In Good Company
Universal Home Video
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson
Extras: Commentary Track, Deleted Scenes, Featurettes
Rating:
The premise is intriguing. Imagine a star ad executive for one of American’s leading sports magazine in his early 50s with a family and the perfect life. Then the magazine is sold to some conglomerate run by a tycoon on a feeding frenzy and the star executive is suddenly being demoted and forced to listen to the new guys brought in to run the company. What’s worse, the new guy is half his age and has no clue about the business. And to top it off, the kid is suddenly beginning to date the older man’s daughter…
Starring Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace as the two main characters the film is an entertaining and enjoyable romp. However, the film can never decide whether it wants to be a satirical commentary on the current state of corporate and over-commercialized America where companies are traded like commodities without respect for their heritage, clientele or employees, or whether it wants to be a romantic comedy playing off the relationship between the daughter, played by charming Scarlett Johansson and the young hot shot executive. As a result the story goes back and forth without finding its proper tone and somewhat haplessly winding here and there.
The DVD contains a great looking transfer of the film with vibrant colors and solid black levels. Color reproduction is natural, making sure the image always has balanced hues and natural skin tones. No edge-enhancement is evident and the transfer is free of compression artifacts.
Audio comes as a solid 5.1 channel Dolby Digital track that is without flaws or notable limitations. Dialogues are always audible and never drowned out by the sound effects or the music. A commentary track featuring Topher Grace and director Paul Weitz is included on this DVD as well, offering some additional insight into the production. The track is informative but a bit too promotional for my taste without much real value as neither of the participants have had the chance to really reflect on the film and its flaws.
As supplements the release also features a selection of deleted scenes and two featurettes. ’Real Life’ is a look at some of today’s most successful businessmen and their careers while ’New York Locations’ takes us on a tour to see the places where the film has been shot. Neither of the featurettes is overly exciting or valuable, I’m sad to say.
’in Good company’ is an entertaining film. It is decidedly undecided in whether it wants to be funny or critical and thus has a few shortcomings that do hamper the overall experience. Still, it’s not a bad film and definitely worth checking out.
