Blu-ray Movie Reviews

In this charming critically-acclaimed tale of first love, Lloyd, an eternal optimist, seeks to capture the heart of Diane, an unattainable high school beauty and straight-A student. He surprises just about everyone-including himself-when she returns the sentiment. But Diane's over-possessive, divorced Dad doesn't approve and it's going to take more than just the power of love to conquer all.

Teenage love is such an all or nothing thing. Passionate, powerful, dramatic. We all know it, yet we patronize it later in life and chock it up to hormones. But that intensity is a real struggle for teens and this film does a great job of capturing that drama (along with a kick ass soundtrack). Crowe has a great way of creating believable character pieces and he is pretty note perfect here. A great look at what life was like when relationships were our only problem.

This Blu-ray looks pretty good but the film shows its age. The image is detailed enough; especially in close ups, but has a softer nature than what most of the newer films are delivering. Contrast levels are a bit weak with washed out blacks that flatten the image a bit. The DTS-HD soundtrack does a good job with what it has to work with, but don’t expect a lot of dynamics. The soundstage opens up for the music, but not much else.

Fox includes some solid extras for this anniversary edition including a look back at the film, a feature commentary, interviews and plenty of fun trivia. You also get extended and deleted scenes, trailers and a gallery.

Some say this is a film of another time, but the same drama is hitting teens today, it just looks a bit different. Crowe always delivers great drama and characters and this is no exception.