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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.
Me, Myself & Irene (2000)

Me, Myself & Irene (2000)

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Released 5-Sep-2001
Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Introduction TV Spots-3 Theatrical Trailer-2 Deleted Scenes-10 Featurette Music Video-Breakout-Foo Fighters Audio Commentary-Bobby Farrelly (Co-Director) & Peter Farrelly (Co-Director) Featurette-Behind The Scenes-6 Gallery-Photo Easter Egg-Alternate Menus Easter Egg-Outtakes
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	111:49
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (52:19)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Bobby Farrelly Peter Farrelly
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Jim Carrey Renee Zellweger Chris Cooper Robert Forster Richard Jenkins
Case	Six-Sided Star Clamp	Starring
RPI	$36.95	Music	Pete Yorn Lee Scott

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (96Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	Czech Danish English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish	Smoking	Yes, lots of it - both good and bad guys
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, enjoy cola?
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, pictures through credits, scene after credits

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

Plot Synopsis

Me, Myself & Irene is Peter and Bobby Farrelly's follow-up to the enormously successful There's Something About Mary. They use the same combination of physical and dialogue-driven comedy here to produce another very funny, although somewhat less remarkable movie. While Mary created a cultural phenomenon, and paved the way for so many similarly plotted comedies to follow, Me, Myself & Irene is simply one of those followers. Although the formula is still successful, it just doesn't feel as fresh and new as There's Something About Mary, and it feels just a little as if the Farrellys are struggling to come to terms with their own success. Taken in isolation however, Me, Myself & Irene is very good at doing what it sets out to do - make you laugh by depicting the most absurd and often disgusting circumstances imaginable, and then taking a comic twist.

The story follows Charlie Baileygates (Jim Carrey), an 18-year veteran of the Rhode Island State Troopers, and a loser whose wife left him for a midget Negro Mensa member, and whose three children are decidedly dark skinned - and rather smart. Charlie doesn't deal well with conflict, and spends most of his time being used and abused by every man and his dog (literally). One day, something snaps inside of Charlie, and we meet Hank (Jim Carrey). Hank loves conflict and will do almost anything to create it. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Charlie can control Hank with drugs, the State Troopers aren't exactly thrilled to have the possibility of Hank working for them. It is at this point that Irene Waters (Renée Zellweger) is brought in on an arrest warrant from out of state. This seems to be the perfect job for Charlie - an easy trip to take Irene to up-state New York and hand her over for her warrant. Unfortunately for Irene, her ex-boyfriend and well-to-do hood gets worried that she might know a little too much about the shady dealings he has been involved in. It is up to Charlie and Hank to ensure that Irene survives not only the ex-boyfriend and corrupt cops, but himself, long enough to prove her innocence.

This movie is very funny, and closely follows the formula laid out in previous Farrelly brothers movies. The final note to make regarding this movie is on the relationship between Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger who had quite a public romance following the shooting - and an equally public break up. By all accounts, Renée Zellweger did not allow a romantic relationship to develop while working on the movie, and this seems to have created a good on-screen chemistry between the two. Certainly comparing this movie to Proof Of Life that involved the highly public Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan relationship, Me, Myself & Irene came away without any ill effects.

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Transfer Quality

Video

The video transfer presented for Me, Myself & Irene is of a very good, although not spectacular, quality.

Presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

This transfer is only reasonably sharp. While this is not a problem in particular, it does come up as being somewhat of a poor effort compared to DVD releases of other recent films. There is a problem with grain levels that are quite noticeable early in the transfer (in the sequence 0:30-1:00), and close to the end (the sequence 104:08-104:20, just before the credits roll). During the bulk of the movie, however, the grain is controlled quite well, and it only occasionally becomes noticeable for a few shots. The shadow detail is quite good, although not spectacular, although as only a very few sequences are not brightly lit this really plays no part either way. The transfer contains no low level noise.

Colours are for the most part quite good, although the number of outdoor scenes affected by clouds causes some variation in the vibrancy of the colours over the duration of the transfer. Some of the aerial shots of American farming land are quite beautiful to behold.

Aside from some background pixelization caused by the grain at the start and end of the transfer, there are no MPEG artefacts. Aliasing is quite minor and restricted to a few incidences, the worst of which (the side of a weatherboard house at 7:24) is quite mild. Film artefacts are quite prevalent, especially for a film as recent as this. The worst affected sequences are the same opening and closing scenes that contain the excess grain.

The subtitles are very accurate, only leaving out the most inconsequential of words. A nice touch is that each time a song starts, the title and artist are listed in the subtitles.

This is an RSDL formatted disc with the layer change occurring at 52:19 during Chapter 7. The change is quite noticeable, as it occurs during a brightly lit scene making extensive use of ambient surround effects that are interrupted for the time it takes to negotiate the change. While it could have easily been better placed, a positive note is that the change at least interrupts no dialogue.

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

Audio

As with the video transfer, the audio transfer presented is good, but not great.

