Plot: What’s it about?
I don’t know wheater it was the turn of events in this movie that shocked me so much, or if the turn of events was so unexpected. But like the narrator says “I know how this ends”. John Hurt plays successful British author, Giles De’Ath (not pronounced “death”). He lives in a big estate-type mansion in the UK, where he gets along without any of the accessories that we are so accustomed to. No TV, no VCR..nothing. He doesn’t even do radio interviews, because he barely listens to the one he has. His days are spent sipping tea, and writing (without the use of a typewriter, nonetheless). “I’m a writer…I write” as he explains it. So where exactly does this movie take a very unexpected turn? Giles accidently locks himself out of his house (well, no one does it on purpose) and decides to go to the local movie theater to pass the time until his maid returns. Giles admitted on his one radio interview that he hasn’t been to the movies (or the pictures as he calls them) in over 20 years. He sees an old classic that will do, but ends up in the wrong theater gawking at a cheesy “Porky’s” type movie. As you can imagine, this is totally proposterous to him and on his way out the door, he sees the star of the movie…Jason Priestley. I don’t know if it’s a non-sexual crush that he has on Priestley or if he is obsessed. He starts reading up on the American actor, making scrapbooks and buys A/V equipment so he can watch his new reason for living at home! He takes vacation and borders on stalking the star under the guise that he is going to write a screenplay to “help” Ronnie’s (Priestley) career. As you can imagine, a snooty British author and a bubble-gum actor like Priestley are night and day, so if it takes you by suprise…that’s why. I’m not really sure if their offbeat chemistry works here, but both actors turn in great performances that make this worth watching if nothing else.
Video: How does it look?
The picture is 16:9 enhanced, but I noticed nothing but artifacts. There is about a 5 minute scene in the middle of the movie where the whole picture started flashing a light green, on and off. I thought it may have been an isolated incident, but upon a replay, it happened again. They need to redo this picture.
Audio: How does it sound?
Not really a movie for sound (or picture, see above), the Dolby Surround does it’s job. Mainly driven by dialogue, the audio serves it’s purpose, but doesn’t really add any extra information. I’m not sure if a 5.1 soundtrack could do anything here, maybe a little…
Supplements: What are the extras?
Just a trailer, that’s it.
