Blu-ray Review: Coyote Ugly

THE MOVIE: 3 3/4 stars out of 5

I must say that not having seen this film in the theater, I didn’t quite know what to expect. Frankly, the description of the plot which accompanied the film did lnoteave me with high expectations. Thankfully, the film is much better than its liner notes would leave one to expect. Coyote Ugly is a romantic comedy that stars Piper Perabo, Maria Bello, John Goodman, Bridget Moynahan and Tyra Banks, each of which turns in a worthy performance. This release included two versions of the film, the theatrical version and an unrated extended cut featuring seamless branching that works flawlessly. Both versions of the film look excellent.

After moving to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a song writer, Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) finds herself to be desperate having no money and no luck getting her songs heard. Through a twist of fate, she lands a job as a barmaid at one of the wildest bars in New York named Coyote Ugly. This is a bar that must be seen to be believed. Sexy scantily clad barmaids, dancing on top of the bar, squirting each other as well as the patrons with water and booze. While working long hours at the bar, Violet somehow finds the time for love as well as writing songs and pursing her dream of being a songwriter. The film is filled with very attractive women and very original and funny script. While I am sure that this film is not for everyone, I can nonetheless recommend this film for fans of romantic comedies, especially one featuring a bevy of beautiful ladies.

THE VIDEO: 4 1/2 stars out of 5

Coyote Ugly is encoded with AVC and presented in its original aspect ratio of 2:35:1. Overall, this is an excellent looking encode. The film boasts a bright and colorful palette which looks excellent. The film boasts very vibrant primary colors. Skin tones however strangely vary from being too red to being too gold. Blacks are deep and stable resulting in a very nice three dimensional image. Detail is excellent as well both in brightly and darkly lit scenes. Other than the varying skin tones, the only real negative that I could see with this transfer was a bit of noise in the dark scenes. However, this was not all that noticeable except when you sit very close to the screen. At normal viewing distances, the noise was barely visible and hardly distracting at all. There is no doubt that fans of this film will be very pleased with the quality of this encode.

THE AUDIO: 4 2/5 stars out of 5

The audio on this release is presented in an uncompressed PCM track at 48 kHz/16 bit and while sounding good, falls a bit short of the quality of the video presentation. On the plus side, dynamics are excellent here with a nice open soundstage and excellent bass. Effective use is made of the surrounds, giving a totally immersive sound field, especially the scenes in the bar which place you right in the center of the action. Dialogue is also clear and distinct, even in the rather cluttered sound field which is characteristic of the bar scenes. The only real drawback I have with the audio here is with the quality of the actual dialogue which is a tad bright sounding a bit too digital, like bad CD sound. Other than this, Coyote Ugly has a fine sounding audio track.

IN CONCLUSION

Coyote Ugly is a funny and at times charming romantic comedy that features good audio and video and some very attractive women. Recommended.

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