Ca$h Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Ca$h Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 17, 2012

Gallic director Eric Besnard's "Ca$h" (2008) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Metrodome Video. There are no supplemental features included on this release. In French and English, with imposed English subtitles, where necessary, for the main feature. Region-Free.

Voila...now let's talk business

The film opens up with a short prologue in which a con artist meets a man in an office building. They talk about an important deal. Then, suddenly the man kills the con artist. Before he leaves, he quickly looks around to make sure that everything is as it should be.

A couple of months later. Another con artist (Jean Dujardin, The Artist, Lucky Luke) and his two accomplices are getting ready to do a big job that could make them so rich that they won’t have to work for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, they fumble the job and a group of tough goons go after them. At one point, they even consider splitting and leaving the country.

Eventually, the group decides to scam a filthy rich art collector, Maxime (Jean Reno, Léon, Ronin), and his stunningly beautiful daughter (Alice Taglioni, The Valet). While getting ready, they are joined by a crooked cop (Valeria Golino, Respiro, Rain Man), who wants a promotion. At first, the con artists do not want to deal with her, but she changes their minds after she shows them a stack of photos that could easily put them behind bars.

The con artists and the cop approach Maxine during an important auction in a massive mansion. Much to their surprise, however, it turns out that he has been waiting for them to make a move. After the auction, he asks if they would be interested in assisting him with a big job.

The reason why Éric Besnard’s Ca$h is getting some attention at the moment should be obvious – one of the key characters in it is played by Dujardin, who many believe will an Oscar Award for his performance in Michel Hazanavicius’ international hit The Artist.

Ca$h has plenty of similarities with Miguel Bardem’s Incautos a.k.a Swindled. Both films are about astonishingly good con artists who try to predict each others’ moves but constantly fail. Both films also end with surprisingly good twists.

Incautos is a slightly better film because it takes itself a little more seriously. The games its characters play are more complex and the dilemmas they face more realistic. More importantly, however, these characters have various weaknesses which make them look human.

Ca$h is a flashier and faster film that does not try too hard to look realistic. Right from the get-go it is made perfectly clear that its stars – Reno, Dujardin, and Golino – will carry the film without worrying about authenticity. This is not to say that they are not convincing, rather that they have more in common with the type of characters Hollywood likes – beautiful and skillful men and women who say and do the right things at the right time.

The majority of the film was shot on the French Riviera, in and around ultra-luxury hotels, trendy restaurants and clubs. Unsurprisingly, quite a few of the action sequences look like long and carefully lensed travel commercials meant to impress undecided wealthy tourists.

Still, the film is undeniably charming. The second half, in particular, should put a smile on a lot of different faces as Reno once again looks energetic and funny, as he did years ago when people outside of France fell in love with him.

Ca$h Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Éric Besnard's Ca$h arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Metrodome Video.

From what I could tell, the high-definition transfer appears to be practically identical to the one TF1 Video used in France a couple of years ago for their local Blu-ray release of Ca$h. During close-ups detail is pleasing, clarity is quite good, especially during the outdoor sequences, and contrast levels stable. Color reproduction does not disappoint either - there are a variety of different warm colors that never collapse. This being said, there are a couple of sequences where I noticed some light banding. During the second half of the film, I also noticed a few scattered compression artifacts. However, there are no traces of problematic post-production digital corrections. There are no serious stability issues to report in this review either. All in all, this is a decent, though largely unimpressive, high-definition transfer. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

Ca$h Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French Dolby Digital 2.0 (with small portions of English). For the record, Metrodome Video have provided imposed English subtitles (they cannot be turned off), which appear inside the image frame.

The lack of a strong loseless audio track is very disappointing. It is also puzzling, because more elaborate audio tracks were included on other European Blu-ray releases of Ca$h. There are no serious technical issues with the French Dolby Digital 2.0 track, but many of the action scenes sound notably flat and dull. The film is also complimented by a light but very nice soundtrack courtesy of Jean-Michel Bernard which is completely lost. Truly, it is a shame that a loseless track was not included because Ca$h is actually a very entertaining little film.

Ca$h Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, there are absolutely no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc whatsoever.

Ca$h Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Blu-ray release of Ca$h appears to have been rushed, for a very obvious reason, and it clearly shows. The film is definitely worth a look, but the lack of a strong loseless track is very disappointing. Naturally, my advice to you is to find a way to rent the film as it is quite entertaining, but avoid the Blu-ray release, at least with its current price tag. SKIP IT.