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DVDfever.co.uk – Cemetery Junction DVD reviewDom Robinson reviews
Sony Pictures Home Ent. UKDVD: 
Blu-ray:
- Cert:
- Running time: 91 minutes
- Year: 2010
- Cat no: CDR70425
- Released: August 2010
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 28
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English, Hindi
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD9
- Price: £19.99 (DVD); £24.99 (Blu-ray)
- Extras: Directors’ Commentary, Cast Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Blooper Reel, Behind the Scenes featurettes,Audio descriptive track
-
Directors:
- Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant
(Cemetery Junction, The Invention of Lying (Gervais only), TV: Extras, The Office)
Producers:
- Sue Baden-Powell and Charlie Hanson
Screenplay:
- Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant
Music:
- Tim Atack
Cast :
- Freddie Taylor: Christian Cooke
Bruce Pearson: Tom Hughes
Mr Taylor: Ricky Gervais
Julie: Felicity Jones
Mike Ramsey: Matthew Goode
Mr Kendrick: Ralph Fiennes
Snork: Jack Doolan
Sgt Wyn Davies: Steve Speirs
PC Renwick: Burn Gorman
Freddie’s Gran: Anne Reid
Mrs Taylor: Julia Davis
Mr Pearson: Francis Magee
Brian: David Earl
Louise: Bryony Hannah
Mrs Kendrick: Emily Watson
Jack Bentley: Bev Willis
Cliff: Michael Jibson
Martin: Ben Willbond
Dougie Boden: Stephen Merchant
Function Band Member: Tim Atack
Function Band Member: Keith Atack
Function Band Member: Chris Childs
Function Band Member: Peter Dale Goslin
Winners Ball guest: Karl Pilkington (uncredited)
Cemetery Junctionis the name of the fictional town where Freddie and two other friends have lived their entire life, and now life isstarting to get a little bit stale as they enter their early 20s in the summer of 1973.
Freddie Taylor (Christian Cooker) is chuffed at getting a job working for a life insurance company. He wantsto make something of himself, not end up working in a factory like his Dad (Ricky Gervais). While in a client’shouse, he learns about pressure-selling from their top salesman, Mike Ramsay (Matthew Goode), but he can’t waitto get out on the town with his friends Bruce (Tom Hughes), a waster with a father to match, and Snork(Jack Doolan), a railway station announcer who fancies Louise (Bryony Hannah) in the station cafe.
The film is about about chasing your dreams and escaping the tedium of normal life, and even though Freddie’s juststarted working for Vigilant Life Assurance, he can see it’s a company that doesn’t care for its staff, as shown atan annual Winners Ball where Kendrick (Ralph Fiennes), the boss, barely knows the name of an employee who’sretiring and they’ve effectively snubbed him by sending him off into the night with a cut-glass fruit bowl from Debenhams.
1973 was a time for a sexist world when women were meant to know their place, something that Freddie’s ex-girlfriend andthe boss’ daughter, Julie (Felicity Jones), is starting to learn when she can see that Mike, her fiancee, isbehaving like a younger version of her own Dad. Now, at this point you’re starting to realised just how contrived thissituation is beginning to sound when it comes to the intwining of all the cast members.
Of course, when it comes to acting, Ricky Gervais never sounds any different than he normally does, but that’s not ahinderance to me – I have no objections to the man. I loved both The Office and Extras and will welcomeanything he and co-writer/director Stephen Merchant, who also gets a cameo as a Ball attende, but I can’t getinto a single thing populated by their friend, Karl Pilkington, who also pops up briefly at the very samefunction.
In Cemetery Junction, there’s a nice mix of comedy and drama, plus able support, with sadly limited screen timefor Julia Davis (Freddie’s Mum), Anne Reid (his gran), Emily Watson (Julie’s Mum) and Francis Magee, as Bruce’s Dad, and italso gets the job done nicely within 90 minutes, not dragging it out for over two hours like a lot of films would’vedone when trying to tell the same story. However, while eerything fits together and it’s nicely stylish, overall it feelstoo simplistic, which loses it a couple of points.
Presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic theatrical ratio, the picture is sharp, nicely detailed and colourful with noproblems whatsoever, echoing the period of the early 70s detail.For the record, I’m watching on a Panasonic 37″ Plasma screen upscaled via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.
Audio-wise, you get a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, which is great for music and perfectly fine for dialogue. It’snot a special FX film, so nothing particularly stands out, but it does the job.
The extras are as follows:
- Deleted scenes (13:15): Ten here, and they’re a mixture of deleted and extended scenes. Without giving anyspoilers, the only one I’d include that would’ve been the fifth one as it shows Bruce at his best, with his giftof the gab. The eighth is worth a look for the extended version of a scene towards the end, and it’s also interestingthat another one gives a mention to Oil of Ulay, but the subtitles refer to it as it’s renamed brand, Oil of Olay.
- Blooper reel (13:10): Very enjoyable stuff, and mostly bloopers, but there’s also the recording of a TV edit as well…which turn into a blooper 🙂
- The Directors: A conversation with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (14:31):The two of them talking, with humour, about why they wanted to make the film they made and how they got to the finishedresult.
- The Lads Look Back: The stars discuss Cemetery Junction (9:50):the three leads talk about how they came to be in the film and their experiences about making it.
- Trailers: Oddly, none for this film – just films yet to come to Blu-ray and DVD: Salt, The Back-up Plan,The Other Guys, Grown Ups, Death at a Funeral and the Karate Kid remake.
- Audio commentaries: One from directors Gervais and Merchant, the other from the three male leads: ChristianCooke, Tom Hughes and Jack Doolan.
The menu features a static shot of the cast and the Cemetery Junction train station with some incidental music.There are subtitles in English and Hindi, and while there’s a couple of scenes where you can’t really hear the dialogue -as it’s meant to be in the background – the subtitles catch it all.The chaptering is very good 28, which makes a change from the usual 16 Sony normally give us. More of this treatment,please!
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.