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Watching The Detectives
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (7th August 2008). |
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The Film
 Some things work better as a team, when a whole group can come together to make something incredible, like the Broken Lizard team that put together some hilarious movies like “Super Troopers” (2001) and “Beerfest” (2006). Together they have the power to wield comic genius, but when one of the team, in this case Paul Soter, goes off to do a solo project it begs the question: is he more of a team role player or a superstar on his own? If “Watching The Detectives” (2007), Soter’s first outing as writer/director, is any indication he may need to stick with Broken Lizard a while longer before he goes back out on his own. The story follows Niel (Cillian Murphy) owner/manager of Gumshoe Video, a store that specializes in rare or cult videotapes. He spends most of his time debating movies with his film geek friends, dressing up in weird costumes to match the genre-rental special of the week, or just imagining a more exciting world like that found in movies. He even goes so far as to break up with his girlfriend since she’s not enough like Katherine Ross in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969). Soon he meets Violet (Lucy Liu) who makes his life more exciting with her off kilter pranks and wild ways that lead him down the path of a wacky romantic comedy. There’s something off about the story and plotting of the movie, maybe it just bothers me that he runs a video store that’s supposed to be a quirky hot spot for film buffs, but yet still only rents VHS tapes. The only reason there seem to be videotapes in the movie is for a gag where Niel gives a half-watched tape to his friends to guess at what point in the movie Violet stopped watching. But this seems to be the general problem with the story of movie: it’s built around a series of gags, making every scene not about a gag some kind of filler. This could be excusable if the gags were really clever or worthwhile, instead they are fairly standard romantic comedy fare that tries too hard to go for the quirky and wacky standards of the genre. Soter’s script and directing are just functional for the movie, showing what needs to be shown, saying what needs to be said to get to the next gag or scene. There’s little visual flare, but considering the material there’s nothing that more that needs to be done and Soter doesn’t try to push it any further than what it is. For me Murphy seems out of his element, he’s a great actor and has proven himself as incredibly watchable in different roles. He’s shown a range of characters between the survivor in “28 Days Later” (2002) to transgender orphan in “Breakfast on Pluto” (2005), but he doesn’t quite work in “Watching the Detectives.” Somewhere between the scripting and the performance something doesn’t click and Murphy doesn’t seem very energetic about his character or the romance, though he pulls out the only funny scene in the movie near the end when he can’t stop crying. Liu isn’t much better, she’s playing a fairly generic romantic comedy role and doesn’t really rise above, her character is 2 dimensional and there’s not much Liu can do beyond that. Overall, Soter’s script and directing are fairly standard fare for the genre and don’t rise above mediocre. The film was apparently shopped around at the Tribeca film festival in 2007, but couldn’t find a distributor for theatrical release and so has wound up here, straight to DVD. I don’t think the film would have fared any better in theatres, but would have been a draw with Liu and Murphy headlining. Though the movie tries too hard to be charming and cute, it follows the romantic comedy pattern fairly well and could be worth a rental if you really need to see that formula played out again with new actors.
Video
Presented in its 1.78:1 widescreen ratio, 16:9 anamorphic, the DVD transfer is fairly well done. There’s not too much grain and what’s there isn’t very noticeable and the transfer is otherwise clean. However the colors in the movie and the directing don’t exactly pop off the screen and it becomes fairly bland once you’re half way through the movie.
Audio
The English Dobly Digital 5.1 sound track is clean and clear, the levels sound fine and the audio comes through nicely. The actual soundtrack of the film and the ambient noise really isn’t for me, but I guess it fits the romantic comedy styling of the movie. There are no optional subtitles available on this disc.
Extras
The only extras Genius Products has included on this disc are a few theatrical trailers, below is a closer look: The theatrical trailer for “Watching the Detectives” runs for 1 minute 42 seconds. There are also 2 start-up bonus trailers for: - “Delirious” runs for 2 minutes and 32 seconds. - “Flakes” runs for 1 minute and 15 seconds.
Overall
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