It’s been 6 months since Syd (Chris Evans) and his girlfriend London (Jessica Biel) broke up after two and a half years together. They haven’t talked in months, but Syd still hasn’t gotten over her, often turning to drugs and alcohol to dull the pain. Syd is shocked and upset to learn from his friend, bartender Mallory (Joy Bryant), that tonight is London’s last night in town before she moves away with her new boyfriend, and that her friend Rebecca (Isla Fisher) is throwing her a going-away bash—neither of which he knew anything about. The party would be Syd’s last chance to try to win London back. So he invites his new friend/drug dealer Bateman (Jason Statham) to tag along as he heads to crash the party. However, once he gets there, he starts to lose his nerve, spending most of the time hiding out in the upstairs bathroom, drinking and snorting coke—recounting the highs and lows of his relationship with London to Maya (Kelli Garner), Mallory, Bateman and whoever else stops by to get high—while trying to drum up the courage to head downstairs to talk to London.

London is a very dialogue-driven film, with Syd and the other characters talking about love, relationships, and the crazy things they’ve done in the name of both. I really appreciated the film’s slick cinematography, which seamlessly transitions from the present to events from Syd and London’s past. Sometimes it takes a few seconds to even realize the transition has happened…until you notice the change in Syd’s hair and beard. As these events play out we see how hot the passion burned between these two, but also the fights, distrust and jealousy that led to their splitting up. Some of the other characters also share tales of their own wild sexual escapades, which are pretty fun and crazy, especially Bateman going into detail about his visit to a dominatrix and the various other services offered on the menu of the depraved sex club. The way the filmmakers reenact these scenes as the characters narrate their exploits also adds to the ridiculousness and humor. Though the film primarily concentrates on the ups and downs of the relationship between Syd and London. I don’t know that this is a film I would revisit often. It feels like a very late ’90s/early ’00s kind of love tale, with some well-written dialogue, but not a whole else going on, besides lots of drinking and drugs. That said, Chris Evans gives a strong performance, and Jason Statham (with hair!) is a lot of fun.

Sony previously released London on DVD back in 2006. That disc contained a lot of bonus material, including a commentary track, a 9-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, and four deleted scenes. Unfortunately, Mill Creek’s new Blu-ray release doesn’t port over any of those extras. Also baffling is that the original DVD included a 5.1 audio track, but this Blu-ray only contains a stereo track. For comparison, I checked out the film on Amazon Prime, which also offers the 5.1 track. The surround track definitely has more of an immersive feeling, giving you the ambiance and commotion of the party downstairs in the surround channel, where the 2.0 track is purely the dialogue of the various people talking in the upstairs bathroom. Maybe they found this general party hum to be a bit distracting throughout the film and removed it. I wouldn’t say the new audio track is bad—it’s more than sufficient for such a dialogue-heavy movie— but it just feels like an odd choice given that a surround track exists on the DVD and streaming releases. The video looks generally clean and is very satisfying overall, but it can be a bit flat and lacking in that extra level of fine detail.

The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase, with no slipcover or digital copy. The disc is barebones with just a subtitle on/off menu.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:32:30)

• 1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

There is no bonus material included on this disc.

Final Thoughts:

London is a well-written, dialogue-heavy love story that is very evocative of the era in which it was made. I don’t know that it is one that I would revisit very often, but I could understand the appeal it may have for fans. Unfortunately none of the bonus material from the previous DVD release has been ported over, and the disc features a stereo audio track rather than the surround track that was included on the previous DVD and streaming releases. I don’t have the original DVD release to compare the picture to see if it’s worth the upgrade, but the presentation is generally solid.