Customer Reviews

Sideways [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Film

What a great film. Sideways is one of the few movies based on a book that improves a good deal over its source material. And it is absolutely hilarious. The reason I like Sideways, for better or for worse, is I know both Jack and Miles too well. At one time or another, I've walked in both of their shoes. Alexander Payne reaches a zenith of sorts with his quiet eccentric style. The film blends friendship, the road trip and a party flick. The wine provides an interesting tenor to boot. Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church are completely irreplaceable in their respective roles. They're sort of cosmopolitan R2D2 and C3P0 roadies.

The Blu-Ray

There's been a lot of complaints over perceived Blu-Ray quality over the standard DVD. I can tell you, the Blu-Ray is better. On a large 1080p screen, there is a noticeable difference. Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael created a unique look for the visuals to give the film a signature feel. All those smudgy light plumes, and glowing highlights come from diffusion and slight overexposure folks, maybe even a shot of digital grading to punch the highlights. None of those things lend themselves to the sharpest end products - the end product is a vintage style soft image. The Blu-Ray IS indeed better. There is no way i would choose the DVD over this. If you don't have a big enough 1080p screen for it to matter, however, the DVD will probably suffice. But come on, at $10 for the BD, why choose the DVD?

Great movie, which I had in DVD. Bought this as BluRay version, but was very disappointed about the very small image improvement over DVD quality.

First and foremost; I want everybody to know that I absolutely love the movie "Sideways." That being said, do not waste your money on the Blu-ray edition of this particular film. When I dropped the cash for Sideways Blu-ray edition I was expecting to see sharp, crisp, and beautiful scenes of the Southern California vineyards as well as better sound quality. I didn't get either. What I got instead was a lesson that "NOT" all Blu-ray DVD's are created equal. There is absolutely "ZERO" difference between my standard DVD version and the Blu-ray version of the movie.

If I had to guess, it may very well go all the way back to the film equipment that was used to film the movie on set and location. Lesson learned for me :-)

What a great film. These people seem real. The story is interesting and funny. Yes, occasionally the movie tiptoes over the line into "sit-com" territory, but it's written so well and funny you don't mind. The acting is great across the board, the writing superb. As with any blu-ray, the picture is improved on blu-ray. If you're a fan you will appreciate the update. Virginia Madsen is particularily wonderful, and her dialogue about why she got into wine is some of the best acting you will ever see. I was hypnotized. I love this film and the blu-ray is worth the upgrade.

The film itself is great! I don't often purchase movies, but it was an easy decision to add "Sideways" to my collection. However, the case itself was broken in two different places. Not a huge deal, and the movie seems to play fine, but it was disappointing to receive a damaged case.

I really enjoyed this film. The characters were down to earth people like you would meet every day. I love the characters in this show, the way they stick their nose in the glass, look at the color, sip a little then spit it out. I laughed all the way through this film, great acting, and story.

This has become one of my all-time favourite films. I have caught myself watching it a couple of times a year on DVD since I saw it theatrically and even bought Rolfe Kent's superb soundtrack to liven up my Cheval Blanc and hamburgers too. The self-deprecating commentary track alone is worth the price of the disc. It's just like listening to Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church in the film - it must be the funniest and most entertaining commentary track I've heard in years. The transfer is identical to the theatrical experience; the whole film is shot with a soft filter in front of the lens, but the film grain is visible and there is none of that digital noise reduction nonsense. The audio is pretty similar to the DVD, which was very good. I suppose Fox could've thrown in a theatrical trailer but they've ported over the deleted scenes and rather vapid featurette from the DVD. The film was such a low profile, low budget production; I don't think the producers thought to make more extensive supplements for posterity. I wish they had made a documentary about the Californian wine district! The disc is region free, by the way.

2004's "little film that could", following "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Lost In Translation". A film whose subtle touches, scenes and words stay with you long after you've left the theater. A few serious plot holes in the second half can't cancel out the writing, acting and "I-know-someone-just-like-that (and sometimes it's me)" realism of so many of the situations and characters' reactions to them.

The location shooting (almost all the wineries and restaurants are referred to by their real names; the Windmill Inn, which in real life is a Days Inn, is one of the few exceptions) adds to both the realism and the "indie" feel of the film. Likewise the writers' knowledge of wine is extensive - though it's odd that Miles would shout "I'm NOT drinking any EFFING Merlot" when his most prized bottle, a 1961 Cheval Blanc Bordeaux, is 40% Merlot.

Obviously the most discussed scene concerns the gorgeous metaphors exchanged by Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Maya (Virginia Madsen) on Stephanie's back porch. Absolutely nobody in the theater exhaled until the cutaway of Miles cursing himself in the bathroom. Here's hoping the Academy will use a strategically-placed bleep to permit what one wit on IMDB called "The Virginia Monologue" to be shown in its entirety when they acknowledge Madsen's nomination. Some here have protested that "people don't really talk like that", but Maya has an impressive academic resume (a professor's ex-wife who's taking post-graduate courses), and who among us hasn't used a nice buzz as an excuse to make profound pronouncements? (Nobody really says things like "the problems of three people don't amount to a hill of beans in this world" either....)

The plot holes (spoilers):

- Jack *had* to know that it was Miles who spilled the beans about the wedding.

- Jack's confessional about really loving Christine. If it was on the level, it runs totally counter to the scenes where he raves about Stephanie and considers calling off the wedding. If it was a put-on (remember, Jack's an ACTOR), then the audience was never given the "wink" to let us in on the scam.

- Miles is built up as the ultimate "loyal friend" with a sense of duty, yet as Best Man he abandons the wedding before the reception where he has the obligation to make the toast. This is not only completely out of character, it squanders the tragi-comic possibilities of the reception (Miles + Jack + pregnant ex-wife + alcohol...).

But again, the thoughtfulness and performances overcome these annoyances. It's also interesting that a film set entirely in California is so non-Hollywood: the lead is a balding overweight alcoholic with a blanket of back hair, there are no CGI effects, the one car crash goes "wrong", and even though there's a lot of sex, neither female lead has a gratuitious topless shot (and trust me, NOBODY is going to do a screen capture of the film's one frontal nudity scene!).

This is, far and away, my favorite movie of all time. The first time I saw it, I watched it 3 times back to back. The Blu-Ray release, while not stunning, is definitely worth buying. A few notes, however:

The video quality really is about on par with the DVD release. I'm willing to bet that this was due to the equipment that this was originally filmed with. This is an independent movie filmed on a relatively small budget, so the quality is about as good as it's likely to get.

But, the commentary is fantastic and well worth the price. And the price, for a Blu Ray disc, is definitely right. Good luck finding another movie, let alone a good one, on Blu Ray, for about $10.

I shouldn't have liked this movie, yet somehow I did. I normally would think this kind of movie is really stupid, and yet, this one seems to somehow evade being stupid. It shouldn't have been funny, and yet I found myself laughing. This movie really snuck up on me, and I can't quite figure out why. But there it is, its a pretty good film that I enjoyed in spite of myself (but please don't tell anyone).