- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit)
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: PG-13
- Run Time: 106 Mins.
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: Lionsgate
- Blu-ray Release Date: April 10, 2012
- List Price: $14.99
[amazon-product]B00709GTLI[/amazon-product]
Purchase Bounce on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
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:2/5]
While Gwyneth Paltrow (Contagion; TV’s Glee) puts on a valiant acting effort in the romantic drama Bounce, her co-star Ben Affleck’s lack of charisma spoils whatever possible on-screen chemistry there might have been, and a lukewarm script about loss, fate, and finding love plays more like paint-by-number cliché than anything that ever gets the blood pumping.
Buddy (Affleck) is a philandering advertising agent who while on a stopover in Chicago gives his First Class ticket to Greg Janello, (Tony Goldwyn) a struggling playwright who has been bumped, all so he can stay a bit longer and charm Mimi (Natasha Henstridge), a beautiful woman he just met at the airport. But when the flight Buddy was supposed to be on crashes, it affects him deeply. A downward spiral of nihilism and alcoholism that lands him rehab doesn’t end until he reaches out and finds Greg’s wife Abby (Paltrow) and her two sons to make sure they are alright. What Buddy doesn’t count on is falling in love with her. He manages to work his way into the widowed real estate agent’s life without her knowing that he is the man partially responsible for her husband’s death. Can or will their love survive should Abby ever find out?
Bounce barely skims the surface of the emotions involved in a situation like this, from its passing references to alcoholism to its nearly stalker-ish treatment of how Buddy endears himself to Abby, it misses on every count. It tries to be simultaneously thoughtful and lighthearted, but fails to be either. Needless to say that the two leads barely induce a spark in this “romance” either, making for a rather dull experience.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
I don’t know if this is a new master or not, but Bounce is one of the better Miramax/Lionsgate Blu-ray releases I have seen in a long while. There doesn’t appear to be any sort of edge enhancement, compression artifacts or other issues. The grain level is consistent and natural throughout and detail is rather strong. There’s nice texture in clothing and skin while colors look natural. There are some places where contrast looks to flatten out and overall gamma is just a little too high.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit) soundtrack that provides clean dialogue a spacious spread of sound across the front channels and a good balance of ambience and discrete sounds in the surrounds channels. Things do tend to go a bit silent at times in the surround channels and lows frequencies aren’t really very strong, but the mix is well done for the material at hand.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
As per usual with these Miramax releases the supplements are not new and are mostly in standard definition.
The supplements:
- Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Don Roos and Co-Producer Bobby Cohen
- Deleted Scenes with Commentary:
- Abby and Donna Talk About Buddy #1
- Abby Can’t Sleep
- Abby and Donna Talk About Buddy #2
- Picnic at Abby’s
- Buddy Tells Seth About Switching Tickets
- Miniature Golf
- Abby Watches Video with Mimi
- Seth Brings Buddy Tickets to Chicago
- Buddy in Chicago Before Trial
- Old Courtroom with Greg Flashback
- Abby and Scott Talk About Buddy
- Buddy with Seth and Adam
- Airport Scene #1
- Airport Scene #2
- “Need to Be Next to You” Music Video
- All About Bounce (1.33:1; 00:22:55)
- Ben and Gwyneth Go Behind the Scenes (1.33:1; 00:22:06)
- Gag Reel (1.33:1; 00:05:41)
- Selected Scenes and Audio Commentary with Director Don Roos and Actors Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:2.5/5]
Ben Affleck is just going through the motions while Gwyneth Paltrow tries to turn tap water into Evian in this faulty romance/drama from writer/director Ben Roos. The romance is timid and tepid at best and at worst nonexistent while the drama treads over cliché. Keep this one for a desperate last minute weekend date night rental.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B00709GTLI[/amazon-product]
Purchase Bounce on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
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