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Along Came Polly (Blu-ray)
Year: 2004
Rating: M
Director: John Hamburg
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Alec Baldwin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ben Stiller
Release Date: March 02, 2011
Distributor: Universal
The Film: 2.5
The Disc: 2.5
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5“Individually, Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston are capable comedic actors, but here they fail to generate a collective spark.”
There's plenty of solid comedy firing from the edges of Along Came Polly, but its romantic core is dead in the water. Individually, Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston are capable comedic actors, but here they fail to generate a collective spark. Ultimately, it's hard to believe these two characters would end up together and crucially, it's hard to care whether they do or don't.
Reuben Feffer (Stiller) is an insurance risk-assessor, who uses his vocational skills obsessively in life, entrusting every major decision to the statistics. One day into his honeymoon, Reuben's marriage blows up in his face when his wife Lisa (Debra Messing) cheats on him with an impossibly tanned scuba instructor (Hank Azaria). Shortly after, Reuben bumps into former schoolmate Polly (Aniston) at a party and is drawn to her, despite the statistics telling him it's a gross mismatch.
Predictability ensues, but what rescues the film from its lethargy are outstanding supporting turns from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alec Baldwin. Along Came Polly comes alive when they're on screen; if only the rest of the action was up to their standard, they would have really had something.
The small selection of extras (director's commentary, deleted scenes, outtakes, making-of) are straight from the DVD release, and fairly bland. The film itself is competently made, but there's nothing in the visuals or audio that shows off the high definition format especially well.
