Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (UK - DVD R2)
Bridget Jones is back with a brand new diary and, presumably some comical misundestandings. Cuddling up on the sofa with a pot of ...
Evolving from a series of newspaper columns into a novel, Bridget Jones's Diary took the publishing world by storm when it was released in 1997. Helen Fielding's thirty-something heroine was a woman with two main goals in life: find a man and lose some weight. The book seemed to capture the imagination of modern women for, in 2001, Hollywood came calling. The movie, starring Renée Zellweger in the title role, was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic and, it would appear the producers weren't prepared to let a good thing die as a sequel arrived in 2004. For those that missed it at the cinema, the DVD is here…

Film
Six weeks after the events of the first film, Bridget is still very happy. She’s got her man, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), and things couldn’t be peachier. However, our protagonist grows increasingly suspicious that Mark might just be having after work relations with his secretary and, several misunderstandings later, the couple have split.
And right away we’ve run into a bit of a problem. Good sequels ( The Empire Strikes Back, The Godfather Part Two to name two hand-wrapped examples) exist primarily to continue the prequel’s story; embellishing the characters and their relationships. Bad sequels, meanwhile, such as Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, settle on just telling the same story all over again.
Once more, we’re expected to question whether Mark and Bridget will be united by the end credits. The fact that this question is a no-brainer means that it is hard to care about anything or anyone in this movie. To look at the basic narrative, we’ve got a bunch of characters that, after 108 minutes of runtime, are in exactly the same position as they started. They haven’t actually leant anything because all of the misunderstandings came from contrived, and not particularly funny, set-pieces. Despite the claims that this is a film which tells us what happens ‘after the happy ending’, a lack of emotion throughout means that this is pretty hollow. This is a sequel for the ‘sake of a sequel’. The writers, including Love Actually scribe Richard Curtis, have decided to rest on their laurels and simply give us more of the same, disguised as something resembling originality.

To return to the story, Bridget decides that the only way she can get over Mark is to go on a reporting assignment in Thailand. Accompanying her is old flame, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). Ignoring the fact that Bridget learnt that Cleaver was a chauvinist pig in the earlier movie, his reappearance is supposedly to make Bridget question her relationship with Mark. Perhaps a better idea would be for the writers to introduce a new love-interest but, of course, that would mean that the ever-popular Grant would be surplus to sequel requirements. Admittedly, it’s usually fun watching Grant in his less stereotypical roles (see About a Boy for a shining example) but here he’s given precious little to do. In fact, his only purpose seems to be to illustrate just how fickle/stupid Bridget is. She’s only too willing to jump back into bed with him when such an opportunity arises. It's only when Cleaver's 'nice bloke' facade so blatantly slips that Bridget reconsiders.
Running a few minutes shy of two hours, you might assume that there's a wealth of comedy and story in this film. Alas, the story is not worth the post-it note it was scribbled upon, mainly because our two main characters profess their love for each other in the thirtieth minute, and then irritate us by squabbling for the next eighty. As for the comedy set-pieces; they’re both original and good. Unfortunately, the bits that are original aren't good, and the bits that are good aren't original...
Remember the bit in the first film when Bridget, dressed in Fire-fighter garb, gave a film crew a good look at her bottom as she slid down a pole? Well, here it is again, except now she’s wearing a parachute. How about the part of Diary where Mark and Daniel had a rather pathetic fight in the street? It’s here too, but -wow- now they’re in a park instead! And of course, there's that old standby of sticking Bridget in a funny costume and/or having her fall over. The secret to Box Office Gold, it would appear.
For what it’s worth, Zellwegger tries to rise above the material but never quite succeeds in rekindling the audience’s love for the character. While once she was lovably ditzy, here’s she just a buffoon; single-handedly creating all of the problems in her life, and then relying on her Prince Charming to come to the rescue. It’s unusual to find such an overtly anti-feminist film masquerading as a romcom.

