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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.78:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired, Commentary - English
  Extras
  • 2 Deleted scenes
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary
  • Cast/crew biographies
  • Featurette
  • Animated menus
  • Outtakes
  • Dolby Digital trailer

Two Weeks Notice

Roadshow Entertainment/Roadshow Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 97 mins . PG . PAL

  Feature
Contract

The past few years has seen Hugh Grant really spread his wings as an actor. No longer just the clumsy, pouty little puppy boy every woman wants to take home and mother (and do unspeakables with, which makes the whole mother thing decidedly icky when you think about it), the likes of Bridget Jones’s Diary and About a Boy saw him develop a delightfully wicked, caddish side – making him a wicked, caddish, clumsy, pouty little puppy boy every woman wants to take home and mother. Two Weeks Notice sees another landmark in his acting career – he manages to hover halfway between the two.

Meanwhile, Sandra Bullock has made a great career out of playing slightly boyish, ever-so-serious but rather klutzy chicks, be it in the likes of Murder By Numbers or Miss Congeniality. She’s at it again in Two Weeks Notice, which in many ways could be seen as a bit of a remix of Miss C. - the fact that it shares the same writer in Marc Lawrence (who becomes first time director here) possibly having something to do with it, not to mention than Ms Bullock also produced the two.

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Damn it can get cold in New York...

Anyway, herein Sandy becomes Lucy Kelson, a girl who seemingly took a BIG jump to the left while watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show when young and never left that spot. The child of two activist lawyer parents, she’s a Harvard graduate lawyer shying away from the big bucks in favour of working for the downtrodden - when not playing with her Greenpeace, whale-hugging boyfriend Ansel (actually, she doesn’t play with him as he’s never even seen) or laying down in front of destruction vehicles trying to save classic buildings. Meanwhile, Hugh becomes George Wade – a defiantly shallow, womanising bachelor (yes, divorced again) who lives in a hotel (but hey, in admirable Monopoly style he owns it, so no foul), a corporate real estate bigwig with money to burn and a penchant for bimbo female lawyers who pretty up his office, despite their lack of job smarts.

Naturally the two meet, when Lucy assails George in an attempt to save the Coney Island Community Centre from being smushed under a Wade Corporation condominium development. Discovering Lucy is a lawyer – and needing a chief counsel with grip – George proposes a deal. He’ll spare the Community Centre if Lucy works for him – and so the story is set. Months pass, with Lucy finding herself more of a nursemaid than legal aide - choosing ties for her hapless boss, suits, beds, even offering stationery advice, she’s eventually frustrated to the point of handing in her resignation, or, of course, her titular two weeks notice.

"George, I think you are the most selfish human being on the planet.”
“That’s just silly. Have you met everyone on the planet?"

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Duck Magnum, duck!

But quitting isn’t so easy, as George is well connected and naturally doesn’t want to lose his prize assistant. Eventually another deal is struck; Lucy will help find her successor in order to earn her own emancipation. Enter June Carver (Alicia Witt), shapely redhead and recent law graduate. She soon finagles her way into more than simply George’s spare office, and all of a sudden Lucy’s eyes go just a lottle bit greener…

And if you can’t guess the rest then you’ve either somehow managed to avoid ever seeing a romantic comedy in your life, or are just plain dumb. Sure, the reasonably paced Two Weeks Notice is as predictable as the pattern of sunrise/sunset, however it’s given that little extra something that makes it a good fun watch by the two leads in themselves, as well as the delightful chemistry they share when on-screen. There’s a strong argument which asks just why in hell does Lucy fall for somebody so diametrically opposed to pretty much every value she possesses, and who drives her to the brink of insanity with his complete lack of respect for her, however those of us who’ve been around a little bit will know that when it comes to matters involving that old cardio-vascular heart-shaped thingy, good sense and logic is the first to be sent packing to Siberia.

  Video
Contract

Let’s see now – it seems that the biggest fault with this is that the packaging claims we are in for a 2.35:1 ratio transfer, when in fact it appears in 1.78:1, cropped slightly from the cinematic 1.85:1. Perhaps somebody in the packaging department needs to get their mind on the job before a replacement is sought?

