You've Got Mail

Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) owns a childrens bookstore called "The Shop Around The Corner. It was her mothers store and she's carried on the tradition of personal customer attention.

Around the corner, Joe Fox has begun construction of a new, improved, larger, discount driven bookstore with it's own coffee section called "FOX Books".

Kathleen escapes her reality on the Internet as Shopgirl. Joe taps his keys away as NY152. Both met in a chat room and hit it off perfectly. When Kathleen realises what the new construction site around the corner is and meets the man responsible, she takes it upon herself to fight against the big bad chain store and confides in NY152 about her business, not knowing that NY152 is her mortal enemy and NY152 not knowing that he's giving advice to shopgirl who he is trying to put out of business.

It's a 90's fairytale with the two of them at each others throat in reality and in love with each other online. Do they meet? Well, yes and no and that's the scene where the attraction between the two of them begins.

The outcome is a happy ending but it's the ride to get there that makes this movie enjoyable. A beautiful love story...

Warner Brothers are dishing out some high quality stuff of late and this is no exception. Columbia and Warners are doing it right and Village Roadshow is taking a leaf out of New Lines product. The key to this is the lack of any digital enhancements that are not necessary if the initial product is pristine and crisp.

There is beautiful color in this movie. Flesh tones are even but rich as is the rest of the picture. Shadow detail is accurate and dark as it should be.

I can't fault the video quality at all partly because I was enjoying the movie so much and if there was a defect, I didn't notice it because I didn't care.

Is this a dual layered disc? Yes but my wife and I didn't notice it.

"I tried to have cybersex once but I kept getting a busy signal" - it's dialogue like this that make the movie. Don't expect a surrounded infested audio track because you ain't gonna get it.

You'll get a lot of subtle ambience, used perfectly, and you'll get alot of narration. Personally, I like narration and it's the narratives in this movie that give it an appeal.

All round, the sound was good, a nice compliment to the video

Ooh, alot of extras on this disc. Let's look at them quickly.

• Theatrical Trailer - A nice trailer in itself and it's funny to watch it after seeing the movie and the way they edited it to make out some scenes come across as the exact opposite of what they are in the movie.
• Audio Commentary by Nora Ephron is an insightful look at her character creation, use of locations and subtle nuances. A much more entertaining commentary than others I've had to sit through.
• HBO Special - A first Look - This is pretty much a making of doco (~15 mins) based around an interview with Director Nora Ephron.
• Tour of New Yorks upper west side - A nice menu with links to various locations in the movie. Clicking on the links takes you to the scene (mainly full frame video versions) with a short explanation of the scene.
• DVD Rom features
  The dvd rom feature is used very nicely for a movie based around the Internet. A "PC Friendly" viewport opens up with links to various items on the dvd itself and stuff on the net.
  
  You can download windows desktops, New York Sound Bytes, view the mailboxes for both Joe and Kathleen as they were sent and received within the movie, view their chat transcript, read interview articles about the cast and crew, join the Warner Brothers You've Got Mail chat room with only 4 messages posted in there and other little niceties linked back to the WB home page.

I'm going to take note of more DVD Rom features in future dvd-rom enhanced discs.

I loved this movie. It's a beautiful tale. Working for an Internet Service Provider and having had experience in chat rooms before, I can relate to the feeling of knowing someone that may be in your local neighbourhood.