Serving Sara

Details

Joe Tyler is down on his luck. Once a successful lawyer with all the trappings that go with a healthy bank balance, he is now a lowly - though reasonably competent - New York process server. Nothing seems to be going right for him and he is taking far too long to serve court papers on his increasingly elusive targets. Despite Joe's poor run of form, his boss gives him one final chance with a potentially lucrative assignment.

The job sounds simple enough. All Joe has to do is cross New York and serve divorce papers on Sara Moore, the British wife of Texan multi-millionaire Gordon Moore. Unfortunately, Joe's resentful colleague Tony has had enough of him and tips Sara off in advance. Naturally, when Joe arrives at her apartment she is already on the move, and what should have been a routine delivery instantly becomes far more complicated. After a fair amount of effort Joe eventually tracks her down and serves the papers.

However, things take a turn when Sara explains a quirk in the divorce laws. If Gordon serves her first from Texas, the settlement will be handled there and she will walk away with very little. If Sara can serve Gordon first under New York law, she stands to receive a fortune. Spotting an opportunity, Sara offers Joe one million dollars to switch sides and serve Gordon instead. Joe accepts, and the pair set off across Texas in pursuit of Gordon, with Tony close behind trying to beat them to the punch with Gordon's paperwork.

Picture & Sound

The picture is bright and colourful with a fair level of detail throughout. There are a few occasions where the image becomes a little grainy, but the print itself is clean with no real signs of dust scratches or other imperfections. The bit-rate remains below average throughout the film, yet with little to really challenge the encoding process the transfer stays free from obvious pixelisation or artifacting.

The soundtrack is hardly going to put your surround system through any serious paces and, if anything, you could almost dispense with it altogether. Most of the action is anchored firmly in the centre channel and very little strays into either the front or rear speakers. Dialogue levels are generally reasonable once you find a comfortable setting, although there are moments where Liz Hurley's dialogue can be slightly difficult to pick out - something I am putting down to her rather over-emphasised British accent.

Menu & Extras

If, like me, you tend to get suspicious whenever a rather substandard film arrives on DVD with a lorry load of extras, then this disc immediately sets alarm bells ringing. In fact, it goes one step further by bundling in an entirely different film. Nevertheless, the extras do actually manage to add some value to the package, with deleted scenes, outtakes, a reasonably enthusiastic commentary track and, naturally, the obligatory theatrical trailer.

Overall

To say this film sank quicker than the Titanic would be something of an understatement. That is slightly surprising when you consider Matthew Perry's popularity at the time and Liz Hurley's obvious selling power. You would have thought the so-called "Friends effect" might have generated a little more interest, but clearly not. That said, the film is not a total stinker and does have the occasional amusing moment.

During publicity interviews Matthew Perry made it clear he was keen to avoid simply repeating his Friends character. Unfortunately, he seems not to have listened to himself because he is essentially Chandler all over again. Oddly enough, that is also part of what makes the film more watchable than it perhaps deserves to be. However, both Perry and Hurley are overshadowed by the far funnier supporting turns from Cedric the Entertainer as Joe's long-suffering boss and Vincent Pastore as the hopeless Tony. If you can overshadow a comedian as naturally gifted as Matthew Perry, then the finger of blame has to point squarely at the script.

Matthew Perry fans will probably buy this disc without asking too many questions, but for everyone else a little more persuasion is required. Enter the rather cheeky Liz Hurley double-pack angle, which also includes the excellent Bedazzled. Now things start to look a little more appealing. Forget the film for a moment - you've got twice the gorgeous Liz Hurley, and if that is not enough to tempt a few men into their local DVD shop then very little else will.

Special features

• Commentary by Director Reginald Hudlin
• A Look Inside the Process - Behind-the-Scenes Feature
• 3 x Extended / Alternate Scenes with Commentary
• 3 x Outtakes with Commentary
• 2 x Deleted Scenes with Commentary
• Theatrical Trailer