Click (2006) (Blu-ray)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Audio Commentary Deleted Scenes Featurette Easter Egg
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	107:31
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Frank Coraci
Studio Distributor	Revolution Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Adam Sandler Kate Beckinsale Christopher Walken Henry Winkler David Hasselhoff Julie Kavner Sean Astin
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	?	Music	Rupert Gregson-Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 English Linear PCM 48/16 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Dutch Arabic Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Norwegian Polish Swedish Turkish English Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, subtly
		Action In or After Credits	No

My disappointment with Adam Sandler regarding some of his recent attempts to look charitable and socially conscious aside, he seems to be in something of a transition. Obnoxious comedies about maladjusted jerks who do stupid things are on the way out (or so one might hope before seeing You Don't Mess With The Zohan ), and in their place come attempts to be thoughtful, philosophical, or even dramatic. Though not a comedy as such, Reign Over Me provided one example of where it works, and works beautifully. Click, on the other hand, flounders in a way that sharply divided critics and attracted some downright mean denunciations. Philip Wuntch and Lou Lumenick both summed it up with the same words: "Click doesn't".

That is not to say that Click is as bad as some have made out. Sure, it is as obnoxious as some of Sandler's past characters, and lacks the endearing qualities they possess. But there are some moments when it is genuinely funny, and others where it is genuinely touching. Much as I loathe to say it in these times when studios may not even consider fifty drafts to be enough, but Click could have used one or two more rewrites. Being crude to get a laugh is one thing, but jokes about sexual harassment or possession of such an abundance of flab that it becomes feminising are really the lowest common denominator when it comes to humour, which makes it hardly surprising that professional journalists would reject the whole, and not merely these parts.

The story in Click concerns itself with one Michael Newman (Adam Sandler). Michael is pretty much your generic Adam Sandler character - a regular Jewish guy who happens to get frustrated very easily and does not mind expressing his frustrations in the strongest possible manner. Where Michael differs from say, Happy Gilmore or Sonny Koufax is that Michael is married and has two children. His wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale) is so far out of his league that this becomes a source of comedy in and of itself, with crude sexual performance-related humour being a bit of a staple during the middle act. Their two children are shown at varying stages of life, beginning at the ages of seven and five (Joseph Castanon and Tatum McCann in these scenes). It is during their early years that Ben and Samantha Newman joke about how their dad cannot operate a simple remote control, and suggest that a universal remote would be just the thing for old folks like him.

So, after a fit of frustration at his life and his inability to turn on the television without opening the garage door, Michael drives to his local department store. After having a lie-down on one of the store's beds, he gets up and finds his way into what looks like the storage area. There, he is greeted by a rather peculiar clerk who calls himself Morty (Christopher Walken). Rather than shove Michael out of what is clearly an Employees Only area, Morty offers Michael a universal remote control that, according to Morty, simply needs to be pointed at things and activated in order to learn what the user wants it to do. There is just one catch, Morty tells Michael. This remote control cannot be returned. Ever. Michael, won over by the seeming promise of a free lunch, dismisses Morty's warnings and heads home. There, he is surprised to learn that this remote control can control every aspect of his life. Wife's best friend whining too much? Just turn down her volume. Bored with the wife's attempts to get you to pay attention to the basic details of survival? Use picture-in-picture to watch a baseball game whilst real life goes on. In short, everything we have been tempted with at less than ideal times in our life is available with this remote control.

