Studio:

Theatrical: Jerry Bruckheimer & Touchstone Pictures

Video: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Video:

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Feature film: 1080p / AVC

100 minutes: 28 chapters (theatrical cut)

107 minutes: 21 chapters (extended cut)

Single disc 50 GB

Supplements: 480i High Definition

Audio:

English 5.1 Uncompressed (48 kHz/16-bit)

English DD 5.1 Surround

French DD 5.1 Surround

Spanish DD 5.1 Surround (Extended Version)

Spanish DD 2.0 Surround (Theatrical Version)

Subtitles:

Feature: English SDH, French, Spanish

Extras: English SDH, French, Spanish

Extras

• Scene-specific audio commentary by Director McNally & Producer Bruckheimer

• Full-length Audio commentary by the Coyotes

• Inside the Songs

• Coyote 101

• Search for the Stars

• Action Overload

• Music Video, featuring LeAnne Rimes

• Additional Scenes

Locking Blu-ray case

Release Date: April 1, 2008

Comment

I have to say that, given the poster art for this movie, I anticipated Coyote Ugly would be a sorry excuse for T&A – or maybe not so sorry.  In fact, I scanned more than a couple of reviews that saw the movie as exactly that.  Maybe it's just a case of low expectations, but my reaction was different.  I see the Theatrical Cut as being little more explicit than a beer commercial.  There is precious little bare skin – if that's your game here – and no foul language issues to speak of.  (The Extended Cut is raunchier and includes some nudity (inserts). It's all pretty harmless if you overlook the sexism, which is presented as pretty much of a male fantasy – as are the real-life Coyote Ugly bars, we are told.  I didn't find it offensive so much as witless.

The weakness of the movie is the script and its predictability, and that's about the worst thing I could say about it.  Much of the action that takes place in the bar is just stupid male drunk stuff.  No one gets hurt and the whole point is to get shitfaced and enjoy the attentions of women who make it a point to look available but are clearly not.  Few boys step over the line.

There is a secondary plotline that evolves (or is it, devolves) into your standard romantic triangle - Boy/Girl/Job – and a father who just has to discover to what depths his little girl has sunk.  Somehow it all works out in true, if not the best, Disney fashion.

The Score Card

The Movie : 5

Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo/The Prestige) wants to make it as a songwriter, and feels she has to move from her home in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to the Big Apple to make good.  Evidently she has never been to New York before because she is astonished at the level cynicism she encounters, to say nothing of bad luck.  Eventually she finds herself in an audition to be another "Coyote"; one of a group of women led by the very solid Lil (Maria Bello/A History of Violence) who double as bartenders and counter-top dancers at a Manhattan bar. The women taunt the men, dance on the bar and spray them with water.  Everyone loves it in a kind of highly energized and sanitized sadomasochism.  The female customers get into the mood just as much as the men.  Violet is quite naturally scandalized at first, but after a bit she finds a way to get into the mood with the rest of them.   This works wonders for her natural stage fright, which has been the main reason why she hadn't been able to make it as a singer of her own material.

Image : 8.5 (8~9/10)

The score of 8.5 indicates a relative level of excellence compared to other Blu-ray DVDs.  The score in parentheses represents: first, a value on a ten point scale for the image in absolute terms; and, second, how that image compares to what I believe is the current best we can expect in the theatre.

Contrast and color are very much on the mark in this high definition transfer, with no observable artifacts, noise, edge enhancement. Picture quality is very strong (good blacks, no enhancing funny business.)  I've not seen the SD, but there are scenes that are next to impossible to get right in 480.  I'm thinking about instances where light and dark occur in the same frame (see screenshot.)  I would guess the SD would have to lose detail in the shadow and blow out the overexposed areas.  Actually, it's hard to imagine this picture looking any better.

       

Audio & Music : 7/7

The audio mix certainly has its share of energy, which is necessary if this movie is going to work.  Especially in the bar, we need to hear what all is going on: music, dialog and din.  Sure enough, it's pretty much all there – perhaps not as dynamic as we could hope for, but it works.

Operations : 7

Buena Vista Blu-ray DVDs continue their chapter-skipable previews and promos before the endless loading of the feature film begins.  As in some other recent Blu-ray DVDs, I found the menu operations to be sensible and not difficult to return to the feature from any point in the Bonus Features.

Extras : 4

What we have here is an upgraded transfer of the 2001 DVD release of both the Theatrical and Extended cuts, with all the brief (less than 4 minutes) and anemic Special Features appertaining thereto.  The Theatrical Cut combines the audio commentaries, which had to be accessed separately on the SD.