Reno 911!: Miami appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Though the transfer could look very good, it lacked consistency.
All of the issues related to sharpness. Much of the time the movie looked nicely distinct and accurate. However, more than a few shots became rather tentative and fuzzy. There was no rhyme or reason at work here, but the frequent appearance of ill-defined images led to distractions. No jagged edges appeared, but I noticed some shimmering and a little edge enhancement. No source flaws materialized, as the movie stayed clean.
Colors became a strong element. With the dynamic Miami setting, the flick offered a lot of vivid hues. The DVD replicated these well and gave us lots of vibrant tones. Blacks seemed deep and firm, while shadows were smooth and clear. Really, much of the transfer seemed very good, but the soft spots knocked my grade down to a “B-“.
A few inconsistencies also affected the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Reno 911!: Miami, though it generally worked well. The main issues related to speech, which could be somewhat rough and brittle. The lines always remained intelligible, though, and they seemed reasonably natural much of the time.
The rest of the track sounded very good. Music was lively and dynamic, and effects followed the same path. Those elements showed nice clarity as well as solid low-end response.
Though the soundfield wasn’t especially involving, it opened up matters in a useful manner. Music offered very good stereo imaging, while effects broadened across the spectrum. Much of the movie stayed with general atmosphere, but a few sequences became more active. We got scenes with cars, helicopters and an exploding whale to open up the track and use the surrounds. Overall, this was a perfectly acceptable mix.
As we shift to the extras, we find a whopping three separate audio commentaries. The first presents director/writer Robert Ben Garant and writers Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver, all of whom sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion. They give us a light overview of the production with plenty of humor along the way. We find info about cast, characters and performances, the loose nature of the project and improvisation, sets and locations, and various tidbits from the shoot.
The commentary offers a nice combination of facts and fun. All three provide a lot of amusing remarks, and they interact very well. That doesn’t mean the track is a non-stop yukfest without any depth. Instead, it mixes the two sides to give us a decent glimpse of the production and entertaining cracks. It’s an enjoyable chat.
The next two tracks include “in character” commentaries. One features Lt. Dangle, Deputy Junior, Deputy Wiegel and Deputy Williams, while the second includes Deputy Garcia, Deputy Johnson, Deputy Jones and Deputy Kimball. Both offer similar material as the actors watch the flick in character and react to it as thought the events actually happened. Of course, they bring a tongue-in-cheek attitude to the proceedings, so expect some remarks that reflect their understanding of the unreality involved.
This sort of chat can be painful to listen to, but these prove pretty enjoyable. Of the two, the first one works the best. It goes off onto a number of bizarre but hilarious tangents that make it consistently hilarious. The track with Garcia and the others has its moments, but it’s much more screen-specific and doesn’t have nearly as many clever, witty bits. Both are worth a listen, but I definitely prefer the one with Dangle and the rest; it’s hilarious.
Six Extended Scenes fill a total of one hours, seven minutes and 45 seconds. We find “Wiegel and Dangle In Hotel” (6:46), “Whale on the Beach” (11:26), “Terry’s Jet” (3:39), “Cruise Ship Terminal” (1:23), “Spoder’s House” (20:52) and “Bus Ride” (23:39). The first four aren’t terribly interesting, as they don’t give us anything special compared to what we see in the final flick. At least “Whale” shows more of Irina Voronina and her spectacular breasts.
As for the two long clips, however, they prove quite entertaining. Essentially these are long, uncut reels that let us take a ringside view of the improvisational process. “House” is very amusing, largely due to Mindy Sterling’s great performance as Spoder’s mom. She and Patton Oswalt interact wonderfully to make this more amusing than anything in the released flick. “Bus” isn’t quite as good, but it’s still pretty solid. Honestly, I had a lot more fun with these than I did with Miami itself.
The first four clips can be viewed with or without commentary from Lennon, Garant and Kenney-Silver. They tell us a little about the clips and throw in more funny remarks. They make their commentary enjoyable as always.
Under Public Service Announcements we get four clips that run a total of four minutes, 36 seconds. These apparently ran as teasers prior to some summer 2006 movies. Since X-Men 3 comes up a lot, I’d guess some of them cropped up before its screenings, though I kinda doubt the exceedingly profane “Shut the Fuck Up” ran in front of the “PG-13” movie. Anyway, these act to “warn us” about various illegal or rude behaviors and are pretty funny.
Fox Movie Channel Presents World Premiere lasts five minutes, eight seconds. As implied by the title, we go to the movie’s Hollywood premiere. The actors come to the event all in character, which makes it more interesting than the usual promotional piece.
The DVD opens with an ad for Epic Movie. The set also includes trailers for Miami, Family Guy and Grandma’s Boy.
I wanted to like Reno 911!: Miami and I expected to like it, but I didn’t. Monotonous, moronic and mostly unfunny, the movie fails to show the series’ strong points and suffers only from its weaknesses. The DVD presents decent picture and audio along with a really fun collection of extras. Though I didn’t care for the movie, I’d have to recommend this disc to Reno 911! fans just for the supplements; they’re so entertaining that they overcome the flaws of the flick itself.
