THE MOVIE

Jim Carrey can't say no to learning Korean.

You have to hand it to Jim Carrey. After years of success with so many comedic roles he could have remained in the genre and pumped out ever increasingly poor movies, but he changed. Taking up dramatic roles (Man on the Moon and The Majestic) and even having a turn at suspense/horror (The Number 23), he has shown that he is a versatile actor. Now he returns to a comedic role, but with a bit more drama then usual in Yes Man.

Carl Allen is at a standstill. No future... Until the day he enrolls into a personal development program based on a very simple idea: say yes to everything! Carl discovers with amazement the magical power of "Yes", and sees his professional and romantic life turned upside down overnight: an unexpected promotion and a new girlfriend. But he'll soon discover that better can be good's enemy, and that all opportunities shouldn't be taken.

As a Jim Carrey fan I was quite keen to see Yes Man when it originally hit cinemas however work commitments kept me from seeing it. When this Blu-Ray disc landed on my desk I was keen to have a look. The premise is perfect for plenty of unexpected antics from Carl and you can be assured that Jim Carrey takes it to the extreme on many occasions. Indeed there really are some great scenes here, Jim Carrey turning up to the morning photography class after being to a couple of rave parties and drinking Red Bull is hilarious, turning up to his work mates Harry Potter party, and then bungee jumping. The movies final scene is one of the funniest I have ever seen. Oh, and stay through the credits, half way through there's another pretty lengthy, and amusing, scene.

Terence Stamp as Terrence Bundley in Yes Man.

While quite predictable from start to finish Yes Man isn't all about Jim Carrey pulling faces or going haywire, but rather about the many characters in his life, and how his negative responses, and then positive responses, affect their lives. We must point out that there are some adult concepts including a rather ugly scene with an elderly lady doing some, well, adult things to Carl!

The lead female in this movie is Zooey Deschanel as Allison (you may remember her from Elf and Almost Famous) and she is simply brilliant in Yes Man. Gorgeous and rather unique she exudes an aura on the screen which is very likable indeed. Although his role is small Terence Stamp is, as always, brilliant.

The only actor that really managed to annoy me was New Zealander Rhys Darby (The Flight of the Conchords). Now I don't have anything against him personally as he has some amusing one-liners, but the Aussie accent was more Aussie then mine!

While this movie won't have you rolling around on the floor in stitches, or at least it didn't for me, Yes Man is still a good comedy which falls on the better side of Jim Carrey's ledger (not that there is really a bad side anyway). If you're a Jim Carrey fan then you should love this movie.

At the Harry Potter party...

VIDEO
Presented in the films original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 using the VC-1 codec at 1080p Yes Man comes up a treat on Blu-Ray. The colours have a wonderful natural look with realistic flesh tones and some tremendous fine detail evident throughout the picture. Black levels are good with little evidence of black crushing. While the bitrate is subject to variance for the most part the picture hovers around the 20Mbps mark. All-in-all this is a solid presentation of a movie that was never filmed to have that polished Hollywood 'wow' factor, and nor does it need it.

AUDIO
Yes Man comes to Blu-Ray with three main English tracks. The first is an English Descriptive Audio 2 channel at 192kbps, then we have a Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at 640kbps which is a wonderful track in its own right. As with most Blu-Rays there is a lossless audio track, this time encoded in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Being a comedy there are few moments to really show off a great home theatre system, but there are moments which stand out with surround sound and sub-woofer use including several music numbers.

Looking at other languages we have French, Spanish and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks each encoded at 640kbps while subtitles are provided in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese as well. Sampling the English track didn't reveal any issues.

Jim Carrey working in a bank.

EXTRAS
While there appears to be quite a few extras on this set at first glance, most are pretty small and lightweight. Still let's have a look shall we...

Downtime on the set of Yes Man with Jim Carrey (3:59/HD): An look at goofing around on the set with Jim Carrey between takes and setups.

Jim Carrey: Extreme Yes Man (11:52/HD): A fun little featurette which looks at Jim Carrey performing many of his own stunts including being attacked by the dog, performing the many falls, and doing his own bungee jump. It also shows the real rollerman, the scene which only takes place part way through the end credits.

On Set with Danny Wallace: The Original Yes Man (8:32/HD): The author of the book that inspired the movie takes a walk around set, meeting the cast and fooling around on the sets.

Future Sounds: Munchausen By Proxy (5:28/HD): A fun little interview with the three women of "Munchausen By Proxy" done as a fake news piece.

Say "Yes" To Red Bull (2:06/HD): A look at Jim Carrey going crazy filming the Red Bull scene.

Rhys Darby has a breakout role in Yes Man.

Yes Man: Party Central with Norman Stokes (2:16/HD): A quick look Norman's Bachelor Pad.

Munchausen By Proxy Videos (14:33/HD): Five music videos are here. I'm not sure that the music is great, but it is certainly unique.

Additional Scenes (7:31/HD): A series of scenes cut out from the movie. Presented in HD there are some pretty funny scenes here.

Gag Reel (5:35/HD): Jim Carrey is one of the funnies people on the planet which means this series of gags and outtakes is some of the funnies stuff we've ever seen. Hilarious.

OVERALL
Yes Man isn't Jim Carrey's best movie, but is does see him return to his funnier roots. In a similar vein to Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty this is a solid movie which fans would do well to check out. A solid video and audio transfer are also present on this Blu-Ray release.

Review By: Dave Warner

THE MOVIE	7/10
THE VIDEO	8/10
THE AUDIO	8/10
THE EXTRAS	5/10
OVERALL	7/10