Tooth Fairy Review

Tooth Fairy is sloppy. Here is a movie with barely a care in the world, a film that exists for the sole purpose of making a six-year old’s day, while making the parents cringe. It’s simple really, hence the rules of becoming a tooth fairy are laid out in plain English for all to grasp by Julie Andrews…

… wait… Julie Andrews? Julie, what are doing here?

Anyway, Andrews is the queen fairy or something like that. She is teaching Dwayne Johnson…

… wait… Dwayne Johnson? Man, what are you doing here?

Well, Andrews is teaching Dwayne Johnson how to be a proper fairy, this before Billy Crystal explains…

… no… Billy, they got you too? Aww man.

Back on course, Andrews explicitly states that Dwayne Johnson’s cocky hockey player has spoiled a child’s imaginations and dreams. As such, he has become a tooth fairy, and one of the requirements is that he must never tell anyone he is a tooth fairy or he will be forced into indefinite service. Simple, no? It leads to all sorts of awkward explanations, goofy antics, and the audience goes home wondering why they spent the money. Any movie fan knows this.

But no, Tooth Fairy’s script is not even that smart. Johnson goes into a kid’s home to take his tooth, but that child’s father beat Johnson to the punch. Caught in the act, Johnson must now come up with some unique explanation as to why he is in a little boys room in the middle of the night, right? No, Johnson tells the father that he is in fact the tooth fairy, and jumps off the roof. Repercussions? None at all. No one even flinches or brings it up again.

Is this hard? Is this difficult? Would it not be funnier, and somewhat creative, to have The Rock himself utilize his charisma to weasel his way out of the situation? It would be, but Tooth Fairy has absolutely nothing to offer. It follows every predictable plot point to the letter, everyone overacts beyond all decency, and Johnson gets these two zingers of unintentional comedy before the predictable finale:

“I got an invitation to go to Fairy Land!” and a personal favorite, “I can shrink myself to six inches!” Make of those what you will. [xrr rating=1/5 label=Movie]

Fox delivers a sparking encode for Tooth Fairy, “sparkling” being both a bad pun and appropriate definition for this AVC encode. The digital intermediate at work here has decidedly amped up the color saturation, generally affecting flesh tones negatively. The warm hues make Johnson appear red in some scenes, distractingly so. Other flesh tones generally suffer as well. That said, environments do benefit, from the various locations, to the outdoors filled with vibrant greens. In the hockey rink, jerseys carry astonishing levels of saturation, especially the reds of the Roughnecks.

Sharpness is typically consistent, save for a few moments where softness creeps into the frame. Stephen Merchant is generally the culprit, a softer focus typically utilized in some of his close-ups. With that comes some noise, including 30:24, and an astonishingly noisy spot at 1:16:03 as Merhcant sits on a hockey net. It almost looks as if he was digitally added, although why that would be is anyone’s guess. Noise can also hit the backgrounds, including an early shot at 8:42 (and subsequent shots in this scene) where the wall is littered with chroma noise.

Blacks are wonderfully rich and deep, creating an image full of dimensionality. This does lead to crush during a dinner scene around 28-minutes in, although the limited candle-lighting does not help either. Contrast can run hot and be overblown, although generally remains under control. A grain structure, aside from the above-mentioned chroma noise, is rendered accurately.

What this transfer is truly capable of is facial detail. An early shot of Johnson in the locker room reveals every pore in his skin, fully defined. You cannot even see how they managed to completely remove his massive tattoo that runs from his shoulder to his chest. It looks natural. Every close-up performs admirably, and even most shots in the mid-range deliver high fidelity detail. Everything appears resolved without fault in most scenes. [xrr rating=4/5 label=Video]

Hockey fans will appreciate the arena ambiance this DTS-HD mix delivers, including cheering fans in all directions. Unfortunately, the massive body checks, incredibly exaggerated on film, lack impact from the audio. Smacking someone into the boards should deliver a deep, powerful jolt on the low-end, yet this mix is almost lifeless in this regard.

Bass is even mundane as Johnson transforms into the tooth fairy, delivering a small jolt before moving on. That said, the surround work, including swirling… uh, sparkly clouds (?) is excellent. They generate an aggressive “swoosh” effect through the soundfield as they pass.

Dialogue is fine, carrying an expected level of clarity for a modern film. A brief concert at the end of the movie delivers wonderful fidelity, although still lacking power. In the end, it seems to sit in the mid-range, but should satisfy most with the generous surround bleed and adoring onlookers clapping all around. [xrr rating=4/5 label=Audio]

Fox has not provided a review copy of Tooth Fairy to us, and as such, this review is based off a rental exclusive that contains no extras. Should a retail copy be obtained, we will update this review. [xrr rating=0/5 label=Extras]