L.A. Story is a comfort movie, nothing overly complicated and the conflict pretty light, to go along with some of the quirky scenes. It’s just an all around fun flick that still holds up thanks to Steve Martin with both his performance and writing.
L.A. Story
(1991)
Genre(s): Comedy, Romance
Lionsgate| PG13 – 95 min. – $17.99 | November 9, 2021
Date Published: 11/10/2021 | Author: The Movieman
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Lionsgate provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3¾/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Harris K. Telemacher (STEVE MARTIN) has the easiest job in the world: he’s a TV weatherman in Los Angeles, where the weather is so predictable he tapes his forecasts days in advance. Bored with his job, his life and his relationship with longtime girlfriend Trudi (MARILU HENNER), Harris begins to receive secret messages from an electronic freeway sign near his home, which lead him to pursue romance with a British journalist (VICTORIA TENNANT) and a vapid young model (SARAH JESSICA PARKER).
Quick Hit Review: L.A. Story is a film I’ve seen a few times over the years and it’s one of those “comfort movies”, thin on plot and plenty of absurd scenes that always make me laugh-out-loud, in fact one joke I missed or forgot about (restaurant called “L’ idiot”). While this is not Steve Martin at his best, the material plays to his strengths (no surprise, he did script this), and delivers dialogue like only he can. It does say something about the screenplay that it totally works seeing a guy talking to an omnipresent freeway sign… The film does feature a decent supporting cast with Richard E. Grant, Marilu Henner and a young Sarah Jessica Parker who, despite their age difference, had some fun scenes opposite Martin. Also included, in very small roles (likely favors to Martin) are Patrick Stewart as a fascist restaurant Maitre D; Rich Moranis as an undertaker putting on a thick Brit accent; Chevy Chase as a celebrity getting a bad table at L’ idiot; and Woody Harrelson as a jackass station owner.
This is a pretty quirky film that does make it stand out from your run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, though the fantastical elements may not be for everybody and they do stick out (two statue lions bowing, for instance) but each time I’ve seen this I always enjoy the 90-minutes where you can’t help but smile. For their parts, Steve Martin and Victoria Tennant had cute moments (the pair were married at the time, only to divorce three years later) although the pair don’t have amazing on-screen chemistry. L.A. Story was helmed by Mick Jackson, a British TV director who would go on to direct The Bodyguard, Clean Slate and Volcano and he handles the material here pretty well, though when Steve Martin is on screen, really just need to point and shoot and the comedic magic happens.
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SPECIAL FEATURES – 3/5 |
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This release comes with a glossy slip cover and inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. All of the features were ported over from the DVD. O2BINLA (23:58) — This is a new interview with director Mick Jackson looking back at his work on the film, including initially turning the project down thinking he couldn’t do comedy before Steve Martin changed his mind. The Story of L.A. Story (12:34) is an archival featurette that includes some behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew. The L.A. of L.A. Story (15:33) is more or less a commentary with the production designer going through scenes and the locales used. Deleted Scenes & Outtakes (20:51) are scenes removed from the final cut, including one short scene with Scott Bakula. 1991 EPK (5:40) — Press kit with on-set interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. Trailers includes a Teaser and Theatrical Trailer and there are also TV Spots. |
VIDEO – 4/5 |
| L.A. Story comes to Blu-ray from Lionsgate where it’s shown in the original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. While watching in full motion, the picture didn’t look too bad, detail was decent, colors well balanced and there was some natural film grain. However, during closer inspection while getting screen captures, I did see some interlacing when going from scene to scene. I’m not sure if this was taken from a master used for the old DVD and just upgraded to HD but it was a bit of a knock. But as I said, while viewing the movie I really didn’t detect this. |
AUDIO – 3½/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 that I found to be adequate enough but hardly impressive. Dialogue came across okay if not a tad heavy and reminded me of a Dolby Digital track instead of something lossless. Still, the music and soundtrack sounded good and there was some decent depth. |
OVERALL – 3½/5 |
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Overall, L.A. Story is a comfort movie, nothing overly complicated and the conflict pretty light, to go along with some of the quirky scenes. It’s just an all around fun flick that still holds up thanks to Steve Martin with both his performance and writing. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.