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It looks like a cosy little crib - we'll take it!

Still, as the subtext of that should indicate, otherwise the anamorphically enhanced transfer afforded Two Weeks Notice is pretty much spot on. Save for the odd touch of mild aliasing there’s basically nothing wrong with it, running the gamut of gritty New York colouring through to bright and sunny days in the park with aplomb, and offering fabulous shadow detail. In fact detail all round is good; grain isn’t an issue unless you’re really finicky about your stock footage and the layer change, which is placed mid-scene, skates by virtually undetected.

  Audio
Contract

As is pretty much expected nowadays, we’re given a chirpy enough Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack to play with. Never anything to particularly challenge the format, most sonic occurrences are firmly up front, with only brief noticeable usage of the rear channels for the usual stuff like adding a bit of atmosphere. The subwoofwoof scarcely raises a disinterested whimper, other than for one or two spot effects and to add slightly to the oomph-factor of the soundtrack.

As this is a film set in New York, it is a contractual condition that the soundtrack features some annoying mild noodle jazz, and as such the makers of this little baby deliver, via John Powell. Still, his work does veer off occasionally into slightly more interesting territories, even to the point of a plaintive little acoustic guitar number. Ah, but as this is a modern film soundtrack it is also a prerequisite that a marketable CD be assembled, so as such tracks from a varied bunch of people including Al Green, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Bachman Turner Overdrive, the vastly underrated Fountains of Wayne and Norah Jones - who actually appears in the film - are featured. Oh, this flick was also responsible for that horrendous hack job on Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi from Counting Crows.

  Extras
Contract

Quite standard, romantic comedy fare menus featuring slidey slides and a few video grabs from the film in a little round window lead to a neat little selection of bonus nibblies…

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I'm a peanut!

Audio Commentary: Director/writer Marc Lawrence is joined by his two lead stars (Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant, duh!) for what is a jaunty, chatty and quite fun little commentary. While a little bit of seriousness is touched upon – the odd Q&A, stuff about locations, actors, “cheaty plots” etc – most of the time is spent cataloguing such things as diseases suffered whilst shooting the film, making fun of Hugh’s accent, discussing muffins of many varieties and enduring Mr Grant’s croakiness, as this was apparently recorded the morning after the Golden Globes.

Featurette: Quite outrageously labelled as a “documentary”, this 13:04 chunk of vision is a typically fluffy EPK type of deal, featuring the three from the commentary summing up the plot with requisite big lumps of film accompanying, before we get into the “’s fabulous!” territory with the odd grab from some of the other cast and a little behind the scenes footage. In all it’s more disposable than a paper coffee machine.

Additional Scenes: Running for 6:33, only two scenes are included, so obviously they’re both reasonably lengthy (although one could have been 6:32 and the other just one second I guess, but let’s not go there). Basically there’s a wedding and a jog…

Bloopers: Or Two Bleeps Notice if you prefer, whereby 2:25 of your typical giggle fits, flubbed lines and naughty words is collated. Worth it to hear the intriguing phrase “wanky tit basket” muttered – we’ll let you guess who was responsible…

Cast and Crew: An utterly pointless ‘selected highlights’ type thing which only has selections for the two stars and the director, giving away this disc’s Warners origins.

Theatrical Trailer: With Dolby Digital stereo sound, and in the same (enhanced) ratio as the feature, this is 2:24 of one of those guys who does trailers, well, doing a trailer. It gives away a few of the funniest bits, but does include the odd scene that didn’t make it to the final cut.

Dolby Digital trailer: The soppy, wet one.

The only difference between this release extras-wise and the US edition is that the bloopers on the latter are reachable during the film when a little pink heart pops up on screen – hardly anything particularly worth missing.

  Overall  
Contract

Two Weeks Notice may never win anything in the way of awards for originality, but if you’re after a smooshy little romance with a few giggles when you’re feeling kind of marshmallowy then you could do a lot worse. There’s little to fault it in the technical department, and a few bonus goodies worth playing with once the credits have rolled.

Now, here puppy puppy!


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=2741
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      And I quote...
    "A smooshy little romance with a few giggles for when you’re feeling kind of marshmallowy..."
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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