Mystic Pizza (Blu-ray)
Nathan Swank
May 5th, 2011
Sometimes a film doesn’t really become popular until the stars hit it big. Julia Roberts is arguably one of the biggest movie stars Hollywood has ever seen but before she made it big in PRETTY WOMAN and STEEL MAGNOLIAS she starred in a little film called MYSTIC PIZZA. I wouldn’t go so far to say it became popular but it definitely became of notoriety following the success of Miss Roberts. Julia co-stars with Lili Taylor and Annabeth Gish in a story essentially about three young girls working at a pizza place in Mystic, Connecticut and their encounters with love.
Daisy (Roberts) is an outgoing troublemaker playing by her own rules. She falls for a guy much like her but with lots of money rebelling against his upper class parents. Her sister Kat (Gish) is responsible and smart with goals to attend Yale the following year studying Astronomy. After taking a second job as a nanny, Kat unexpectedly develops a crush on a married man that progresses a little too far. Their best friend Jojo (Taylor) is a ball of emotional energy that leaves her man, played by a young Vincent D’Onofrio, at the altar in fear of things changing once married. Despite the two still being in love and to his begrudging, Jojo refuses to commit to matrimony.
Many people might become nostalgic when remembering MYSTIC PIZZA and find it to be a sweet film from the late 1980’s. Unfortunately, I never saw the film until I received this Blu-ray copy to review and I found it to be completely outdated, boring and full of stereotypical moving making fluff.
The production quality isn’t the best with bad electrical guitar sounds in ballad form that would be more fitting for an elevator rather than a film score. The dialogue is mindlessly hokey at times. Kat says one sentence then promptly proclaims she’s babbling. Her boss offers her the sweater off his back rather than provide the countless warm clothing throughout his home everywhere around them. These are lazy scenarios that have the makings to induce smiles of sweetness but unlike other light-hearted comedies never quite earn the right to embrace the silliness with an engaging story and original character responses. Personally I believe the film could have benefited with more time spent in the actual pizza shop that inspired the title.
At first I thought maybe I’m being too harsh on this dated film but when comparing MYSTIC PIZZA with popular John Hughes teen movies from the same era this fails miserably. However, the film isn’t downright terrible. It has its charm at moments but nothing quite worth recommending. A few positives are: the three girls are likable especially Lilly Taylor’s exuberant performance, a brief appearance and single line from a boy named Matt Damon and absolutely delicious looking pizza that prompted me to call in an order of my own cheesy Italian pie as soon as the film finished.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: (Widescreen 1.85:1) There are still quite a few scenes that look grainy but it’s still better quality than the original. The colors appear muted and flat.
Audio: (English 2.0 DTS-HD MA) Although it’s not the best audio recording to begin with, everyone is heard.
Trailer
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