Just Married (2003)

When Tom Leezak bumps into the rather good-looking Sarah McNerney the chemistry between the pair was soon apparent, even if their meeting was caused by Sarah receiving a football in the face. With the relationship becoming more serious by the day the couple are soon living together and after a year together they decide to take the next step and marry. However, their family backgrounds could not be any further apart. Tom presents traffic reports on his local radio station, which in itself is hardly taxing as he has the 2am shift where the only thing on the road at that time is road kill, whilst Sarah is the daughter of a wealthy family.

Although Sarah's family is pleased with the announcement they are hardly impressed with her choice of husband and set about making Tom's life as difficult as possible. With the wedding over the happy couple head off to Europe and their eagerly awaited honeymoon. Unfortunately, things don't get off to a good start when Tom discovers that the European term of "compact car" results in a hire car which can only be described as a moped with a roof. However, Tom also has trouble understanding that the plug sockets and voltages are different resulting in a small fire and, much to the annoyance of both the hotel and guests, a lack of electricity.

The pair soon realise that they were a better couple before they were married and with disaster after disaster being inflicted on the pair the marriage is soon on the rocks. And with Sarah's family and her ex-boyfriend doing their level best to split the couple up, it looks like it's going to be one of the shortest marriages and honeymoons in history when Tom finds a bar, and rather attractive and excitable lady, showing American football whilst Sarah meets her ex-boyfriend.

Twentieth Century Fox come up trumps again with a picture that is bright and colourful with a high level of detail throughout. There's no signs of artifacting and the bit-rate remains above average throughout. With this being a fairly recent release the transfer is clean with no evidence of dust scratches or other picture imperfections. All in all, it's an excellent all round performance and it's become something that Fox are very adept at providing on their full range of titles.

The sound pleasant enough with some clear and precise dialogue in the centre and front stereo channels. There is the occasional use of the surround channels for the ambient effects although it only really tends to be used by the musical score. Never the less, it is more than adequate for the film of this genre and you shouldn't really be expecting anything too special from the sound department.

The extras are reasonable enough with the highlight of the set being the amusing audio commentary with the stars Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher, whilst a number of interesting facts are divulged by director Shawn Levy. It has the usual all round back slapping comments, but there's still plenty of jokes to make the audio commentary a worthwhile listen. There's also a number of deleted scenes with optional director's commentary, a short making of featurette, a rather unfunny Comedy Central feature and a number of trailers including the rather interesting looking The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (no, not the even more weird looking ones from Royston valley)

I rather enjoyed this film and its stars Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher seemed to be perfect for their roles. I certainly got the impression that they were enjoying themselves, and indeed I believe the pair were an item during filming. Murphy's madcap laugh and rather eccentric personality (the new Goldie Hawn perhaps?) made her perfect for the role. You only have to look at her similar roles in Drive and Girl Interrupted to see that she's rather typecast as a bit of a nutter!

Just Married may not appeal to everyone, but if you like a bit of slap stick humour then you can't really go wrong. It's also quite a laugh to see what a young Americans impression of Europe is. You have to laugh when you see Ashton Kutcher's character, Tom, desperately trying to plug an "appliance" into a clearly different mains socket whilst grumbling about the lack of American football on television. It certainly gives some credence to many peoples views that Americans are rather blinkered in their outlook of the world. Mind you, at least they manage to have a good laugh at themselves in the process.

It a predictable film, but a fun one at that. If you can't bring yourself to buy a copy then a rental and a couple of beers should definitely be considered.