No Strings Attached (2011) | Blu-ray Review

By thisguyoverhere | May 10, 2011

No Strings Attached (2011) | Blu-ray Cast: Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline
Directed by: Ivan Reitman
Written by: Elizabeth Meriwether
Genre: Comedy, Romance

Rating:
Video: ★★★★★
Audio: ★★★★★
Extras: ★★★★★
Value: ★★★★★

Review:

Video: ★★★★★
It’s neither extraordinary nor of poor quality. It faithfully presents the image quality with dignity, keeping the colors and whites very vibrant and chipper. The blacks also have a lot of girth, pinning the image firmly to the screen. It’s properly clean, though doesn’t seem to have quite as much detail as it could. This, however, is probably due to the format Reitman chose to shoot in, and not a problem in the high definition presentation. Overall, it has fairly strong quality.

Presented in 1080p widescreen 2.40:1 format.

Audio: ★★★★★
The soundtrack to No Strings Attached is focused mainly on dialogue and interstitial pop songs. The mix is fairly solid delivering consistent volume and clear sound without any hiss, pops, or dropouts. Viewers more than likely won’t even notice the audio track, which is the best compliment that can be paid.

English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1

Extras: ★★★★★
I’m surprised at the amount of features provided here. There are some pretty hefty production featurettes, and a pretty in-depth commentary by the director. The production value that has been squeezed out of this disc is quite admirable.

Audio Commentary with Ivan Reitman
Director Ivan Reitman gives us his thoughts on bringing No Strings Attached to life. He discusses his collaboration process with writer Elizabeth Meriwether, and working with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. Most of this commentary revolves around Reitman’s attempt to make things work. It’s sometimes insightful, sometimes entertaining, and most of the time pretty standard.

Sex Friends: Getting Together (HD, 20:46)
This very in-depth featurette intertwines interviews with all of the key players in the making of the film from Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Ivan Reitman, writer Elizabeth Meriwether, Kevin Kline, Greta Gerwig, and literally the rest of the cast. The focus is given to creating the characters and casting the film.

Inside the Sassy Halls of Secret High (HD, 11:22)
A eye is shed on the musical television show that provides one of the backdrops of the film. Interviews with the choreographers and other crew members.

Modern Love: The Dos and Don’ts (HD, 08:47)
Cast and crew members reflect on the mentality of modern dating.

Deleted Scenes (HD, 11:04)
This collection of scenes sometimes provides additional laughs, but for the most part they would have slowed the film down, and in a few instances the moments simply don’t work.

Alternate Storyline Scenes (HD, 03:44)
What didn’t make it into the final version of the film, is this alternate ending storyline that doesn’t quite work and slows the ending of the film down. It’s an interesting look at how sometimes things can be simplified at the last minute and be more effective.

BD Live Enabled

Value: ★★★★★
There is a lot to love here as far as disc releases go. A very solid video and audio presentation is strengthened by a surprising amount of special features. Fans of the film will surely not be disappointed by what is offered here.

Will There Be A Double Dip?
Not likely. No Strings Attached was only a moderate success and Paramount has done it justice out of the gate. In the future there may be a scaled down version when the Digital Copy expires, but this will surely be the best release this film will earn. Purchase happily.