The best parts of the film either feature other actors than Sandler (James Earl Jones and Henry Winkler literally steal the show), or are not trying to be funny, per se. Part of the downfall of Click is that Michael's problems, whilst easy to relate to for all of the men aged eighteen and up that Sandler clearly aims for, are so blasé that it almost becomes offensive in and of itself. Seriously, if I had to put up with a wife's-best-friend who turns pointless complaining into an art form in exchange for being married to a woman who looks like Kate Beckinsale, or put up with a boss like David Hasselhoff in exchange for being able to live "independently" and support two children, I would have but one thing to say. Where the hell do I sign? Not helping matters any is the old Happy To Be Poor paradox that films like this and Jersey Girl in particular suffer from. Sure, it might not make Michael's life pleasant to be working on projects to the exclusion of his family, but what happens when little Ben and Samantha want to go to a good tertiary institution? Granted, that is just me and a particular problem I have with these It's A Wonderful Life-type stories, but I am sure any good storyteller will agree it is a valid problem.

Nonetheless, Click does click, so to speak, in places. Its just that the laugh to screentime ratio is a bit low, even by Sandler standards. So is it worth the associated cost to own in 1080P? Read on...

Video

Every now and then, I get people saying things along the lines of "this film would not be worth seeing in high definition, would it?" or the like. This statement is, in and of itself, false. If it is worth seeing, it is worth seeing in 1080P (or 4000P if you can take the time to go a cinema that still projects in 35mm). No better demonstration of this quantifiable fact exists than Click.

Click is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 within a 1920 by 1080 progressive window.

The transfer is razor-sharp. Again, it is the little things that make all the difference. Things like the carefully-placed Coca-Cola logo at 10:56 are more obvious, one can see the lights reflecting in Henry Winkler's eyes in same shot, and so on. The shadow detail is excellent, and there is no low-level noise.

Colours are used in peculiar ways during Click. Scenes in which Michael is learning the full extent of the cost of fast-forwarding the less pleasant parts of his life are muted, steely, even deathly. Other scenes such as his daughter's wedding are given a heavy emphasis on the purples and blues. The transfer accurately captures all of these colour schemes, with no bleeding or misregistration in evidence.

Compression artefacts were not visible in this transfer. Some shots show a good sprinkle of grain, but this was within acceptable limits despite its prevalence. Film-to-video artefacts were not visible in this transfer. Film artefacts were not visible for the most part. I thought I saw a white mark or two on the picture, but their size was such that one would need a 50" or bigger screen to really notice them. I think I could count their total number on my hands, anyway.

Subtitles are offered in English and English for the Hearing Impaired. The latter are presented in a plain white font on a black background. They are accurate to the spoken dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

A total of three soundtracks are offered on this disc.

The first, and default, is the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1, which I did not listen to. The second option is the original English dialogue in Linear PCM 5.1, which I did listen to. Compared to the Dolby Digital on the DVD, this soundtrack is a revelation where the clarity of the dialogue and its separation from the rest of the soundtrack is concerned.

The dialogue is clear and easy to understand for the most part. Adam Sandler's tendency to mumble was kept within reasonable limits, too. No problems with audio sync were noted.

The music in this film consists of a small handful of contemporary numbers, and a score by Rupert Gregson-Williams. The music does a great job of setting and enhancing the mood of the film without being intrusive. That is, with the exception of You Get What You Give, by the New Radicals. Frankly, this song makes me want to stab its authors in the testicles with an ice pick and repeat the title to them with each stab when they ask what they have done to deserve it. Perhaps the negative reviews come from a backlash to this deeply offensive, normalistic, cats-fart-with-more-melody-and-power song.

This is a very dialogue-oriented film with no action sequences or any stand-out demonstration scenes. Consequently, the rears are very quiet throughout the piece. Even during scenes that should be bustling with surround activity, such as the wedding, there is barely a faint hiss of music or other such light sounds from the rears. The centre is more active and keeps the dialogue focused on the screen, but this is fundamentally a stereo soundtrack.

The subwoofer is used sparingly to support music, thunder, and other such effects. It is not as entirely wasted as the surrounds, but it is not given a whole lot to do.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Audio Commentary

Deleted Scenes

Featurette

The video transfer is excellent.

The audio transfer is very good, but very frontal.

The extras are small in number, but earn bonus points for a) including a proper, fully-functional menu and b) being in HD.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall