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( Max score: 100 )

84

Don’t miss the outrageously offbeat comedy hit that has everyone talking – and laughing! Explore the outrageous “Junoverse” of the year’s most talked-about comedy with this 2-Disc Special Edition of Juno – bulging with awesome special features to deliver hours of laughs and tons of feel-good fun! Juno MacGuff is a cool, confident teenager who takes a nine-month detour into adulthood when she’s faced with an unplanned pregnancy – and sets out to find the perfect parents for her baby. With the help of her timid boyfriend, supportive dad and no-nonsense stepmom, Juno sets her sights on an affluent couple longing to adopt their first child.

This film came highly recommended by everyone that I know (including my daughter) who saw it theatrically. I went into in with high expectations and after watching it came away feeling thoroughly entertained. I literally enjoyed every minute of Juno and thought that it brought a fresh and different perspective on a fairly serious subject in teenage pregnancy. Ellen Page’s performance was brilliant and easily deserving of her Academy Award nomination. The film uses witty and fast paced teenage vernacular which is delivered to perfection by Page. Allison Janey is wonderful in the role of Bren Juno’s step mom. The exchange between her and the women’s imaging technician during Juno’s sonogram is priceless. JK Simmons, Jason Bateman, and, Jennifer Garner round out the notables among the cast. Michael Cera and Olivia Thirlby portray Juno’s two best friends Bleeker and Lean, (with Cera actually being a bit more than that) both are convincing as they play perfectly off of Ellen Page. Juno is a movie that has so many great moments that it would not be practical to try and summarize them.

Juno is the brain child of writer Diablo Cody who won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay this year. I think that she was deserving of that acknowledgement as this is one of more original films that I have seen. The casting was an important element in bringing these characters to life and I think that the actors chosen were perfectly placed. Director Jason Reitman had a great script, and a talented cast to work with and he certainly made the most of it.

The PG-13 rating is for Mature Themes, sexual content and language.

REFERENCE = 92-100 / EXCELLENT = 83-91 / GOOD = 74-82 / AVERAGE = 65-73 / BELOW AVERAGE = under 65

(Each paw rating is worth 4 points with a max of 5 paws per category)

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Juno is a film that relies heavily on dialogue. There is quite a bit of narration mixed in and it’s score features musical vocals/acoustic guitar accompaniment also. It is imperative that its soundtrack be able to cleanly reproduce these elements. The DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio presented on Juno did just that. I was impressed with its realism and excellent tonal delineation. Ellen Page’s narration sounded full bodied and textured. This quality was evident throughout the movie as hearing even the slightest shifts in intonation among the cast was noticeable. Detail was rendered with aplomb which attenuated even the slightest environmental sounds. The sound field came alive with ambience and directional acoustics from time to time. This was more evident during some of the exterior sequences or when the score kicked in and it sounded great. This was not an very dynamically demanding soundtrack and the subwoofer saw only occasional activity and that was not bass in the upper mid registers. This presentation got all of the important aspects required for this film right. In the end that is what is most essential.

**My audio ratings are based upon a comparative made against other high definition media/blu-ray disc.**

(Each paw rating is worth 4 points with a max of 5 paws per category)

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Juno comes to blu-ray disc in a 1080p MPEG-4 (AVC) encoded transfer that had an average bit rate of 32 mbps and it looked great. The image had wonderful vibrancy, depth, and dimensionality. Colors were oversaturated especially within the primaries, but overall they looked gorgeous. Detail was excellent for the most part as it offered small object texture and precision. The panning shots taken of the neighborhood that Vanessa and Mark reside in were abundant with definition, color and crystal clarity. There were a number of occasions were apparent resolution fell off a bit and the image softened. Grain was present but was not always visible and it never had a negative effect on fidelity. The film uses lots of close ups and the beautiful skin tone reproduction made them look natural and well defined. There were several lowlight and dark scenes in the film which lacked dynamic range and came across as rather flat. Blacks were slightly crushed and detail in darker areas was not always visible. Those are minor nit picks though. Overall I was very happy with this video presentation as it delivered very clean, detailed, and visually stimulating image quality.

**My video ratings are based upon a comparative made against other high definition media/blu-ray disc.**

There is a plethora of special features that offers some great insights, fun, and background on Juno. The same features offered on the Two disc Special Edition DVD are ported over to the blu-ray disc and are in standard definition. The blu-ray disc adds the Fox Movie Channel Premiere segment.

I loved the Cast and Crew Jam which is a fun “music video” featuring quite a few of the cast members jamming and having fun set to music. The Way Beyond feature looks at the three characters and how they were portrayed through the eyes of the young cast members who played them. The Director and Writer pieces feature a look at them individually and includes interviews with the cast and production staff. The Honest to Blog ! featurette looks at how Juno was conceived by writer Diablo Cody and what her thoughts and inspiration was for it’s creation. The deleted scenes and commentary are good but the Gag reels and takes are hysterical. All in all this is a great package and well worth the time spent watching it.

Juno is a wonderful film that is creatively inspired from the mind of writer Diablo Cody. It offers a fresh and witty reflection of just what can happen when young people get bored and decide to experiment. Fox has given it a strong audio/video presentation on blu-ray and a great set of bonus features to boot. I loved it and I think that it is a movie deserving of inclusion in your collection. Highly recommended.

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