Hitch (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Trailer-Are We There Yet?, Man Of The House, Spanglish Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer Outtakes Deleted Scenes Featurette-Dance Steps Made Easy Featurette-Love In New York Featurette-Hitch Style Featurette-The Dating Experts Featurette-Will Smith's Red Carpet Race Music Video-"1 Thing" Performed By Amerie Trailer-Bewitched, Little Black Book
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	113:24
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (70:33)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Andy Tennant
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Will Smith Eva Mendes Kevin James Amber Valletta Julie Ann Emery Robinne Lee Nathan Lee Graham Adam Arkin Michael Rapaport Jeffrey Donovan Paula Patton Philip Bosco Kevin Sussman
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Alan Elliott George Fenton John Legend

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Greek Hebrew Hindi Icelandic Romanian Serbian Slovenian Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Hitch is a great date movie, about dating.

    Like many of Hollywood's romantic comedies, Hitch is set in Manhattan, New York. Hitch (Will Smith) is a dating consultant. Men come to him for help on how to woo and win the women of their dreams.

    What makes his character, and the film, so charming and likeable is that Hitch is about succeeding in romance, and not sexual conquest. His clients are in love, not in lust. Hitch carries out his vocation with a sense of pride, basking in the happiness he helps other people find.

    However, the very smooth, confident, and idealistic Hitch love express hits an iceberg in the form of cynical, tough-as-nails gossip columnist Sara (Eva Mendes). Hitch falls for the gorgeous Sara, but while the feeling is mutual, soon their jobs complicate matters between them.

    There is also a lighter, and related, fun sub-plot, where the dorky, tubby, asthmatic accountant Albert (Kevin James), who is hopelessly in love with his wealthy and very beautiful client Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta), gets coached by Hitch on asking her out.

    While this is a standard boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back plot, Smith's charisma and cool style makes Hitch really work.

Video

    Overall the transfer is excellent.

    The widescreen transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness is very good, as can be seen with the clearly defined books on the shelf at 31:45. The black level and shadow detail are also very good, such as in the dark night club at 25:14.

    The colour is excellent throughout, and the skin tones are accurate.

    There are no problems with MPEG, film-to-video, or film artefacts.

    English, Dutch, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Icelandic, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Turkish, and English for the Hearing Impaired   subtitles are present. The English subtitles are accurate.

    This is a single-sided, dual-layered disc with the layer change occurring between scenes at 70:33.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two audio options on the DVD: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), and English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

    The musical score is credited to Alan Elliott, George Fenton, and John Legend. It is a subtle orchestral score, with a number of songs used well throughout.

    The surround presence and activity is a bit of a mixed bag. While the rears are used for the score, such as at 35:01 and 73:34, the surround sound mix is quite front-heavy. For example, during many moments that would be perfect for surround ambience, such as the party scenes and New York traffic scenes, the rears are noticeably silent.

    The subwoofer never drew attention to itself, but as a romantic comedy I wasn't expecting an LFE-heavy audio track anyway.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are plenty of varied extras.

Menu

    Animated with audio.

Theatrical Trailers

    There are three forced trailers at the beginning, but these can be skipped once they start. They are all 16x9 enhanced.

    The trailers are for the films:

• Are We There Yet?
• Man Of The House
• Spanglish

More Theatrical Trailers

   There are a further two trailers accessible in the extras. They are also 16x9 enhanced, with either Dolby Surround or Dolby 5.1 audio.

    The trailers are for the films:

• Bewitched
• Little Black Book

Gag Reel (3:48)

    Outtakes from the film presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio.

Deleted Scenes (7:21)

    There are two deleted scenes, and one alternative scene, introduced by the Director.

Featurettes

    All  presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio.

• Dance Steps Made Easy (8:17) A look at filming Kevin James' dance scene.
• Love In New York (6:49) A look at the romantic comedy's setting.
• Hitch Style (6:32) A look at the film's wardrobe styling.
• The Dating Experts (11:22) We meet the relationship therapists used to help polish the script.
• Will Smith's Red Carpet Race (6:32) A look at Smith's attempt to enter the 2005 Guinness Book of World Records for public appearances.

Music Video-"1 Thing" Performed By Amerie (3:59)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio.

    Apart from some minor variations with some of the trailers and subtitles, the R1, R2 (UK) and R4 versions of Hitch are identical.

    Of course one must consider the affordability and superior PAL image of the local release.

    Okay, so you've already seen all the funny bits of Hitch in the trailer, but what remains is a charming and warm romantic film.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good albeit quite front-heavy.

    The extras are varied and suit the film.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall