Considering
the combined talents of Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett
and Barry Levinson, it should come as no surprise that BANDITS
($27) is a very funny and very winning movie. Part crime story, part romantic
comedy and part road movie, BANDITS combines the elements of these
various genres into a frothy entertainment cocktail that tells the story
of two criminals that escapes from prison and go on a bank robbing spree.
As
it turns out, Joe Blake (Willis) and Terry Collins (Thornton) are two
fairly charming rouges that come up with a unique way of robbing banks,
thus allowing them completely control the situation and avoid bloodshed.
The night before the robberies, Joe and Terry take the bank managers hostage
and then go with them into the banks before the start of the business
day. Their modus operandi soon earns them the nickname of "The
Sleepover Bandits" and they find themselves media darlings, thanks
to one of those reality TV crime shows. If the unwelcome notoriety wasn’t
bad enough, things are further complicated when bored housewife Kate Wheeler
(Blanchett) becomes a long-term hostage and romantically entangled with
both bandits.
BANDITS
works wonderfully well because Barry Levinson’s direction is very assured,
yet he allows his actors enough of a free hand to flesh out their characters.
All three leading actors give completely charming performances, which
allows the material to magically float and repeatedly tickle the audience.
The cast of BANDITS also includes Troy Garity, Brian F. O'Byrne,
Stacey Travis, Bobby Slayton, January Jones, Azura Skye, Peggy Miley and
William Converse-Roberts.
MGM
Home Entertainment has made BANDITS available on DVD in a 2.35:1
wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for 16:9 displays. A full
screen presentation is available on the opposite side of the DVD, but
for the purpose of this review, the wide screen version of the film will
be discussed. Producing a very sharp and well-defined image, the wide
screen transfer is very clean, with almost no imperfections. Colors are
strongly saturated, while flesh tones remain natural and very appealing-
all of which is a credit to Dante Spinotti’s wonderful cinematography.
Blacks have a velvety appearance, plus the contrast is very smooth and
the image produces a genuine sense of depth. This DVD-18 allows dual layer
authoring to both sides of the disc, with no signs of digital compression
artifacts on the wide screen presentation.
BANDITS
features a somewhat laid back Dolby Digital 5.1 channel mix, which is
a perfect fit to the comic material. Active sound effects do come into
play on occasion, but are limited to scenes with car chases and gunfire.
Otherwise, the soundtrack has an ambient sense of space and good musical
fill. Dialogue is very natural sounding and is reproduced with full intelligibility.
French, Spanish and Portuguese Dolby Surround tracks are also encoded
onto the DVD, as are English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive
menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as some supplements. Included on the DVD
is a twenty-minute featurette entitled Inside Bandits. The
program is a lot better than the typical self-congratulatory PR piece,
offering solid interviews with all the principals, which serve to explain
the film’s gestation. Four deleted scenes that encompass some dropped
subplots are included on the DVD, as is an alternate ending with a bit
of commentary by actress Cate Blanchett. While interesting, all of the
deleted material hit the cutting room floor for good reason- it added
nothing significant to the story. Creating Scene 71 is another
brief featurette that looks at the evolution of a scene, from the actual
script to the layers added by the actors through improvisation. Closing
out the DVD is a theatrical trailer for BANDITS, as well as HART'S
WAR and WINDTALKERS.
BANDITS
is a very likable film that benefits from a solid cast and good direction.
MGM Home Entertainment has done a fine job with the film’s presentation
on DVD, making this a disc that most folk will want to definitely check
out.
Considering
the combined talents of Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett
and Barry Levinson, it should come as no surprise that BANDITS
($27) is a very funny and very winning movie. Part crime story, part romantic
comedy and part road movie, BANDITS combines the elements of these
various genres into a frothy entertainment cocktail that tells the story
of two criminals that escapes from prison and go on a bank robbing spree.
As
it turns out, Joe Blake (Willis) and Terry Collins (Thornton) are two
fairly charming rouges that come up with a unique way of robbing banks,
thus allowing them completely control the situation and avoid bloodshed.
The night before the robberies, Joe and Terry take the bank managers hostage
and then go with them into the banks before the start of the business
day. Their modus operandi soon earns them the nickname of "The
Sleepover Bandits" and they find themselves media darlings, thanks
to one of those reality TV crime shows. If the unwelcome notoriety wasn’t
bad enough, things are further complicated when bored housewife Kate Wheeler
(Blanchett) becomes a long-term hostage and romantically entangled with
both bandits.
BANDITS
works wonderfully well because Barry Levinson’s direction is very assured,
yet he allows his actors enough of a free hand to flesh out their characters.
All three leading actors give completely charming performances, which
allows the material to magically float and repeatedly tickle the audience.
The cast of BANDITS also includes Troy Garity, Brian F. O'Byrne,
Stacey Travis, Bobby Slayton, January Jones, Azura Skye, Peggy Miley and
William Converse-Roberts.
MGM
Home Entertainment has made BANDITS available on DVD in a 2.35:1
wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for 16:9 displays. A full
screen presentation is available on the opposite side of the DVD, but
for the purpose of this review, the wide screen version of the film will
be discussed. Producing a very sharp and well-defined image, the wide
screen transfer is very clean, with almost no imperfections. Colors are
strongly saturated, while flesh tones remain natural and very appealing-
all of which is a credit to Dante Spinotti’s wonderful cinematography.
Blacks have a velvety appearance, plus the contrast is very smooth and
the image produces a genuine sense of depth. This DVD-18 allows dual layer
authoring to both sides of the disc, with no signs of digital compression
artifacts on the wide screen presentation.
BANDITS
features a somewhat laid back Dolby Digital 5.1 channel mix, which is
a perfect fit to the comic material. Active sound effects do come into
play on occasion, but are limited to scenes with car chases and gunfire.
Otherwise, the soundtrack has an ambient sense of space and good musical
fill. Dialogue is very natural sounding and is reproduced with full intelligibility.
French, Spanish and Portuguese Dolby Surround tracks are also encoded
onto the DVD, as are English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive
menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as some supplements. Included on the DVD
is a twenty-minute featurette entitled Inside Bandits. The
program is a lot better than the typical self-congratulatory PR piece,
offering solid interviews with all the principals, which serve to explain
the film’s gestation. Four deleted scenes that encompass some dropped
subplots are included on the DVD, as is an alternate ending with a bit
of commentary by actress Cate Blanchett. While interesting, all of the
deleted material hit the cutting room floor for good reason- it added
nothing significant to the story. Creating Scene 71 is another
brief featurette that looks at the evolution of a scene, from the actual
script to the layers added by the actors through improvisation. Closing
out the DVD is a theatrical trailer for BANDITS, as well as HART'S
WAR and WINDTALKERS.
BANDITS
is a very likable film that benefits from a solid cast and good direction.
MGM Home Entertainment has done a fine job with the film’s presentation
on DVD, making this a disc that most folk will want to definitely check
out.
