She's Out of My League

Humans have been over-analyzing love, dating, and sex since the dawn of time. Perhaps the most unintelligent of all systems for measuring a person is the 1 to 10 scale.

Kirk (Jay Baruchel) is a solid five on this erroneous scale as concocted by his friend Stainer (T.J. Miller). Kirk has low self-esteem, no rippling muscles, is constantly apologizing, and drives a rundown Neon. It's safe to say he isn't going to be dating anyone above the five to seven range. That is until Molly (Alice Eve) comes along.

Kirk is a TSA representative at the local Pittsburgh Airport. Stainer, and two other friends, Jack and Devon work there as well. Molly, who is a perfect 10 on the scale, saunters into the airport with all male eyes glued to her. She's nice and sincere. Cute smile, friendly. Nothing like many of the stuck up pretty girls you see in movies nowadays. After Kirk saves her from being more "thoroughly" searched by his horny boss, Molly thanks him and leaves. Thing is, Molly forgot her phone at the security checkpoint. Kirk volunteers to bring it to her when she returns from her travels.

As for Molly, she's been burned before by the pretty guys. She's always dated people who are the exact opposite of Kirk, so in what amounts to an act of desperation on her part she decides to try and date a guy like him, because he's "safe."

When Stainer finds out about the relationship, the rules of the scale come into full swing. Turns out there are all sorts of guidelines and exemptions for adding and subtracting points. Poor Kirk is so low on himself that he believes everything his friends tell him. Only Devon, played by Nate Torrence ('Get Smart') assures Kirk that he's a 10 also.

'She's Out of My League' is a raunchy comedy in the Apatow vein. It's got a sweet message, it's full of heart, but it also has the expected raunchy laughs.

Jay Baruchel has been in a few Apatow productions (Editor's Note: Check out the short-lived, but fantastic "Undeclared!"), but never as the main guy. He was great as a side character in 'Knocked Up,' but here he's given a chance to show some of his acting chops. Like Michael Cera or Jesse Eisenberg, Baruchel is a mumbler, but somehow it's endearing. He's what I imagine Steve Buscemi would have been like as a teenager. Alice Eve, who plays Molly, isn't just there for eye candy. It's nice to see the obligatory "hot girl" also play an emotional role. Even though most of us would do a double-take if we say a guy like Kirk and a girl like Molly walking down the street, these two actors make this relationship seem plausible, even genuine.

'She's Out of My League' is a sweet comedy about the moronic things humans do when trying to figure out love. It's got a lot of hilarious moments, and romantic comedy clichés like inane misunderstandings and cardboard characters are sidestepped each time they present themselves. It's great to see a film about love that doesn't settle for the same old formula. Even the great chase to catch true love before it gets away is given a nice twist. 'She's Out of My League' has been able to take a tired genre and give it it's own originality and charm.

Paramount's 1080p AVC-encoded transfer, framed in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio is just slightly above average.

For the most part the video is consistently sharp, with only a few moments of softness. Fleshtones take on a minor orange tint. The warm palette of colors used here looks great. Fine details are nicely rendered, textures, fabrics, and hair are clearly visible and their intricate detailing is easily seen. Facial detail on the other hand takes on a very flat and soft appearance. A diffusion filter was likely used for a few shots, especially ones involving Molly as the presentation takes on a dream like effect with warm light halos surrounding characters. This may be the cause of the lack of facial detail. Blacks are great, no bad instances of crushing to report. Abnormalities and technical anomalies are no where to be seen. The transfer is clear of specks and blips as far as I could tell. It's a nice looking transfer for the film's genre, but it isn't going to amaze any videophiles out there.

Like the video presentation the sound presented here is equally average, but nothing to get overly excited about.

Paramount's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack gives us an adequate sound stage for this raunchy rom-com. Dialogue is low at times, especially the opening scene. You may have to turn up the volume a little to hear what Baruchel is saying, but right after he's done an airplane flies overhead rattling the sound system. It's an odd change from quiet dialogue to roaring jet engines, and it makes it hard to know where to calibrate your volume settings. Baruchel likes to mumble, it's just the way he is. His dialogue can be hard to hear at times. T.J. Miller on the other hand likes to yell almost every line he has, so he's really easy to understand. The dialogue is all over the place, it's really hard to find a happy medium. With the musical soundtrack, containing some great "Hall and Oats" music, is nicely balanced. LFE is given ample room to work its magic during party scenes and scenes with planes taking off. Surround sound is nicely prioritized giving us a good idea of what it's like to be in a crowded airport, or party at a nightclub.

'She's Out of My League' gives itself a satisfactory audio presentation to tell its story, it just would have been nice to have better dialogue prioritization.

• Audio Commentary (HD, 18 min.) – Director Jim Field Smith gives a smooth, but ultimately skip-worthy audio commentary. It would've been nice to see Baruchell and Miller join the fray. Smith's smooth British accent makes it easy to listen, but it's pretty much your straight forward commentary without much fun seeing that it's only one person.
  
• Devon's Dating Show (HD, 7 min.) – The best feature on here by far. Still in character, Devon (Nate Torrence) and Kirk's bonehead brother Dylan (Kyle Bornheimer) give dating tips. Devon is the consummate gentleman while Dylan is the chauvinistic moron you'd meet at a NASCAR race eating Slim Jims and wearing a beer helmet. After watching the movie, go straight to this feature. It's really funny.
  
• Blooper Reel (HD, 6 min.) – Typical blooper reel with laughing actors, flubs, and mess ups.
  
• Deleted Scenes (HD, 4 min.) – There are four deleted scenes in all, plus an extra ending that was going to be used in the movie, but was cut because Smith felt it would detract from the entire movie we just watched. Still it's a pretty funny alternative. All the scenes are available with commentary from Smith who gives good, insightful reasons for why things were cut. Thank goodness they cut the "cat story."
  

I really liked 'She's Out of My League.' I must admit that when I saw the previews I was skeptical. Just another filmmaker looking like he wants to make a quick buck by capitalizing on the sweet but raunchy Apatowian story. While it does use those movies as a starting point, 'She's Out of My League' goes its own way, using its characters for more than just dirty jokes. It's a funny movie, yes, but it can also be tender and touching when it needs to be. The video and the audio are both average at best, but I wasn't expecting anything that would knock me off my couch. With a small, but funny collection of special features, I would give a recommendation to anyone to see this when they can.