klein instead reminds us how every second scene is his new favourite and gets entirely too excited over watching his terrible performance for an hour and a half (although don’t tell him that, I think he’s still wondering where the Academy Award nomination went). I actually ended up listening to this audio commentary right through despite the risks, and actually enjoyed it. It certainly wasn’t the greatest, but had more of the cast and crew been together for one big simultaneous commentary it would have actually been quite pleasant.

  Overall  
Contract

I think I should echo my sentiments from the first review… Overall Say It Isn’t So is a rather mediocre effort at an over-saturated film genre. As a tongue in cheek gross out film it achieves some great laughs, but as a classic Farrely brothers production it stands as being nothing special. The transfer under a more critical eye is nothing special to say the least, and the audio only scrapes in as average. The extras are forgettable and the movie ordinary. My recommendation is if you’ve seen it, and liked it, then pick it up. If you’re a HUGE fan of Farrely type humour then this film certainly contains plenty of that, even if it is of a lower intellectual calibre.

For those of you who remain a little uncertain, I’ll leave you with this closing thought: I’ve been a bit harsh reviewing this film, and that’s because it deserves it. The film itself though is still funny and provides quite a few good laughs, just don’t expect a classic. I personally blame this on the leads, Chris Klein and Heather Graham, despite their recent popularity in modern Hollywood are just pathetic in their roles for this film. Everybody cared when Ben Stiller was busted at the end of There’s Something about Mary, but Chris Klein could have had his head physically ripped off his shoulders at the end of this film and I still wouldn’t have cared, I'd have been relieved that his attempts at acting were over, at least until his next cinematic embarrassment. So check it out if you’d like some dumb comedy, but you have been warned!


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      And I quote...
    "Sick and twisted comedy at its unoriginal best, pushing the phrase "hilariously offensive" to all new levels..."
    - Nathan Clark
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-636
    • TV:
          LG 80cm
    • Speakers:
          Pioneer
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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