The Movie: I only watched this movie because, like Phantoms, they made fun of Ben Affleck for being in it in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which of course makes me wonder, how bad is it if even his friends make fun of him for being in it? And to be honest, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as Phantoms, in fact, it even had a few moments.

Unfortunately, the setup is a little too long winded, and I actually had to give this movie a second try, after I quit watching it the first time only about 10 minutes in. Ben Affleck plays a guy who, along with his cellmate, is being released from prison in just two days. Ben just wants to go home, his cellmate just wants to meet this hot chick he's been writing to during his time in prison. Well, things go awry, and his cellmate never makes it out of prison, and Affleck ends up assuming the identity of his cellmate and goes off to meet the girl (Charlize Theron).

This would have all worked out great if the girl's brother didn't have some whacked out plan to use the guy who he thought was the guy his sister was writing to in prison, to help him knock over a small Indian casino. There are tons of plot twists and things that keep things at least slightly interesting, though none of them are revealed until the last third of the movie. Also, knowing very little about this movie going in to it, I was pleasantly surprised to see Gary Sinease and Dennis Farina in it. There are some wacky shots using wide angle lenses and weird camera moves, but rather than being really interesting or adding anything to the story, they just kinda stuck out as a fancy camera trick, almost more distracting than useful.

A warning for the guys, you have to see Affleck's bare ass in the movie, but fortunately it's only on screen for a fraction of a second, and they make up for it by showing some Charlize Theron boobs.

On the whole, this isn't really a good movie, but if you can get past the first third of the movie, you might find yourself entertained by the rest, but you won't be missing much if you never see this movie in your whole life.

The DVD: Now this is the original DVD release of the movie I'm reviewing here, not the extended director's cut, so what I say here may not apply to the other version.

The video transfer was free from dust and scratches and other such artifacts, but was murky on the whole, with poor contrast -- the whites just weren't that bright, and this is a movie full of outdoor scenes in the snow. Similarly, the audio was clean, but also murky, lacking definition in the higher frequencies. Also, while they did go through some effort to create some surround sound effects, they all sounded very forced and artificial rather than blending smoothly into a continuous soundscape.

As far as special features go, you get a trailer (but it's actually a home video trailer, not a theatrical trailer), a behind the scenes featurette, and some audio commentary from director John Frankenheimer.

Overall, a very mediocre DVD production for a very mediocre movie!