The Ellis sisters couldn’t be more different. Kate (Tina Fey) has always been a wild child, never taking life seriously enough. She recently lost her job as a hair stylist after getting into an altercation with her boss, and her roommate kicked her out for running a salon from the house. Even Kate’s own teenage daughter didn’t want to live with her, choosing to spend the summer staying with a friend. Kate’s sister Maura (Amy Poehler) is the more responsible and successful one, she is now a nurse. But she also has her own issues—Maura’s still trying to get over her divorce from two years prior, and hasn’t dated since.

Maura’s parents call to let her know that they are looking at moving to a senior community, and are planning to selling the house. They need her and her sister to come to Orlando to clean out their room. However, Bucky and Deana want Maura to break the news to her sister as they know she won’t take the news well.

When Kate and Maura arrive at their childhood home, they discover the house has already been sold, and that they only have a couple days to clear things out. As the sisters read through their childhood journals, they are reminded of the huge parties they threw as teenagers, and decide that one final Ellis Island Party is in order. So they contact all of their old high school friends to set things in motion.

In the past, Maura was always the one who had to play the responsible Party Mom, but for this final fling, Kate has agreed to take one for the team. She hopes that her sister will get back out there, and get it on with James (Ike Barinholtz), the attractive neighbor they just met. While the party starts off somewhat lame, the sisters are able to turn things around, and as the alcohol flows freely, things start to get raucous and way out of hand. It’s going to be a night to remember—as long as they manage to survive it!

Sisters takes that classic teenagers having a house party while their parents are away premise to a whole new level by asking What if those involved were now adults?! The film assembles all of the character archetypes you typically find in these types of movies—Dave (John Leguizamo), the guy who hits on everyone; Alex (Bobby Moynihan), the class clown (and later the guy who’s high on drugs); Kelly, the sad drunk girl (Rachel Dratch); Hae-Won (Greta Lee), the foreigner with a language barrier, Pazuzu (John Cena), the guy with the drugs; Brinda (Maya Rudolph, the uninvited nerd trying to get into the party; Maura and James, the couple trying to find love amongst the chaos; and Kate, the person trying to protect the house from getting destroyed. And those are just some of the massive number of amazingly-talented actors and comedians who make appearances.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have such great chemistry together and their long history with one another really comes off on screen—they make such believable sisters. Whenever these two are on screen together, you can’t help but smile. You can tell that at times the filmmakers just let the cameras roll and left the duo to their own devices, to do what they do best—riff back and forth. In addition to their physical comedy and hilarious lines, the actresses also get some nice dramatic scenes. Over the course of the film we get to see the love these sisters have for one another, and as Kate and Maura make mistakes, they grow from them, and change their lives for the better.

The party itself is a thoroughly entertaining progression. It starts off with these fun scenes of the adults sharing their depressing older people stories, but as the night goes on the party-goers rediscover their youth and let loose. Things just keep getting crazier and crazier, and more and more fun! The film keeps checking in with all of the various guests throughout the night. There are so many hilarious characters and moments that it would be hard to pick a favorite.

James Brolin and Dianne Wiest are also a delight as the Ellis parents. The actors also play parents on the TV series Life in Pieces, so it just seemed natural to see them as a couple, though much more R-rated in their actions and language.

This Blu-ray contains both unrated and theatrical cuts of the film. I had never seen the film before, so I started with the unrated cut, but afterwards I kind of wished I had gone with the theatrical version. It seemed like the unrated version was just filled with more cursing and raunchiness just for the sake of it. At times, the excessive nature of it kind of took me out of the moment. That said, I did really enjoy the film overall, but I didn’t find the movie to be as laugh-out-loud as I would have expected.

The Blu-ray looks and sounds excellent. The picture is crisp and captures both the bright Florida setting and wild party sequences in great detail. The audio track makes excellent use of the surround channels to bring the party and music to life, making you feel like you are right in the middle of it all. At the same time, all of the dialogue is easy to understand. The disc is overloaded with bonus features including almost and hour of deleted/extended/alternate scenes, a 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, a gag reel, a fun feature where the cast reads the writer’s diary, a visual effects comparison, and an entertaining audio commentary with the cast and filmmakers.