This is film-making at its most shallow; a wholly cynical attempt to reheat the old dish and serve it under the pretence that it's something new and exciting. While it's a nice reunion of all of the cast members of the first film, they're not accompanied by decent writing; something which is far more important. Instead we have a lack of laughs and a meandering plot.
To be fair, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a watchable piece of fluff. It's never terrible but it is by-the-numbers film making. And it certainly makes the original look like a classic in comparison.
Video
Quite a surprise, this. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is presented with an unsatisfying transfer that gives the effect of a grittily realistic drama as opposed to a glossy romantic comedy. The colours are muted throughout and there's a distinctly large amount of grain visible for much of the runtime. While it's generally well-defined with a nice amount of sharpness and clarity, it has to be said that the picture quality is disappointing.
Audio
Since this is a film which relies on its top forty pop soundtrack to set the mood of each scene, it's just as well that the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is up to standard. While the sound quality is never put under close scrutiny due to a lack of action, the dialogue is clear and the music is well-handled. Occasional tracks can be a little overpowering; drowning out the dialogue in the process. However, this is easily avoided by tweaking your surround settings.
Extras
The adjective ‘hilarious’ pops up far too frequently in Beeban Kidron's audio commentary. Kidron seems genuinely proud of the movie and, for those that are similarly oblivious to its faults, this chat-track should be worth a listen.

Kidron also pops up in the Deleted Scenes segment. Perhaps 'deleted sequences' is a more accurate term, as all four of them are fairly large chunks. 'Fox-Hunting' is yet another excuse to stick Bridget in a silly costume and have her fall over, but 'The Christening' is an interesting sequence which possesses emotion that was lacking in the final cut. Next up is 'Renoir Cinema', a scene which shows Bridget and Mark's slight irritation towards each other on a date and completing the quartet is 'Baby Fantasies' which should have made the grade in some kind of form as it's better than many of the laughs in the film.
Readers of the book on which the film is based may have been a little miffed to notice the absence of the novel's sequence in which the fictional heroine meets her idol; the real Colin Firth. In an introduction to this special feature, director Beeban Kidron explains that they initially intended to include the scene but eventually relented when they couldn't find a pleasing stand-in for Firth. Fortunately, they decide to film it with Firth playing himself and the result is of genuine interest. As a separate entity to the film, it can operate by its own logic and Firth and Zellwegger are obviously enjoying themselves. There are some funny lines as Bridget struggles to ask a question which isn't about Firth's role in the BBC's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
A growing complaint of high-profile releases is the need to have countless lightweight featurettes instead of one wide-ranging documentary. It's certainly a fault of this disc which covers multiple aspects but never in any depth. 'The Mini-break to Austria', 'Mark and Bridget Forever' and the 'Guide to Exotic Thailand' featurettes all stretch to around five minutes and are populated by footage and sound bites from the cast and crew. Even shorter is 'Lonely London', a CGI featurette which looks at a key sequence of the movie.
The Who's Your Man Quiz is one those interactive puzzles that frequent DVDs and are greeted with universal apathy. This one will apparently suss out who's your ideal man out of Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy. As a rather daft addition, it can also be played during the film, with the action paused after key-sequences.
Trailers complete the package. Although teasers for either of the Bridget Jones films are noticeable by their absence, Wimbledon, Meet the Fockers and Billy Elliot: The Musical are present and correct.

Overall
‘Same Bridget, same jokes’ would have been a more accurate tagline for this wholly unnecessary venture. The extras on this disc are fair and the presentation is reasonable, but the film itself is surely the weakest link. With the morbid curiosity that draws audiences to hyped up sequels, there's no doubt that this DVD will fly off the shelves. But here's hoping such an event does not encourage a part three.

Film
Six weeks after the events of the first film, Bridget is still very happy. She’s got her man, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), and things couldn’t be peachier. However, our protagonist grows increasingly suspicious that Mark might just be having after work relations with his secretary and, several misunderstandings later, the couple have split.
And right away we’ve run into a bit of a problem. Good sequels ( The Empire Strikes Back, The Godfather Part Two to name two hand-wrapped examples) exist primarily to continue the prequel’s story; embellishing the characters and their relationships. Bad sequels, meanwhile, such as Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, settle on just telling the same story all over again.
Once more, we’re expected to question whether Mark and Bridget will be united by the end credits. The fact that this question is a no-brainer means that it is hard to care about anything or anyone in this movie. To look at the basic narrative, we’ve got a bunch of characters that, after 108 minutes of runtime, are in exactly the same position as they started. They haven’t actually leant anything because all of the misunderstandings came from contrived, and not particularly funny, set-pieces. Despite the claims that this is a film which tells us what happens ‘after the happy ending’, a lack of emotion throughout means that this is pretty hollow. This is a sequel for the ‘sake of a sequel’. The writers, including Love Actually scribe Richard Curtis, have decided to rest on their laurels and simply give us more of the same, disguised as something resembling originality.

