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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Big Wedding (2013)

The Big Wedding (2013)

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Released 4-Sep-2013

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Romantic Comedy Trailer-Start-up Trailers
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2013
Running Time 85:21
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (50:12) Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Justin Zackham
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Robert De Niro
Diane Keaton
Susan Sarandon
Katherine Heigl
Robin Williams
Ben Barnes
Amanda Seyfried
Topher Grace
Christine Ebersole
Patricia Rae
Ana Ayora
Kyle Bornheimer
David Rasche
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $34.95 Music Nathan Barr


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Unknown English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.40:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     Alejandro (Ben Barnes) and Missy (Amanda Seyfried) are planning to get married, they just need to negotiate their complex family members from messing everything up! Talk about messing everything up, this film's plot can certainly be classed that way. Alejandro’s adoptive parents Don (Robert De Niro) and Ellie (Diane Keaton) divorced ten years ago, after twenty years of marriage, and have to pretend to still be married so as to not to upset Alejandro’s birth mother, who is a devout catholic. Don’s current girlfriend Bebe (Susan Sarandon) is forced to pretend she is outside the family as the weekend begins. Don can't bring himself to 'pop the question' to Bebe, and exactly how are Ellie and Bebe friends anyway after Bebe had an affair with her best friend's husband years ago? Can two friends actually forgive each other like this? In my opinion, this is quite implausible! Regrettably, this isn't the only plot point that is implausible!

     Alejandro’s brother Jared (Topher Grace) is a pledged-virgin approaching 30 years of age, his sister Lyla (Katherine Heigl) has split from her husband Andrew, but I can't quite remember why ( oh, by the way, she is pregnant too), Missy's parents are just plain weird, and Robin Williams plays a priest again, and badly. There's too many side plots to make this comprehensible to the average viewer. This makes the main plot point about the marriage become a sideline in itself! Of course, everything winds up just nicely at the end, but the plot here is still weak and the characters are one-dimensional.

     The Big Wedding will not surprise you, for it is highly predictable. Personally, I simply lament the fact that someone as fine an actor as Robert De Niro agreed to be in this. Every conceivable romantic comedy stereotype is strictly adhered to here. The film even ends with a Michael Buble song, and this is one of the main highlights!

     You should expect more from such a high-quality cast of actors. The characters are all too shallow for you to become empathetic with any of them. I guess one should blame the lack of writing by Justin Zackham, who also directed the film, but he did have the 2006 French film, Mon frère se marie (My Brother Is Getting Married) to work from (i.e. The Big Wedding was adapted from this French comedy). Frankly, the attempts at comedy just don't work. This is one film I personally wouldn't bother even renting.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     The Big Wedding was shot digitally using Arri Alexa cameras.

     The aspect ratio is 2:40:1, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

     The film comes on a 5.57 gb dual-layered DVD with an average bitrate of 8.7 m/b per sec, which is excellent for DVD.

     Colour is natural-looking, they haven't been manipulated in post-production to be excessively bold or muted.

     There are no major artefacts evident, and I must praise the cinematographer, Jonathan Brown, for detailing the many white costumes during the wedding scenes nicely.

     Subtitles are available in English for the hard of hearing.

     The RSDL change occurs at 50:12, just before a scene transition, so it slightly noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The surround mix is very plain indeed, it certainly doesn't bring any attention to itself!

     The main audio track is a Dolby Digital English 5.1 track encoded at 448 kbps, with a secondary track in Dolby Digital 2.0 English stereo, encoded at 192 kbps. A descriptive audio track is also available in English for the hard of hearing in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, also encoded at 192 kbps.

     Dialogue is always clear and synchronised.

     Nathan Barr's score includes only four songs, two of which feature Michael Buble doing Save The Last Dance for Me and Christine Ebersole performing Row, Row, Row Your Boat in Broadway style. It's a pity she had to play the lacklustre role of Muffin in this movie!

     The surround mix is mainly centred on the three front speakers, there isn't many ambient or discrete effects on offer here.

     The subwoofer is subdued in this surround mix also.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Start-up Trailers

    Start-up trailers for The Great Gatsby (2:35), Mud (2:19) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2:23) play sequentially before the opening menu.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     The Big Wedding has been released in the United States at the time of writing this review in August, 2013. This release contains a 16-minute featurette titled Coordinating The Big Wedding which includes interviews with the principal cast members, director Justin Zackham, producers Clay Pecorin and Richard Salvatore, production designer Andrew Jackness and costume designer Aude Bronson-Howard, interspersed with clips from the film. It may only be an 'electronic press-kit' type extra, but at least it's included!

Summary

     IMDb has The Big Wedding rated at 5.3 out of 10. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 7% rating while Metacritic has it at 28 out of 100. No matter how you look it, The Big Wedding should be re-titled 'The Big Disappointment'. Save yourself the hassle of seeing it by skipping it altogether!

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© John Stivaktas (I like my bio)
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S550 (Firmware updated Version 020), using HDMI output
DisplaySamsung LA46A650 46 Inch LCD TV Series 6 FullHD 1080P 100Hz. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderSony STR-K1000P. Calibrated with THX Optimizer.
AmplificationSony HTDDW1000
SpeakersSony 6.2 Surround (Left, Front, Right, Surround Left, Surround Back, Surround Right, 2 subwoofers)

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