Blu-Ray/Movie Review: 13 Going on 30

 

13 Going on 30 is a 2004 romantic comedy directed by Gary Winick and starring Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer, and Andy Serkis. The supporting cast includes Christa B. Allen, Alexandra Kyle, Sean Marquette, Kathy Baker, Renee Olstead, Samuel Ball, Phil Reeves, and Marcia DeBonis. It also includes Jim Gaffigan, Kiersten Warren, Brie Larson, and Ashley Benson in very minor bit parts. It starts in 1987 with a girl named Jenna Rink (Allen) turning 13. She is a nerdy kid whose best friend is her next-door neighbor Matt (Marquette), who is also nerdy and has a huge crush on Jenna. She desperately wants to be part of the popular group of girls at her school, nicknamed The Six Chicks, led by the most popular girl, Lucy/"Tom-Tom" (Kyle). Jenna ends up wishing that she were "thirty, flirty, and thriving" and, through the magic of movies, wakes up in 2004 as a 30-year-old (played by Garner) in New York City. The last thing she remembers is being humiliated by the Six Chicks at her birthday party, with no memory of the intervening 17 years. She ends up tracking down Matt (played by Ruffalo) and enlists his help to figure out what happened, discovering that she does not like who she ultimately grew up to be.

The Blu-Ray is a single-disc release. The A/V quality is very good, with an outstanding HD video transfer and very good 5.1 channel audio transfer. The bonus content includes two commentary tracks on the film: a director's commentary by Winick and a producer's commentary by two of the film's producers, Gina Matthews and Susan Arnold. Then there are just under a half hour's worth of deleted scenees, a couple of making-of featurettes, a featurette on 80s fashion, a featurette in which the cast members discuss their awkward teenage years, and two music videos (Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" and Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl," both of which are featured in the movie). Finally, there are trailers for three other films, but not the trailer for 13 Going on 30 itself. 

The movie is a fun and pretty innocent romantic comedy. It is to millennials what the movie "Big" was to Gen-Xers. The best way I can describe the movie is that it is what you would get if you mixed Big with the other huge 2004 comedy, "Mean Girls." Garner, who was still in her run as a TV action star playing Sidney Bristow on Alias, proved that she has great comedic acting skills. She totally made you buy that she was a clueless and innocent 13-year-old in the body of a smoking hot 30-year-old. Greer (who plays the adult version of Lucy) was great in her role, and Ruffalo was perfect for the part of the adult version of Matt. It is not a raunchy comedy by any means; there are some sex jokes and a couple of swear words thrown in, but it is definitely appropriate for a PG-13 audience, and can be enjoyed by adults (especially those who were in middle school or high school in the late 80s/early 90s). There are several laugh-out-loud moments, and the film features a wonderful 1980s soundtrack. While parts of it are a bit corny, it does hold up well even after 20-plus years. It is absolutely worth watching. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Peppermint

 

Peppermint is a 2018 action/thriller starring Jennifer Garner. It is much like The Punisher with a female lead. In the film, a woman named Riley North (played by Jennifer Garner) sees her husband and daughter gunned down in a drive-by shooting by members of a drug gang. When the killers are let off because of corrupt cops, lawyers, and a corrupt judge, Riley takes matters into her own hands to get revenge on everyone. The movie sees Garner return to the action roots she displayed in Alias, and despite being older, it does not look like she has lost a step at all.

For those who get the Blu-ray disc, the movie looks and sounds great in HD. It is a shame that it was not released in 4k UHD (at least not initially) because there are a lot of great visuals despite it not being a special-effects-laden sci-fi movie. The bonus material is kind of pathetic. It consists of a two-and-a-half-minute behind-the-scenes featurette and a commentary track by the director. The movie is not exactly novel or unique. Even though it is a pretty standard revenge story and kind of predictable in parts, it is well done and timed very well (just over an hour and a half), so it does not lag or feel like it drags on too long. If you are a fan of Garner and looking for a good action movie, it is definitely worth checking out.

DVD/TV Series Review: Alias: Seasons 1-5

 

+++Warning, this contains some spoilers from throughout the series.+++

This is the complete series of Alias which ran from 2001 to 2006 and starred Jennifer Garner, Michael Vartan, Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin, Kevin Weisman, Greg Grunberg, Carl Lumby, and David Anders. In the early seasons, it also starred Merrin Dungey,  Bradley Cooper, and Sarah Shahi, and in later seasons, Lena Olin, Melissa George, Rachel Nichols, and Mia Maestro.  Alias was a great concept that got a little weird when it started to focus on the Rambaldi storyline. The first few seasons where the Rambaldi storyline was merely in the background and would be advanced in one or two episodes each season were great. Once it became the focus and the supernatural elements got more and more silly, the show definitely took a downturn. 

The crux of the storyline in the first season is that Jennifer Garner's character, Sydney Bristow, believed that she was working for the CIA (which she could not reveal to anyone), while she was really working for a shadow organization run by criminals. When the organization discovered that she told her fiancee that she worked for the CIA and he was killed by the organization she discovered who she was really working for and what she was really involved in. From there the show focuses on her life as a double agent and her attempts to bring down the rogue spy agency/criminal organization.

Where Alias really shined was character development and perfect casting. Every character that was around for a significant amount of time changed from the time they were first introduced. And of course, Alias was a world where being dead did not always mean staying dead. I think the best storyline of the series was the time jump and the way it was done. Sydney having lost two years with no memory, then finding out exactly how and why her memory was erased was a great payoff. Especially when that is the kind of story that often falls flat at the big reveal.

The one drawback to the series as I said before is by the end the entire focus was on the Rambaldi storyline, and making the whole supernatural/eternal life storyline. It really did change the feel of the show, and while it did provide a good explanation for Sloane's motivation from the beginning, I think it did better when those parts of the storyline were in a few episodes of the season as opposed to the focus of the season. Overall though if you are looking for a show that combines action, comedy, great acting, and a unique take on the spy world (plus the bonus of Jennifer Garner in skimpy outfits on a pretty consistent basis) this is a good one.