Director Joe Roth had only one good film under his belt out of two, before "America's Sweethearts".  His "Coupe De Ville" , while flawed, still had enough sincerity and nostalgia to make it worthwhile. His "Revenge of the Nerds 2" ...well, it was better than the first, but that's not saying much.  "AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS" is a big film in a lot of ways.  To begin with, it's hard to make a good film satirizing the film industry.  How many films rival the expertise of "The Player".  "America's Sweethearts" takes on the film industry, conceited film stars, deplorable publicity hounds, and the total depravity of a press junket, all at the same time. 

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jon Cusack play two onscreen and offscreen lovers, that have built a career on making corny love-epics for the masses.  As their newest film is about to be released, the two have split up, the mad director, played "brilliantly" by Christopher Walken, has stolen the print, and it's up to recently fired Billy Crystal to bring the stars back together for a successful publicity tour.  Crystal and co-writer Peter Tolan are back again after their last film, "Analyze This".  While this one is never as side-slapping funny as their last effort, it's still highly entertaining, and even moving at times. 

The supporting cast, including Julia Roberts and Hank Azaria, are all terriffic.  In fact, Azaria almost steals the film as Zeta-Jones' underachieving new lover.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is wonderful as the Gwen, one of the prettiest, biggest bitches in Hollywood.  While Zeta-Jones proved her abilities in "Traffic", here she really gets the chance to carry a film, and she does it flawlessly, combining just the right amount of sarcasm and beauty to give her dialogue real bite.
 

The film moves at a steady pace, and while the humor is inconsistent, the drama that's thrown in with Julia Roberts as Jones' sister, manages to somehow make it all worthwhile.

COLUMBIA TRISTAR has presented the film with its proper 2.35:1 aspect ratio and 16:9 enhancement.  The color values are great, with vivid hues and not a hint of oversaturation.  The contrast is flawless as well, with deep blacks and grays, rendering some of the night scenes even more memorable, with color definition in even the darkest scenes.  Fleshtones appear natural throughout.

The Dolby digital 5.1 mix is fine, although we'd have preferred more depth to the mix.  The dialogue is focused towards the center channel for the most part,  but it lacks the perfect clarity achieved in most COLUMBIA TRISTAR releases.  The music, however, sounds fantastic!
 

There are trailers for several films, all featured with 16:9 enhancement.  The deleted scenes section is great, with a few extensions of other scenes, but one with Christopher Walken that's fantastic.