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Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released on: December 3rd, 2013.
Director: Jonathan Levine
Cast: Amber Heard, Anson Mount, Whitney Able, Michael Welch
Year: 2006
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The Movie:
There was a time in high school where early in the year a new girl arrived in my tenth grade history class. We hit it off. There was no torrid romance even if we were kind of sweet on each other, but we hung out and had a good time. There was a genuine friendship there. By the end of the year, her looks saw her climb the social ladder while my dislike of high school jock culture and all the stupidity inherent in that system kept me more or less in the middle. As this happened, I started to matter less. I wasn't jealous, so much as I was hurt. When she was the new kid, nobody cared and I was really her first friend but once the more popular kids noticed the fact that she was actually quite attractive and she got that kind of attention, I might as well have been dead to her. Why am I telling you this? Because experiences like that will probably affect how much you get out of Jonathan Levine's 2006 picture, All The Boys Love Mandy Lane.
When the movie begins, we're at a high school just like any other. The year has just begun and 'good girl' Mandy Lane (Amber Heard) is walking with her friend Emmett (Michael Welch) through the parking lot. A dumb jock in a sports car pulls up, remarks on how she 'got hot' over the summer, and invites her to a party that night at his place. She agrees, but says she's bringing Emmett. That night, there's obviously tension between Emmett and the dumb jock. After a bit of a scuffle happens, they wind up on the room above the pool, drinking and talking things over. Emmett talks him into trying to impress Mandy by jumping into the pool, and when the drunken fool gives it a go, he whacks his head on the concrete and dies. Emmett knew damn well what he was doing.
Months later, Mandy doesn't really want that much to do with him anymore. He still cares for her, that much is obvious, but he's withdrawn. A social outcast. She, on the other hand, has reaped the rewards of her 'hotness' and pretty much every guy in school is hoping for a chance to pop her cherry. Mandy winds up heading to a ranch for the weekend with some friends - Bird (Edwin Hodge), Jake (Luke Grimes), Red (Aaron Himelstein), Chloe (Whitney Able) and Marlin (Melissa Price). Red's dad owns the place and they've got it to themselves, much to the dismay of the ranch hand, Garth (Anson Mount). He's well aware that they've got drugs and booze and isn't looking forward to having to babysit them.
As the group goofs off, starts drinking, smoking some weed and more or less just partying, social pressures and substance abuse causes a few of them to start acting a little odd. All three of the guys are gunning for Mandy, but she's still playing the good girl and not letting her guard down. All of this changes once someone shows up, an uninvited guest with a shotgun and a grudge…
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who the killer is very early on. The movie doesn't really do a whole lot to even try to hide it, in fact the opening fifteen minutes or so pretty much spell it out for us but don't let that dissuade you from checking this one out. While at times it plays things by standard slasher conventions, a killer taking out his prey one at a time with various grisly instruments of death at his disposal, there's a good twist towards the end here and some pretty solid set up work. Of course, your own high school experience will probably affect what you take away from this but the script does a decent enough job of fleshing out the different characters and their various insecurities to make things more than just fodder, and if the movie takes a bit of time to really get going, that build up definitely pays on in the last half hour.
The acting is fairly solid. Amber Heard is obviously quite an attractive young woman but she's also a decent actress as well. Her work here is effective as is that provided by the supporting cast, most of whom are playing spoiled and/or bratty teenage stereotypes but are at least doing it well. Levine may not have reinvented the wheel with this picture but the film offers up a smart script, some interesting ideas and even some fairly effective social commentary. Add to that the requisite nudity and a few gory kills and All The Boys Love Mandy Lane winds up working well as a pretty solid horror/slasher picture.
Video/Audio/Extras:
All The Boys Love Mandy Lane arrives on Blu-ray framed at 2.40.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer. Image quality is pretty solid here. There are moments in the movie where a lot of the color has been intentionally sapped out of the picture to give it that dry, arid look so popular in the post Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake landscape but that's not a fault of the disc even if it does mean color reproduction is kind of flat. Detail is solid throughout, the image is crisp and clear and there weren't any obvious compression artifacts to nitpick nor was there any noise reduction or edge enhancement.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track with optional English closed captioning. No alternate language options are provided. The quality of the audio on the disc is pretty solid. The score is used well and it fills the room nicely. Directional effects are well placed and the levels are nicely balanced throughout the movie. No problems with hiss or distortion to note and the dialogue stays clean, clear and easy to follow.
Aside from a few trailers for unrelated Anchor Bay properties that play before the menu screen loads, the only extra on the disc is a commentary track from Jonathan Levine. He covers most of the bases here as he talks about the themes that pop up in the movie, casting the film, working with the various cast and crew members on the picture, the locations that the film was shot on and more.
The Final Word:
How much you get out of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane may depend on your personal high school experiences but even if you never found yourself the kind of situation that the movie deals with, the film is still quite well made. The performances are good, the situations are both interesting and even believable and while the film is a little on the flat side in terms of style, it is well paced and it builds to a pretty strong finale. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release isn't jammed with extras but it does feature a decent commentary, a strong transfer and very good audio.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
I still don't understand why this took so long to get a release here.