The Angriest Man in Brooklyn Blu-ray Review
Mathew Plale
August 17th, 2014
Henry Altmann sits in traffic with a smug look on his face. He has a long list of things he hates (from The Weather Channel to the subwoofers), which he probably adds to every morning. When he’s hit by a taxi, he lays into the driver with a tirade about the key differences between red, yellow and green.
Henry (Robin Williams, DEAD POETS SOCIETY) has had better days, like those playing soccer and blowing bubbles with his wife and kids in the park. But now his wife, Bette (Melissa Leo, PRISONERS), is fooling around with another man, his only surviving boy has lost respect for him and his brother, Aaron (Peter Dinklage, HBO’s GAME OF THRONES), has found him quite annoying as of late.
To top it off, he’s been waiting two hours in the doctor’s office. He ridicules the doctor, Sharon Gil (Mila Kunis, THIRD PERSON), for her age, and shows no patience for her requests. She alerts him that he has a brain aneurysm that could lead to a stroke. He demands answers and won’t let up. “How long do I have?” he screams. “How long? Give me a number. I’m not leaving here until I get a number!” In a sudden burst, Sharon spouts the first answer she sees on the front of a magazine: “Ninety minutes.” He puts up a big game, but considers, What if? And so he hits the streets looking to reconcile with the ones he’s wronged, and the list is about as long as the one with his pet peeves. So, too, does Sharon, who wants to correct her error.
The plot of THE ANGRIEST MAN IN BROOKLYN is a strong one that is meant to make the viewer leaving the theater (or their couch, as the movie was released VOD the same day as theaters) think, What if I only had ninety minutes to live? and Would I even want to know when I was going to die? But it doesn’t, because the screenplay (by Daniel Taplitz, adapting the 1997 Israeli film THE 92 MINUTES OF MR. BAUM), just isn’t deep enough and really has no idea what it wants to be—some moments are downright mean, while others are overly schmaltzy. There are a number of approaches that could have been taken, but this uneven mixture tends to leave the viewer indifferent to the whole thing. (Perhaps it needed the sort of tamed sappiness that director Phil Alden Robinson’s most famous work, FIELD OF DREAMS, had, which actually made the audience care?)
One of the biggest issues with THE ANGRIEST MAN IN BROOKLYN is the casting of Robin Williams. Williams has played the man who gets life-altering news (as seen in 2009’s WORLD’S GREATEST DAD, in which he portrayed a single father whose son commits suicide), which may have played a part in his landing the role, but it’s difficult to buy him as a jerk. This works to Williams’ advantage in interviews and the like, but it hurts the movie significantly. Robin Williams was truly one of the great comedians of all time, but THE ANGRIEST MAN IN BROOKLYN is not the film he’ll be remembered for.
THE ANGRIEST MAN IN BROOKLYN BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: 1.85:1 in 1080p with MPEG-4 AVC codec. The video quality on this Blu-ray is solid and features fine details and accurate colors.
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Subtitles in English and Spanish. The audio is also without any significant flaws and features clean dialogue and atmospheric sounds.
The Making of THE ANGRIEST MAN IN BROOKLYN (6:17): This standard promotional piece features clips and interviews (with director Phil Alden Robinson, star Mila Kunis and more) to provide a brief overview of the movie’s production.
Gag Reel (2:51)
UltraViolet
[fbcomments]