There are two audio tracks present on this disc, being the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 384 Kbps, and English audio commentary in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo at 96 Kbps. I listened to both tracks in full.

Dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times, and it was never necessary to replay a segment to understand what was being said. This is also despite the voice used by Jim Carrey for Hank being little more than a growl.

Audio sync was never a problem, always matching without any noticeable delay.

Music is a blend of score music and contemporary songs, as is the typical style for this genre. The score music is provided by Pete Yorn and Lee Scott, but it is almost impossible to tell what is score and what is a pre-existing tune, just woven into the movie. In this regard the score is very effective, although overall it provides a less satisfying experience than a traditional style score.

Surround channels are often used extensively, although there is a tendency to collapse to a very frontal soundscape. This really is to be expected for a comedy, as the dialogue is generally more important than the action. In general, the score makes limited use of the surround channels, and the most impressive surround channel use is for ambient sounds, such as on the golf course at 26:05, and in the forest at 53:54. Unfortunately, these sequences tend to highlight what the soundtrack lacks for the most part.

Subwoofer use is very good, providing a nice lower end for Charlie's motorcycle engine, backing up the score, and filling in very nicely where needed. For what is really a combination of dialogue-driven and physical comedy in which low frequency audio generally plays no part, the subwoofer track is quite impressive.

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

Extras

There is a very good selection of extras here, enough to encourage only casual fans of the movie to consider a purchase.

The menu is 16x9 enhanced and themed around the movie. While the menus themselves are static, the transitions are animated. When loaded, the menu is themed around Charlie, but there is an option to not take your pill, in which case the menu changes to be themed around Hank. I would suggest sticking to the Charlie menu as it is easier to read and easier to navigate.

Deleted Scenes (17:42)

There are ten deleted scenes presented here, all broken into separate titles. Annoyingly there is no "play all" button, so each must be selected from the menu. The scenes are presented in full frame, letterboxed to 1.85:1, with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound. The manner in which the scenes are presented is quite interesting, with the section of the movie from which they were excised presented at the start and end of each sequence in black and white, and the new material presented in colour. It can become a little confusing at times, as some of the footage present in the movie is also present in colour in some of the scenes.

Theatrical Trailers - (1:41) and (2:18)

The trailers are presented in full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, and are of a generally good quality. These are the American trailers.

TV Spots (1:22)

Three American TV advertisements for the movie, each only playable separately. They are presented in full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Featurette (6:14)

This featurette is not even dignified with a name, but is really little more than an extended advert for the movie. It contains the actors telling us how much fun it was to work on the movie and how the Farrellys are the greatest directors ever, and so on. Not worth even the effort of having to skip past with the remote.

Music Video - Breakout - Foo Fighters (4:20)

The music video for the Foo Fighters song Breakout. The video has Traylor Howard and Tony Cox from the main feature, and one of the less inventive ways of placing sequences from the movie into the related music video. It is presented in full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Director's Commentary - Peter and Bobby Farrelly (Directors, Writers)

This commentary, while mostly interesting, can at times become very frustrating. The frustration stems from the tendency of the brothers to list the names of all the extras in each shot, most of whom they seem to be related to, have grown up with, or just in general know via their third cousin's half-sister's boyfriend's dog's trainer - and they tell you all this.

Featurette - Behind The Scenes (27:44)

This extra is broken into six segments, featuring unannotated raw footage taken on set, cut together and organised into the segments, each focusing on a particular scene from the movie. This is quite an effective method of organisation, and the segments are quite interesting. Unfortunately, there is no "play all" button so each segment must be specifically started. These are presented in full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Production Stills

This is a collection of 60 photos from the movie and the set. They are 16x9 enhanced.

Easter Egg - Outtakes

This is available from the last page of chapter selections (Chapters 13-15), where the fourth selection would have been. It
is presented in full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, and is quite amusing.

R4 vs R1

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

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

Deleted scene commentary
Extended branching version of film (deleted scenes re-inserted)
THX certified transfer and Optimode tests
DVD-ROM content, including complete script
Extra language audio tracks: English and French 2.0

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

Nothing

While the list of items we miss out on is long, the only item of real substance is the commentary for the deleted scenes, which would have been interesting to hear. In that regard, unless you need to hear the movie with a French dub, the two are essentially equal, as we benefit from the added resolution of PAL.

Summary

Me, Myself & Irene is a very funny comedy from the directors of There's Something About Mary, presented on a good DVD with an excellent selection of extras.

The video quality is good but not great, suffering a little from grain, especially early on in the movie.

The audio quality can only be called serviceable, being good enough for the presentation, but it could easily have been better.

The selection of extras presented here is very good, and while it does lack a little in comparison to the R1, I don't think we have much to complain about.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output
Display	RCA 80cm. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio Decoder	Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Amplification	Onkyo TX-DS787, THX Select
Speakers	All matching Vifa Drivers: centre 2x6.5" + 1" tweeter (d'appolito); fronts and rears 6.5" + 1" tweeter; centre rear 5" + 1" tweeter; sub 10" (150WRMS)

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