David Peters’s blog

Everybody of the more formula movies I’ve seen in positively a while, The Bachelor tells the all too familiar story of the mayhem and destruction created by the demise of a flush and irregular man and the conditions he puts in his inclination for his heirs to inherit his riches. The schnook in this case is his grandson played by Chris O’ Donnell - the imminent bachelor and the condition is that he arrest married by his thirtieth birthday, at most days away.

The Bachelor is an uneven mix of romantic comedy and comedic sketch like scenes with little “glue” to hold them together. There are some real nice moments between Chris O’Donnell and Renee Zellweger but unfortunately they are quite few and far between. Many of the film’s scenes felt contrived and it felt like much of the movie was written only to set up a scene where Chris O’Donnell is chased through the streets of San Francisco by a sea of women in wedding gowns. One of the real poor aspects of the film is Marco, The Bachelor’s buddy, played just terribly by Artie Lange. It really brought the film down a notch.

Picture
Despite the quality of the film, the picture on The Bachelor is simply fantastic. New Line Cinema always does a great job with its film transfers and The Bachelor is no exception. The transfer is as pristine as it gets with deep rich colors and a film-like image. When I got bored with the film I just stopped a moment to look at this fantastic transfer.

Audio
A good strong audio track. As with many comedys the film’s sound track doesn’t really push the dialogue of 5.1, but the dialogue was clear and crisp and the film was mixed well to provide a good home theater viewing experience.

Extras
The DVD is as bare as it gets, with only Talent Files and the film’s theatrical trailer, which was fine for a film like this that really doesn’t warrant special features.

Conclusion
I’m very happy to see New Line’s continued commitment to producing excellent DVD’s even if the movie on them isn’t excellent. They did a great job of bringing the theater experience home and for that they should be commended. Unfortunately, The Bachelor is so formulaic and contrived it’s really hard to recommend it, but if you’re looking for a very light movie to watch with a sweetheart or something to just take your mind off of anything relevant, The Bachelor might be one to consider renting.

Agree? Disagree? You can post your thoughts about this review on the DVD Talk forums. Other Reviews:

• Aaron Beierle
  

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