Review of Plunkett & Macleane

Video

Ok, let`s be honest, this was never really going to work, now was it? You can tell this is going to be a good review, right? =)

Plunkett & Macleane is the story of two highway men from the mid 1700`s. They meet at the beginning of the film, form a wary alliance, and devise a plan to remove the local upper class residents from their riches. We get to see their adventures.....

That essentially sums up the whole film, and on the face of it, you might think that this is going to be a good Friday night popcorn film. This is what I thought. I loved the idea of a highway robbery film. I really wanted to enjoy this movie. But alas....

You see, I`ve left out one small, but nevertheless very important detail. Plunkett & Macleane is set in the 18th Century, in terms of location, characters and events. But as far as dialogue goes, the film has a size 12 boot stuck firmly in the late 20th Century. The characters use modern day language for a good part of the film, but only for parts of it. That`s the big problem. You watch the film trying to work out where the film is trying to go - one minute we have traditional speech from the period the movie is set, and the next second it`s "Alright geezer", and "Sorted". Not very good.

As I said at the start, it just doesn`t work for me. You end up with a total mess. It`s supposed to be funny, but isn`t. It`s supposed to be action packed, but isn`t. You know what is going to happen in a scene the moment it begins. Annoying, becuse I did want to like this film a lot....I just couldn`t.

There are some saving graces, however. The film has a strong cast - Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Liv Tyler, and my favourite, Ken Stott, who can be seen most recently in the tv series The Vice. Alan Cumming also plays his role exceptionally well. However, even all of these fine actors put together simply cannot save the movie from being a big fat turkey.

The video quality on offer here is good. Thankfully we have an anamorphic transfer.

The film is very dark, and grey, with no real colour - obviously an attempt at an accurate portrayl of how things were in those times (I say attempt as I don`t know what it was really like, but this is what I would expect). There are a few flaws though - one or two scenes are out of focus when they shouldn`t be. But this is down to the film itself, not the DVD content.

Audio

The audio fairs much better. The Dolby Digital sound track is well used. There are a lot of effects coming out of the rear channels, and they really do add something to the atmosphere. The rain and thunder were my favourite, along with the noise from the MP`s in parliament.

Features

As far as extras go, the disc presents what we have unfortunately come to expect from so many titles. Subtitles in three languages and a five minute "interview" with the cast. This is the sort of short that is given out to tv stations on the films release - if you saw something on tv about this film, it was probably taken from this "documentary". DVD producers please take note - trying to palm this short collection of marketing snippets off as a "making of" simply won`t cut it.

Extraordinarily, we have a behind the scenes feature too. This is different to most, not in the fact that it is also incredibly short, but because it comprises of nothing more than a home video of the film being shot. This is just a member of the crew walking around the set at different stages of production pointing a home video camera at the stars. Unimpressive.

Conclusion

So, all told we have a terrible film, with a good quality video transfer, and some fine audio. Poor extras though. If you liked this film (someone must) you won`t be disappointed with this disc. However, if you haven`t seen it yet, don`t bother. Avoid like the titular highwayman.