- Aspect Ratio: 2:35: 1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital
- Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
- Region: A (B? C?)
- Rating: PG-13
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: Touchstone Home Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: November 6, 2012
- List Price: $20.00
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Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:3/5]
A lifelong friendship provides the basis for Beaches, now receiving its Blu-ray premiere. The film opens with Cecilia (CC) Bloom (Bette Midler) rushing to be with Hillary Whitney (Barbara Hershey) in her hour of need. During CC’s journey we get a flashback of two eleven year old girls from very different sides of the tracks who meet by chance on the Atlantic City beach. CC, a brash New York kid, is struggling to succeed in show business; Hillary, a privileged California girl, is destined to join the family law firm. Time passes, this odd couple evolves and stay connected through…gasp…the letters that they write to each other. When the girls meet again, they are adults in New York. CC is still a struggling actress; Hillary, an ACLU attorney. Now, the women find that it is their complementary strengths (talent versus brains and beauty) that make their friendship even stronger. The pair pursue their chosen careers, and, eventually, CC marries avant-garde director John Pierce (John Heard) and Hillary weds attorney Michael Essex (James Read). Both marriages lack a meaningful relationship and their husbands are more cardboard cutouts than flesh and blood. CC becomes a successful performer; Hillary becomes a mother. Now, flash forward to the present when the friends have an emotional reunion at Hillary’s beach house. However, this hastily manufactured denouement is one of the many rough spots in the script (I won’t give up the spoiler for those who have not seen this film). The real problem throughout Beaches is the patching together of all those time-travel segments that are often too brief to give us a sense of how this friendship is really sustained.
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
This picture will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, and like films of its era, the BD restoration shows up some of the intrinsic grain and softness that was in the original print. For the most part, we get a more than acceptable watch.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
There is a lot of music in this soundtrack, courtesy of Ms. Midler. There are some memorable and not so memorable songs and, of course, the Grammy winner, “Wind Beneath My Wings.” Not much ambience but clear and crisp throughout.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
There is a package of extras:
- “Wind Beneath My Wings”: music video
- Segment from “AFI’s 100 Years…100 songs” with Bette Midler
- Barbara Hershey screen test
- Blooper Reel
- “Mayim Blalik Remembers”. A walk down memory lane with the child actor who portrayed the young CC Bloom.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3/5]
Beaches may not be the ultimate chick flick but don’t try to convince its fans otherwise. Viewers expecting an epiphany about friendship between people who have nothing in common will not get their “aha moment” here. Try as hard as the lead actors do, there is not only a mismatch between their characters but also their innate acting ability. Hershey is a consummate professional who nearly always brings something special to her roles (her Mary Magdalene in The Last Temptation of Christ also appeared in 1988). Midler, making only her second film appearance (her first was in The Rose, a case of art imitating life), gives us a pretty one-dimensional character whose rough edges will begin to grate on some nerves. Director Garry Marshall, best known for his many successful television series, seems a bit out of his element in Beaches, one of his first feature length films (things improved greatly with Pretty Woman). In spite of his best efforts to work around the limitations of the cliche-ridden script, the film’s essential girl-girl relationship seems more contrived than credible. These cavils aside, perhaps it is best to consider Beaches as an extended length soap opera, beefed up with decent music, and, some good supporting work by Spalding Gray (Dr. Milstein) and Lanie Kazan (mom, Leona Bloom). Warning: Before you pop this BD into your player, be sure that you have plenty of Kleenex on hand so that you will not run out before the end credits.
Additional Screen Captures
[amazon-product]B00A2KKBEI[/amazon-product]
[amazon-product]B008U19P02[/amazon-product]
Purchase Beaches on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
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[amazon-product]B00A2KKBEI[/amazon-product]
[amazon-product]B008U19P02[/amazon-product]
Purchase Beaches on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
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