Get Over It!
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Ben Foster, Martin Short
Extras: Commentary Track, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, Music Videos, Make-up Tests, Featurette, Original Songs
Rating:
’Get Over It!’ tries to hard to be different from other teen films. The movie tells the story of Berke Landers (Ben Foster). Berke has just been dumped by his childhood sweetheart Allison (Melissa Sagemiller), and becomes determined to win her back when she falls for heartthrob and boy-band member, Striker (Shane West). Ignoring the advice of friends Felix (Colin Hanks) and Dennis (Sisqo), Berke tries out for the school play, so that he can be close to Allison. When Berke’s dramatic and singing talents prove to be questionable, Felix’s sister Kelly (Kirsten Dunst), volunteers to help Berke. Will Berke win Allison back, or will a love blossom between him and Kelly?
While ’Get Over It’ sounds fairly straight-forward, the film bombards the audience with quirky from the get-go, as the opening credits roll with singer Vitamin C serenading Berke with ’Love Will Keep Us Together’ as he walks home from Allison’s. The movie gets even more outrageous with the introduction of Martin Short as the drama teacher. The film reaches the height of absurdity during the performance of the play, which is a musical version of ’A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. But, for all of its lunacy, ’Get Over It’ has little heart. By the time that Berke decides which girl he wants to be with, the audience is beyond caring. The movie does have some funny moments, but any film that relies on reaction shots from Tom Hanks’ son for laughs is in trouble. You’d be better off sticking to the similar, but superior ’10 Things I Hate About You’.
Miramax brings ’Get Over It’ to DVD in a fairly impressive edition. The film is presented in an anamorphic widescreen, and has been letterboxed at 2.35:1. The image is very sharp and clear, although there is a minute amount of grain during the early chapters. The bright colors which dominate the film look very good, and the fleshtones are realistic. There is no discernible problem from artifacting and there is no distortion to the picture. The audio on the DVD is a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix which is very impressive. There is constant use of surround sound and the track’s soundfield is quite good. The constant music sounds nice, and there is noteworthy bass response.
The extras are highlighted by an audio commentary featuring director Tommy O’Haver and writer R. Lee Fleming, Jr. This is a fun commentary, as they admit that the film didn’t do well financially, but they had fun making it. The most shocking revelation is that the Shakespeare angle, which dominates most of the film wasn’t in the original script! There are eight deleted scenes, most of which were cut to avoid an R-rating. Martin Short improvises like crazy with over seven minutes of outtakes. There is also a minute of footage showing various make-up tests for Short. We have an eight-minutes featurette, offering interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. Vitamin C provides a music video and there is a video clip of Striker’s boy-band. Finally, there are five audio-only original songs, three of which did not appear in the film.