To return to the story, Bridget decides that the only way she can get over Mark is to go on a reporting assignment in Thailand. Accompanying her is old flame, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). Ignoring the fact that Bridget learnt that Cleaver was a chauvinist pig in the earlier movie, his reappearance is supposedly to make Bridget question her relationship with Mark. Perhaps a better idea would be for the writers to introduce a new love-interest but, of course, that would mean that the ever-popular Grant would be surplus to sequel requirements. Admittedly, it’s usually fun watching Grant in his less stereotypical roles (see About a Boy for a shining example) but here he’s given precious little to do. In fact, his only purpose seems to be to illustrate just how fickle/stupid Bridget is. She’s only too willing to jump back into bed with him when such an opportunity arises. It's only when Cleaver's 'nice bloke' facade so blatantly slips that Bridget reconsiders.
Running a few minutes shy of two hours, you might assume that there's a wealth of comedy and story in this film. Alas, the story is not worth the post-it note it was scribbled upon, mainly because our two main characters profess their love for each other in the thirtieth minute, and then irritate us by squabbling for the next eighty. As for the comedy set-pieces; they’re both original and good. Unfortunately, the bits that are original aren't good, and the bits that are good aren't original...
Remember the bit in the first film when Bridget, dressed in Fire-fighter garb, gave a film crew a good look at her bottom as she slid down a pole? Well, here it is again, except now she’s wearing a parachute. How about the part of Diary where Mark and Daniel had a rather pathetic fight in the street? It’s here too, but -wow- now they’re in a park instead! And of course, there's that old standby of sticking Bridget in a funny costume and/or having her fall over. The secret to Box Office Gold, it would appear.
For what it’s worth, Zellwegger tries to rise above the material but never quite succeeds in rekindling the audience’s love for the character. While once she was lovably ditzy, here’s she just a buffoon; single-handedly creating all of the problems in her life, and then relying on her Prince Charming to come to the rescue. It’s unusual to find such an overtly anti-feminist film masquerading as a romcom.

This is film-making at its most shallow; a wholly cynical attempt to reheat the old dish and serve it under the pretence that it's something new and exciting. While it's a nice reunion of all of the cast members of the first film, they're not accompanied by decent writing; something which is far more important. Instead we have a lack of laughs and a meandering plot.
To be fair, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a watchable piece of fluff. It's never terrible but it is by-the-numbers film making. And it certainly makes the original look like a classic in comparison.
Video
Quite a surprise, this. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is presented with an unsatisfying transfer that gives the effect of a grittily realistic drama as opposed to a glossy romantic comedy. The colours are muted throughout and there's a distinctly large amount of grain visible for much of the runtime. While it's generally well-defined with a nice amount of sharpness and clarity, it has to be said that the picture quality is disappointing.
Audio
Since this is a film which relies on its top forty pop soundtrack to set the mood of each scene, it's just as well that the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is up to standard. While the sound quality is never put under close scrutiny due to a lack of action, the dialogue is clear and the music is well-handled. Occasional tracks can be a little overpowering; drowning out the dialogue in the process. However, this is easily avoided by tweaking your surround settings.
Extras
The adjective ‘hilarious’ pops up far too frequently in Beeban Kidron's audio commentary. Kidron seems genuinely proud of the movie and, for those that are similarly oblivious to its faults, this chat-track should be worth a listen.

