Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner in GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST (Update: Blu-ray and DVD Reviews by John J. Puccio)

—> See Links to our BD & DVD Reviews (below)

You can't always run from your past

"GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST is an amusingly sentimental whiff of a romantic comedy... There is an actual cautionary tale here."
—Betsy Sharkey (Los Angeles Times)

New Line Home Entertainment and Warner Brothers present...

GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST
— on DVD and Blu-ray (+Digital Copy) »
(now available)

Burbank, CA — Think you can always run from your past? Find out with Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, now available on Blu-ray and DVD (Sept 22nd) from Warner Home Video.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past follows playboy bachelor, Connor Mead, on a revealing and hilarious odyssey through a lifetime of failed relationships, where he discovers whether he has a second chance to find — and this time, keep — the love of his life.

Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is a notorious photographer who has a bad boy reputation of loving beautiful women and dumping them when they fall in love with him. Beautiful models and celebrities flock to his studio to get their picture taken, usually in lingerie, and throw themselves at him. Conner is so overloaded with women that he has to break up with three women at the same time during a conference call in front of his next prey. His brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) is about to get married, and Connor thinks he is making a terrible mistake. As an incorrigible bachelor, Connor loves his freedom more than ever settling down and loving only one woman. Connor tries to talk Paul out of getting married, and it looks like Connor is about to succeed. Then the night before the wedding, Connor is visited by three ghosts, who take him back to his past, present, and his lonely future. They try to discovery the point in time where Connors became this womanizing jerk. Maybe there is still time to change him into a sensitive, feeling, and caring person that he once was, and he may even find his true love.

From Director Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday), Ghosts of Girlfriends Past stars Matthew McConaughey (We Are Marshall, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Tropic Thunder), Golden Globe™ winner Jennifer Garner (Juno, 13 Going on 30), Emmy Award™ nominee Breckin Meyer (TV's "King of the Hill", Road Trip, Clueless) and two-time Academy Award™ winner Michael Douglas (Wall Street, Traffic, You, Me and Dupree).

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is available now on Blu-ray (+Digital Copy and other extras) for $35.99 and on single disc standard DVD for $28.98 (no extras).

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is also available ON DEMAND through Digital Cable, Satellite TV, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles and it can be downloaded for rental or purchase on iTunes and Amazon Video On Demand.

BONUS FEATURES include: (Blu-ray only)
BEHIND THE STORY:
• "Recreating the past, imagining the future" (8:36) — Take a look at the past, present and future eras in the film to see how the memorable dialogue, styles and trends all come together to delivery the story
• "It's all about Connor" (4:02, aka It's all about Matthew) — Actresses Jennifer Garner, Lacey Chabert and Anne Archer reveal the differences between the real guy, Matthew McConaughey, and this cynical, commitment-phobic character, Conner Mead
• "The Legends, the Lessons and the Ladies" (7:56) — Matthew McConaughey and Michael Douglas take a fun and light-hearted look at what it takes to play the character of a legendary ladies man and the many lessons learned!
ADDITIONAL SCENES (9:41):
• Original Opening
• Exiting The Studio
• The Bridesmaids Toast
• Uncle Wayne Gives Advice (extended scene)
• BD-Live Bonus Content (2:42): "A Sea of Women" — Exclusive footage of the infamous Infiniti room filled hundreds of women
• Bonus Digital Copy of the film

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a 2009 American romantic comedy film whose plot is based on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Mark Waters directed a script by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. Filming spanned February 19, 2008 to July 2008 in Boston, Mass. with stars Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Emma Stone.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past features a wedding and the day before the wedding, instead of the Christmas Eve and Christmas like the story that the movie is based on. The three ghosts share similar appearances with the original descriptions of the same, and the movie basically shares the traditional plot points from the book.

GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST — Explore:
—> Blu-ray Review by John J. Puccio »
EXCERPT: By the look of things, Matthew McConaughey is attempting to become the reigning king of romantic comedies. I mean, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," "Failure to Launch," "Fool's Gold," among others, and now 2009's "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," all of them pretty mediocre. Is there no end to the number of questionable projects the man will undertake? Not even its Blu-ray high-definition transfer does much to improve the situation.

"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" updates the old Charles Dickens tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, changing only the tightfisted, coldhearted skinflint for a cynical, shallow, woman-bashing narcissist. McConaughey plays Connor Mead, a successful fashion photographer and full-time ladies' man, who beds every girl he meets and leaves them just as fast. The question is why every other woman falls for the guy's sleazy, superficial approach. Is the movie suggesting that most women are easy or just idiots?

