Studio Synopsis ~ Chris Pine, who plays Sam, is a twenty-something, fast-talking salesman whose latest deal collapses the day he learns his father has suddenly died. Against his wishes, Sam is called home to put his father’s estate in order and reconnect with his estranged family. While there, he uncovers a startling secret that turns his entire world upside down – he has a 30-year-old sister (Banks) he never knew existed.
Studio: Disney
Running Time: 113 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Number of Disks: 2
Special Features:
– Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Alex Kurtzman and Actors Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks
– Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Alex Kurtzman and Actress Michelle Pfeiffer
– Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Alex Kurtzman and Writers Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert
– Number One with a Bullet: The Story Behind “People Like Us”
– Taco Talk: Extended Henry’s Taco Scene
– Deleted Scenes
– Bloopers
Forged as a veritable gauntlet of emotionally piled trauma, “People Like Us” stays its turbulent course with excellent writing, unique twists, and engrossing performances from Pine, Banks and Pfeiffer. And while it seems unlikely; if not at times distracting, that its perfect storm of events would in reality ever come to conspire against any one individual – as is suffered by Sam – Kurtzman nonetheless delivers an awkwardly heart-felt soap, less all the fluff and sudsy pep.
More touching than your typical romantic comedy – incestuous insinuations aside – yet utilizing certain successful quirks in the rom-com bag-of-tricks, People is a sum-of-its-parts film pulled up to par mainly by that aspect alone…its people.
Audio commentaries dominate the extras menu as People provides a whopping three of them, supported by central characters, the writers, and Kurtzman himself chiming in on all things prose and production. Kurtzman and Orci provide even more nostalgia in “Number One with a Bullet”, which explores the origins of the film, Pine and Banks chomp on a few improv taco takes in “Taco Talk”, and a nice blend of cut and comedic clips winds up the features.
So with a remarkably complex meld of distress and jest, along with a cast that performs at its brilliantly flawed best, “People Like Us” attractively examines the building blocks of family and what it means to take on that bond.
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Additional Resources:
Central Cast: Chris Pine | Elizabeth Banks | Michelle Pfeiffer | Olivia Wilde | Michael Hall D’Addario | Mark Duplass
Director: Alex Kurtzman
Central Writers: Alex Kurtzman | Roberto Orci
Theatrical Release: June 29, 2012
Blu-Ray/DVD Release: October 2, 2012
Genre: Drama
Supporting Cast and more Writers found HERE
