Legally Blonde Collection - Blu-Ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Legally Blonde Collection

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

WARNING: THE SCORES ABOVE ARE A COMBINED SCORE FROM BOTH FILMS, THE INDIVIDUAL SCORES ARE CONTAINED BELOW IN THE INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS OF THE REVIEW

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Movie
I’m not embarrassed to say that I really love Legally Blonde. It’s a cotton candy fluffy bit of entertainment, but I have a blast with Reese Witherspoon’s overly cheerful Elle Woods character almost as much as my wife does, and have been able to quote it for quite some time. Now, as much of a fan as I am, I was a bit reticent for this release simply due to the fact that it includes the abysmal Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde. A movie that is pretty much universally hated by fans everywhere. However, Shout Factory promised a new 4K master for the first film and collectors with OCD will definitely want to complete the collection with that new transfer.

Legally Blonde
After digging through interviews and special features I’m actually surprised at how Legally Blonde turned out. It was originally written as a down and dirty R-rated girl power comedy that was meant to be the female antithesis to American Pie films, complete with Stiffler’s mom (Jennifer Coolidge) making a cameo appearance. However, after trying to adapt Amanda Brown’s novel of the same name to the screen the writers obviously decided to tone things down and make it a bit more cheery and bubblegum poppy in nature. Thus the PG-13 (instead of R) rated Legally Blonde was born.

Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) has everything going for her. She’s got money, she’s got clothes, she’s got the perfect upscale boyfriend and she’s the tip top of her California college with a 4.0 grade average and the head of her sorority. Even her boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis) has it all. He’s got his hair parted the right way, he’s got the preppy clothes, is a brilliant student and Harvard law bound as well. Elle’s life comes to a screeching stop when Warner decides to dump Elle just before he heads off to Harvard because she’s “holding him back”, and his parents don’t believe that she’ll make a good wife to an up and coming politician. Devastated and completely broken at first, Elle decides to fight back and rub Warner’s face in his own mess. Instead of going on to marry the rich hubby, Elle decides that SHE is going to go to Harvard Law School and become a lawyer as well.

Against all odds Elle somehow manages to wow the Harvard admissions committee with her unorthodox methods and gets in. But getting in is only part of the solution. Once in the air headed Blonde has to excel at her classes and actually make it THROUGH Harvard Law School (their drop out record is incredible, as only the elite graduate there). To everyone at Harvard she’s the outsider, an air head blonde who doesn’t belong, and to make matters worse, Warner and his new fiancee Vivian (Selma Blair) are LESS than pleased to see her there. But tut tut dahlings, this is nothing for Elle Woods and it’s up to her to make everyone who ever doubted her eat their shorts in jealousy.

Legally Blonde is a hilariously fun movie that is actually a lot smarter than it seems on the surface. The good old fashioned “girl power” theme only goes so far, and the film really stands on it’s own by crafting Elle into an incredibly intelligent young woman who has just been squandering her real talents all along. Elle is forced through the meat grinder to actually stay on in law school, and you watch her character adapt and change to the realities of the world. Shes’ not only conquering the world in her own cheery way, but having to mature and change to come to her full potential. This was actually the first starring role of Reese Witherspoon’s career, and she stands out as a wonderfully charming lead character. Luckily she’s surrounded by talented actors with Luke Wilson and Victor Garber as the slightly stuffy Harvard good guys, while on the female side with have the hilarious Jennifer Coolidge (much more toned down than her “Stiffler’s Mom” character she was intended to play) as well as Selma Blair and Aly Larter (probably one of THE most beautiful blonde actresses alive today), all of which fit in so perfectly with the air and fun tone of the feel good movie.

Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde

Legally Blonde was a box office sensation in the Rom-Com category (making $96 million off of an $18 million budget) so it was only natural that a sequel would come from MGM. Well, fast forward a couple of years and the powers that be decided it was time. However, this was a case of too much too soon without any effort whatsoever. Writer Kate Kondell starting the film right after the first movie ended. Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) has just started her career at a prestigious Massachusetts law firm, and her fiancee Emmett (Luke Wilson) teaching at Harvard. Life is all dandy and bright with the world at her fingertips until Elle finds out about a tragedy worthy of her law skills. It seems that the mother of her Chihuahua Bruiser (yes, her mini yapper is named Bruiser) has been used for testing by a cosmetics company. Not believing it at first, Elle sends in a private detective to find out about the truth and is horrified at what she finds.

Filing a suit against the cosmetics company, Elle finds out that life isn’t all roses and pink outfits. You see, the cosmetics company is a major client for Elle’s law firm, and the firm doesn’t want to jeopardize their relationship with their client, and Elle ends up out on the street as a result of her impertinence (seriously? No wrongful termination law suit? This IS Massachusetts which is not a right to work state at the time). Elle refuses to give up though, instead of just giving in, Elle takes her designer outfits and handbags to Washington DC where she becomes a lobbyist for Rep. Victoria Rudd (Sally Field) and infuses her own “Bruiser Bill” to take away animal testing in Rep. Rudd’s own Bill that she’s working on.

What happens next is a train wreck of epic proportions as Elle tries to gain support for her Bill with other representatives, as well as learning the ways of Washington from her doorman (played by Bob Newhart). Honestly, as much as I loved Legally Blonde it really hurt to watch Legally Blonde 2. The film takes everything that was fun and exciting about the first movie and just crams it into a blender and spews it about the script like pureed dog food. The paper thin plot is literally half the depth of the first script, and is spread across 95 minutes like way too little butter on a large piece of toast. The film makers try their best to work with the razor thin plot, but nothing seems to work, as even Reese feels bored with the script and her charming excitement is at near boredom level.

