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DVDfever.co.uk – Exam Blu-ray reviewDom Robinson reviews
Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentBlu-ray: 
DVD:
- Cert:
- Running time: 97 minutes
- Cat no.: SBR71173
- Year: 2003
- Released: June 2010
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Picture: 1080p High Definition
- Sound: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: BD50
- Price: £22.99 (Blu-ray); £17.99 (DVD)
- Extras: Director & Editor Commentary, Interviews, Trailer, Photo Gallery, Behind The Scenes Footage
Directors:
- Stuart Hazeldine
Producers:
- Stuart Hazeldine and Gareth Unwin
Screenplay:
- Stuart Hazeldine
(based on the story by Simon Garrity)
Music:
- Stephen Barton and Matthew Cracknell
Cast :
- White: Luke Mably
Dark: Adar Beck
Chinese: Gemma Chan
Blonde: Nathalie Cox
Deaf: John Lloyd Fillingham
Black: Chuk Iwuji
Brunette: Pollyanna McIntosh
Brown: Jimi Mistry
Invigilator: Colin Salmon
Guard: Chris Carey
Exam: 8 candidates, 80 minutes and one question. Who wins? You dec… oh, no, you don’t, actually.
They enter a windowless concrete bunker and take their desks, while an armed security guard takes position and in walksthe invigilator (Colin Salmon, sounding very much like Jean-Luc Picard). What is the job they’re going for? Willwe even find that out? As he continues, he tells us that, in terms of who goes away from this with a contract ofemployment, the next 80 minutes will determine the next 80 years of their lives… 80 YEARS?! You don’t even get toretire?
Exam is a dialogue-heavy piece and would work brilliantly as a play. It’s very intriguing but I can’t go intomore detail about the film because it would give it all away and the whole point of watching is see how the candidatesdeal with their situation. And how! Most of the cast get a fair crack of the whip in the script and there are dark times ahead as the workthrough every possible permutation to get to the answer.
It’s difficult to single out one cast member from the rest of the mostly unknowns but you get to learn just enough aboutthem all to justify their presence in a script, a script that names the characters just by basic descriptors, so one’sblonde, one’s brunette, one’s white, one’s black, one’s brown, one’s Chinese, one’s dark(-skinned) and one’s deaf…well, not deaf as such, just doesn’t say a lot. And top marks goes to writer/director Stuart Hazeldine for hisdirectorial debut, since this is the type of film where anyone could easily paint themselves into a corner and not knowhow to get out of it, but not only does he manaage that, he also comes up with, what I can only describe as, the perfectending.
“‘Bastard’ doesn’t do you justice.” was my favourite line in the whole movie as the tensions rise, but who saidit to whom, and why? You can only find out by watching Exam.
The Apprentice this is not. The Apprentice is reality TV shit hosted by Fozzie Bear. Exam passes withflying colours.
Oh, and Pollyanna McIntosh, as Brunette, is hotter than the sun. Let’s hope we see a lot more of her soon.
The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio and is highly-detailed with no problems.The tense atmosphere is brought to the viewer with carefully-chosen tight camera positions and to watch this movie inany other format just couldn’t begin to do it justice. When it appears on TV it deserves to be seen without advertbreaks but then the BBC are so hit and miss with such a wide image, at the time of writing this review, so I don’t knowif they could be trusted.For the record, I’m watching on a Panasonic 37″ Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1, and is mainly used for dialogue and ambience given the style of the piece. It performsthat task admirably but it won’t be used as a demo disc.
The extras are as follows:
- Interviews (23:54): Short but sweet Q&A pieces with the director (6:15), producer Gareth Unwin (1:19), director of photographyTim Wooster (1:12), and various cast members talking about their characters (13:48). However, sometimes these area bit too short to prove any real worth.
- Behind The Scenes footage (5:53): On-set footage during the filming.
- Photo Gallery (2:43): A selection of shots to the atmospheric theme.
- Trailer (2:07): Presented in the original 2.35:1 ratio, this trailer is the ultimate in ridiculousness since it gives FAR too muchaway about the film. It’s best to know almost nothing at all before seeing it and let word of mouth do the rest.
- Audio commentary: From director Stuart Hazeldine and editor Mark Talbot-Butler.
The menu features scenes from the film mixed together its incidental music.There are English subtitles only and the chaptering from Sony is worse than usual, breaking from its disappointinglystrict 16-only-however-long-the-film-runs policy and reducing it to a mere 12. There really is no justification for this.I would implement one for every five minutes, plus opening and closing credits.
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.