The Prince and Me (DVD)

Yup, it's cliché... and yeah it's been done before, and will be done again, but that doesn't make a romantic comedy such as The Prince & Me a bad film, but then again I am a sucker for these films and Julia Stiles.

The story is quite simple; boy meets girl, girl and boy fall in love, girl finds out boy is a prince and hates boy, but wait now she loves him, now they can't be together and then.... Yeah, I can't give the ending away but I am sure you have guessed it by now, however The Prince & Me is a fun movie to watch as it does add a few new elements to the same story that has been told over and over again such as lawnmower racing and little butterflies.

The amazing thing about this movie is that they managed to compile so many special features for a romantic comedy. Starting with a director's audio commentary to three featurettes, 8 deleted/extended scenes and a gag reel, and while I may be a sucker for the films these featurettes don't really do much for me, since romantic comedies aren't exactly the first movies you find yourself discussing with your friends.

Nevertheless I was impressed to find that inside the deleted scenes is an alternate ending that actually is alternate, considering the majority of the time I see these things it usually means that the star of the film ends up riding a bus home instead of taking the train.

Also, director Martha Coolidge certainly has a lot to say from locations and set design to direction and choosing her cast on the director's commentary. So if you are interested, she certainly has more than enough to tell you, and a lot of it is reiterated in the three featurettes.

Now with that said, I wouldn’t watch these features again and probably wouldn’t have watched them had I not been reviewing the DVD, but this is not the type of film you are buying for its special features… at least I don’t think you are, are you?

Overall this is a good film for its audience and even those that fall outside of the target market won't find it unbearable as the writing is a little more mature and the acting is far above Mandy Moore caliber.