Kissing Jessica Stein is a fun, quirky and charming romantic comedy starring two unknowns who both not only can write but aren’t bad actresses either sharing some good on-screen chemistry.
Kissing Jessica Stein
(2001)
Genre(s): Comedy, Romance
Fox | R – 97 min. – $16.99 | June 3, 2014
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MOVIE INFO: Directed by: Charles Herman-Wernfeld Writer(s): Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt (written by) Cast: Jennifer Westfeldt, Heather Juergensen, Scott Cohen, Jackie HoffmanDISC INFO: Features: Commentaries, Featurette, Outtakes, Theatrical Trailer Number of Discs: 1Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0) Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.85 Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish Disc Size: 31.2 GB Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Region(s): A |
PLOT SUMMARY
Sex and the single girl gets a new spin. Fed up with her fruitless search for “Mr. Right” and tired of blind dates from hell, attractive journalist Jessica Stein (JENNIFER WESTFELDT) whimsically responds to a classified ad – from Helen (HEATHER JUERGENSEN)! Making and breaking new rules of dating as they go, the two women muddle through an earnest but hilarious courtship that blurs the lines between friendship and romantic love.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5
Audio Commentaries – There are two tracks included: 1) Director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld and Cinematographer Lawrence Sher and 2) Co-writers/Actresses Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt. Each of these offer different perspectives with the first more technical while the second gives the writer point of view as well as acting perspective.
Deleted Scenes (24:50; SD) – These include 10 scenes that were cut or are outtakes and also has the original ending. Also accompanied by an optional commentary by Juergensen and Westfeldt.
Featurette (8:50; SD) is a very basic ‘making-of’ with some on-set interviews.
Theatrical Trailer (2:09; SD)
VIDEO – 3.0/5
Kissing Jessica Stein arrives on a blind date with Blu-ray and, well, didn’t go so well… The picture is presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer and honestly, it’s not a pretty picture. Detail is muddy at times especially for background objects while even close-ups are a bit splotchy with heavy noise and grain. Colors are also drab and not exactly bright and darker scenes do show some artifacting.
AUDIO – 4.25/5
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is much better, though, with clear dialogue levels coming from the center channel while other elements like the music, score and ambient noise help give the track some depth. Heck, even the LFE channel kicked in a time or two! It’s a fine lossless track that might not be stunning or even reference quality, but it’s certainly a big upgrade over the DVD version.
OVERALL – 3.0/5
Overall, Kissing Jessica Stein is a fun, quirky and charming romantic comedy starring two unknowns who both not only can write but aren’t bad actresses either sharing some good on-screen chemistry. The catalogue Blu-ray released by Fox has an average video transfer, good lossless audio and an OK selection of bonus material.
Published: 06/05/2014