Maya (Jennifer Lopez) is turning 40, and has spent the last 15 years working at the same Value Mart big box store. She has been an assistant manager for the past 6 years, proving her loyalty and worth to the company several times over, though often to deaf ears. However, she receives a lot of encouragement from longtime boyfriend Trey (Milo Ventimiglia), an assistant coach at a local college. She’s nervous and excited for a visit from corporate, hoping that she will finally get the long-overdue promotion she deserves. However, when her less qualified male counterpart, Arthur (Dan Bucatinsky), gets the position instead, she decides she’s finally had enough. The problem is that Maya only has her GED, and any decent job worthy of her requires a college degree.

Maya’s best friend, foul-mouthed Joan (Leah Remini), throws her a surprise birthday party. As Maya blows out the candles, she wishes that, just for once, street smarts equaled book smarts. The next day, it’s almost like her wish came true. Maya receives a call from Franklin & Clarke, a big Madison Avenue consumer product development company, asking her to come in for an interview. She is surprised when it’s CEO Anderson Clarke (Treat Williams), the grandson of one of the company’s founders, who is going to interview her. However, he is quickly impressed by Maya’s knowledge of the company’s products and of what consumers want. And he is even more impressed by her glowing resume, which Maya discovers includes an Ivy League education and a stint in the Peace Corps. Anderson offers Maya a consulting job, working on revamping the company’s less-than-100% organic skin care line. Maya later learns that Joan’s genius teenage son had embellished her resume and created her a whole online presence to back it up. She sees this as an opportunity to reinvent herself, and now must fake it until she makes it, proving that she has what it takes to succeed, even without the diploma. With the job comes a “research” budget for a new wardrobe, and a snazzy downtown apartment. The latter of which is perfect timing as Maya and her boyfriend just had a falling out over the fact that he is tired of her ignoring his desire to start a family, and that he doesn’t like how she lied to get the job.

Not everyone is as happy to see Maya in her new position as much as Anderson is. During her interview, Maya critiqued the company’s not-so-organic skincare line, which was developed by Anderson’s daughter, Vice President Zoe (Vanessa Hudgens). None of the employees are gung-ho about teaming up with Maya to revamp that product line they originally created, especially head chemist Felix Herman (Dave Foley) and snobby development executive Ron Ebsen (Freddie Stroma), both of whom make their dislike for Maya well-known. So Maya is left with a small team of misfits to help her come up with a brand new product line that is not only 100% organic, but also more profitable than the revamped line that Zoe and her team are working on. Maya’s crew of oddballs includes development engineer Hildy Ostrander (Annaleigh Ashford), assistant Ariana (Charlyne Yi) who has a paralyzing fear of heights, and socially-awkward chemist Chase (Alan Aisenberg), who, thanks to Felix, has spent the last few years relegated to the basement working on cat food.

Now Maya has just three months to prove that street smarts can actually equal book smarts. And to do so, she’ll have to learn to inspire her team, get over some of her own insecurities, and confront a tough decision she made in the past. Meanwhile, Ron suspects something isn’t quite right with Maya’s resume, and starts looking for cracks in her story. Will she succeed before the truth comes out?

I knew nothing about this movie going into it, and I was pleasantly surprised—I found myself constantly laughing out loud throughout. The cast is so much fun, and have great chemistry with one another. You can tell that Jennifer Lopez and Leah Remini are friends in real life as their on-screen relationship feels so natural and honest. Lopez’s Maya is more of the straight woman to Remini’s wild and crazy Joan, but they both have their comedic moments. Lopez’s comedic talent shines in several scenes where skills from Maya’s resume come up and she is forced to fake her way through the situations. Remini has several fun scenes where Joan and some friends go undercover to try to help Maya despite her asking them to not butt in, and there’s also a hilarious running bit with Joan’s young son picking up some choice phrases from his mother. Maya’s dorky, lovable team is also the source of so many laughs, whether it’s Ariana’s acrophobia, or just the team coming together like David trying to beat Goliath.

I was expecting Second Act to be more of a romantic comedy, but the film does not really center around Maya finding love in the traditional boyfriend/girlfriend sense. Her relationship with Trey is just a small part of the film—it seems like he’s basically just there so that Milo can do a shirtless scene at the start of the film. Instead, the focus of the film is more on Maya proving to herself and others that she has what it takes to make it in the professional world, even though she doesn’t have a fancy degree. She’s a strong, smart woman, who may not have the book smarts, but is just as intelligent, if not more-so, as those around her who do. The film also has a lot of heart, and this is primarily explored through Maya’s relationship with Anderson and Zoe, who are less like a boss and a co-worker, and more like a father and a daughter to her.

The film has a really nice overarching storyline, with some unexpected twists to it. I was impressed that on a couple occasions, where I assumed the story would take the typical, cliche route, the writers took things in a surprisingly different direction. Overall, I found the story to be fun, entertaining, heartwarming, inspirational and uplifting. This is definitely a film I can see myself re-watching and enjoying over and over again.

Universal’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great. The picture is clean, without any noticeable grain or artifacts, with an excellent color palette and a lot of detail. The presentation does an excellent job of capturing the beauty of the picturesque New York City locales. The audio track provides clear dialogue, and also brings the ambiance of the city to life, giving the viewer a more immersive viewing experience. This is especially noticeable in the opening of the film as Maya is running in the city, and the viewer is surrounded by the sounds of a bustling city.

The Blu-ray and DVD discs come packed in astandard HD keepcase with a slipcover, which also contains an insert with a code to redeem for an HD iTunes-only digital copy of the film. Both the Blu-ray and DVD discs include the same selection of bonus material—a trailer, and four 30-60 second promotional featurettes with the cast and filmmakers.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:44:01)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive Video Service (DVS)
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

DVD:

• 480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive Video Service (DVS)
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
• Closed Captioned

Digital (for redemption deadline, see NBCUcodes.com):

• HD Digital copy redeemable via iTunes (not Movies Anywhere compatible)

Extras:

The same bonus material is included on both the Blu-ray and the DVD discs. This collection of short 1-minute promotional featurettes include sound bites and behind-the-scenes footage.

• Connecting with Milo Ventimiglia (:55)
  Stars Jennifer Lopez (“Maya”) & Milo Ventimiglia briefly talk about working with one another.
• The Empowering Women of Second Act (:55)
  Stars Jennifer Lopez and Vanessa Hudgens & Leah Remini (“Joan”) briefly talk about the film’s heart, and working with each other and the supportive female cast.
• Friendship On and Off Screen (:57)
  Stars Jennifer Lopez & Leah Remini, producer Eline Goldsmith-Thomas, and director Peter Segal briefly talk about how the chemistry and real life friendship between the two actresses translated to the screen.
• Working with the Ones You Love (:32)
  Stars Jennifer Lopez, Vanessa Hudgens, Milo Ventimiglia & Leah Remini briefly talk about having fun on set.
• Trailer (2:35)

Final Thoughts:

Second Act is a hilarious comedy with a lot of heart. The delightful cast has such great chemistry, and their antics had me laughing out loud throughout the film. The story is not only one of love and family, but also of empowerment, learning to face the truth and believing in one’s self. Universal’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great, but the bonus material is extremely disappointing—just over 3 minutes of short promos for the film that masquerade as behind-the-scenes featurettes. That said, this release still comes highly recommended based on the quality and entertainment value of the film itself, which is highly re-watchable, and will surely provide laughs with every viewing.