7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The life of a phobic con artist is thrown into turmoil when the teenage daughter he never knew arrives unexpectedly.
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman, Bruce Altman, Bruce McGillComedy | 100% |
Crime | 54% |
Drama | 19% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 2.0
Turkish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish DD 2.0=Latin; Japanese is hidden
English SDH, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Director Ridley Scott made Matchstick Men to fill up several months of downtime during the long prep for a historical epic called Tripoli, which was scheduled to begin shooting in early 2004, until Fox pulled the plug. Scott jumped directly into Kingdom of Heaven, but his time hadn't been wasted. He had managed to complete one of the hidden gems of his diverse career, a film ripe for rediscovery in this excellent Blu-ray presentation from Warner Home Video. Although the two films have nothing in common, Scott likens Matchstick Men to Thelma and Louise, because neither is the kind of film with which he is typically associated. Both are character-driven stories in contemporary settings, whereas Scott is best known for historical epics like Gladiator or sci-fi tales like Alien, Blade Runner and Prometheus. Scott also sees another key similarity between the con games of Matchstick Men and the feminist road trip of Thelma and Louise—to him, they are both comedies. Despite many dark elements in each film, Scott wants viewers to laugh with the characters through their pain (and sometimes at them too). Matchstick Men began as a script by Ted Griffin (Ocean's Eleven) and his brother Nicholas, based on the novel by Eric Garcia (Repo Men). Robert Zemeckis was originally slated to direct (and retains an executive producer credit), but Zemeckis dropped out for The Polar Express. However, as the Griffin brothers observe on the commentary track, it eases the pain of losing Zemeckis when he's replaced by Ridley Scott. After a short prep, detailed in the accompanying "Tricks of the Trade" documentary, the film was shot in and around Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, with most of Scott's regular crew.
Frequent Scott collaborator John Mathieson (Gladiator) shot Matchstick Men with a high-contrast clarity that emphasizes the presence of the Southern California sun, even as it creates shadows and reflections indoors. The stark delineation between interior and exterior spaces is a subtle reminder of Roy's agoraphobia, which waxes and wanes with developments in the plot. For its Blu-ray debut, Matchstick Men has been newly scanned at 2k from an interpositive by MPI (Motion Picture Imaging), Warner's on-site facility. The results, on the 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, are spectacular. Detail is crisp and clear at the focal point of the anamorphic lens (as Scott notes in his commentary, depth of field is limited with anamorphic, and he wanted that falloff of focus for this film). The color palette is gorgeously varied, ranging from the warm earth tones of Dr. Klein's office to the cold hues evident throughout Roy's apartment, including the blue/green reflections from his pool. In Roy's scenes with Angela, the colors tends toward warmth, unless they're working a mark together, because Roy's work palette is always chilly. The Blu-ray image is fine-grained and shows no sign of untoward digital manipulation. Warner has mastered Matchstick Men with an average bitrate of 29.91 Mbps, thereby providing further confirmation that the era of bitrate-starved catalog releases is now over.
Matchstick Men's 5.1 sound mix, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, deftly shifts between objective reality and Roy's internal state at key moments, such as the early scene when Roy and Frank are posing as FTC agents while visiting an older couple. One of them slides open a glass door, triggering Roy's agoraphobia, and the soundtrack instantly moves the viewer into Roy's head as he becomes encased in anxiety. In other locations, such as the airport, a bowling alley or the strip club where Roy and Frank first make contact with Frechette, the soundtrack provides an unobtrusive but effective sense of environment. Several notable sound effects that can't be further identified without spoilers register forcefully. Dialogue is always clear. The music of Matchstick Men is especially important; composer Hans Zimmer speaks at length in the "Tricks of the Trade" documentary about his struggle to find the right tone for the score. Intercut with Zimmer's score are a selection of classics by Bobby Darin and Frank Sinatra, which Scott chose to help give the film a timeless quality, as well as instrumental selections by Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass and Mantovani and his Orchestra. Add in a little Roxy Music, some Marvin Gaye, a dash of Wayne Newton and few songs by Kid Rock, and you have one of the most eclectic soundtracks in recent film. Somehow it works.
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2004 DVD of Matchstick Men.
The notion of the artist as a trickster and deceiver is as old as the Greeks, which is no doubt why stories about con artists never go out of style, especially in the movies, which are one of the most deceptive forms of storytelling. The actors are pretending to be other people; the photography pretends that there aren't hordes of crew and piles of equipment just out of sight; and the editing pretends that actions are occurring in real time, instead of a calculated assembly of shots taken days, weeks or even months apart in locations nowhere near each other. Like the most willing of marks, movie audiences routinely consent to being deceived, even as they claim to know better. Matchstick Men is one of those rare con films that is just as much interested in the characters of the con artists, maybe even more so, than in the mechanics of their plans. This quality ranks it with such otherwise dissimilar works as The Grifters and The Sting. Scott is right to call it a comedy, but it may also break your heart. Highly recommended.
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