6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Tripp Kennedy ambles into a bank near closing time, just as two different gangs unwittingly converge to rob it. A shoot-out erupts, and Tripp tackles the smart, beautiful teller, Kaitlin to protect her. When the bank's security system locks down the building and seals everyong inside, the night evolves into a hilarious game of cat and mouse. As Tripp and Kaitlin try to save the day and escape being killed, they might also need to avoid falling in love...
Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Ashley Judd, Tim Blake Nelson, Mekhi Phifer, Matt RyanCrime | 100% |
Dark humor | 35% |
Comedy | 4% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Rob Minkoff is not a filmmaker who leaps to mind when someone mentions heist films, which may be one reason why the director of Stuart Little (I and II)and The Lion King (with Roger Allers) was attracted to this twisty script by the screenwriters of The Hangover. It was a chance for Minkoff to do something different. But Minkoff wasn't stepping too far outside his comfort zone, because writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore had created a story that, like The Hangover, often resembles a live-action cartoon: an outlandish situation peopled by bizarre caricatures, except that the setting is a bank not a bachelor party. Flypaper may be populated by criminals, but they're the kind with roots in Tarantino-land and the Coen Brothers. Indeed, director of photography Steven Poster says in the disc's extras that he and Minkoff used the Coens' films (among others) as a visual reference. Poster calls the film a screwball comedy—except that people get killed. Lucas and Moore were clearly riffing on certain prior films, but it would give away too much to say which ones. Since they assume a sophisticated viewer who will be looking for clues and twists, they have people behave strangely right from the start, so that when you try to spot the person who doesn't fit, there are too many candidates to choose from. Minkoff and his talented cast obviously had fun with these loopy characters, and while the result bears little relation to reality, it's pleasantly entertaining if you're willing to play along.
Flypaper was shot digitally on the Red One system by Steven Poster, who worked with director Minkoff on the Stuart Little films. Poster's flair for crafting the visual element of off-beat stories is evident in his long association with writer-director Richard Kelly, for whom Poster shot Donnie Darko, Southland Tales and The Box. For Flypaper, Poster created a simple, unobtrusive camera style that makes the most of the practical location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the film was made. The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from IFC and MPI Media provides a clean, noiseless and detailed image that showcases all the familiar advantages of the Red One. Post-production on a digital intermediate has been handled with care to take out the harshness that sometimes plagues digitally originated productions, and the colors have been "warmed up" and re-tinted to a more natural, film-like appearance. All of this has been achieved without compromising black or contrast levels or introducing artifacts. In the latter regard, it helps that MPI has used a BD-50, because the extras are nearly twice as long as the feature, and they're all in HD. Other publishers, please take note. (Image Entertainment, I'm talking to you.)
Flypaper's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track provides some unusually aggressive audio sequences involving gunfire, shattering glass and explosions. These have been effectively mixed with significant rear channel activity and bass extension. The rear channels also provide noticeable ambient noise in environments like the vault room and various passageways that one crew (the competent one) uses to infiltrate the bank. Dialogue is clear and centered, except for an occasional word off-camera. The mock-serious score by John Swihart (Youth in Revolt) plays at just the right level to enhance the comedy without interfering with it.
Lucas and Moore wrote Flypaper before The Hangover, but it took them twelve years to get it made. Still, the two scripts have much in common. Just as in Flypaper, the characters in The Hangover are trying to solve a mystery (i.e., what happened to the groom?), and they have to suffer through a lot of strange (for them) and funny (for us) experiences to do so. Flypaper isn't as laugh-out-loud hilarious, in part because the ratio of mystery to comedy is higher, and in part because the stakes are greater—if the characters don't solve the mystery, they're likely to wind up dead. One's enjoyment of the film depends on one's willingness to accept the high- concept artificiality of it all. You'll know if the film's for you within minutes after Tripp starts blabbering to Kaitlin. I enjoyed it, but to each their own.
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