The Heartbreak Kid was originally a 1972 Neil Simon movie directed by Elain May, starring Charles Grodin, Eddie Albert, and Cybill Shepherd. The 2007 remake brought a whole new team, featuring the Farrelly brothers (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary) writing and directing, with Ben Stiller as their tragic hero, and Michelle Monaghan as his taboo love interest.

The highly unusual situation the hero is placed in (and no doubt, the Farrelly influence) makes this more of a guys’ movie than a romantic comedy. Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller) is successful at business, but not so much at love. His father and best friend convince this 40-year old bachelor that meeting Lila (Malin Akerman) on Valentine’s Day is a major stroke of good luck, and he’s later goaded by them into marrying her after only knowing her for six short weeks. Eddie immediately realizes his mistake just hours into the honeymoon, and the plot thickens from there. His new bride has many secrets that should have been learned ahead of time, and these eventually push him to falling out of love with her the moment he meets Miranda (Michelle Monaghan) just days into his honeymoon.

The heart of the movie is based on the hilarious situations that come up as Eddie keeps both women secret from each other, as well as jokes based on misunderstandings between characters. The movie lives up to its R-rating with some sexually charged humor. Like I said, it’s definitely more of a guy movie than a romantic comedy — especially because the plot’s asking you to side with such an antihero. The movie is pretty much about all the jokes the Farrellys could come up with related to Eddie’s troubles trying to juggle two love interests. I should mention that Carlos Mencia, Jerry Stiller, and Rob Corddry are Ben Stiller’s costars, and they are responsible for some pretty funny characters, with at least a few memorable lines or situations each.

While this version of The Heartbreak Kid may not be as deep of a movie as the 1972 original on which it’s based, the 2007 remake is pretty funny none the less. The DVD includes the standard bonus materials of featurettes and deleted scenes, all in standard definition except the HD trailer, which is pretty common for most movies any way. I’m sure that will change in at least another year as studios eventually decide to tape/film these extras with HD cameras.

The disc has audio commentary by the Farrelly brothers, but not a picture-in-picture style commentary as on many HD DVDs. Nor does the disc have any other interactivity features, either during play or in the extras. Picture quality is really great, and the audio is available in Dolby True HD as well as Dolby Digital Plus, not that it matters much in this type of movie. The screen aspect ratio is 2.35:1, which means black bars at the top and bottom for those of you who dislike them.

The Heartbreak Kid belongs in your Farrely Brothers collection if you’re a fan of their earlier work, and it’s certainly one of those comedies that’s even funnier when you’re watching it with friends.

Here’s the trailer:

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