Serving Sara (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-Train Scene Selection Anim & Audio Deleted Scenes-2 Theatrical Trailer-1:38 Audio Commentary-Reginald Hudlin (Director) Additional Footage-Extended Alternate Scenes - 3 Outtakes-3 Featurette-Making Of-A Look Inside The Process
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	95:30
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:26)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Reginald Hudlin
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Matthew Perry Elizabeth Hurley Bruce Cambell Amy Adams Vincent Pastore Cedric The Entertainer
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	Marcus Miller

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Matthew Perry has done the best of the Friends cast at getting decent movies. I rather liked The Whole Nine Yards and Three to Tango, and I even enjoyed Fools Rush In (there's a reference to Salma Hayek in this film, possibly because she was his co-star in Fools Rush In). When I saw his name on this film, I had high hopes.

    Elizabeth Hurley, on the other hand, has mostly gotten roles that play on her obvious good looks. She is one of the few women ever upstaged by a dress, and possibly the only woman who was wearing the dress at the time (I think you remember the dress I mean). When I saw her name on the film, my high hopes dropped. But I'm an optimist — maybe he could help her succeed?

    They have included a couple of moments that make use of Ms Hurley's more obvious assets, specifically so those scenes can appear in the trailer. We have the moment when she loses her trousers, revealing a tasteful pair of lacy white knickers, and the moment that she lifts her T-shirt (away from camera), flashing her chest at a hotel clerk. Don't get your hopes up — these are the only two moments in the film that come close to revealing her charms. I wonder if someone in wardrobe was feeling a bit malicious? — the T-shirt she wears for a good part of the movie reads "Trailer Trash".

    The storyline had some promise. Joe Tyler (Matthew Perry) is a process server. Process serving is a strange job: hand-delivering legal papers (such as subpoenas) and getting proof of the delivery, including the time of delivery. Joe works for Ray Harris (Cedric the Entertainer), as does Tony (Vincent Pastore). Joe hasn't been doing too well at his job lately, and he grabs eagerly at the chance to serve divorce papers on Sara Moore (Elizabeth Hurley) for a big 5 grand. She, being English, doesn't understand the implications of the serving process (neither did I!) — apparently it gives the person who starts the proceedings the opportunity to choose the jurisdiction. Sara's husband, Gordon (Bruce Campbell) has chosen Texas, because it gives him the best chance of depriving her of any divorce settlement. Had she served him first, she could have chosen New York, pretty much guaranteeing a 50% divorce settlement, and 50% of 20 million dollars is a lot more than zero. She offers him a million dollars to switch sides. He takes it. And the race is on... Can Joe and Sara serve Gordon before Tony can serve Sara?

    The ingredients of this comedy sound good. Some genuine comedy talents, a truly beautiful woman, and a set-up that could be quite funny. Somehow it just doesn't work. I don't know what the problem is (I suspect I could get a really high-paid job in Hollywood if I knew...), but it simply fails to raise more than the occasional wry smile. It becomes a one-note procession from one not-very-funny (and sometimes quite crude) set-piece to another. If you are in the mood to watch something with your brain turned off, maybe you'll enjoy this film, but don't expect too much.

Video

    This transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced. I think this is the original theatrical aspect ratio, even if the cover slick does claim that the transfer is 2.35:1, and that that is the theatrical ratio.

    The image is sharp, clear, and attractive, which is appropriate, given how recently this film was made. Shadow detail is a bit variable, from adequate to not really good enough. There is no visible film grain. There's no low-level noise.

    Colour is fairly well-rendered, and there are some really bright colours, especially in the clothing (get a load of the suits Cedric the Entertainer wears!). There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are a couple of tiny film artefacts, but you have to look very closely to see them — they will probably be invisible on any regular display.

    There are a few moments of noticeable aliasing, such as on the car grilles at 66:51, but they are rare and not all that objectionable. There's no significant moire, and no noticeable MPEG artefacts.

    The only subtitles are English for the Hearing Impaired. They are easy to read, well-timed to the dialogue, and as accurate as most.

    The disc is single-sided and RSDL-formatted. The layer change is at 67:26. It's not a particularly good change: there's quite a pause, and on some players it's rather noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack is only provided in English. It is Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448kbps.

    The dialogue is clear and comprehensible. There are no audio sync issues, save for one mistake when Kate invites Joe into the house — she delivers a line with her mouth shut.

    Marcus Miller is responsible for the score, and he does quite a reasonable job of it. There are fragments of quite a few songs included in the soundtrack, too.

    Most of the time the surrounds are used quite subtly, but there are a couple of quite neat instances of directional sound that serve to remind you of why you bought those rear channel speakers. The subwoofer gets almost nothing to work on, but it's not really required by this movie.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are more than a few extras.

Menu

    The main menu is animated with music (that rapidly becomes grating), but it is easy to use. One strange thing: the photo used as a background to the Special Features menu really doesn't look like Elizabeth Hurley.

Deleted Scenes

    We get two deleted scenes, with or without director's commentary. The commentary is pretty insignificant: he has nothing to say about the second deleted scene, and says nothing until more than halfway through the first one.

• Roadside (1:28)

• Tony Asks for Directions (0:44)

Theatrical Trailer (1:38)

    As I mentioned above, this trailer features both moments that imply Ms Hurley spends lots of time incompletely attired. If that's what you are looking for, watch the trailer again — it's a lot shorter than the movie, and has the same scenes.

Commentary: director Reginald Hudlin

    This is not the best commentary I've listened to, but it's not bad. He leaves quite a few gaps, but he has quite a bit to say, and doesn't repeat himself.

Featurette: A Look Inside the Process (19:09)

    I thought this might explain more about the strange phenomenon that is process-serving. It doesn't. This is a standard making-of featurette, completely with a profusion of "he's wonderful", "she's beautiful". The opening segment is amusing, where the director explains that he made comments on the script to convince the producers to hire him, even though he hadn't read it, then discovered after reading it that his comments were applicable...

Extended Alternate Scenes

    Three extended versions of scenes that are in the film, presented with or without director's commentary. He doesn't have a lot to say about these, either.

• The Punch (0:47)

• Meadow Muffin (2:06)

• Missing Stapler (1:23)

Outtakes

    Three out-takes, basically slightly different takes of scenes that are in the film, some of which didn't go too smoothly. Once again, available with or without director's commentary.

• Gordon in the Office (0:58)
• Mechanical Bull (1:49)
• Tony on the Plane (1:12) — featuring the producer's big moment!

    The Region 1 disc comes in two versions: one full-screen and one wide-screen. Both have the same extras as this disc. They are both single layered discs, which may mean that they have been compressed more heavily than this one, although it does mean that they don't have a layer change...

    I think you may be better off with the R4, if only because you can rent it, rather than buy.

    A comedy that really doesn't work, on a DVD that's really nicely made.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are pretty much complete.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall