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| Reviewed by: Jason White 12 Aug 2005 Layer Cake
| |  Crazy week as I have seen two films now on DVD that I really like and would watch again more than once. That is pretty rare for me and for the current state of film releases at the given time. Sin City was first and now Layer Cake is number two. Layer Cake is one of the British mobster type of genre films, but giving it such a title might steer some away. It does have a touch of violence to it, but it more plays out like a Lock, Stock or Snatch, only a bit less trendy and a bit grittier. I really like it for that reason especially. While I am very fond of those films, this one is a good like minded film but one that plays out differently but in a good way. Sony Home Entertainment brings the film to DVD for all to enjoy.
The film stars Daniel Craig (a one time rumored James Bond replacement) as a guy whose name we never get to know. So with that I will just call him Craig. Craig is a cocaine dealer. He puts together kilos and sells them to some influential business type guys and that is his life. After getting around to properly laundering some big cash, he is set to retire by just walking away early, something he feels is the right move to avoid mistakes made by others in the criminal world. The main person he has made a lot of money for is Jimmy Price. Price has him and his right hand man over for lunch and puts two jobs on him. One is to find the missing daughter of a fellow influential businessman named Eddie Temple, while the second job is to broker a deal with a rather dumb mobster type who is in possession of quite few ecstasy pills. Craig has little knowledge or skill for either job, but you don’t say to no to a Mr. Price. Nothing though is as simple or not simple as it sounds. Even finding Temple’s daughter is rough as she is involved in the drug world as a user, and her current boyfriend is found dead. Craig puts some of his associates on the case while he and his main crew try to go about getting the ecstasy pills at a very cheap price. Seems though that the bloke who has the pills is a real idiot and stole them from some ex military Serbs who send out a top assassin to get them back. Craig has been fingered as the ringleader who set out to steal the drugs so the assassin is coming for him. In the mix of all this, seems Price has been lying about a few things and is setting Craig up. Eddie Temple lets him in on that and Temple, being a wheeler and dealer himself, puts forth a few notions to Craig and again Craig more or less as to say yes as you don’t say no to a Mr. Temple either. Various other issues in response to all of this keep popping up too, as for poor Craig who wanted to just get out, well now he will be lucky to just stay alive.
Layer Cake is presented on DVD in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen. The film is very sharp and detailed, ranging from very crisp to somewhat tinted based on the given look for a few scenes. Colors saturation is very good and natural, and the few scenes that have a different look, well while not quite natural, the intended look comes through fine with no compression or visual issues. Blacks are good, contrast is good, and things such as enhancement and shimmer are very quick to pass by. Despite having a lot of content on one disc, the compression job seems very strong and issue light.
Audio for the film is Dolby Digital 5.1. Dialogue is most of what the film is about. Dialogue is clear and crisp, but given some accents, a few words are a little hard to follow but mostly it comes through fine. A few of the more intense scenes could have used a bit more oomph to them, but overall this is a fine audio track that works well for the film. A French 2.0 dub is also included.
In R2 there was a 2-disc set of this film released. Here for R1, we get a one disc set, but it has all the same extras included. Breakdown of extra is as follows:
Audio commentary from director Matthew Vaughn along with screenwriter J.J. Connolly.
13 deleted scenes (w/ optional commentary)
Making of Layer Cake featurette
Question and Answer Session with Daniel Craig and Matthew Vaughn
Sony trailers for films other than Layer Cake
Photo gallery, storyboard comparisons and a music video
A very slick film with plenty of plot twists and a good twist ending that twisted around quite a lot to come about. Solid performances and that British gangster charm make it a great film that deserves some attention. Fans Lock, Stock and Snatch will certainly want to give this one a go. While I don’t see Craig as a James Bond, he is a very good actor and has come a long way from Tomb Raider. Look forward to more from him as well as from new director Matthew Vaughn. For fans who have thought about the region 2 release, don’t bother, this Sony release has it all on 1 disc and does not show any issues thank to the compression used. |
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Copyright (c) 2007 Rock Star Media Works, Inc. All rights reserved.
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