- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: R
- Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x Digital Copy)
- Studio: 20th Century Fox
- Blu-ray Release Date: June 21, 2011
- List Price: $39.99
[amazon-product]B004X8AIF2[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Cedar Rapids on Blu-ray+Digital Copy at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Film
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
–
The Film
[Rating:4/5]
A quirky comedy from director Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt; The Good Girl) on 20th Century Fox’s “indie” imprint Fox Searchlight, Cedar Rapids finds Ed Helms (The Hangover; TV’s The Office), normally known for his supporting roles, finally stepping into the spotlight to take the lead and doing a pretty decent job of it too. The story is of the naïve 34-year-old insurance salesman Tim Lippe (Helms) from small town Wisconsin who gets the big responsibility to go to the “big city” of Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a convention to represent his company and ensure they win the coveted “Two Diamond” award that will guarantee big business. This is no small task for a guy who’s hardly ventured out of his home town, much less out of his home state, is still a bit of a kid when it comes to his maturity level, and is having a fling with his former 7th grade teacher (Sigourney Weaver) whom he just gave a promise ring to.
From the moment Tim arrives in Cedar Rapids, however, his pie-eyed wonder and lack of emotional and worldly experience are immediately tested. Tim is thrust into sharing a room with two insurance salesman, one an “Afro-American” man, according to Tim’s own description, Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) meant to look out for him, and the other Dean Zeigler (John C. Reilly), a loud-talking, crude, hard drinker he was warned to keep away from. He also meets the attractive Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche) and is immediately smitten with the wild, but very married insurance saleswoman. As shy and timid as Tim is, trouble just can’t seem to stay away from him. He even ends up befriending a hooker (Alia Shawkat) and going on a drunken, drug-fueled bender after having his heart broken by his girlfriend back home, his Cedar Rapids fling Joan, and finding out the truth about why his company has really been so successful at winning that coveted award so many years in a row.
While Cedar Rapids is not uproariously funny it has a certain clever wit and sweet, mature charm that makes it rather enjoyable. It’s a pleasurable life-lessons, late coming of age story, if you will, filled with many strong performances, particularly those of Anne Heche and John C. Reilly.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Cedar Rapids was captured digitally in the HDCAM format and arrives on Blu-ray in a 1080p/24 AVC/MPEG-4 transfer. At times it really shows that it is a digitally sourced image, not looking very film-like at all. That may seem like an obvious statement, but there have been quite a number of HD productions that look darn close to film lately. This one, however, just seems a bit, blah. Colors look somewhat off and in darker scenes there is definite video noise that does not look anything like grain.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Nothing special here, just your run-of-the-mill lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack with little movement and low ambience in the surround channels. There is clean dialogue, however and a decent pan of sounds across the front.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
Cedar Rapids comes loaded with extras that include and abundance of behind-the-scenes featurettes that include many interviews with the film’s cast, and even a pretty funny “commercial” for the lead character Tim Lippe’s insurance firm.
The supplements provided with this release are:
- Deleted Scenes (1.78:1; 1080p/24):
- Dinner with Macy
- Song Dedication
- Cart Ride
- Fire Extinguisher Fight
- Goodbye to Bree
- Cabin Extras
- Gag Reel (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:04.17)
- Convention Connection (1.78:1; 1080p/24):
- Tim Lippe (0:01.54)
- Dean Ziegler (0:02.13)
- Ronald Wilkes (0:01.55)
- Joan Ostrowski-Fox (0:02.26)
- Bill Krogstad (0:01.20)
- Orin Helgesson (0:02.26)
- Bree (0:01.24)
- Mike O’Malley – Urban Clogger (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:02.55)
- Tweaking in the USA (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:06.13)
- Wedding Belles – Crashing a Lesbian Wedding (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:04.16)
- Top Notch Commercial (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 0:01.16)
- Theatrical Trailer (1.85:1; 108p/24)
- Fox Movie Channel Presents: Direct Effect – Miguel Arteta (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:06.37)
- Fox Movie Channel Presents: Writer’s Draft – Phil Johnston (1.33:1;480i/60; 06.48)
- Live Extras:
- Exclusive: Ed Helms – Mad Chopper Skills
- Digital Copy
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4/5]
A quirky heartfelt comedy for grownups, Cedar Rapids is well done all around, from the stellar cast to the witty dialogue. This one is a winner.
Additional Screen Captures
–
[amazon-product]B004X8AIF2[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Cedar Rapids on Blu-ray+Digital Copy at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Film
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
