Half a Chance Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		0.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		1.0

Half a Chance Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 14, 2025

Patrice Leconte's "Half a Chance" (1998) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critics Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell, and Nathaniel Thompson, and vintage trailer. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Just like the old days.

Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo’s final collaboration is undoubtedly their most underwhelming. In Half a Chance, which Patrice Leconte directed in 1998, the two iconic actors look a lot like retirees who may have temporarily left their massive mansions on the Côte d’Azur to spice up their lives with a staged rodeo that only the super-wealthy can afford. They are having fun, but there is a lot of pretending around them to ensure that they get things done right and appear at least somewhat authentic.

Also scripted by Leconte, with help from Patrick Dewoff and Serge Frydman, Half a Chance works with very predictable material. After she is released from prison, professional carjacker Alice Tomaso (Vanessa Paradis) listens to a tape from her late mother and learns that years ago she fell in love with two different men, one of whom is supposed to be her father. Soon after, Tomaso tracks down Julien Vignal (Delon) and Leo Brassac (Belmondo), both successful businessmen who are completely unaware of each other’s existence. After Tomaso arranges for them to meet and plays the tape with her mother’s revelation, Vignal and Brassac quickly develop fatherly instincts and engage in a hilarious competition that reveals two very different yet similarly likeable future dads. However, while still learning about the men her late mother loved, and pondering when the right time would be to do a DNA test to determine the winner of their competition, Tomaso accidentally steals a suitcase with 50 million dollars from a drug deal arranged by the Russian mafia. Just hours later, Anatoli Zharkov (Valeri Gatayev), who is preparing to unveil a glamorous new casino on the Côte d’Azur, dispatches his sadistic executioner (Alexander Yakovlev) to retrieve the stolen money and bring him the disrespectful thief. Unaware that Tomasso has become a moving target for the Russian mafia, Vignal and Brassac then go against Zharkov and his thugs to protect her.

Some of Delon and Belmondo’s posturing before the camera unquestionably pays tribute to their work in Jacques Deray’s Borsalino. Elsewhere, several sequences are carefully choreographed to remind that Belmondo used to do even the most dangerous stunts in his films without the help of a double. In the most challenging of these sequences, for instance, Belmondo moves from a racing car to a helicopter operated by Delon, which is an almost perfect replica of the opening sequence in Happy Easter, a very similar action comedy about another cheating ‘father’ and his sexy ‘daughter’. The quality of the writing is not bad either.

Unfortunately, Half a Chance is extremely difficult, perhaps even impossible, to enjoy in the way its creators intended. Indeed, its main problem is also its most obvious and consequential problem -- Delon and Belmondo are way past their prime. Needless to say, watching them play characters that would have been right for them several decades earlier is a bittersweet nostalgia fix in which the bitter’s total dominance is almost unbearable.

Leconte chose to work with director of photography Steven Poster, who had lensed Ridley Scott’s gorgeous neo-noir thriller Someone to Watch Over Me and shortly after collaborated with Richard Kelly on Donnie Darko.

Half a Chance Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Half a Chance arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The Blu-ray release is sourced from an old master. At times, this master produces pretty good visuals, but its limitations are also easy to spot, especially on a larger screen. If I had to compare it to another similar master, I would say that the one that was used to produce the Blu-ray release of DeepStar Six has practically the same strengths and weaknesses.

Delineation and depth tend to be pleasing, especially during indoor footage with balanced lighting. Sharpness is pleasing as well. The best news is that there are no traces of problematic digital tinkering, so even in areas where darker nuances are not optimal or highlights begin to struggle, the visuals retain a decent organic appearance. However, a lot of these visuals can have a much better dynamic range. While pleasing, color balance and saturation can be substantially improved as well. Image stability is very good. The surface of the visuals is healthy as well. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access it content).

Half a Chance Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

Both tracks are defective. The audio is incorrectly pitched and as a result all actors sound as if they have helium-spiked voices. This exact same defect was present on Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release of Bitter Moon. This is most unfortunate because clarity, sharpness, and dynamic intensity are quite nice.

Half a Chance Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage trailer for Half a Chance. In French, with English subtitles. (3 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell, and Nathaniel Thompson.

Half a Chance Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release of Half a Chance has two defective audio tracks. Both tracks are incorrectly pitched and as a result all actors sound as if they have helium-spiked voices. The same defect was present on the recent Blu-ray release of Bitter Moon. Somewhat ironically, the vintage trailer for Half a Chance that Kino Lorber have provided has all voices correctly pitched. AVOID.