The idea of the film is to make Connor as despicable a character as possible, with no heart and no conscience, so we can rejoice in his conversion to morality. As I say, it doesn't work. The movie makes the guy so dislikable, not even McConaughey with all his exceptional charisma can help the character recover in our eyes.

There is nothing really novel or inventive in "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." We can see practically every move, every action, every twist and turn a mile away. It's just 100 minutes of waiting for it all to play out. Although there are some sweetly sentimental moments and a suitably "aaawwww" ending, they are not nearly enough to redeem what is otherwise a fairly mean-spirited film.

(Click thru the Link above for the full review)

For DVD Interest, click here...
—> DVD Review by John J. Puccio »
EXCERPT: New Line must have figured that offering both the widescreen and full-screen versions of the movie were enough in terms of "extras," or since they offer both formats on the same side of the disc, they had no room left over for anything more. In any case, that's about all the DVD provides besides twenty-six scene selections, some trailers at start-up, English as the only spoken language, Spanish subtitles, and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Not only had I watched "Bull Durham" shortly before sitting down to "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," I had also recently seen a quirky little indie romantic comedy called "Good Dick," finding these other films superior to "Ghosts" because at least they tried something different. They didn't rely on tried-and-true clichés, with predictable results. "Ghosts" seldom rings true, almost never producing any laughs or any romance. Seems a misnomer to call it a "romantic comedy," you know?

(Click thru the Link above for the full review)

—> Visit the film's Official Site »
(from New Line Home Entertainment & Warner Bros)

—> View the Theatrical Trailer (w/HD) »
(from Apple.com's Trailers website)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content throughout, some language and a drug reference

Film Synopsis:
You can't always run from your past
Connor Mead is the kind of guy who dumps three girlfriends. At the same time. By teleconference. So when he attends his brother's wedding he has a single goal: score with the only bridesmaid he somehow missed. But the ghost of his departed Uncle Wayne — who taught him to love 'em and leave 'em — has another goal in mind: restore Connor's lost faith in true love, a tough assignment requiring the services of many, many GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST.

Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Michael Douglas and director Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Just Like Heaven) uncork a romantic romp as bubbly as wedding-toast champagne. It's the perfect comedy for anyone who believes in laughs and love. Or needs to.

Celebrity photographer Connor Mead (McConaughey) loves freedom, fun and women... in that order. A committed bachelor with a no-strings policy, he thinks nothing of breaking up with multiple women on a conference call while prepping his next date. Connor's brother Paul is more the romantic type. In fact, he's about to be married. Unfortunately, on the eve of the big event, Connor's mockery of romance proves a real buzz-kill for Paul, the wedding party and a houseful of well wishers—including Connor's childhood friend Jenny (Garner), the one woman in his life who has always seemed immune to his considerable charm.

Just when it looks like Connor may single-handedly ruin the wedding, he gets a wake-up call from the ghost of his late Uncle Wayne (Douglas), the hard-partying, legendary ladies man upon whose exploits Connor has modeled his lifestyle. Uncle Wayne has an urgent message for his protege, which he delivers through the ghosts of Connor's jilted girlfriends—past, present and future—who take him on a revealing and hilarious odyssey through a lifetime of failed relationships.

Together, they will discover what turned Connor into such a shameless player and whether he has a second chance to find — and this time, keep — the love of his life.

Mark Waters directs this spin on A CHRISTMAS CAROL starring Matthew McConaughey as Connor Mead, a womanizing photographer with major commitment issues. Begrudgingly attending the wedding of his little brother, Paul (Breckin Meyer), in snowy Newport, Rhode Island, the caddish Connor encounters Jenny (Jennifer Garner), a former love he hurt in the past. He also runs into the ghost of his Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), the playboy who essentially raised the two boys and whom Connor has tried to emulate. Wayne tells his nephew that he'll be visited by three ghosts over the course of the evening: the ghosts of girlfriends past, present, and future. Reviewing his love life while simultaneously attending his brother's wedding weekend leads to some comical moments as Connor tries to reconcile the two. He also has to fend off Jenny's potential new love (Daniel Sunjata) if he wants to win her back.

McConaughey has the heartbreaker swagger down pat, and proves in this film that he can make any character charming. Garner brings a vulnerability to Jenny, who can't seem to help caring about the roguish Connor despite her best efforts. Douglas is fun as the ghost of Uncle Wayne, keeping his 1970s swinger mentality while attempting to guide his nephew away from making the same mistakes he made. Meyer and his bride, played by Lacey Chabert, are an interesting casting choice considering how small in physical stature they both are compared to McConaughey and Garner—and just how much younger they and the rest of the wedding party look. Noureen DeWulf appears as Connor's beleaguered assistant, and Emma Stone is amusing as the ghost of girlfriends past, decked out in '80s garb and perpetually stuck at age 16.