What’s Included:
Film: (Theatrical: 1:57:46 , Unrated: 2:02:24)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.40:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish DTS Digital Surround 5.1, French DTS Digital Surround 5.1, English DVS (Descriptive Video Service) 2.0 Surround
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

DVD:

• 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 (Theatrical Version Only), English DVS (Descriptive Video Service) 2.0 Surround
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital Copy (See NBCUcodes.com for Redemption Deadline):

• Unrated Version Digital HD Copy redeemable via iTunes or UltraViolet (Universal, Flixster, Vudu and CinemaNow)

Extras:
Features marked with a * are only available on the Blu-ray disc

• Theatrical and Unrated Versions of the film
• Deleted Scenes (18:03)
  A collection of nine fun deleted “scenes”. The first two of which are quite extensive, containing several scenes making up entire storylines that were excised. Play All or select from “The Dan and Kim Story”, “The Cover Charge Runner”, “Arrival at the Parents’ Condo”, “Kate’s Tale of Woe”, “Maura Controls Her Feelings”, “Maura Pushes Too Hard”, “Brenda Wreaks More Havoc”, “The Geernts Get Theirs” and “Maura Takes One Last Look”.
• Extended Scenes (16:54)
  A collection of nine extended sequences. Play All or select from “Shopping with Brenda”, “Hae-Won Arrives”, “Uh-Oh — It’s a PoPo”, “Kate Has To Party-Mom Kelly”, “Kate and Alex Go Downhill”, “Maura and James Review High School”, “Hae-Won and Kate Reminisce”, “Brenda Gets the Sale” and “Be That You”.
• Gag Reel (3:17)
  Amy and Tina joke about sharing an opening day with Star Wars, the cast flub and forget their lines, curse, crack-up and just have fun on set.
• The Improvorama (8:40)
  Check out some of the hilarious alternate lines and takes that didn’t make the final cut.
• How to Throw a Party* (1:36)
  Extended cut of the lesbians telling Kate and Maura how to throw a party.
• Grown-Up Parties Suck* (5:18)
  Extended cuts and alternate takes of the serious adult chit-chat that occurs before the party kicks into full gear.
• The Alex Chronicles* (2:51)
  Alternate takes of Alex’s introduction and “jokes”.
• The Kate And Pazuzu Chronicles* (2:05)
  Alternate takes of the flirting and banter between Kate and Pazuzu.
• A Teen Movie… For Adults* (10:26)
  A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film. The cast and filmmakers talk about the premise of the film, what it was like making a teen party movie as adults, setting the film in Orlando but filming in Long Island, building the set, working with the writer and director, and more. Includes interviews with director Jason Moore, production designer Richard Hoover, writer Paula Pell, producer Jay Roach, executive producer Brian Bell, and stars Amy Poehler (“Maura Ellis”/Executive Producer), Tina Fey (“Kate Ellis” / Producer), Rachel Dratch (“Kelly”), Ike Barinholtz (“James”), Bobby Moynihan (“Alex”), Maya Rudolph (“Brinda”), John Leguizamo (“Dave”) and John Cena (“Pazuzu”).
• The Original Sister* (6:40)
  Writer Paula Pell talks about how her relationship with her sister inspired the film. The cast has a lot of run reading from 13-year-old’s Paula’s diary and commenting on the contents.
• Pool Collapse VFX* (:50)
  Time-lapsed visual presentation showing all of the effects layers used in the Pool Collapse scene being added and removed one by one.
• Feature Commentary (Theatrical: 1:57:46 , Unrated: 2:02:24)
  Director Jason Moore, star/producer Tina Fey, star/executive producer Amy Poehler and writer Paula Pell provide a lively and entertaining commentary throughout the film. They talk about all of the various cast members, share behind the scenes stories, mention some of the scenes they needed to re-shoot, and give all kinds of other fun production stories. Paula also mentions which scenes were inspired from her own relationship with her sister. (On the DVD disc, the commentary is only available on the Theatrical Version.)

Final Thoughts:

Sisters is a highly entertaining comedy that feels both nostalgic and fresh at the same time. It puts adults into the classic teenage house party film and the results are hilarious. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are always great together and this is no exception. Plus, they are joined by a whole host of other funny and talented comedians and actors. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great, includes two cuts of the film, and comes packed with entertaining bonus features. This is definitely a film worth checking out, and you won’t be disappointed adding this Blu-ray to your collection.