听 Matthew McConaughey plays a thirtysomething playboy still living with his parents in Failure To Launch. Sarah Jessica Parker tries to tempt him away, but despite their best efforts this romantic comedy "quickly runs out of steam". It opened to lukewarm reviews, but the two leads showed significant pulling power at the box office, notching up just under $90m in the US and the UK.
Ego For Launch
Director Tim Dey reckons the script reminded him of classic Billy Wilder movies like Some Like It Hot in a brief Making Of featurette. Starting from such delusions of grandeur, this is a scattered look at the making of the film. It also hears from the writers, on why they included the wild animals motif ("It's funny to see people getting attacked by animals!") and from the actors, on the advantages of living with Mom and Dad. Justin Bartha (Ace) admits he still lives at home because he gets "pancakes every morning." The discussion then degenerates into a celebration of McConaughey's prodigious sex appeal while the man himself applauds Parker for being "manicured and mischievous at the same time".
Funnily enough, the subject of McConaughey getting voted People Magazine's Sexiest Man of the Year 2005 comes up in another featurette. This time it's an 'Unscripted' conversation between Mr Twinkly Eyes and his onscreen father Terry Bradshaw. Of course the latter insists that he got the part because he looked exactly like McConaughey when he was young. McConaughey then reveals that he was awarded a commemorative belt buckle to go along with the Sexiest Man title. Somewhere in this drooling love-in there is passing mention of a film they made together...
Here Comes The Science Bit...
Another two featurettes tackle the 'sociological subtext' of the story. Failure To Launch: The Phenomenon talks to a motley selection of pop psychologists and real-life 'adultescents' as well as Sarah Jessica Parker who notes, "I think there are lots of legitimate reasons why grown men might live at home - reasons related to laziness, comfort, and ease." It's hardly a probing scientific study, but at least it's partly relevant to the film. On the other hand, Dating In The New Millennium is only tenuously linked, with its superficial look at the recent evolution in mating rituals such as online dating and speed dating.
Wrapping up the extras menu is a featurette that talks to three finalists in a Paramount-run competition to find the adultescent in America most in need of moving out. Our vote goes to the balding Thomas Sessa, who can't bring a date home because his wavy-locked father is too much competition... Of course he could just sit his dad in front of this DVD and that would surely knock him out for the night.
EXTRA FEATURES
Failure To Launch is released on DVD on Monday 17th July.
