Swingers

Cheers, baby, to one of last year's sweetest surprises. Jon Favreau wrote and stars as lovelorn Mike, an aspiring comedian, who, with his buddies-- a modern-day Rat Pack--cruise nocturnal Los Angeles's retro-cocktail lounges. In a star-making performance, Vince Vaughn is Trent, his womanizing best friend who urges him to be like the guy in the rated R movie, not like the guy in the rated PG-13 movie that everybody hopes can make it happen. To borrow Trent's favorite expression, Swingers is "money." It's a great guy movie, but its endearing hero, who we do hope can make it happen, will appeal to "the beautiful babies" as well. Highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)[Blu-ray Review—Aug. 16, 2011—Lionsgate, 96 min., R, $14.99—Making its second appearance on Blu-ray, 1996's Swingers sports a solid transfer and DTS-HD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras are identical to the previous DVD release, including two audio commentaries (the first with costars Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn; the second with director Doug Liman and editor Stephen Mirrione), a “Making It in Hollywood” featurette (50 min.), deleted scenes (14 min.), Nicholas Goodman's 1997 short “Swing Blade”—a spoof of Swingers and Sling Blade (4 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine Blu-ray debut for a winning film.]