I will admit up front that I have very mixed feelings concerning Jim Carrey, There are times I really enjoy his work in films and other times, I don’t, finding him to be a total bore and very predictable. For the most part, I normally find myself in the latter category, as Mr. Carrey often times seems unable to rein himself in. Too much Jim Carrey is not often a good thing. Which brings us to Yes Man. Which Jim Carry will show up in this picture? Surprisingly, the good Jim Carrey although the film itself is utterly predictable.

Film

Yes Man stars Jim Carrey as Carl Allen, a bank loan officer who has gone through a divorce. He no longer seems able to enjoy himself and seems to say no to everyone, whether it is declining bank loans for good and bad credit risks and close friends who want to invite him out for dinner. He seems to be unable to say yes to anything and seems to stay at home all the time feeling sorry for himself and renting movies all in an effort to avoid all unnecessary human contact.

One day, along comes a former bank client who invites him to a seminar conducted by a self help guru whose mantra is to say yes to everything, no matter how stupid. The guru gets Carl to agree to say yes to every request until they meet again and by doing so, he will lead a much happier life. He starts out by saying yes to everything, from a homeless man requesting a ride to the park and requesting all of his cash, to everyone with a half baked idea for a business or product who comes into his bank for a loan, to every TV infomercial, to bungee jumping, to learning Korean and to penis enlargement scams. Yes he says yes to them all. Not surprisingly, when he does so, things start to improve for him.  He meets a girl (Zooey Deschannel) and falls in love. Even his ex-wife takes notice of the new Carl and begins to look at him in a different light. Also, not surprisingly, it gets himself into some serious trouble.

While the film does have some humorous moments, there just aren’t enough of them. I found the film to be utterly predictable and formulaic, with each twist and turn being able to be seen from a mile away. My issue with the film does not involve Mr. Carrey who is pleasant enough in his role as Carl Allen, but the script itself. The concept of the film is a good one but is not executed well enough to really keep you actively engaged during the film. I will admit, my mind kept wandering away during the film which is never a good thing. If you are looking for a mindless comedy for a Friday or Saturday night, you might find Yes Man to fit the bill. However, I can’t recommend this film as a buy. Rated as a rental only.

Video

Frankly, there is a lot to like about this encode. The film features a fairly natural looking color palette and decent looking black level. In fact, I would rate each of the various elements that I look at in rating video as good. Good and well saturated color, good blacks, good detail and good detail. However, in none of these levels does Yes Man excel, hence the score. It falls short in each of these categories from the better looking films I have seen on Blu-ray. The film lacks the fine facial and background details and utter three dimensionality of the best looking films. I am sure that if you rent this film, you will be pleased overall by the look of this film, even though it falls short of reference quality on every level. However, for a rental, I can live with that.

Audio

As was the case with the video, the word that came to mind to describe the audio here was good as well. Good but nothing spectacular. A lossless audio track is presented (Dolby True HD) which is how I viewed the film. My main issue with the audio here is the lack of a sense of immersion. While presented with a 5.1 mix, the surrounds, while engaged during the entire film, were engaged at such a low level as to be almost non existent. While sound emanates from the surrounds, it is faint enough that your aural attention remains fixed on the front three speakers throughout the film. I guess for a comedy, that is not a serious flaw and not unexpected.

However, I am of the mind that all film mixes should provide an immersive sound field as that is what we experience in real life. In this regard, this audio encode is surely lacking. However, the rest of the audio is just fine, with a well recorded and presented dialogue track and a smooth and open sound, with good imaging and transparency, although lacking the side to side and front to back depth of the best sounding encodes. I found dynamics to be no better than average with a good bass response as evidenced on the musical score. While I have issues with the overall sound design, the quality of the audio that is presented here is good enough and pleasing enough to warrant a score of 4 out of 5, but just barely.

Special Features

This release contains several extras, most of which are of the garden variety that we have come to expect on DVD as well as Blu-Ray. These extras include a gag reel and 5 full length Munchausen by Proxy music videos showcasing the musical talents of Zooey Deschanel and the Von Iva band.

Included is the featurette Down Time on the Set of Yes Man featuring Jim Carrey improvising with the cast, crew and director Peyton Reed as well as the featurette Extreme Yes Man which details all of the stunts featured in the film. Also included is Future Sounds: Munchausen by Proxy, which explores the story behind the formation of Carl’s girlfriend Allison’s band, Munchausen By Proxy, featuring the real San Francisco based band, Von Iva.

Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is the featurette On Set with Danny Wallace: The Original Yes Man which features a behind the scenes tour with Danny Wallace as he interacts with the cast and crew. Also included is the Yes Man party Central where comedian Rhys Darby gives us a tour of his apartment in full Harry Potter dress, Say Yes! To Red Bull, where Jim Carrey brings method acting while chugging Red Bull as well as the BD-Live exclusive Yes Loans which takes place after tie time line of the video where the character Norman performs commercials pitching his new business. The film also comes with a digital copy that it compatible with Macs and PCs.

Final Thoughts

A mildly humorous film, Yes Man features good audio and video that falls a good bit short of reference quality. Rated as a rental only.