Dude, Where's My Car? on Blu-ray Disc Review
By Brandon A. DuHamel
The Film
When two stoner buddies (Ashton Kutcher of TV's "That 70's Show" and Seann William Scott of
American Pie fame) wake up and can't remember a thing about what happened the night before, find they have a kitchen full of chocolate pudding, and discover their car is missing, they must retrace their steps to jog their memories and locate their "ride." Along the way they discover they also need to find a briefcase filled with $200,000 in cash that they owe to a transsexual stripper who is chasing them. They also find that aliens and a group of alien chasing geeks are after them because they are in possession of a device called the Continuum Transfunctioner, which is capable of destroying the entire universe!
Thus is the absurdity that is
Dude. Billed as "wildly hilarious", the movie doesn't even come close to living up to that label. It may offer a few chuckles here and there, with some very forced and boorish gags, like alien jewelry that causes the "dudes'" girlfriend's breasts to grow bigger but it never even comes close to the best "stoner" films (if best is the word) like
Dazed and Confused or anything from the early days of Cheech and Chong.
If the film had not been saddled with the entire alien subplot, it may have been more palatable, but, alas,
Dude, Where's My Car? veers off into such cartoonish insanity, that it's nearly impossible to sit through save for the occasional laugh that some of the gags induce. Whoever thought that a film so utterly stupid was funny needs to be checked for brain damage. Comedy is more than just stupidity and absurdity, but in the end that is all that
Dude can muster up.
The Picture
The 1080p/24 MPEG-2 video transfer of
Dude in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 does not offer much dazzle in the area of picture quality. As is typical for a comedy of this sort, the overall look of the film is straightforward, going for a more realistic than stylistic approach. Detail is good, if slightly soft, but black levels fluctuate from time to time, with shadows sometimes looking more grey than black. Colors are flat, with no pop, and somewhat washed out. The source itself shows a few instances of wear, which could have been cleaned up, but this is, thankfully, limited. Overall, this is just an average transfer that won't be much of a reference but certainly offers much greater picture quality than the available DVD release and what you were likely to have seen in the theatre nearly eight years ago.
The Sound
Dude, Where's My Car? comes with three surround audio options, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless, as well as French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks. Limited to hearing the high bitrate (1.5Mbps) core DTS track embedded in the DTS-HD Master Audio codec while I await a new player that will allow me to bitstream and decode DTS-HD MA, I found there to be nothing exceptional about this mix whatsoever.
Dialogue, firmly weighted down to the center channel, was a bit muffled, and sounded quite harsh during louder scenes. The surround channels were used for the slightest bit of ambient sound effects such as some traffic noise, etc. and there was not much activity in the lower frequencies to speak of. In all, it is a typical mix for this genre of films, but still quite bland and poorly done nonetheless.
The Extras
Fox has kept this release barebones offering no extras but the original theatrical trailer for
Dude, Where's My Car? (2.35:1/high definition).
Final Thoughts
If you feel the need to kill a few brain cells on a Saturday night and to drop your IQ down a few notches while getting a few chuckles along the way, then
Dude, Where's My Car? is the perfect "popcorn" movie for you to rent -- just don't expect to be awed by the picture or sound quality on this release.
Where to Buy
Product Details
- Actors: Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott, Jennifer Garner, Marla Sokoloff
- Director: Danny Leiner
- Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Audio/Languages: English DTS-HD Master Audio lossless 5.1, French & Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: Cantonese, English, Korean, Spanish
- Region: A
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rating: PG-13
- Studio: 20th Century Fox
- Blu-ray Disc Release Date: August 26, 2008
- Run Time: 83 minutes
- List Price: $39.98
- Extras:
- Original Theatrical Trailer
