Review for Roxanne (Dual Format)

Roxanne is an updated adaptation of the classic Cyrano De Bergerac tale. This is updated to modern day (or modern for when it was made in 1987) America.

The film tells the story of the new girl in town, Roxanne, who is an astronomer and coming to the town to view the comet that she has discovered. She encounters CD Bales, the eccentric Fire Chief, who has a prominent long nose. This is something of a sore point with him, constantly having jibes about it so that anyone who does is generally in the line for a major ass whooping! When one tries to make fun of him in a bar, he turns the table coming up with twenty better jokes about his nose.

CD falls for Roxanne, however she falls for the new Fireman Chris who is a hunk, but a little vacant up top. He enlists the help of CD to help him woo Roxanne. This is done through being told what to say through radio or letters. Roxanne falls madly for CD's words coming out of Chris's mouth, that is until she realises the truth.

Written and Starring Steve Martin, you can tell this was a project that he really put his heart into and it is generally regarded as the best thing that Martin has done.I love early Steve Martin and the 80s was generally when he did some of his best stuff such The Man With Two Brains and this film is probably the best example of Romantic-Comedy that there is. The story is obviously timeless being first produced in 1897 and the whole conceit of someone helping someone else woo someone has been used countless times and there's a reason it works: Everyone loves the underdog story of the person being unable to speak to the woman they have fallen in love with.

This film is excellent, if a little long, this is my one quibble about the film is that it feels far too long for such a simple story. That being said, the powerhouse performance of Steve Martin is simply fabulous. At times I will admit that his antics are a little too madcap. During one scene his reaction to an idea from the Mayor started off fine "I think it's brilliant! What an idea! And I was there!" but then he takes it to the extreme "He took the idea! He saw it ripe on the tree, he plucked it, and he put it in his pocket. It's, it's, dare I say... genius?" and I don't know, it's certainly funny, but it just feels bizarre. However, everyone will admit that the 'Bar Nose Joke' scene is purely fantastic 'Aww what happened? Did your parents lose a bet with God?'

The rest of the cast is great. Daryl Hannah already had our attention with her performance in Splash! and this one really showed that she could act that innocent girl next door who everyone wants perfectly. The cast of mifits who are the rest of the Fire Crew are brilliant including a young Damon Wayans and they were all fabulous throughout. It is often seen as a snub that Martin's script wasn't Oscar-nominated

My biggest issue with this Dual Disk, Blu-ray and DVD Special Edition is the vast amount of extras consisting of... a single Trailer.

This is 2016.

I hate when I see a truly horrendous (albeit cult favourite) film like Howling II getting a boxload of features and a film that is commercially and critically loved gets nothing. Surely, Martin would have wanted to contribute something. Surely someone, anyone involved in this film could say something? This just feels lazy and is a huge disappointment and no amount of clear picture and sound can cover that.

Roxanne is a wonderful film that nearly thirty years later has not lost any of its shine. It is a shame that this release has nothing to show just how 'special' this film is and so if you own it already you might want to wait (maybe with the 30th anniversary being next year someone might realise and release an Anniversary edition) as it is not worth paying out for this new version. However, if you don't already own it then this is a classic romantic comedy that I would never turn my nose at.