You Again could more aptly have been titled This Story Again? We’ve all seen this film before so the main question that a potential viewer has to ask themselves is if they want to see this story as played by this cast of actors. The cast is amazing and talented but they have all been seen before in enormously more entertaining ways.

You Again can be described as a kind of generational Mean Girls; but not nearly as fresh, funny or inspired. It’s the story of the once picked on outcast Marnie (Kristen Bell) who escapes the torment of her high school existence by moving to L.A. where she becomes a very powerful, well put together, beautiful and successful publicist. On the heels of a new promotion and a ton of great things in her life, she is forced to return home for her brothers’ wedding. She discovers that her brother, the quintessential over achieving handsome jock who always protected his little sister, is marrying Joanna (Odette Yustman) the ring leader of the group that had tortured Marnie.

From there we discover that Marnie’s mom, played by the timeless Jamie Lee Curtis, has a similarly contentious relationship with Joanna’s only living relative Aunt Ramona (Sigourney Weaver) and the pairs unresolved issues again break the surface and of course parallel what the younger kids are experiencing.

There are a few funny moments in the movie (mostly coming from the little brother played by Billy Unger, who seemed as disinterested in watching what was unfolding as I was) but there weren’t nearly enough to justify the caliber of the cast that we were watching. The gags were all predictable and the lines seemed to have been handpicked from previous family films.

I know it’s part of the corporate machine to capitalize on their actors success when it comes from other projects or just pop culture, but Betty White had barely anything to do in this film and yet she is front and center on all of the artwork and promo materials for it. She was the main reason I was excited to see this film, but because of that expectation of her having a pivotal role, her lack of involvement was ultimately even more disappointing. If she had been a surprise cameo I think I would have had a greater appreciation for what she added to the movie but as the movie stands it was just very disappointing.

This isn’t a bad movie it’s just a very formulaic by the numbers family comedy. If I had to recommend a movie to watch with your grandparents this isn’t a terrible choice. But if it’s a movie night for friends, spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends or even just you and your pooch, there are a million other titles I’d suggest before this one.

This Bluray DVD combo set comes with the film on

both formats (to be honest with a film like this Bluray becomes pretty irrelevant… I mean, I love Betty White but you don’t exactly need picture perfect resolution for the scene where she pulls out her dentures.) The only place it becomes an issue though is where the specials features are concerned. The DVD version contains 3 deleted scenes and 3 featurettes whereas the Bluray has 11 deleted scenes and 4 featurettes. Sadly, none of them are special enough to really warrant caring about. More is better but not essential in this case.

I can see Netflixing this one for a family night but that’s it – it’s definitely not a must own.