The blurb on the front cover reads “smart and sexy”, and, sure, I’ll buy that. Elizabeth Meriwether’s screenplay dishes out a bunch of clever tweaks to the standard issue https://www.besthookupwebsites.org/bondage-com-review/ romantic comedy formula, and she doesn’t really go for easy, lazy laughs. It’s definitely an appreciated change of pace to see humor more heavily oriented around dialogue and characterization rather than the usual pratfalls and bug-eyed spit takes. The downside is that it’s one of those movies where I’ll crack a grin or think “oh, that’s pretty good”, but never really laugh. I really like the approach to the comedy here, but I wish some of it had connected a little more sharply. I’m not anywhere near as over the moon about No Strings Attached the way I was with (500) Days of Summer — my single favorite movie of 2009, for anyone keeping track at home — but other than that, I can’t think of the last time I watched an out-and-out romantic comedy I liked anywhere near as much as this. I’m sure a lot of you out there were cringing at the trailers the same as I was, but don’t let that throw you off. I was pleasantly surprised by No Strings Attached, and. hey! Maybe you will be too. I’m a little iffy about which rating to give since I don’t want to oversell a very-good-but-not-exactly-great romantic comedy, but. eh, I’ll be nice and go with a Highly Recommended score anyway.
I can’t dig up anything at all to grouse about here
Video C’mon, No Strings Attached is a glossy, big-budget studio romantic comedy — of course it looks great. The scope image is ridiculously sharp and detailed, contrast is rock solid, and the bright, candy-colored palette leaps clear off the screen. Run through the long list of stuff that reviews usually gripe about — excessive noise reduction, edge enhancement, compression artifacting, and all that — and No Strings Attached steers clear of all of ’em. this is just such a pretty, pretty movie.
There are a bunch of people out there who insist that romantic comedies don’t benefit all that much from a high-def spit-and-polish, and here are some comparison shots to show how wrong that crowd is. Kinda goes without saying that you’ll need to click on these thumbnails and blow ’em up to full size to appreciate the difference:
The AVC encode for No Strings Attached spans both layers of this BD-50 disc, and the image is letterboxed to an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The second disc in the set is a DVD-slash-digital copy, and it dishes out the movie in anamorphic widescreen.
Audio Nothin’ but nice things to say about the way No Strings Attached sounds on Blu-ray either. This disc sports six-channel, 24-bit DTS-HD Master Audio, and it’s exactly what you’d hope to hear. The surrounds are kept busy fleshing out a really convincing sense of atmosphere. All of the dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly, and it’s never overwhelmed in the mix. Is it some smolderingly intense aural experience, teeming with hyperaggressive split-surrounds or whatever? No, but that’s not so much the type of movie it is either. The sound design throughout No Strings Attached complements the material very well, and it’s at least a notch or two above average for a romantic comedy.
The low-end is tight and punchy — mostly for music, like that bluegrass cover of “99 Problems”, but the subwoofer reinforces effects like a slammed door really well too
Also included are Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs in French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and there’s even a Descriptive Video Service track for good measure. Meanwhile, subtitles are served up in English (traditional and SDH) , French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
