Sunday night was date night here at the Ipe household. The kids were staying over at the in-laws, and we had the evening to ourselves. After mucb contemplating about extravagant evening entertainment, we went the simple route — have dinner locally, then come home to watch a movie. Naturally, pajamas and snuggling on the couch were required. We hit a local Italian restaurant, then came home to watch Bridesmaids over Walmart’s Vudu service.
Vudu Streaming Audio screenshot
Now, we had waiting to see this in the theater upon initial release, but schedules never worked out. I’ve used Vudu in the past, and never had a complaint. Vudu offer 3 video resolutions — SD (480p), HD (720p), and HDX (1080p.) Now some film material is available with Dolby Digital Stereo (2.0), 5.1, and 7.1. During the film, I noticed we were only getting stereo sound, which boggled my mind. Wait a minute, stereo? I would have stopped it and done some investigating, but that would have ruined “date night”, so I let it be. I’ve been researching, and it seems that not all films on Vudu are streaming in surround sound. I went online just now to check out the forums, and the “More Info” tab for Bridesmaids. Check out the video/audio format on the right of the attached screenschot. Dolby Digital Stereo. Egads, who’s verifying available audio formats before you rent a streaming movie? Live and learn.
What can you do? What’s done is done. Might as well get on with talking about Bridesmaids. You know, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from this film. There was much comparison to 2009’s The Hangover, except from a bachelorette perspective. In that case, wouldn’t it be more like Tom Hanks’ Bachelor Party? The cast is huge, featuring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, John Hamm, and many more. Turns out, the film is much different than I thought.
Kristen Wiig’s character Annie is the best friend of Maya Rudolph’s bride character Lillian. As Annie comes into conflict with one of the other bridesmaids, her life continues to fall apart during the pre-wedding planning. The film features all of the idiosyncratic bridesmaids, including an outstanding and memorable performance by Melissa McCarthy. The film’s plot didn’t go where I thought it would exactly go, so I found it entertaining.
Bridesmaids (2011)