Shallow Hal

Starring: Jack Black, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Alexander
Director: The Farrelly Bros.

Rating: PG-13

Review Posted: 7.24.02

By John Teves

Jack Black is Shallow Hal, a superficial skirt chaser who, after a mind altering experience with a self-help guru (Tony Robbins), doesn't realize that his gorgeous girlfriend (Gwyneth Paltrow) is actually a 300-pounds. Meanwhile, Hal's playboy pal Mauricio (Jason Alexander) is determined to break the spell before someone gets…squashed.

Did the Farrelly brothers go soft? Shallow Hal had the potential to be such a crude and vulgar film, but instead we get a film that’s clever and appealing. I liked Shallow Hal the film holds a persuasive and impressionable statement regarding our impelling force to judge people based on appearances. The Farrelly Brother’s put together a script that is remarkably ingenious. Black is especially influential in his role, Paltrow is astonishing, but Alexander on the other hand delivers nothing more than his customary annoying nature – what a washout.

>Read Craig's Film Review!

>Read Greg's Film Review!

Shallow Hal appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. The picture showed fair quality. Sharpness was somewhat inconsistent. The film was visibly clear and well defined most of the time. No problems with jagged edges; I did notice edge enhancement on a few instances; grit and speckles were obvious but I wouldn’t regard it as a problem. Colors usually came across clear and precise. Black levels appeared reasonably lush and discrete, while shadow detail was relevantly heavy.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Shallow Hal offered a quintessential mix as the sound field remained adequately focused toward the front speakers. I felt it offered a solid stereo presence for music; effects blended adequately with a few segments displaying greater activity while other surrounds remained inactive. Speech appeared natural, distinct and accurate. Music also proved worthy, showing fairly rich bass, and a zestful track.

Extras:

• Commentary by Farrelly brothers

• 11 deleted scenes w/ Farrelly Bros. commentary

• Four Featurettes:

  HBO Making-Of Special

  >Not the standard making-of special, mind you.

  Comedy Central's "Reel Comedy"

  >This one offers a refreshing look at the film, including behind-the-scenes and interviews.

  "Seeing Through the Layers"

  >How'd they get Gwyneth Paltrow to look so large? Check out this make-up feature to find out.

  "In the Deep End With Shallow Hal"

  >The stunts of the movie.

• Music video "Wall in Your Heart" - by Shelby Lynne

Overall, the DVD offers a nice set of special features.

Overall, I thought Shallow Hal was refreshing and entertaining. It offers a good number of laughs and stands up well mainly due to some fine performances. Even thought the picture isn’t perfect and does show a few problems here and there, it’s still extremely clean and crisp. Shallow Hal is a delightful film that should be appealing to a broad audience. Highly recommended.

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