Life as We Know It DVD Review




Title: Life As We Know It
Actors: Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel
Director: Greg Berlanti
Released: 28th March 2011
Certificate: 12
Format: Blu-ray

Holly (Katherine Heigl) works in catering. She is doing well at work and starting to get the rewards she deserves. Eric (Josh Duhamel) works in TV for major network on sports as a program director.

Their friends Peter and Allison set them up on a date but as Hollywood films would have us believe is always true… their first date did not go well. Fast forward a few years and Peter and Allison die in a tragic car accident leaving their daughter Sophie without her parents. Will Holly and Eric put aside their issues and honour their friends’ last wishes that they take guardianship of Holly? Well they try their best but naturally not all goes to plan.

To be fair this film has a lot going for it. It’s not quite the normal set-up that I would have you believe from the first paragraph, it’s more than a little different than your average rom-com, which is really refreshing.

I have to admit that I’m really not keen on the acting abilities of Katherine Heigl, she was awful in The Ugly Truth, fairly bad in 27 Dresses and I didn’t enjoy her performance in Knocked Up either. She seems to be too girly for my liking. Josh Duhamel, I’m not too familiar with, apart from his quite small roles in the Transformers film, but I will say that I thought he made a decent effort with this film, moving from action to comedy with ease.

Life As We Know It looks very good Blu-ray. The colours are bright and the image is clear and well defined. We are led to believe that superior picture quality comes as standard with Blu-ray but in all honesty I don’t believe that it always does, even on new releases, but Life As We Know It scores highly in this department and the extra features are good too. There are a few featurettes contributions from both cast and crew that provide a few extra laughs as well as highlighting a few interesting points in relation to filming, scripting and acting.

Life As We Know It as I have mentioned is quite different from other rom-coms, so perhaps it should be called Life Not Quite As We Know It, but all in all this is definitely a good thing. And despite the fact that I had to put up with screaming babies, jokes about dirty diapers and plenty of other baby/child-related humour that I would normally hate, I didn’t find it too annoying here, as Life As We Know It is both funny and likable. Recommended.


Blu-Ray & DVD Special Features:

• A Survival Guide to Instant Parenting - Our comedic, self-appointed experts - Josh Duhamel, Katherine Heigl, Will Sasso, Jessica St. Clair, Melissa McCarthy, Andrew Daly, Bill Brochtrup and Ron Huebel - give outrageously funny child-rearing advice that would make the PTA cringe!
• Katherine Heigl: Becoming the Best Mom Ever (See all the touching, funny and challenging moments that Katherine Heigl faced in becoming an overnight mom.
• Josh Duhamel: The Triplet Tamer - Josh Duhamel gets sentimental and is full of charm as he wins the admiration of his three 'little' leading ladies.
• Deleted Scenes

Author : Kevin Stanley