Shallow Hal on DVD

The Farrelly Brothers have become famous for their gross-out, and often very politically incorrect humor. Their latest, Shallow Hal, has both, but it also has a stomach-churningly politically correct core.

Hal (Jack Black) is a shallow skirt-chaser who will only date women who look like models. Unfortunately for him, he's not the best looking chap in the land, so he has quite a bit of trouble snagging any of them. One day he's riding in an elevator with self-help guru Tony Robbins, who makes it so that Hal can only see a woman's "inner beauty."

From that point on, every unattractive woman is gorgeous, while gorgeous women are thoroughly unattractive.

He meets Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), a beautiful woman with huge (ahem) self-esteem issues. He does nothing but treat her like gold, but she refuses to believe that any man could find her attractive. It doesn't take us long to figure out that she's not quite as sexy as she looks, and that it's merely Hal's "curse" in full effect.

Hal's best friend, Mauricio (Jason Alexander), sees what Hal is becoming, and wants ever so much to put a stop to it. He can't believe that his best pal is dating a gargantuan female, so he seeks out Tony Robbins to find out how to reverse the curse.

From there, we can pretty much figure out what happens. Does Hal see Rosemary for what she is and bolt, or does he realize that it doesn't matter what a person looks like on the outside?

You decide.

Jack Black does a good job as Hal, but he's a little unbelievable when he's being sincere. It's just hard to picture him as being sensitive. Paltrow, however, makes us love her and feel sorry for her, and even though we know what she really looks like, we believe she's extremely overweight.

Shallow Hal is not as good as the Farrelly Brothers' best, Kingpin, but it does deliver enough laughs to make it worthwhile. You can even pass it off as a romantic comedy, so if the old lady tries to pull her "you owe me a chick flick" routine, you can volunteer Hal.

It's both funny and sweet, so it's the type of movie anyone can enjoy.

The DVD is a tough call. The picture and sound are both average at best, but there are lots of supplements to make up for it.

The anamorphic widescreen is very soft throughout the entire film, which would decrease enjoyment for many films, but doesn't really make a difference in this case. Generally with a comedy, you don't need the kind of quality picture required for an action movie. Whereas it's always nice to have good picture, in this instance you can do without.

Pretty much the same can be said about the sound. The 5.1 Dolby Digital track is confined to the front speakers, with nothing really notable. But again, there's not much here that would require spectacular audio, so it's easy to do without. At least this way they can focus their time and money on movies that deserve it.

The features start off with a mediocre (though I had high hopes for it) commentary by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. There are also 11 deleted scenes with optional commentary, the HBO "Making-of" special, Comedy Central's Reel Comedy featurette, two behind-the-scenes featurettes, a music video and the trailer.

Shallow Hal, from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
113 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) 16X9 enhanced, 5.1 Dolby Digital
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black, Jason Alexander, Joe Viterelli, Susan Ward
Produced by Bradley Thomas, Charles B. Wessler, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Written by Sean Moynahan & Peter Farrelly & Bobby Farrelly
Directed by Bobby Farrelly & Peter Farrelly

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