More about this DVD  •  DVD Info  •  Movie Main Page  •  Message Board

Director Adam Shankman (who has more choreography credits under his belt) has worked with Disney to direct other non-threatening, comedic and financially successful fare such as Bringing Down the House and The Wedding Planner . Shankman follows Disney's direction and sticks rather close to the innocuous tone of the story written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. Director of photography, Peter James ( Diabolique, Meet the Parents ) does a serviceable job with photography, but his prior work was certainly more professional. One noticeable bad shot is after the principal gives Wolfe some coffee. Watch how she stands over her desk and almost falls out of the awkward frame to the right - the sloppy shot is cockeyed for no reason. But most scenes are better balanced and look fine, though. The film has a nice pace from editor Christopher Greenbury, though the John Debney's nice score doesn't surface too much.

Despite this film's poor critical reviews with much of the script just a quick set up for the situation comedy between the kids and Diesel, it has its entertaining moments. Regardless of my reservations I did kind of fall under its spell. The actors are quite good, and there are a few touching scenes. While Diesel always sounds like he's talking through a killer sinus infection, though Diesel makes sure he annunciates well, he is obviously refusing to be pegged as a mono-voiced action dolt with the stoic face. So it's cool to see him allowed to loosen up a bit here in a more ordinary, suburban environment. Better yet, is the fact that Diesel really has the tone correct for Wolfe acting rather naturally and not going over the top; I was impressed with that the most. Brittany Snow ( American Dreams ) plays the eldest daughter, Zoe, and notwithstanding her striking beauty, Snow definitely shows some acting chops near the end in a sweet (but predictable?) scene with Diesel. Max Thieriot ( Catch That Kid ) plays the second eldest brother and is sincere and has some presence, but really needs to vary the emotions of his reactive moments. Lauren Graham ( Gilmore Girls ) is quite good and attractive with some potentially interesting (but underdeveloped) chemistry with Diesel, but her speech can be too fast. Talented Brad Garrett ( Everybody Loves Raymond ) plays the assistant vice principal with a bizarre chip on his shoulder and Garrett chews the scenes with vicious aplomb. But let's face the fact that Garrett's extended screen time begins to slow the plot. It's always a pleasure to see Carol Kane with her ghostly face and strong intent, too bad that like Garrett, she's over the top here including over-annunciating a European accent (sigh) – less would have been more. The rest of the cast does a very nice job including the radiant Faith Ford, a thinner Chris Potter and newcomer Morgan York whom is a fine, promising young actress with great eyes.

Despite a few original jokes and quirks which were fun in the moment as well as two little interesting plot twists, overall, thematic cliché's abound which certainly brings to mind Kindergarten Cop and a hodgepodge of past comedies ideas . Roger Ebert was right when he noted about this film that comedy's difficult to do when the actors don't have a lot of funny things to do. The film was a hit raking in over $100 million, so more than a few people enjoyed it. But while some scenes don't feel very inspired, believe it or not, the film still remains pleasant to watch, has relatively good plot structure for what it is, but most of the credit for the entertainment might need to fall upon the strong performances on screen.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

This film is presented in its 2.35:1 widescreen ratio in Anamorphic video. This transfer looks terrific. While a mite warm, the colors are fully saturated and very pleasing. Fleshtones appear natural, though rarely falling into the slightly orange zone, though it appears that the set lighting tries to smooth out facial lines on the over-20 year old actors. Blacks are rich and the shadow detail of small objects is quite good given the particular focus and set up of the scene. Evening scenes are fairly crisp, though a few shots can appear slightly faded. Grain, however, remains in good, tight shape through all of the scenes. Edge halos were nearly nonexistent, and compression problems never occurred. On the rarest occasion, I did notice a black spec or two from artifacts out of the blue. Overall, this is a strong transfer that will look quite fine in home theater. Please avoid purchasing the full screen version.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The audio is in 5.1 Dolby Digital. The audio is well produced with nice attention to the dialogue, which can be difficult to record. As usual, the music by John Debney maximizes the most out of the dynamic range in the audio mix with some decent attention to instrumentation. Effects are nicely utilized, though they curiously do not have a strong frequency range, but that was ok. Surrounds mostly utilize the score and a gentle ambiance at times. And while a few effects showed some separation from the rears, audio was not too discreet. The .1 LFE was subtle and sensitive, all the while never becoming too dramatic. While I thought this mix could have afforded more aggression, it still sounds fine and shouldn't find too many complaints.

A 5.1 French Dolby Digital audio track is another option. English closed captions are included as well as English and French subtitles.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Supplements provide a long list, but are shifty in their impact usually because of short runtimes.

First up are Bloopers…on Full Alert running 2:30. Sadly, there aren't very many great bloopers in this mix, but a few. They come at you fast and furious (no pun intended) so they remain a bit interesting. Next is Hilarious Deleted Scenes running 2:40. These include five scenes: 1) Shane and Gary, 2) “Ribbit” 3) Kickball 4) Wrestling Practice 5) Speed Trap. They are all a bit interesting, but not really hilarious: As with deleted scenes from other films, one can understand why these were dropped. Though I thought Speed Trap would have worked, but director Adam Shankman was trying to keep the film around 90 minutes mark per his orders from Disney.

We also have a screen-specific audio commentary with director Adam Shankman and writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. While the film may have received poor critical reviews, Shankman is frequently sarcastic throughout the first half of the film, and it's irritating to such a mild film. Perhaps he's trying to beat people to the punch of further criticism, who knows? For instance, when Diesel walks down the stairs in a towel, Shankman says, “That's [Vin Diesel's] all CGI, we used a cartoon, then added the head…”[blah blah blah]. Stupid. The tentative writers behave like second fiddles, and it's a shame that the filmmakers didn't have more of a thoughtful time with the commentary, despite the merits of the film. However, Shankman does have an eye for detail when he gets into some particulars, and there's no denying his talent. And it's interesting to note a ton of scenes that were cut (though didn't make it onto the deleted scenes feature here). The fact that the film was originally written for Jackie Chan as Shane Wolfe was also interesting. During the last half of the film, the trio becomes more interesting about the technical trivia of making the film with less sarcasm. Overall, this is a decent commentary with new things to learn about the film.

On the Set with Mr. Diesel: Action Hero/ Nice Guy running 2:38 . Most of these shots are behind the scenes with Diesel holding, feeding, and goofing around with the young ones and clearly enjoying them. Others from the cast note Diesel's genuine enjoyment. Diesel fans should enjoy this little featurette.

Brad Garrett: Unpacified is the next featurette running 4:00. Mr. Garrett utilizes the time to make wise cracks throughout this including some self-depreciating humor and fans of him will get a kick out of this. Some behind the scenes shots are also included with Garrett hamming it up.

Special Ops TV Commercials includes five different commercials for the film each with a different title: 1) Quacking Up 2) In a Sticky Jam 3) Duck & Cover 4) Who's the Dumbbell 5) X-Treme Pushups. Then there are trailers for other films including Chicken Little, Ice Princess, The Chronicles of Narnia, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, According to Jim, Aliens of the Deep, and Halloween Town Movies.

Also included are a few online games at Disney's website for the movie here .

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

No DVD-Rom features are included on this DVD.