Smart People (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	91:05
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Noam Murro
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	Dennis Quaid Sarah Jessica Parker Thomas Haden Church Ellen Page Ashton Holmes Christine Lahti
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Nuno Bettencourt

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 English Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is a US college professor with a reputation for being difficult and fairly uninterested in his students. He is a sarcastic widower who lives with his teenage daughter, Vanessa (Ellen Page) who has taken a leaf from his book and despite being smart and pretty is very serious and sarcastic. His teenage son, James (Ashton Holmes) is somewhat estranged from him due to his attitude towards him. Lawrence's loser adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church) arrives on the scene looking to borrow some money but then admits that he really has nowhere to live. After Lawrence has an accident followed by a seizure, he is banned from driving for six months. This gives Chuck an idea that he can offer to drive Lawrence in return for Lawrence letting him move in. An uneasy truce is formed between the two. Whilst in hospital Lawrence meets a pretty female doctor, Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker) who also happens to be an ex-student of his. He doesn't remember her but she remembers the crush she had on him while she was his student. They start to form a tentative relationship which is complicated by his attitude, Chuck's presence and Vanessa's attitude towards Janet. Other subplots include Lawrence trying to get a book published, Vanessa making moves on Chuck and Lawrence trying to get the department head's job at the university where he works.

    The highlight of the film is Thomas Haden Church as the annoying and juvenile Chuck who corrupts Vanessa and encourages Lawrence to pursue Janet. He is amusing and easily the best thing about the film. Ellen Page is also very good. The rest of the cast are fine but don't really stand out. The music by Eighties guitar hero, Nuno Bettancourt (Anyone remember Extreme?) is acoustic and quite enjoyable. There are also some songs featuring Aussie band, Baby Animals. This is the first feature from Noam Murro, an award winning director of commercials. He has another feature in the works which hopefully will improve on this one.

    This film will work reasonably well for lovers of indie drama comedies but will not win any new converts.

Video

    The video quality is good but nothing special.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp throughout but is some way from the best transfers in this regard. Shadow detail is good but unspectacular which may be related to the source.

    The colour was pretty good with no colour artefacts.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are English subtitles for the Hearing Impaired. They're clear and easy to read.

    There was no noticeable layer change. For some reason I could not get this review disc to work in my computer so cannot confirm its location.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVDs contain two audio options, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack. I cannot confirm bitrates due to the test disc not working in my computer. This style of movie really doesn't need a 5.1 soundtrack as it is mostly dialogue based.

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand however some lines were muffled meaning the subtitles were useful. The music sounded good and was really the only thing which utilised the surrounds and subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    No extras are included! It is possible that this is a rental only version as the film is not released to retail until November.

Menu

    The menu was simple including audio options, scene selections along with some motion and audio.

    The Region 1 release includes some extra subtitle options along with an audio commentary, making-of featurette, deleted scenes and bloopers. The Region 2 is the same as ours. Region 1 is the clear winner. A Blu-ray version is also available in the US.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall