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Dom Robinson reviews
But They Do It With Style.
Momentum Pictures
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MP 267D
- Running time: 93 minutes
- Year: 2003
- Pressing: 2004
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Extras: Cast and crew interviews, deleted scenes, Anatomy of a scene, Audio commentaries
Director:
- James Foley
(At Close Range, The Chamber, Confidence, The Corruptor, Fear, Glengarry Glen Ross, Who’s That Girl?TV: Twin Peaks, Music: Madonna – Papa Don’t Preach)
Producers:
- Michael Burns, Marc Butan, Michael Ohoven & Michael Paseornek
Screenplay:
- Doug Jung
Music:
- Christophe Beck
Cast:
- Jake Vig: Edward Burns
Lily: Rachel Weisz
Gunther Butan: Andy Garcia
Winston King: Dustin Hoffman
Travis: Morris Chestnut
Gordo: Paul Giamatti
Officer Lloyd Whitworth: Donal Logue
Officer Omar Manzano: Luis Guzman
Morgan Price: Robert Forster
Lionel Dolby: Leland Orser
Confidenceis so-named because of ‘confidence tricksters’, a profession brought to BBC1 inFebruary as Hustle, with rather more style and intrigue than this tediouseffort.
Jake Vig (Edward Burns) and his crew, including Gordo (Paul Giamatti, theonly one here who actually CAN act… AND acts!) are up to $150,000 in debt withWinston King (Dustin Hoffman, right, whose hammy performance looks like it was phoned in),aka “The King”, because they fleeced money of one of his workers, Lionel Dolby (Leland Orser),who had made a collection for him. For their trouble, one of their gang was shot in thehead and Dolby took a dip in the sea in concrete boots.
Told in flashback with a gun pointing to Jake’s head as he recounts the story to a hitman,they hire a shill, Lily (Rachel Weisz), to be the looker in the bunch, and under The King’sinstruction, go after flashy businessman who’s clearing laundering money left, right and centre,Morgan Price (Robert Forster). Of course, it helps to have a couple of bent cops onthe payroll, enter Luis Guzman and Donal Logue, most recently seen in E.R.as Susan Lewis’ husband, Chuck.
But does the con go well, or does everything go to pot? By the end, do you really care?This movie starts off plodding along and then slows right down. Ed Burns behaves like aBen Affleck wannabe, which isn’t a good sign given how that actor’s career is in freefallafter several duff films and a joke of a relationship, Rachel Weisz continues to provethat she couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag, and her American accent is laughable;usual reliables Hoffman and Andy Garcia fail to engage; and Robert Forsteronly has a small role for him to concern himself with.
If you decide to watch this movie, you have been conned. Stick with Hustle instead,which has been signed up for two further series.
Hoffman pats Weisz down to see if he can find any acting talent.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and isanamorphic. There’s no problems with it and it looks good throughout in order to set thescene. The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 but rarely gets a chance to do anything out ofthe ordinary. Only one music moment of note – a nightclub which plays Madonna‘sErotica – is surely a nod to the fact that the director was responsible forher Papa Don’t Preach music promo.
The extras are as follows:
- Trailer (2 mins):16:9 anamorphic and cuts about the film, but it does reveal some spoilers, which you’llonly realise after you’ve watched the film.
- Deleted scenes (5 mins):A love scene between Burns and Weisz (yawn!) which isn’t required because this is hinted atearlier in the film, plus another scene with Weisz (couldn’t they have cut all of them?!)2.35:1 anamorphic.
- Interviews (36 mins):A rather plain bloke chats to the four main stars plus director James Foley, in oneof those corporate set-ups where the actors sit individually next to a poster of the movie.Don’t expect anything particularly insightful.
- Anatomy of a Scene (27 mins):Rather a “behind the scenes”-type look at how the con in th emovie was set up. Perhaps ifyou made it through to the end without getting bored stupid then you’ll be interested inthis brief programme from The Sundance Channel.
- Audio Commentaries:Three – one from director Foley, one from writer Doug Jung and one from cast members Burnsand Weisz. You mean I have to sit through this crap three more times? No thanks!
The disc has 24 chapters which is fine, subtitles are in English only, and the menusare animated with some repeated music, so try to evoke some style at least.
Now when is someone actually going to do the DVD world a favour and actually releaseFoley’s excellent Glengarry Glen Ross in 2.35:1 widescreen? Okay, so the 4:3open-matte presentation (since it uses the Super 35 format like this movie) is anacceptable compromise, but is it so hard to present it properly?
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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.