Review of Sweetest Thing, The

Introduction

The distaff version (that`s the Girlie Version for anybody out there who went "huh??") of the gross-out comedy was as inevitable as night follows day, corruption follows politics and The Bionic Woman followed The Six Million Dollar Man. The Sweetest Thing offers the female angle of the human condition and as you would expect is frequently too much information.

Starring Cameron Diaz (currently my number one couldn`t-be-happier-if-I-woke-up-tied-to), Married With Children`s Christina Applegate and Legally Blonde`s Selma Blair, this is San Francisco`s heterosexual dating scene and the emotional disasters that entails.

As per the American Pie genre, virtually all of the humour in the movie is about bodily functions and/or fluids (ee-chucking-yuck). It is also horrendously funny if you are into gross-out comedy. Like much of the genre, it is also at heart a romance between Cameron`s character Christina and the man of her dreams. Cameron and Christina enjoy a road-trip together to hunt down the elusive Peter at his wedding and Selma has sex with a man dressed as an elephant. Yep, it`s that kind of picture.

The US version of the movie is sold on the basis of being "unrated" and featuring footage not included in the theatrical cut. This, as far as I can tell, is the same uncut version (the running time is exactly the same taking the 4% PAL speedup into account), so score one for the BBFC for once. Writer Nancy M Pimental is a South Park scriptwriter, so knowing references, a musical number about male genitalia and Cameron getting poked - and I mean poked - in the eye is the order of the day.

Video

Presented in the original 1.85:1, the picture is spotless as you should expect of a brand-new release. Colours are vibrant, contrast and detail is excellent. I for one have never seen Christina Applegate looking better, and the three leads looking beautiful is half the fight for this movie (excuse the political incorrectness).

Audio

The sound comes in a pretty basic Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that favours the centre (dialogue) channel, but then you wouldn`t really expect anything really tricksy from this kind of picture, would you?

Features

There are subtitles, a rowdy sit-down-and-shut-up-in-the-back Cast and Director Commentary track, an eight minute behind-the-scenes doco called "Politically Erect", and a mockumentary about the writer called "A Day In The Life Of Nancy M Pimental". There are also two storyboard-to-screen comparisons from the road trip portion of the movie. There is a suite of trailers (only one for Sweetest Thing, the rest are "best of" titles such as Charlie`s Angels and Best Friend`s Wedding), accessible through both their own menu and via special features.

Conclusion

I really liked this picture, and usually I find gross-out stuff goes too far. This goes so far it`s off the scale, and it had me chortling out loud. No way is it a family picture, but this picture, you and a bunch of mates (of either persuasion), a couple of curries and a crate of lager is a match made in heaven.

And you`ll never be able to look your dry-cleaner in the eye ever again.