Raw Deal - DVDfever.co.uk

Raw Dealstars Arnold Schwarzenegger as ex-FBI agent Mark Kaminsky who was bootedout for being too violent and brutal. Now they need his help as three other agents,guarding a key witness whose testimony will end the Chicago crime organisation,are all slaughtered in an early morning raid. If Kaminsky can go in and penitratethe organisation, run by Luigi Patrovita (Sam Wanamaker), from inside anddestroy it, he can have his old job back.

What then proceeds is a part-buddy-buddy flick with Arnie and Kathryn Harroldas Monique, a woman he met whilst at the casino, in which they either get on famouslyor go their separate ways, despite the fact that he’s married and his wife isn’tkeen on him getting so involved again since they’ve spent the last five years in exileas a result of him being fired from the job. At other times he’s seen schmoozing withchief villain Patrovita – who gives off some charm as he goes about his business – andsidekick Max (Robert Davi, probably best known as the baddie in Licence ToKill). Then throw in a few punch-ups and shoot-outs to cover up the gaps in thescript.

Apart from the film itself, the major disappointment is the picture. Like all otherBMG releases to date it’s not anamorphic, but then unlike all the others the reasonfor this is because it’s a straight-forward pan-and-scan print, croppingapproximately 43% of the screen image off the sides. Add to this the fact that thebackground contains a mixture of occasional artifacts, plenty of grain and the usualdropouts that show up in a print in severe need of a re-mastering and you reallyhave nothing to write home about.

Even the American region 1 release has a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen print ifnothing else. On a widescreen TV, the picture can be zoomed into 14:9 withouttoo many ill effects even if this is cropping the content further. On the plusside, the average bitrate is a good 5.78Mb/s, regularly peaking over 7Mb/s.

The sound is in stereo, but is just a Linear PCM soundtrack and not the Dolby Digital2.0 that graces the American DVD release. About the best thing that can be said isthat it can be loud, during gunfire, without distorting. The score is indicativeof a typical 80’s cheesy action movie.

Extras : Chapters :29 chapters cover the 100 minutes, which is a very good number for a film that haslittle to offer. There is no trailer though. Languages & Subtitles :The film is in English only, with no subtitles. This seems to be the case forall of the current batch of BMG releases. Biography & Filmography :Brief notes about Arnie’s career plus a filmography for him alone. Stills Gallery :5 black-and-white stills from the film can be viewed together or one at a time. Menu :

The menu works fine but is silent and static with a picture of Arnie gracing themain menu. You can’t skip past the copyright info at the start, unless you’vealready bookmarked a scene in which you can instantly access that part.

For some reason, there’s no “Play Movie” option. If you’ve already been viewingpart of the film and have come back to the main menu, “Back to video” willtake you back, but to start the film from scratch, you’ll either need toselect the first scene yourself, or reboot the DVD altogether since it willbegin after the copyright info has been displayed.

Thirteen years on, this film appears as nothing more than predictable and has beensurpassed many times since. Normally, I’d suggest this is the type of film thatwould find its audience as a low-rent Friday-night actioner, mainly watched by abunch of lads staggering back from the pub, looking for a bit of entertainmentwhen there’s nothing on the TV, but even a few beers wouldn’t improve the lamescript and acting. I have to mention that the shoot-outs feature men dying in the mostunrealistic of ways, each one trying to out-overact the other as they spin about, butthe award clearly goes to the puppet who ‘falls’ into the boulder-crusher at thebuilding site. Yes, this is a film that even Channel 5 would think twice aboutscreening.

I have to ask though, why are we getting non-anamorphic widescreen transfersfrom BMG when it’s standard for them to release 16:9-enhanced anamorphicversions in Germany, also with plenty of extras ?

Let’s presume you’re a die-hard fan of Arnie films and have to have everythinghe’s ever made in your collection. Should you still buy this on DVD? All you’llgain over the £5.99 pan-and-scan video release is a few notes about Arnieyou’ll already know about and a handful of still pictures, so the full askingprice of £15.99 seems rather a raw deal…FILM : ½PICTURE QUALITY : *SOUND QUALITY: **EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: *½

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Dom Robinson

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.

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