Plunkett and Macleane

• Cat.no: 058 684 2
• Cert: 15
• Running time: 97 minutes
• Year: 1999
• Pressing: 1999
• Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 18 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English, Spanish, Italian
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, Italian
• Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
• 16:9-enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £17.99
• Extras : Scene index, Trailer, Booklet, Interviews, Behind the Scenes,Biographies, “The Real James Macleane”
  

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  Director:

  Jake Scott

Producer:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

Plunkett: Robert Carlyle (Carla’s Song, Face, The Full Monty, Priest, Riff Raff, Trainspotting, TV: Cracker, Go Now, Hamish MacBeth, Looking After Jo Jo)
Macleane: Jonny Lee Miller (Afterglow, Hackers, Regeneration, Trainspotting)
Thief Taker General Chance: Ken Stott (The Boxer, The Debt Collector, Fever Pitch, TV: Rhodes, The Vice)
Lady Rebecca: Liv Tyler (Armageddon, Heavy, Inventing The Abbots, Stealing Beauty)
Lord Rochester: Alan Cumming (Circle of Friends, Emma, Goldeneye, Prague, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, Second Best, Spiceworld: The Movie)

Plunkett and Macleanemarks the directorial debut of Brit Jake Scott, son of Ridley(Blade Runner, GI Jane, Alien). It’s 1745 and thrown together bycircumstances, two of the poor population, Plunkett (Robert Carlyle)and Macleane (Jonny Lee Miller), decide that the only way to attainany form of financial wealth is not to earn it, but to steal it. They arethe “Gentlemen Highwaymen” that you’re too scared to mention, theyspend their cash on looking flash and grabbing your attention. Any puffed-upand bewigged aristocratic ponce covered in make-up are eligible to be on thereceiving end of a shotgun up the nose.

Attempting to stop their practices, as well as of those who choose a similarvocation, is Thief Taker General Chance (Ken Stott) who frames ourheroes for the forthcoming cold-blooded murder of Lord Gibson (MichaelGambon). There’s a love interest for one of the highwaymen in the form ofhis niece, Lady Rebecca (Liv Tyler) and a likeable performance fromGoldeneye‘s Alan Cumming as Lord Rochester.

Cameos are abound in this film including Shooting Stars‘s “The Man withthe Scores – George Dawes” Matt Lucas as Sir Oswald, Gormenghast‘sNeve McIntosh and front-runners of the Armstrong and Miller Show,Alexander Armstrong, currently seen in BBC1’s new Simon Nye sitcomBeast and Ben Miller, who isn’t.

The picture quality is almost perfect most of the time but a number of scenesearly on look a little hazy. The average bitrate is 5.56 Mb/s often peakingover 8Mb/s and it’s also anamorphically-enhanced for widescreen televisions.Jake Scott copies his famous father in that he uses his preferred cinematicratio of 2.35:1.

In keeping with the pairing of two actors from Trainspotting, CraigArmstrong‘s soundtrack is equally hip and, unusually but gratefully fora UK DVD with several languages, comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 flavours forEnglish, Spanish and Italian. Throughout the film, be it in the soundtrackor through special effects, the speakers produce sounds that are alive andvibrant.

The problem with this film is that it appears to attempt to generate excitementgiven the pairing of two Trainspotters and its hip, techno soundtrack,but what’s onscreen sadly couldn’t be further from the truth. Director JakeScott emulates his father’s work well in that he knows how to compose thewidescreen frame well with some impressive visuals, but also includes theperiods that lull too long and the fun scenes don’t draw the viewer in asthey should.

Carlyle is fine as always, but Miller’s character doesn’t convince or workwell in the partnership of the two leads. Once again, Liv Tyler proves theonly things she can do is give a stark, vacant stare, have a famous father andneeds to head off to acting school with Miller, but the worst travesty is thatKen Stott doesn’t get nearly enough to do or enough scope to do it properly.Couple this with a stand-off of sorts between Carlyle and Stott that you canspot a mile off and a tremendously predictable film and the overall result israther disappointing.