ME, MYSELF & IRENE

While it is no KINGPIN, the Farrelly Brother's ME, MYSELF & IRENE ($28) is still one hell of a funny movie. Continuing their assault on good taste, the Farrelly Brother's do whatever's required to get a laugh, without fear of treading on any sacred cows. Speaking of cows, sacred or otherwise, ME, MYSELF & IRENE even includes some sick, twisted bovine humor that is certain to get the PETA people into an uproar, but I digress… ME, MYSELF & IRENE stars rubber-faced funnyman Jim Carrey as Rhode Island State Trooper Charlie Baileygates, who has "confrontation issues" because of his cheating ex-wife and the three "deeply suntanned" sons who probably are not his that she left in his care. Charlie's inability to confront his own problems, have left him a milquetoast in a uniform, unable to perform his duties in an effective manner, as well as making him a doormat for his friends and neighbors.

After years of being taken advantage of by everyone, Charlie finally snaps- with a new personality called Hank rising to the surface. Hank is aggressive, without any form of self-control and would appear to be an outlet for all of Charlie's pent up rage and frustration. After his break, Charlie is quickly sent off to a hospital and is medicated, which seems to keep Hank under control. When Charlie returns to active duty, he is assigned to escort Irene Waters (Renée Zellweger) to Upstate New York, where she is wanted for questioning in regards to a hit and run accident. The road trip proves to be routine, however when Irene and Charlie get to New York, Irene’s ex-boyfriend and a crooked cop set them up to look like fugitives running from the law. Of course, the insanity of the situation only intensifies every time Hank makes an unexpected and hilarious appearance. The cast of ME, MYSELF & IRENE also features Anthony Anderson, Mongo Brownlee, Jerod Mixon, Chris Cooper, Michael Bowman, Richard Jenkins, Robert Forster, Mike Cerrone, Rob Moran, Traylor Howard, Daniel Greene and Tony Cox.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has issued ME, MYSELF & IRENE on a THX certified DVD that features the anamorphic enhancement for 16:9 displays. ME, MYSELF & IRENE is framed at 1.85:1 and the excellent looking image is very clean, very sharp and highly defined. Colors are usually quite vibrant, while the flesh tones remain natural and appealing. Neither chroma noise nor bleeding effect the DVD’s color reproduction in any perceivable way. Blacks are pure, plus the picture boasts impressive shadow detail and depth. Digital compression artifacts rarely make their presence known on this smoothly authored DVD. The Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack has an only slightly better than average comedy mix. Directional sound effects are used on occasion, and the split surround channels do see some action for something other than musical fill. Of course, such moments are few and far between. Dialogue reproduction is crisp and fully intelligible. Music is nicely integrated into the mix and provides a mild stereo presence. The bass channel adds some depth to the music and keeps the track from sounding anemic. English and French Dolby Surround soundtracks are also encoded onto the DVD, as are English and Spanish subtitles.

Full motion video, animation and sound are utilized to enhance the interactive menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection and set up features, as well as some nice supplements. Directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly provide a running audio commentary that has a number of fun and interesting moments, as well as serving a who's who of the folks in the movie. There are ten deleted scenes on the DVD, with optional commentary in which the Farrellys explain why a number of very funny scenes hit the cutting room floor. The cut scenes can be incorporated back into the film in interactive fashion, if one chooses to watch the extended branching version of ME, MYSELF & IRENE. However, to make this work, one has to keep the remote ready and hit a button to access the deleted scenes, at the moment when it would fall into the body of the film. There are six Production Vignettes comprised of behind-the-scenes video footage of the cast and crew on set. A Foo Fighters music video for the song Breakout is included among the supplements, as are a short production featurette, a still gallery, two theatrical trailers and three TV spots. ME, MYSELF & IRENE is also DVD-ROM enabled and on the computer side one gets access to the screenplay web links and a game.

ME, MYSELF & IRENE is a wonderfully tasteless and funny movie that will appeal to fans of the Farrelly Brothers other comic outings. The Fox DVD is a winner, so if you want to laugh, you better get yourself a copy of this very funny disc.