Kidron also pops up in the Deleted Scenes segment. Perhaps 'deleted sequences' is a more accurate term, as all four of them are fairly large chunks. 'Fox-Hunting' is yet another excuse to stick Bridget in a silly costume and have her fall over, but 'The Christening' is an interesting sequence which possesses emotion that was lacking in the final cut. Next up is 'Renoir Cinema', a scene which shows Bridget and Mark's slight irritation towards each other on a date and completing the quartet is 'Baby Fantasies' which should have made the grade in some kind of form as it's better than many of the laughs in the film.
Readers of the book on which the film is based may have been a little miffed to notice the absence of the novel's sequence in which the fictional heroine meets her idol; the real Colin Firth. In an introduction to this special feature, director Beeban Kidron explains that they initially intended to include the scene but eventually relented when they couldn't find a pleasing stand-in for Firth. Fortunately, they decide to film it with Firth playing himself and the result is of genuine interest. As a separate entity to the film, it can operate by its own logic and Firth and Zellwegger are obviously enjoying themselves. There are some funny lines as Bridget struggles to ask a question which isn't about Firth's role in the BBC's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
A growing complaint of high-profile releases is the need to have countless lightweight featurettes instead of one wide-ranging documentary. It's certainly a fault of this disc which covers multiple aspects but never in any depth. 'The Mini-break to Austria', 'Mark and Bridget Forever' and the 'Guide to Exotic Thailand' featurettes all stretch to around five minutes and are populated by footage and sound bites from the cast and crew. Even shorter is 'Lonely London', a CGI featurette which looks at a key sequence of the movie.
The Who's Your Man Quiz is one those interactive puzzles that frequent DVDs and are greeted with universal apathy. This one will apparently suss out who's your ideal man out of Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy. As a rather daft addition, it can also be played during the film, with the action paused after key-sequences.
Trailers complete the package. Although teasers for either of the Bridget Jones films are noticeable by their absence, Wimbledon, Meet the Fockers and Billy Elliot: The Musical are present and correct.

Overall
‘Same Bridget, same jokes’ would have been a more accurate tagline for this wholly unnecessary venture. The extras on this disc are fair and the presentation is reasonable, but the film itself is surely the weakest link. With the morbid curiosity that draws audiences to hyped up sequels, there's no doubt that this DVD will fly off the shelves. But here's hoping such an event does not encourage a part three.
Review by Peter Martin
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I'd also like to add that Universal should be ashamed of their pricing for this title. Artificially inflating the price of what they perceive to be a 'prime' release is despicable, and similar to Warner's tactics for the Matrix sequels. To think, they blame piracy for the supposed fall in revenues. Could it not just be their own greed?
If you must buy this terrible film then I'd vote with your wallets and go for another region.
If you must buy this terrible film then I'd vote with your wallets and go for another region.


Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over
Disc Details
Release Date:
25th February 2005
Discs:
1
Disc Type:
Single side, dual layer
RCE:
No
Video:
PAL
Aspect:
2.40:1
Anamorphic:
Yes
Colour:
Yes
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Subtitles:
English
Extras:
Audio Commentary from Director Beeban Kidron, Deleted Scenes, 'The Mini-Break to Austria' Featurette, Bridget Interviews Colin Firth, 'Mark And Bridget Forever' Featurette, 'Lonely London' Featurette, Guide to Exotic Thailand, Interactive Quiz, 'The Big Fight' Featurette
Easter Egg:
No
Feature Details
Director:
Beeban Kidron
Cast:
Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, Celia Imrie, Neil Pearson, Sally Phillips, Jessica Stevenson, Ian McNeice, James Faulkner, Dominic McHale, Paul Nicholls, Trevor Fox, Jacinda Barrett
Genre:
Comedy
Length:
108 minutes
Ratings
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I had not seen the first one, but it was screamingly obvious everytime a reference to the original was being replayed. It was simple: all you had to do was look when an illogical sequence was smugly played out with long pauses for its target audience to stop breathing for a few seconds as it diverted its attentions to telling their brains to recall the 1st movie.
I was dragged along to a preview of it, and a few weeks later, all of the girls in the office planned a girl's night out to see the movie. I told them (in all honesty) not to expect much from it in the way of anything they hadn't seen last time. The reply was "well, it's a chick-flick, so it doesn't have to be new".
The above statement highlights why mainstream movies are as poor and insipid as they are now. 16 years ago, Barry Norman was bemoaning the glut of sequels that hit the screens in the summer of 1989, but the trend now is merely for remakes of past hits. At least sequels try to extend the original in some way.
Remakes do nothing but offer a tried & tested way of using the brand-name created by the original movie as a marketing gimmick. The same could be said of sequels, but they don't mess around with an original piece of somebody elses work by feeding it to less demanding audiences who assume that it IS an original, blissfully unaware of its roots and tarnishing said original (4 years ago, I was chatting to a 15 year old in the US and he mentioned Planet of the Apes. I said it will probably be just another crap remake, to which he replied: "it's a remake..?" )
Bridget Jones's Diary is both a sequel and a remake, filling the criteria of both whilst satisfying few.
There you have it: the romantic comedy. Cinema at it's most undemanding and stale. I appreciate this has been a bit of a rant, but it was a pretty lousy date...