Sometimes there are moments in movie history certain studios wish they could take back. Sometimes they are huge, epic mistakes that involve letting the wrong person do press for their movie without studio oversight. Other times it is as small as a release date and marketing campaign. I'm certain that somewhere at New Line, there are a couple of guys lamenting releasing Ghosts of Girlfriends Past at the beginning of the summer rather than the start of the holiday season. And while the familiar Christmas theme and story of the movie as well as its wintry setting plays a part in that, there is one thing those marketing guys wish they could plaster across every poster and television spot imaginable.

FROM THE WRITERS OF THE HANGOVER !

Does that grab your attention? Yeah. In what I feel is easily the most underrated mainstream film of the year, writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore craft a wickedly funny tale in the vein of what everyone saw just one month later in The Hangover. It is irreverent, sharp, and much funnier than it looks like it should be. Sure, on the surface it is a gushy, silly Matthew McConaughey romantic comedy; but in truth it is the story of a misogynist raised by a womanizing uncle who discovers that he's really the way he is because he's been torn up over the same girl for the last 25 years. There's a LOT of guy style humor here, dressed up just right as to be funny to women as well. But that's not the bar critics were able to measure this by. Instead, embittered by years festooned with some pretty bad McConaughey movies, many saw this as just another one of those and let that color their experience. But it is far more clever than anything McConaughey's done in a while and is almost every bit as funny as its R-rated Vegas cousin.

The film boasts a terrific cast who really go above and beyond, each using the other's chemistry to their full advantage. But the real supporting star is Michael Douglas in the Jacob Marley role (this is, after all, based on A Christmas Carol.) Rather than portraying Marley as a dried up old man consumed by avarice, he's Hugh Heffner -- a jet-setting playboy who drives around in a pimp car appropriately named the "STBN WGN." Douglas really shines as the sleazy uncle who teaches a 13-year-old boy how to be a ladies' man and explains the lesson that McConaughey's Connor Mead carries with him his whole life: The person with the power in the relationship is the one who cares the least. The film is filled with awful truths like this that, wish though we may, are true none the less. And that's where a lot of the humor comes from.

I've seen the film three times now and enjoy the living hell out of it. While not everyone agrees with me, a good number of people have sought it out at my insistence and come back very happy. This really is a surprising film with a lot to like, especially when you look at it with an understanding of where these writers are coming from. Unfortunately, the DVD has little more to offer outside of the film. There are three short featurettes with all the typical requisite cast/crew butt kissing, with only a few interesting tidbits to be gleaned from them. And there are a few deleted scenes including a new, funny opening (that actually establishes that the film takes place AFTER Christmas, something the final cut never addresses), and an extended version of the bar scene with Douglas which sadly lacks the film's perfect timing. But the film looks GORGEOUS on Blu-ray, wonderfully capturing a lot of the picturesque settings the film finds itself in.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is available now on DVD, Blu-ray, On Demand, and Digital from Warner Home Video.

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