It’s a sad thing to watch as Legally Blonde 2 was given a lot of good supporting actors like the first movie. Sally Field, Bob Newhart, Octavia Spencer in a cameo role (who was nominated in the Oscars for her work in Green Book) and quite a few others grace the screen. Sadly they appear to wander about on screen like lost dogs and the film just kind of sputters out in the end with a ridiculous ending that had me in tears (both laughter AT the movie, and literal pain).




Rated PG-13 by the MPAA (Both)




Video:

Legally Blonde
Now the real stand out of the entire presentation is naturally the new transfer from Shout Factory. According to sources Shout Factory has gone back to the original negative and produced a new 4K master for this particular release. Comparing from my MGM Blu-ray this new transfer is a solid step up (I give the original transfer a 4/5 rating), with stronger colors, crisper details and a cleaner look without speckles and print related issues that the older Blu-ray had a few issues with. Director Robert Luketic mentions in one of the special features that he was going for a pop art look for the film, and it does have that overly brightened, bubblegum pink pop look to it that the movie was famous for. Bright colors abound, with tons and TONS of pink (Elle loves pink, and supposedly goes through 57 different costume changes throughout the movie, most containing some form of pink). The details are well defined, with intimate facial and clothing details standing out, and the print seems to have no signs of damage of speckles anywhere. Blacks are deep and inky and shadow details is exquisite. I DID notice a few bits of banding in the indoor Harvard sequences, but those are fleeting and fairly inconsequential.



Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde
Unlike the first movie, Legally Blonde 2 is a direct port of the MGM disc’s 1.85:1 AVC encode from a few years back and that means a pretty painful viewing experience. The transfer is rather dated and looks like a DVD upconvert at times, with a horribly filtered presentation that lacks any grain structure as a result, and is a smooth mess. Lines appear throughout the film at random, as do speckles and popping flecks that come and go. Details are ok, but the smearing and smoothness of the filtering really don’t go well with high definition and the comparison to the older DVD is pretty valid as I can barely noticed any increase in clarity or textures. Colors are bright and PINK (did I say pink?), with a decent amount of pop, but darks can be a bit washed out and soft.




Audio:

Legally Blonde
Shout Factory supplies both discs with a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track as well as the typical down mixed 2.0 DTS-HD MA tracks to enjoy. The 5.1 mix for Legally Blonde may be a direct port in some ways from the MGM disc, but I noticed upon closer inspection that Shout Factory re-encoded the track with a higher bitrate. I personally couldn’t tell any appreciable difference from my old MGM Blu-ray, but it does give a sort of “cushion” for any weak spots in the mix that might have stemmed from the lower bitrate. Vocals are clean and clear, and the songs come through with authority. LFE is pretty mild except to accentuate things like a gavel slamming down in a court proceeding, or the bass of a song, but overall this a very well done track that does everything asked of it.


Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde
The 5.1 DTS-HD MA primary mix for the film is solid enough, and really a generally pleasing track. There’s nothing that really stands out for the mix, but it is done well with good dialog, crisp and clean surround channels, and a decent amount of power with the low end during the “Million Dog March on Washington” section, as well as some of the songs. It’s not going to overly wow the audience, but the ambiance is full, and the overall mix does everything asked of it without question.






Extras:

Legally Blonde
• BRAND NEW 4K REMASTER OF THE FILM STRUCK FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
• NEW Interview With Actor Jessica Cauffiel
• Audio Commentary With Director Robert Luketic, Actor Reese Witherspoon, And Producer Marc Platt
• Audio Commentary With Costume Designer Sophie de Rakoff Carbonell, Production Designer Melissa Stewart, Director Of Photography Anthony B. Richmond, Screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz And Kirsten Smith, And Animal Trainer Sue Chipperton
• Deleted Scenes
• Inside Legally Blonde
• The Hair That Ate Hollywood
• Hoku: "Perfect Day" Music Video
• Theatrical Trailer

Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde
• NEW Interview With Actor Jessica Cauffiel
• Audio Commentary With Actors Jennifer Coolidge, Jessica Cauffiel, And Alanna Ubach
• Blonde Ambition
• Stars and Stripes, Never!
• Elle's Anthem
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel
• Leann Rimes: "We Can" Music Video
• Hair Apparent
• Puppy Love
• Pretty In Pink
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

As a Legally Blonde fan, we all know that the only reason to buy a collection of both films is for the first movie. And in the case with THIS collection, it’s to upgrade to the new 4K remaster for said first film. I unabashedly love Legally Blonde and can quote the movie almost as well as my wife can, but fans of the movie are near unanimous in their hatred for the second film. It’s a movie that just never should have existed (and for some reason we’re getting a Legally Blonde 3 according to Reese Witherspoon) and the transfer has NOT held up at all over the years. Shout Factory did a fantastic job with the 4K master for the first movie, but without major work the the second one will always look like a turd, which slightly tarnishes the collection. Recommending an upgrade for those who have only the first film, or even the second film is a bit tough as the only difference is the new 4K master for the first film and a lone interview from actress Jessica Cauffiel in the extras department. That new 4K master really is nice though, so if you’re a die hard fan of the series I would recommend the upgrade, but for casual viewers it will be a tough sell. Either way, the collection is still a blast to watch just for the first movie alone.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Luke Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Matthew Davis, Victor Garber, Sally Field, Regina King, Jennifer Coolidge, Bruce McGill, Dana Ivey
Directed by Robert Luketic / Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
Written by: Kristen Smith, Karen McCullah (Screenplay), Amanda Brown (Novel) / Kate Kondell
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 AVC / 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: Spanish: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: PG-13 (Both)
Runtime: 96 Minutes / 95 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: February 26th, 2019

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Solid Watch

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[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I also liked the first legally Blonde movie. Will check it out.