REVIEW: Just Friends arrives on Blu-ray
In high school, Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) was a shy, overweight teen with a crush on the beautiful Jennifer Palamino (Amy Smart). Unfortunately, Jamie thought of the good-natured Chris as "just a friend". Fast forward ten years, Chris is a suave, fit and successful music executive visiting home and looking for a little payback. Love has other plans for him, though, as he attempts to woo Jamie once again, while all the while trying to distract the dizzy pop-diva client (Anna Faris) he has in tow and a rival suitor (Chris Klein). Soon enough, Chris finds that romancing Jamie hasn't gotten any easier in this outrageous comedy of errors!
This film is very 2005 and reminiscent of the comedies we grew up on in the early 2000’s - man were we blessed back then!
Warner Archive gave this film the ultimate blu-ray treatment that it deserves.
The film back in its original release wasn’t quite a smash hit, but has since built a cult following over the years.
As the film is 20 years old this year - the film never got a true Blu-ray release until Warner Archive gave it the blu treatment this spring.
With the film being not that old and having a good HD encoding from back then - makes sense no restoration work was needed from back then and they were able to place the HD master onto Blu-ray. The HD masters from that time were pretty peak and looks fantastic! Compared to DVD - this obvious the far superior upgrade.
The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is fantastic and really takes us back in time with its soundtrack. I enjoyed the mix and blend of soundtrack, score, dialogue and effects - all shining through clearly in this new 5.1 mix. Not sure if this mix was done for back then as the dvd had a Dolby Audio mix, but hey, I didn’t need to update my volume throughout - which you know makes me angry on these DTS mixes. So hats off to Warner Archive for finding this creative mix as an element to include on the Blu-ray.
Speaking of elements - ported over is a hysterical audio commentary with the filmmakers and like 11 BTS featurettes, “Jamie Smiles” and “Samantha James” Music Videos, Gag Reel, plus the original trailer are all included with this BD release—
All in all, an enjoyable release from Warner Archive - Thank You George for always making movie magic physically come alive!