Cinderella - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Cinderella



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The only thing I could think the entire way through Cinderella was “oh Pierce Brosnan, why are you doing this to yourself? You were James Bond for goodness sake!”. Well, 2021’s Cinderella was a movie that was highly publicized online, was a high profile Amazon Prime Exclusive film for like 3 weeks, then vanished off the front page of Prime only to show up a year later on Blu-ray. I was a bit nervous about the film based upon that information alone, but I was willing to give it a spin considering I tend to like Camila Cabello. However, Cinderella just what I feared. An oddball jukebox style musical with pop music, modern day social issues, and basically a heartless and soulless remake of the 1950s classic.

I’m not sure who was begging for a jukebox musical remake of Cinderella, but here it is. A bombastic and spicy modern day musical set in the magical world of far far away and a long long time ago. Popstar Camila Cabella makes her acting debut as the titular character living her life as the scorned child of her Stepmother (Idina Mendzel) Ella has dreams of becoming a seamstress, but her stepmother and two stepsisters look to deride and keep the good woman down as much as possibly. Simultaneously we have the story of Prince Robert, a frat boy drunk prince who needs to garner a bride so that he can rule the kingdom after his father King Rowand (Pierce Brosnan) passes. Robert isn’t about to settle down for anyone, so he sets up a ball so that any woman of the land can come and present herself to him in hopes of catching his eyes.

It doesn’t take a fantasy genius to see that he movie roughly falls in line with the obvious beats of the previous films. Ella goes to the ball with the help of her faaaaaaaaaaaaabulous Fairy God…..ummm...Mother?? (Billy Porter), and her three talking mice friends. There she catches the eye of the prince, only to have to haul tail out of their before the fairy godmother’s spell fades away. Thus the need for the prince to hunt down who he met at the ball and make her is.

While the basic premise of the movie is the same, Cinderella is more interested in subverting expectations and making social commentaries about inequality among the sexes and classes than anything. While Robert is the drunken son learning to be his own man, Rowan and Queen Beatrice (Minnie Driver) have daughter (Tallulah Greive) who is obviously the slighted sister, despite her having more business and ruling acumen than Robert (Nicholas Galitzine). Then there’s Rowand being overly insecure about his legacy and doing everything he can to make himself seem more important than his queen, a few “Yas queen!!!” blasts, and of course a syrupy sappy ending where even the evil Stepmother is forgiven because she’s “not that bad”. Oi vey.

Pop music and a 1980s hip hop town crier aside, the movie rambles through the brambles and pretty much falls flat on every occasion. Camila Cabello has an INCREDIBLE singing voice, and she belts out some great songs, but the movie, the pacing, and the costuming (it looks like a super cheap budget mixing 1980s garish tie die colors with period piece clothing reproductions), all just have a hard time justifying their own existence. Most of the movie had me cringing into my hand and looking up saying “please make it stop”, and praying to everything holy that Pierce Brosnan wouldn’t burst into song (those of you who have seen Mamma Mia will know exactly what I’m talking about). Luckily they actually make a bit of a joke about his inability to sing at the end of the movie, which is probably the highlight of the entire film.




Rating:

Rated PG for suggestive material and language




Video:

The digitally shot production is SUPER bright and colorful, with deeply saturated primary shades and every other color under the sun. The costuming was very much 1980s colorful, and the bright and shiny digital look does great with deep color saturation. The film has a good bit of CGI, and as a result the low budget film CAN show some overall hazy softness. No real major noise spikes or banding, but it’s just not AS crisp as it could have been. Still, there’s plenty of fine detail to go around with the costumes and the outdoor shots are BEAUTIFUL to behold with great skin tones and a sunny and cheery look.







Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track shines as much as the video does, as the copious use of musical numbers as the mix flying high nearly the entire time. Camila belting out song after song just fills the soundstage with her incredible voice, and the accompanying music itself is rich and diverse, ranging from a 1980s rap tune to full on remakes of Nico and Vinz songs. Subs are mainly used to accentuate the musical numbers, although I noticed it popping up in the infamous race home from the castle. Great mix.












Extras:

• Gag Reel
• Previews

Final Score: ​

Pitch Perfect writer Kay Cannon has a tough time with Cinderella and it shows. The pacing is off, the film’s message is watery, and even the Fabulous G can’t do anything but spout some random empowerment slogans along the way. I was worried about the film from the get go, and sadly my fears were realized. This was just a movie that really couldn’t justify its own existence. The Blu-ray itself is quite nice with good video, great audio, but only a gag reel and some Sony previous to act as the extras. Personally I would just skip it.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Camila Cabello, Billy Porter, Nicholas Galitzine, Pierce Brosnan, Idina Menzel
Directed by: Kay Cannon
Written by: Kay Cannon
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Portuguese DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1, English DVS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Tradititonal), French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai
Studio: Sony
Rated: PG
Runtime: 103 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: June 21st, 2022

Recommendation: Skip It

 

[Epoxy1]

Thanks for taking one for the team...glad I didn't request this one!

 

[tripplej]

we should have a dislike button. lol. Thanks for taking it for the team as David said.