Why So Blu?

Mystic Pizza (Blu-ray Review)

With the release of the 1988 romantic comedy, Mystic Pizza, onto Blu-ray it must have been obvious that I was of course the one member of Why So Blu who was meant to cover it.  Ok, so maybe that’s not quite the case, but I did receive it and I did watch it, so an appropriate review is going to be provided.  Having not seen Mystic Pizza before, I was at the very least intrigued by a film that had a younger Julia Roberts, before she was a much bigger star and seemed more like an actress and less like a movie star.  I also like the rest of the cast, so maybe a high definition version of a simple rom-com would be nice for a viewing.

Film:

Mystic Pizza is about two sisters, Daisy and Kat (Julia Robert and Annabeth Gish), and their best friend Jojo (Lili Taylor).  The three of them live in Mystic, Connecticut and work at a pizza parlor known as “Mystic Pizza”.  The film begins at the wedding ceremony between Jojo and her boyfriend Bill (Vincent D’Onofrio), which only results in Jojo realizing she’s not ready for marriage and passing out during the whole ordeal.  The rest of the film essentially provides a window into the love lives of these women over a particular period of time, as they all find themselves in some new romantic situations.  Jojo continues to be in love with Bill, with whom she desires to be more intimate with, despite Bill’s religious-based decision to wait until after they are married.  Meanwhile, Daisy, who flaunts herself around as the sexy one of the three, has found interest in the eye of the wealthy Charles (Adam Storke), who has some of his own issues.  Finally, Kat, who is the most sensible of the three, also finds herself in a precarious situation, as she begins to develop feelings for the man she is doing babysitting work for, has similar interests, and has gone to Harvard University, where Kat is planning on going in the near future.  The film follows these three as they work things out, bond with each other, and come into their own as young adults.

Mystic Pizza is very easy to stomach.  The film has the kind of place in my eye (as a first time viewer) where I could see certain people either loving it for what it is and keeping a copy within their collection or passing it off as entertaining, but forgettable.  To me, there is nothing about this film that I could really grasp onto as something more than just simple story elements to move things forward; however, there is nothing that I really disliked about what the film was trying to do.  The three actresses are obviously the stars of the show and I appreciated each of them for what they had to offer.  The characters that they are supposed to be portraying are all clear and well handled, while also providing a level of sincerity and wit to the proceedings.  I also appreciated what the male performances brought to this film.  For clearly being a chick flick, I never found the film to be pandering to any particular audience, just accepting of what it was and going with it.

It is rare that I am this brief when writing about a film and its merits, but I honestly do not think I have much else to offer.  The actors are all fine, the story is decent enough to be entertaining throughout, and the film is harmless enough as a whole to ward off whatever detractions I may have had if I decided to prod deeper.  Mystic Pizza has a warm enough heart, which makes for nicely handled characters, nice comedic moments, when necessary, and an acceptable amount of drama to keep things interesting.  Some may be more inclined to love and cherish this film more than I will, but I have given the film a fair shake, and while I probably won’t revisit it anytime soon, Mystic Pizza accomplishes what it sets out to do.

Video:  

The short summary of the Blu-ray’s picture transfer quality is that the movie looks good enough in HD.  Porting over Mystic Pizza to high definition has not made the film look fantastic; it just simply looks manageable, which is in no way a bad thing.  I was not expecting a great level of care to be taken in making the transfer of this film be anything revolutionary, but it gets the job done.  Texture qualities and black levels look fine enough, but nothing necessarily pops out to make me appreciate the quality look of the film any more than I had to.

Audio: 

Again, decent quality audio track, which supports the viewing of the film.  There is a DTS-HD Master Audio two channel lossless track for the film, although it is not a surround track.  The dialogue was all clear enough, music sounded fine, and the whole thing felt spread out enough, without any mixing issues that were any more noticeable than they could have been.  It is tough to really delve into the average nature of a disc’s quality, such as this one, but that is the case here.  I could hear the audio in this film well enough, so there you have it.  The disc also includes a Spanish Dolby surround track and a French mono track.

Special Features: 

That was some trailer that they included on the disc…

Final Thoughts: 

I guess I should note that this Blu-ray is perfectly acceptable for any fan of the film or has interest in films like it and would not mind picking this up.  It would be an easy recommendation if it were not for the lack of any sort of special features.  I found this film to be comfortable in its own shoes, which is an easy way of saying that it is forgettable entertainment for the type of film that it is, but it is also leagues better than many studio produced romantic comedies that continue to come out.  I found everything about the disc to be decent enough (given the lack of special features) and the film was charming enough to have me enjoy it.  If one already owned Mystic Pizza on DVD, I would probably hang on to that copy, but the Blu-ray is still acceptable enough for those looking to pick it up.

Pick up your copy of Mystic Pizza here: