I See You, which has for reasons unknown been re-titled for DVD with a ".com" tacked onto the end, isn't a bad little comedy. It actually has a few decent chuckles and gets likeable performances from its cast of young actors and veteran character actors. And it's generally well made. Why only two stars? You may ask. It all boils down to the fact that the concept really isn't anything new and the attempts at satire towards modern media in the script by director Eric Steven Stahl and Sean McLain are just too soft. When jabs are taken at the entertainment industry properly, such as in The Truman Show, the subversive humour can take a movie beyond being just your standard comedy. Stahl and McLain have their hearts in the right place but can't pull it off, especially when things get as vapid as the source of their satire.

Things open on the bath-robed, cigar smoking Harvey Bellinger (Beau Bridges) stumbling onto the street with his face caked in white powder and a gas can in his hand. Not long after he torches his house and ends-up going to jail. Flash forward to five years later and Harvey's at his parole hearing about to tell those deciding upon his release an outrageous tale of a dysfunctional family and how the internet ruined their lives.

Harvey tells us, in flashback, all about his family. His former b-movie actress wife, Lidia (Rosanna Arquette), who has taken to online stock trading to make cash. Eighteen-year-old daughter Audrey (Baelyn Neff) and technologically adept stepson, Colby (Mathew Botuchis). In the span of a week, he loses his job and all of Lidia's trades go sour putting the family into financial dire straits and taking away their ability to live the "good life".

Thankfully, Colby has come up with a scam that'll help get them continue to 'keep up with the Jones's' as his interest in web cams becomes a business venture. At first he broadcasts a secret camera hidden in his stepsister's room but it's not long before the entire house is wired up and the Bellinger's antics are becoming one of the most popular things to see on the web.

The rest of I See You follows the family as they attempt to keep things afloat, continually bicker, and eventually resort to bringing in Italian hunk Ciro (Victor Alfieri) to try and spice things up and keep their viewers (and profits) at a high level.

While watching this I had the feeling that, if given a bit more of a biting edge and more of a raunchy punch on the humour side of things (Harvey's misadventures with defecation notwithstanding), this could've been a lot more funny and entertaining than it turns out to be. There's times you begin to think the makers are going to push some limits, especially with all the attempts to sexualize Arquette's character, only for things to go on a safer route that only manages to garner the occasional mild chuckle.

Even though Botuchis and his character's smarmy-ness gets a little tiring in the last third, Bridges and Arquette (who definitely looks good for her age) handle the material fine - even if it is hard to believe they'd actually be married. The stand-outs here would have to be Alfieri, who plays Ciro like a clueless, not-quite-Americanized and naïve foreigner, and Shiri Appleby (playing Colby's best friend, and co-conspirator, Randi), who is pretty engaging even if she doesn't get quite enough screen time.

Stahl previously worked with co-producer Hector Elizondo, who also plays one of the parole board members, on the low-budget thrillers Safe House and Final Approach. He's done nothing else of note but does handle things alright here; its just too bad I See You couldn't rise above being nothing more than passable. (Chris Hartley, 9/28/08)

Directed By: Eric Steven Stahl.
Written By: Eric Steven Stahl, Sean McLain.

Starring: Beau Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, Mathew Boutchis, Shiri Appleby.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: As a more recent lower-budgeted comedy, which I assume was shot digitally, I See You looks perfectly fine on disc with decent clarity and no signs of any specks or dirt. Warner usually delivers acceptable transfers and this is no exception.

Extras: Finally getting a release two years after being made, there's not a lot of stuff in the extras department to keep you that interested. We get a trailer, four deleted scenes that add absolutely nothing to the mix, and a sixteen-minute "making of" featurette that plays out exactly like the promotional fluff it is.