The Sitter Blu-ray Review

"The Sitter" delivers a reliable and authentic Blu-ray video presentation through its 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode, presenting a clean picture free from digital noise reduction, edge enhancement, and compression artifacts. The image remains faithful to the source material, maintaining a natural-looking grain structure that is characteristic of studio comedies. Though the film has a slightly soft look overall and some scenes exhibit noticeable blurriness, it still boasts fine high-definition detail, particularly in close-up shots. Color reproduction impresses with vivid brightness and lifelike fleshtones, while black levels and contrast remain robust, though occasional nighttime sequences show minor shadows obscuring details.

The video transfer sustains its high quality across most scenes. Daylight and brightly lit indoor scenes offer dense and vivid colors, contributing to the vibrant visual experience without crossing into over-saturation. Details like the textures of clothes or strands of hair are often rendered exceptionally well, though inconsistency in sharpness is observed across different angles within the same scene. Despite this, "The Sitter" maintains a visually engaging presentation with well-managed black levels in nighttime settings and an overall warmth in its set and character depictions. This reliable transfer ensures a solid viewing experience that upholds the film's intended aesthetic.

20th Century Fox delivers a robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track for "The Sitter," which significantly enhances the viewing experience, particularly for a comedy. This mix leverages its 5.1 presentation effectively, offering clear and forceful sound from the front speakers while the rears provide intermittent ambiance and impressive directional effects. Noteworthy instances include Karl's van overturning during a car chase and the explosive soundfield when Rodrigo's M-80 shatters the jewelry storefront. The hip-hop soundtrack is richly reproduced, benefiting from pulsing LFE-channel support and clean highs, ensuring music quality remains consistently high throughout. Dialogue maintains clarity and balance, vital for a film heavily driven by vocal exchanges.

While "The Sitter" isn't an action-heavy film, it does take full advantage of its audio capabilities when required. The movie opens dynamically with Color Me Badd’s "I Wanna Sex You Up" enveloping the listener. The audio mix is immersive, utilizing all channels to deliver environmental sounds realistically, like birds chirping and bike tire spokes spinning - these subtle details enrich the auditory experience. However, there are moments where the music volume overshadows dialogue slightly, which could have been mitigated with a minor vocal track lift. Despite this minor flaw, the audio presentation remains generally well balanced, especially during scenes involving significant sound effects such as explosions and crashes. Overall, the lossless DTS Master Audio 5.1 track is commendably detailed and dynamically responsive, capable of enhancing both the film’s soundtrack and its various high-energy sequences.

The disc also comes with an English descriptive audio track, Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs, and offers optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles. This comprehensive selection ensures accessibility for a broader audience, adding to the overall value of the Blu-Ray's audio presentation.

The Blu-ray extras for "The Sitter" are a mixed bag, combining behind-the-scenes insights with comedic sketches and additional scenes. The highlight is the making-of featurette, which, though light on technical details, offers entertaining glimpses into the cast's dynamics and on-set antics. Less successful are the gag reel and deleted scenes, which fail to add substantial value, often feeling overextended. Jonah Hill's comedic pieces, while amusing, might not appeal to all viewers. Technical presentation is uniformly in HD quality, ensuring a visually satisfying viewing experience.

Extras included in this disc:

• Deleted/Alternate/Extended Scenes: A mix of scenes that expand on the main story.
• Gag Reel: On-set goofiness.
• Sits-N-Giggles: Improvised dialogue cuts.
• For Your Consideration: A brief piece focusing on Blake’s beat-boxing.
• The Making of The Sitter: Behind-the-scenes with interviews.
• Jonah the Producer: A humorous take featuring Jonah Hill.
• Theatrical Trailer: Original promotional content.
• Sneak Peeks: Trailers for "The Three Stooges," "This Means War," "Immortals," and "Wilfred."

David Gordon Green, once lauded as an indie darling, seems to have taken a severe detour with "The Sitter," following his mainstream commercial foray that includes the critically panned "Your Highness." The plot centers on Noah (Jonah Hill), a slacker suspended from college, who reluctantly agrees to babysit three quirky children. The night spirals into chaos after Noah embarks on a misguided quest to score drugs for his manipulative "girlfriend," leading to a series of outlandish and implausible scenarios. Green's attempt to blend dark comedy with heartfelt moments falls flat, as the film oscillates awkwardly between vulgar humor and forced sentimentality, undermining any authentic emotional resonance.

Jonah Hill delivers a performance marked by his characteristic lovable goofiness, but it feels strained within the poorly constructed narrative. His interactions are littered with vulgar jokes that rarely land, creating an uncomfortable juxtaposition when he shares the screen with young actors who portray the unruly children. Among them, Sam Rockwell's portrayal of Karl, a deranged drug dealer, stands out as an over-the-top caricature misaligned with the film's tone. This ill-fitting ensemble of characters and episodic gags results in a disjointed viewing experience that fails to extract meaningful humor or emotion.

Despite brief comedic highlights, such as Hill's jive-talking scene, "The Sitter" ultimately disappoints with its contrived storyline and unfunny episodic content. The film’s sporadic laughs do little to alleviate the overall sense of tedium and lack of originality. Moreover, the inclusion of an 87-minute extended cut does not enhance the comedic or narrative value, making "The Sitter" a regrettable effort by Green and an unremarkable entry in Jonah Hill’s filmography. This Blu-ray release offers both theatrical and unrated versions, though neither effectively redeems the film’s underlying flaws.

The Sitter" on Blu-ray falls short of expectations, despite Jonah Hill's commendable performance in other roles. Directed by David Gordon Green, whose earlier works showcased significant promise, this film largely disappoints. The premise seemed ripe for comedic potential, but the execution misses the mark with jokes that rarely land and an overall sense of missed opportunities in humor. While the Blu-ray presentation excels in both audio and video quality, offering a crisp and immersive experience, it can't compensate for the film's fundamental issues.

In terms of content, "The Sitter" feels disjointed, squandering the talents of its cast with an incoherent narrative that struggles to maintain engagement across its brief runtime. The comedic elements feel forced rather than organic, making what could have been a breezy 81 minutes seem overly prolonged and tedious. The special features included on the Blu-ray are standard fare—short and largely inconsequential, failing to add any significant value to the overall package.

It's the age-old gotcha--if you've seen the trailer for "The Sitter," you've seen almost all of the film's laugh-out-loud moments. As a whole, the movie just doesn't work well; most of the jokes don't land right, and the ones that do are few and far between. I can excuse Jonah Hill--he gets a pass for the damn fine job he did in "Moneyball"--but I'm shaking my head slowly at director David Gordon Green, who's been squandering the promise of his early career. Seriously, go back and watch George Washington and then watch "The Sitter." It's hard to believe they were both made by the same guy. Anyway, "The Sitter" looks and sounds great on Blu-ray, and comes with a decent selection of bonus features, but I can't recommend this one as anything more than a rental.