DVD:
Blu-ray:

Cert:

Running time: 100 minutes

Cat no: Z1 Y22397

Year: 2008

Pressing: April 2009

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 25 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Languages: English

Subtitles: English for hearing impaired

Widescreen: 2.35:1

16:9-Enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99 (DVD); £27.99 (Blu-ray)

Extras: Downtime on the set of Yes Man, Jim Carrey: Extreme Yes Man, Future Sounds: Munchausen By Proxy Ep.#TK421, Munchausen By Proxy Music Videos, Gag Reel

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Director:

Peyton Reed (The Break-Up, Bring It On, Down with Love, Yes Man, TV: Back to the Future, Grosse Pointe)

Producers:

David Heyman and Richard D Zanuck

Screenplay:

Nicholas Stoller, Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel

Original Score :

Mark Oliver Everett and Lyle Workman

Cast :

Carl Allen: Jim Carrey
Allison: Zooey Deschanel
Peter: Bradley Cooper
Nick: John Michael Higgins
Norman: Rhys Darby
Rooney: Danny Masterson
Tillie: Fionnula Flanagan
Terrence Bundley: Terence Stamp
Lucy Barnes: Sasha Alexander
Stephanie: Molly Sims
Homeless Guy: Brent Briscoe
Wes: Rocky Carroll

Jim Carrey is Carl Allen, a man who likes to say no. and he'll avoid anything to commit and say 'yes'. As such, he ends up missing out everything in life such as hanging out with friends, especially when it's to somewhere frequented by his ex, Stephanie (Molly Sims).

Before long, he's invited by his friend, Nick (John Michael Higgins), to attend one of those 'inspirational' seminars - which are generally ones that just try to prise you apart from your wallet and buy their dodgy wares - hosted by 'Yes' man Terrence Bundley (Terrence Stamp in fine form), and stop missing out on everything in life.

As such he ends up giving a lift to a tramp, and 'lending' him some money. After running out of petrol and walking a long way for more, he meets motorbiker Allison (the gorgeous Zooey Deschanel), who helps reinvigate his lust for life. He also gets into a fight in a bar and a romantic liaison with the really wrong person! And if he says no... things get beyond worse.

Yes Man makes good use of Carrey's rubber features and makes for an interesting philosophy, and it also shows how it can start to grate if you say yes to too many things - and this look of disdain shows in Carl's face. Overall, it does start to get far too much on the mad side as events go on, particularly when he's trying to talk a man down from jumping off the ledge of a building.

That said, most of the time it's got a Ferris Bueller-feel about it, in as much as "The question isn't what are we going to do, but what *aren't* we going to do".

Yes Man is a movie that certainly wouldn't have worked without Jim Carrey, but it's a fairly thin story idea behind that as it doesn't offer any credible or explanation to the reasoning behind it. At this point I'll also mention that, while what's on view is certainly worth a look, I have a passionate dislike of Danny Wallace. I simply cannot stand the man. To me, his only talent seems to be turning up on TV or being pictured with his hair stuck up whilst pulling a stupid face. If it were possible for that face to appear on punchaceleb.com, I'd spend a bit of time there enjoying it. I thankyou. Oh, and he even gives himself a cameo in the background at 1:22:00! Hitchcock, he is not.

The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture contains a great amount of well-framed shots and the quality has no problems whatsoever. My viewing experience was helped by watching itupscaled to a 37" Panasonic plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1400 BluRay Player. The sound comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 only and is fine, but mostly used for just dialogue and ambience as it's not a SFX movie.

The extras are few in number, beginning with Downtime on the set of Yes Man (3:59), which is just a lot of messing about on-set. Then comes Jim Carrey: Extreme Yes Man (11:51) which recalls a lot of the weird things Carrey's character gets up to that he's had to say yes to, as per the script.

This is followed by some music-related content, both of which relate to Zooey Deschanel's band in the film, Future Sounds: Munchausen By Proxy Ep.#TK421 (5:27), which is a sort-of spoof look at the band, while there are five of their Music Videos (14:24), some of which are just the performances from within the film itself, but they recorded a few which weren't featured. Out of the five, the film's eponymous theme is in there. Finally, there's the Gag Reel (5:34) which is more Carrey goofing around. Loved the opening stapler gag in this.

Prior to the main menu, which features a static Jim Carrey and an upbeat - but annoying - tune, comes something that should've been left behind in the age of rental video - trailers for forthcoming DVDs. There's the 'Extras' menu for this sort of things, hence, I'm not going to mention the titles featured here. Elsewhere on the disc, there are subtitles in English only and there are just 12 chapters to the film, which isn't anywhere near enough as I work on a basis of one every five minutes, plus a separate one for the end of opening and beginning of closing credits.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2009.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

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