{"id":2177,"date":"2011-04-19T15:46:45","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T22:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=2177"},"modified":"2021-04-22T09:34:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T16:34:03","slug":"review-loveandotherdrugs-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2011\/04\/review-loveandotherdrugs-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Love & Other Drugs Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Love & Other Drugs<\/em><\/strong> is propelled by the leads rather than the story. I give major credit for the brave performances by Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal as they don\u2019t go overboard with characters that could\u2019ve been walking movie clich\u00e9s. Now, the script itself is serviceable but nothing special, in fact it sticks pretty closely to the formula.<\/p>\n

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\nLove & Other Drugs (2010)<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nREVIEW NAVIGATION<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Movie<\/a> | Special Features<\/a> | Video Quality<\/a> | Audio Quality<\/a> | Overall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Genre(s): <\/strong>Drama, Romance
\nFox | R \u2013 112 min. \u2013 $39.99 | March 1, 2011<\/p>\n

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MOVIE INFO:<\/span>
\nDirected by: <\/strong>Edward Zwick
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Jamie Reidy (book); Charles Randolph and Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/strong>Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria, Josh Gad, Gabriel Macht<\/p>\n

Theatrical Release Date: <\/strong>November 24, 2010<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:<\/span>
\nFeatures: <\/strong>Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Live Lookup, BD-Live, Digital Copy
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>2<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 1.85
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, French, Spanish
\nCodec: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>Region Free<\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you\u2019ve seen the trailers for Love & Other Drugs <\/em><\/strong>\u2013 with hip indie music and all \u2013, you think it\u2019s a deep and thought-provoking film that you might only see at your local independent theater; the type of film where the ending is un-Hollywood and in fact sticks it to the town by turning convention on its head. Well, while the film as a whole works thanks to its leads, the actual plot is pretty basic and has been done plenty of times before.<\/p>\n

Jamie Randall (JAKE GYLLENHAAL) is a ladies\u2019 man and he knows he can do and sell anything with the wink of the eye and a bright, big smile. He can land any woman he wants and gets plenty of sex while his professional life is in disarray much to the chagrin of his father (GEORGE SEGAL) and mother. Making things worse is the fact his younger brother, Josh (JOSH GAD), made it rich after creating a medical software company.<\/p>\n

So Jamie starts working for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer peddling various drugs to doctors via sweet talking and, basically, bribery and finds success when a new drug called Viagra hits the market and him being a man of experienced sexual prowess finds it his calling to sell the drug with the support of his supervisor Bruce Winston (OLIVER PLATT). On one visit to peddle a drug to Dr. Stan Knight (HANK AZARIA) he tags along when the doc examines a beautiful young woman named Maggie Murdock (ANNE HATHAWAY) who also in the early on-set of Parkinson\u2019s Disease and needs specific medication to battle it.<\/p>\n

Like in any romantic comedy, Maggie discovers that Jamie, who she thought was an intern, was not who he said he was, the two fight but through Jamie\u2019s charm manages to get a lunch date out of her. What starts out as a purely physical relationship as Maggie\u2019s past experiences with boyfriends have not ended well, slowly turns into something deeper much to the surprise of Jamie, who has always kept a distance from commitment (another staple of a rom-com). They fight, make up, tears are shed, etc.<\/p>\n

Love & Other Drugs<\/em><\/strong> is an interesting little film mainly because the trailers made it look like an indie film but instead turned into the typical flick in a genre where it\u2019s hard to surprise the viewer. What was also a surprise was to see the movie was co-adapted, based in part on the book \u201cHard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman\u201d, produced and directed by Edward Zwick, the man behind action-thrillers-dramas like Courage Under Fire<\/em>, The Siege<\/em>, The Last Samurai<\/em> and Blood Diamond<\/em>. However, it also harkens back to one of his feature film debut, About Last Night<\/em>, about a couple who have an affair and the ramifications that evolve from it.<\/p>\n

While the movie isn\u2019t anything special in terms of the plot, where it does excel is in the performances especially from Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. When it is revealed that Hathaway\u2019s character has early on-set Parkinson\u2019s I immediately though, \u201cOscar bait\u201d but she plays it pretty well with subtly yet with a real emotional core that worked so well for the dynamic between her character and Jamie.<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 2.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Deleted Scenes (7:31; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 There are a select number of scenes; a couple that are merely extended that wouldn\u2019t have added a whole lot to the film save for Oliver Platt\u2019s character having a heart attack.<\/p>\n

Love & Other Drugs<\/span><\/em><\/strong>: An Actor\u2019s Discussion (8:00; HD)<\/span><\/strong> is a typical EPK-like featurette where the actors (Gyllenhaal, Hathaway) talk about what the movie is about set against behind-the-scenes footage.<\/p>\n

Beautifully Complex: Anne Hathaway is Maggie (2:57; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 The actress talks about her character and the early on-set Parkinson\u2019s disease she\u2019s dealing with and, eventually, accepting it.<\/p>\n

Reformed Womanizer: Jake Gyllenhaal is Jamie (3:34; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Gyllenhaal gets his chance to talk about the character and what he\u2019s all about and how the character changes once he meets Maggie.<\/p>\n

Selling Love & Other Drugs<\/em> (3:10; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Gyllenhaal, Hathaway, Edward Zwick and others including the author \u2013 who was a drug rep \u2013 talk about the novel it\u2019s based upon and the real life experiences that influenced the movie.<\/p>\n

Theatrical Trailer (2:25; HD)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Blu-ray comes with a second disc containing the Digital Copy<\/span><\/strong> (** Blu-ray Exclusive **<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 4.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Love & Other Drugs<\/em><\/strong> is presented in its original 1.85 aspect ratio and overall looks good in high-def. Along with a fine amount of natural film grain, there\u2019s also some good detail level throughout from close-ups to background objects. Colors meanwhile also look good not going overboard with warmth but also not void of any either. I didn\u2019t see this in theaters but I imagine it\u2019s pretty close.
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AUDIO \u2013 4\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is nice with clear and distinct dialogue and some choice music and score thrown in to give it a little depth. There\u2019s not a whole lot here to judge since there are no action scenes but for the genre, it\u2019s a good track.<\/p>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, Love & Other Drugs<\/em><\/strong> is propelled by the leads rather than the story. I give major credit for the brave performances by Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal as they don\u2019t go overboard with characters that could\u2019ve been walking movie clich\u00e9s. Now, the script itself is serviceable but nothing special, in fact it sticks pretty closely to the formula. As for the Blu-ray, it excels in the video department, has a good audio track while the features are more to be desired.<\/p>\n

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The Movieman<\/em>
\nPublished: <\/strong>04\/19\/2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love & Other Drugs is propelled by the leads rather than the story. I give major credit for the brave performances by Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal as they don\u2019t go overboard with characters that could\u2019ve been walking movie clich\u00e9s. Now, the script itself is serviceable but nothing special, in fact it sticks pretty closely … Continue reading “Love & Other Drugs Blu-ray Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[286,127,793,381,792],"class_list":["post-2177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-anne-hathaway","tag-gabriel-macht","tag-hank-azaria","tag-jake-gyllenhaal","tag-oliver-platt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2177"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25809,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions\/25809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}