For your PC needsMrMacabre
29-03-2003, 01:29 AM
<I><B>UNIVERSAL</I>
<center>
<h2>Shooters </h2>
Release Date: Out Now
Rating: MA 15+
RRP: Rental Only
<UL>DISC FEATURES AND SPECS:</b></center>
<LI> Trailer
<LI>Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Tracks
<LI>Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen (16:9) </UL>
<center><b>CAST:</b></center>
Adrian Dunbar, Andrew Howard, Louis Dempsey, Gerard Butler
<b>DIRECTED BY: </b> Glenn Durfort, Colin Teague
<center><b>MY COMMENTS:</b></center>
I can’t remember the last time an action film put me to sleep. Actually, this isn’t really an action film – I don’t really know what to call it. Basically, <b>Shooters</b> is one of those ‘post-Guy Ritchie’ films that barely warrants being in the shadow of such. The film can be best described via a mathematic equation…
<I>Subtract most of the humour, add more violence and human depravity, and divide the plot by 2.</I> Get the picture?
To be fair, this probably provides a more realistic look at British crime syndicates (Who knew… not all of them are a bunch of bumbling idiots chasing stones). However, sad to say that without the intelligent humour that we’ve become accustomed to, the film basically fails to impress. I mean, even way back in 1980, John McKenzie’s <b>The Long Good Friday</b> (with Bob Hoskins) was able to present a solid story with likeable characters, and still throw in adequate amounts of humour without sending it over the top.
<center><b>AUDIO/VISUAL:</b></center>
Audio:
Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, it makes me wonder why a 5.1 mix wasn’t provided. I mean seriously, in this type of genre, such a track is almost mandatory.
However, less focusing on what we don’t have, and more on what we ‘do’ have… what we have here is a standard DD2.0 track that does the job to the best of it’s potential with minimal hassles. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand (bar accents) and the soundtrack does its best to make do with the 2.0 channels.
Video:
Usually Universal do a great job with their transfers, but this one is quite the opposite.
Grain aplenty and artefacting makes me wonder if it was just the quality of the film or whether there was some botch during the disc encoding. Obviously a question I can’t answer, but as far as reviewing the transfer goes, I honestly expect more these days when watching DVD’s.
As disappointing as the transfer was, I can report that I didn’t notice any alaising. Of course, considering all the blemishes in the transfer already mentioned, it seems almost too good to be true that the transfer is alaising free.
<center><B>EXTRA FEATURES:</b></center>
Theatrical Trailer – 1.33:1 / DD2.0 -
The only supplement on the DVD, this trailer tries it’s best to make the film look half interesting, but as they say ... “you can’t polish a turd”.
<center><B>OVERALL:</b></center>
Do yourself a favour. Go and rent <b>The Long Good Friday</b> to see a REAL British Gangster movie.
I guess if you’re hard up for a film on a Saturday night, give Shooters a look, but don’t expect anything fantastic. A ‘rental’ at best.
<b>Shooters</b> is out now and a rental only release at this stage.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" ALIGN="center" BORDER="1">
<tr><td><B><center>Rating out of 5</b></center> </b> </td>
<tr><td><B>VIDEO QUALITY</b> </td><td><B>2.5</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>AUDIO QUALITY</b> </td><td><B>3</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>EXTRAS</b> </td><td><B>.5</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>THE MOVIE</b> </td><td><B>2 </b></td></tr>
<tr><td><B>OVERALL</B> </td><td><B>2.5</b></td></tr></table>
- DARRAN H
http://www.region4dvd.net/darranh.GIF
<center>
<h2>Shooters </h2>
Release Date: Out Now
Rating: MA 15+
RRP: Rental Only
<UL>DISC FEATURES AND SPECS:</b></center>
<LI> Trailer
<LI>Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Tracks
<LI>Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen (16:9) </UL>
<center><b>CAST:</b></center>
Adrian Dunbar, Andrew Howard, Louis Dempsey, Gerard Butler
<b>DIRECTED BY: </b> Glenn Durfort, Colin Teague
<center><b>MY COMMENTS:</b></center>
I can’t remember the last time an action film put me to sleep. Actually, this isn’t really an action film – I don’t really know what to call it. Basically, <b>Shooters</b> is one of those ‘post-Guy Ritchie’ films that barely warrants being in the shadow of such. The film can be best described via a mathematic equation…
<I>Subtract most of the humour, add more violence and human depravity, and divide the plot by 2.</I> Get the picture?
To be fair, this probably provides a more realistic look at British crime syndicates (Who knew… not all of them are a bunch of bumbling idiots chasing stones). However, sad to say that without the intelligent humour that we’ve become accustomed to, the film basically fails to impress. I mean, even way back in 1980, John McKenzie’s <b>The Long Good Friday</b> (with Bob Hoskins) was able to present a solid story with likeable characters, and still throw in adequate amounts of humour without sending it over the top.
<center><b>AUDIO/VISUAL:</b></center>
Audio:
Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, it makes me wonder why a 5.1 mix wasn’t provided. I mean seriously, in this type of genre, such a track is almost mandatory.
However, less focusing on what we don’t have, and more on what we ‘do’ have… what we have here is a standard DD2.0 track that does the job to the best of it’s potential with minimal hassles. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand (bar accents) and the soundtrack does its best to make do with the 2.0 channels.
Video:
Usually Universal do a great job with their transfers, but this one is quite the opposite.
Grain aplenty and artefacting makes me wonder if it was just the quality of the film or whether there was some botch during the disc encoding. Obviously a question I can’t answer, but as far as reviewing the transfer goes, I honestly expect more these days when watching DVD’s.
As disappointing as the transfer was, I can report that I didn’t notice any alaising. Of course, considering all the blemishes in the transfer already mentioned, it seems almost too good to be true that the transfer is alaising free.
<center><B>EXTRA FEATURES:</b></center>
Theatrical Trailer – 1.33:1 / DD2.0 -
The only supplement on the DVD, this trailer tries it’s best to make the film look half interesting, but as they say ... “you can’t polish a turd”.
<center><B>OVERALL:</b></center>
Do yourself a favour. Go and rent <b>The Long Good Friday</b> to see a REAL British Gangster movie.
I guess if you’re hard up for a film on a Saturday night, give Shooters a look, but don’t expect anything fantastic. A ‘rental’ at best.
<b>Shooters</b> is out now and a rental only release at this stage.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" ALIGN="center" BORDER="1">
<tr><td><B><center>Rating out of 5</b></center> </b> </td>
<tr><td><B>VIDEO QUALITY</b> </td><td><B>2.5</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>AUDIO QUALITY</b> </td><td><B>3</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>EXTRAS</b> </td><td><B>.5</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>THE MOVIE</b> </td><td><B>2 </b></td></tr>
<tr><td><B>OVERALL</B> </td><td><B>2.5</b></td></tr></table>
- DARRAN H
http://www.region4dvd.net/darranh.GIF